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Social Justice Dialogue and Curriculum in Adolescent Choirs:

Breaking the Deafening Silence

Allison Grant

Department of Music Education, Michigan State University

MUS 864: Research in Music Education

Dr. Mitchell Robinson

July 30th, 2021

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Social Justice Dialogue and Curriculum in Adolescent Choirs: Breaking the Deafening

Silence

Music would not trigger emotional response without the stark contrast of silence. The

ringing tones of a bell and warm glow of resonance would not overflow the soul if it did not once

come from an open space of emptiness. Once you know how fulfilling true sound can be,

absence of sound, silence, can be deafening. A deafening silence we have all experienced either

unknowingly or first-hand, is that of silencing internal and external conflict in matters of social

justice.

We find it important as teachers to educate our students on the world around them and I

would argue most would say that we hope to create a better citizen by the end of our course. A

major psychological function of music in adolescence is reconstruction of self and identity which

lends itself well to a natural period to converse on issues of social justice (Laiho, 2004). Luckily,

within this crucial time, chorus students are joined together through empathy, neurochemistry,

social bonding, and flow to provide a safe environment for discussing topics of social justice

(Keeler, J. R., et al., 2015; Weinstein, D., et al., 2016; Parker, E.C., 2016; Pearce, E., et al., 2017,

Kreutz, G. 2014).

Why use this environment with socially bonded adolescents to discuss matters of social

justice? Estelle Jorgensen wrote, “The burden now moves to music educators to show cause why

we should not be concerned with matters of justice. Music is inter-connected with other aspects

of life, education is concerned with the array of aspects of human life and culture, and music

education is inter- connected with other aspects of education” (as cited in Perkins, J.D., 2018). It

is within our content and attachment to human culture that we can provide the atmosphere for

conversation. However, many teachers have unknowingly created an atmosphere of silence

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through their own discomfort or lack of vocabulary to discuss such conflicts. To bring this

adaptation to the chorus classroom, many teachers may need to rewire their own thoughts and

demonstration of empathy (Salvador, K., et al., 2020; Broome, B.J., 1991). The purpose of this

paper is to understand social bonding in choir and empathetic growth for change in mindset to

support social justice conversations in the choral classroom and curriculum. Following the

discussions and evaluations of the current literature, connections will be drawn from the benefits

of the choral environment to implementing discussions of social justice in the classroom and

choral curriculum. Focus research questions include, “What aspects of performing and

rehearsing as a chorus create a sense of community? How can transformative learning process be

applied to conversation about social justice? How does the relationship of a community impact a

conversation about social justice? How can conversations about social justice be included in a

school choral curriculum?”

Review of the Literature: Setting the Stage

Music easily evokes emotion throughout all facets of music experiences. These emotions

are developed from both social and empathetic relationships with peers and music. In music

listening, the difference between expressed and felt emotions in music might be related to the

degree of self-rated empathy (Egermann, H., & McAdams, S., 2013). “Empathy ratings were

shown to modulate this relationship (between expressed and felt- emotions): when empathy was

present, the difference between the two rating types was reduced” (Egermann, H., & McAdams,

S., 2013, p. 139). In other words, when subjects demonstrate empathy toward the music and

performer they are listening to, the emotions they express outwardly, and feel inwardly are

related more closely to each other. Before our students even enter a music classroom, they are
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already exposed to a relationship between emotions, empathy, and music. This sets them up for

empathetic growth in the classroom.

In a study measuring neurochemistry and social flow of singing, researchers found that

group singing reduces stress and arousal, and induced social flow by measuring concentrations of

plasma oxytocin and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). This hormone is involved in

regulating the immune system’s response to stress (Keeler, J.R., et. al., 2015). Despite the small

sample size of this study, the significant decrease in levels of ACTH before and after

performance supports previous literature demonstrating positive benefits of music on stress and

the immune system. In the same study, vocal improvisation led to behaviors in the participants of

social bonding including eye contact, cooperation, communication, listening, and responding

(Keeler, J.R., et. al., 2015). From this studied performance, positive effects of musical flow

indicate that flow holds the potential to facilitate social connection between musicians. (Keeler,

J.R., et. al., 2015).

The previously mentioned study involved a small group of participants with the intention

of adding to the current conversation on hormonal response to musical social bonding. In a study

looking at changes in connectivity and pain threshold as a function of group size, researchers

found that social bonding effects of singing are more substantial in larger group settings and less

familiarity with the other members, than in a setting with less member that are better acquainted

with each other (Weinstein, D., et al.. 2016). From this conclusion, it is applied that singing

bypasses the need for personal knowledge about their peers to experience social bonding.

However, this paper will later address the benefits of personal knowledge of peers on empathy

and social bonding.

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In an intrinsic case study of four midwestern public school teachers, researchers explored

how teachers describe their experiences of creating choral communities, how teacher-student

relationship is experienced, and what challenges get in the way of sustaining choral communities

(Parker, E. C., 2016). This study begins by examining the origins and interpretations of the Latin

noun, communitas, which has been used to distinguish between structuring or separating

individuals during transitions of adolescence. During this period a strong sense of human

kindness motivation is present and a loss of ego and merging of identities can develop (Parker, E.

C., 2016). The teachers described creating communitas by engaging in high quality musical

experiences as well as engaging in interpersonal relationship building and rebuilding. This led to

data that placed all students in the center of the choral experience and viewed the role of their

teachers as one of support and care. “Findings in this study support the notion that choral

communities are more collective than individual. The collective “we” within the shared

experience of music-making echoes several researchers’ findings, including students’ feelings of

belonging, social acceptance, team, and constructs of meaning” (Parker, E. C., 2016, p. 233).

The “Ice-breaker” effect of choral involvement was defined in a study comparing singing

and non-singing groups. The data of this study defined the “Ice-breaker” effect as the

significantly steep increase in the proportion of classmates that singers could name, felt

connected to, and talked to during their class between timepoint 1 and 2 out of 3 timepoints

where singers and non-singers who were enrolled in group activities were asked to complete a

questionnaire on their relationships with the group (Pearce, E., et al., 2017). This is likely a

result of shared interaction, endorphin release associated with synchronous activity, and attention

to and achievement of a collective goal of singing a piece of music (Pearce, E., et al., 2017).

From this study, the researchers further hypothesized from their data in combination with
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supported sources that “the achievement of a “good sound” might be a strong marker of

successful coordination and synchrony in a singing group producing a collective product, and

this might create a positive feedback loop, making singers feel progressively more integrated into

the group and more motivated to continue to cooperate” (Pearce, E., et al. 2017, p. 507). Not

only did this study support the bonding in choirs in relation to other group activities as more

significant, but it also led to a flow of learning, motivation, and performing where this bonding

would continue to flourish indefinitely.

Review of the Literature: Preparing the Mind

The choral environment naturally elicits social bonding, collective social flow, and a

sense of community. Introducing topics of social justice through democratic conversation fits

easily into the choral model. With this set-up, impressionable adolescents will be more available

to understand and discuss issues of social justice. For these conversations to be successful

however, teachers must first establish a set of ground rules and social understanding to

empathize with the experiences of others which may include a transformative thinking process

for both the students and the facilitator or teacher. In a survey investigating perspectives of music

teachers with regard to social justice, music education, and music teacher education, 10-15% of

respondents expressed a desire for assistant understanding more about social justice in school

music settings and/or suggestions how to teach about social justice topics in undergraduate music

teacher education (Salvador, K., & Kelly-McHale, J., 2017). The results of this survey show that

teachers may need to overcome a transformation of how they themselves think, to demonstrate

authentic empathy when approaching conversations with their students.

With the commonly blurred line between sympathy and empathy, let it be briefly stated

that sympathy is to understand a person’s experience from your own perspective and empathy is
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to put yourself in the position of the other, without relating to your own experiences. Broome

states, “Empathy, associated with many important aspects of communication behavior, is

generally held to be difficult, if not impossible, in intercultural encounters” (Broome, B. J.,

1991). He suggests a relational approach to empathy in intercultural communication since it is

co-directional between the two participants. Relational empathy develops a “third-culture”

between the communicators to build shared meaning in the intercultural situation (Broome, B.J.,

1991). This may take a transformation of learning and process for those involved. In a study

completed with practicing music educators in a graduate philosophy course, researchers

investigated processes that led to these educators examining their beliefs and practices regarding

inclusion, responsiveness, equity, and justice (Salvador, K., et al., 2020). From this study,

“transformative learning process (TLP) for practicing music teachers encountering social justice”

was presented as the model from analysis. This model of TLP includes four interrelated

components, “Building Gemutlichkeit”, “Grappling with difficult material”, “emotional

intensity”, and “Course structures” (Salvador, K., et al., 2020, p. 198). Building Gemutlichkeit

was defined as the state of mind the students experienced when deciding to examine their

mindsets in the course which included feelings described as a,“state of warmth, friendliness, and

good cheer, which includes qualities of coziness, peace of mind, belonging, well-being, and

social acceptance”, which derived from the German construct Gemütlichkeit (Salvador, K., et al.,

2020). Grappling with difficult material comprised of student conversation and interaction in the

course when the subjects were confronted with “ideas that did not align with their current

teaching practices, their ideas about content and curriculum, or their understandings of

themselves as educators” (Salvador, K., et al., 2020, p. 202). Often these conversations ended

with no “right” answer causing even more discomfort in some students. However, this sparked
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motivation to research and collect ideas to find direction from their discomfort which led to

empathetic conversations and eventually, emotional intensity. The emotional intensity category

of the proposed TLP model included a deep caring and connection from the subjects to their

dedication to their students and field. Alongside this commitment, the subjects also grappled

with discrepancies on identity between their professional and personal beliefs. Lastly, the course

structure allowed the students to have a flexible class, focusing on passions, leaving room for

conversation, and leadership as the most effective element of the course (Salvador, K., et al.,

2020). These four interrelated components of TLP led the students to examine their beliefs, act

on their questions, and identify areas of growth within themselves. The factor that brought all

these components together and connected was storytelling and sharing experiences. Taking these

stories and experiences in with relational empathy allowed the students to hear from their peers

with understanding that they may never understand while internally assessing their own actions,

taken or perceived by others, to plan toward social change. Although research earlier in this

paper expressed that choirs grow socially even without the knowledge of each other’s lives, the

added personalization of knowing peers through their stories and experiences deepens the social

bonding, as shown from the results of this study. Exposing our students to transform their

thinking and demonstrate relational empathy, prepares their mind for the most productive

conversations in the classroom.

Review of the Literature: Preparing the Conversation

With a communal atmosphere and prepared mind to question personal beliefs and habits,

teachers must proceed with breaking the silence and mediate conversation with their students.

Research in this area suggests being a mediator in a democratic conversation, to have less

misunderstandings and provide a leader to identify instances of silencing and misuse of power
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amongst conversing. (Schultz, K., et al., 2000). In this study, students in a recently desegregated

middle school were chosen to participate in two focus groups, each with a different mindset on

discussing issues of race in their building. One group used “bridging talk” and were advised to

form alliances and find commonalities across racial lines. The second group used “conflict talk”

and were encouraged to unpack and understand racially sensitive territory. Researchers selected

students with personalities to support the discussion goal of each group based on race and

personality. The bridging talk group hid disagreements in humor, often between members of the

same race, and used distancing strategies. Most notably, they created a barrier between “Us” and

“Them”, referring to that of the older generation claiming fewer racist tendencies than their

parents and grandparents. The white students in this group scarcely spoke up unless prompted by

the facilitator and all students were more likely to participate in a poorly structured conversation

when the race in question was not visually present within the population of the room. Although

this group approached discussions with more poised responses, “the social dynamic of ‘getting

along’ silenced the more difficult conversations that might have gotten to the heart of their

confusing and painful questions about race and race relations (Schultz, K., et al., 2000, p. 48). In

the “conflict talk” group, students did not participate in much productive conversating either.

Students in this group purposefully approached racially sensitive topics leading still to

problematic, power- driven, and silencing conversations. From the study of these two groups, the

researchers proposed a democratic model of conversation with our students where the students

and facilitator, talk explicitly about power dynamics as the group exhibits them in real time. As

the facilitator, it is important that they are equipped to identify and call-out silencing and misuse

or use of power in social justice dialogue (Schultz, K., et al., 2000).

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Often in school environments, conversations fall in the “bridging talk” category where

“The absence of talk created an atmosphere of silence” due to the fear instilled in adults to have

these conversations amongst themselves, let alone with their students (Copenhaver, J., 2000, p.

9). In a study that took place in four multi-ethnic K-3 classrooms with varying degrees of

exposure to African American literature, white children did not identify their behaviors as

discriminatory after recently learning about racial different in their classroom literature. Also, the

white students did not feel comfortable contributing to conversation when discussing race after

reading African American literature (Copenhaver, J., 2000). The results of this study led the

researcher to conclude that children will enter schooling with different levels of preparation for

candid conversation and may need connections to their subtle racism explicitly pointed out.

In an experimental collegiate course with a common goal of social justice dialogue and

singing, students found a space for new relationships and shared culture by recognizing that

identity is not fixed. (Perkins, J., 2019) The goal of the dialogue in this course was to exemplify

authentic empathy by listening to personal testimonies from each other and through their

partnership with a choir from the United Arab Emirates. Students could recall exact

conversations better and felt personal growth from relational engagement in singing and

dialogue. One student quoted in an exit interview, “Realizing that people weren’t mad at me [in

my current job] allowed me to calm down and recenter on their issue, rather than [focus on] their

behavior. Realizing that I was not the problem, but rather [that I was] someone who could affect

change, empowered me to be more helpful and more useful in the process of resolving the issue”

(Perkins, J., 2019, p. 79). Some argued that a course structured this way may take away from the

virtuosity of performance. However, students showed evidence of higher motivation in the same

amount of rehearsal time as a non- dialoguing course. Following this result, the researcher asked
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as a form of further inquiry in research on this topic, “To what extent can critical justice

pedagogy motivate students’ technical proficiency?” and “How might music educators retool

skill-building for justice education?” (Perkins, J., 2019). Overall, this study was an in-practice

example of how choral-dialoguing and singing can engage students in high level music making

and transformative thinking processes.

With the positive results of the choral dialoguing course, teachers can see the results of

discussing matters of social justice in their classroom with positive implementation. Positive

implementation includes democratic conversation, an open mindset to self-examination and

criticism, and explicit acknowledgement of misuse of power.

Social Justice in the Choral Curriculum

With a supportive environment and open mind, we can now begin to draw connections on

how to incorporate choral dialoguing in our school choral curriculum. With little research on

direct benefits of students involved in both choral dialoguing and a supportive curriculum,

examples of current choir’s approach to aligning their curriculum social justice dialogue and

research on inclusion of in- and out-of-school musical experiences will be outlined in this

section. In an ethnographically- framed study, Griffin participates in the daily in-school lives of

20 2nd and 3rd grade students at an elementary school in a large western Canadian city. The

purpose of this study was to “address the importance of attending to children’s musical

experiences in their daily lives, both in- and out-of-school, as an integral aspect of considering

social change in elementary music” (Griffin, S. M., 2011, p.81). According to the children and

the data collected, the musical experiences in their daily lives do not consciously interplay with

their in-school music experiences. The study also found that children draw from a variety of

musical experiences to inform their musical knowing. The researcher concluded that a need to
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lessen the gap between in- and out-of- school music experiences could lead to an enhanced

understanding of social justice in the field of music education (Griffin, S. M., 2011). The results

also inspired the researcher to suggest implementations of including out-of-school experiences in

the music classroom to promote the enhanced understanding of social justice in the music room.

These suggestions included student journals of musical interests, opportunity to share these

journals, opportunity to peer-teach musical interests, including music activities into other

routines of the school and school routines in the music classroom, provide opportunities to

discuss and listen to students’ musical interests, and converse with caregivers of students to

provide insight into the children’s out-of-school music experiences (Griffin, S. M., 2011). The

results of this study are included in this paper to draw the connection of the importance of

representation of your students’ lives to incorporate social justice conversations into your

curriculum. In diverse school settings, having music of the students out-of- school lives not only

increases motivation through culturally responsive teaching, but opens conversations from

students of varying cultures and experiences they have had to the discussion. “When we

acknowledge and honor students’ cultural perspectives and affinities, we give them a firm

foundation from which to explore the perspectives (and musics) of their classmates –

perspectives which may, in fact, be unfamiliar, but will help students develop a deeper

understanding of one another” (Hess, J., 2015, p. 342).

Choirs and directors have found ways to include, and even financially support, matters of

social justice in their curriculum and practices. The following examples are from interviews and

papers from choral directors. These interviews provide examples of implementation to the field

and public-school choral curriculum. One author reached out to conductors of color in a variety

of settings to ask what we might do differently as a field to make music a useful tool for social
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justice. Their responses included being truthful with our students, confronting the horrors of

injustices in the past and present, and the pressures of performing music out of political

correctness as opposed to a form of appreciation and validity of the music’s quality (Stone, M.

S., et al., 2018). A suggestion for improvement to the field from these conductors of color

included employing more people of color in artistic and administrative positions. It was also

suggested to perform pieces composed by people of the represented culture and/or reach out for

guidance on the knowledge for the piece and its performance practices from someone within or

at least well-versed in the culture. This must be done respectfully, without placing a single

person on a pedestal to be the voice for that entire culture. Overall, the conductors advised that

educators put in the work to properly prepare and understand music from an unknown culture of

context (Stone, M.S., et al., 2018). In another interview one author interviewed the director of a

choir from Long Island, New York. This group has contributed and started multiple projects

through performance, composition, and fundraising to support subjects of social justice and

philanthropy. One of these projects includes a “Child Refuge Awareness Project” where the

conductor composed a piece inspired by a 9-year-old refuge student’s poem about her social

place in the United States. The choir also took this piece to a school choir where students

expressed empathy for the situation from the emotion the composition was able to convey. A

student expressed, “As I sing her words, I can start to understand what real pain is, and I cry

from gratitude. I’ve often felt bad for feeling privileged and helpless but singing this song has

allowed me to realize that sometimes acknowledgement and empathy is enough to raise

awareness of her pain and spark change” (Bussewitz-Quarm, M., 2018, p. 57). This is one of the

few documented examples of implementation of social justice inspired music to promote

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dialoguing and empathetic growth in a school setting. The student’s experience also

demonstrates the power of music to support authentic empathetic understanding in adolescents.

What teachers need to be aware of when incorporating conversations of social justice in

their curriculum is tokenizing certain music’s and cultures and self-congratulation for an

intercultural curriculum. Juliet Hess discusses Tokenism as temporarily marginalizing cultures

and underrepresented populations in the field of music (Hess, J., 2015, 2013). This happens

when teacher’s wait until Black History month to teach their students music of black composers,

or until National Pride month to discuss LGBTQ musicians and music. By doing this, we

continue to “other” non-westernized music and students will continue to draw differences and

comparisons from westernized music to all other music. “Mohanty (2003) looks to “create

pedagogies that allow students to see the complexities, singularities, and interconnections ... such

that power, privilege, agency, and dissent can be made visible and engaged with” (as cited in

Hess, J. 2015, p. 341). By including “tokenistic curricula”, as termed by Juliet Hess, in an

integrated approach instead of an additive, students have a deeper opportunity to understand and

work through use and misuse of power on issues of social justice. This opportunity deepens even

further when the music is supported by classroom dialogue. “Centering the learner allows

learners to make sense of the world from their own cultural context. Binaries (the binary of

Western music and Other music, for example) only offer a dominant and a subordinate

knowledge, forcing dualistic thinking in a way that multicentric ways of knowing do not (Hess,

J., 2013, p. 82).

Suggestions for Further Research

After researching bonding and empathy of the choral environment, the transformative

process of self-examination of internalized biases, and how to implement conversations of social

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justice in the classroom, suggestions for this area of research work toward our goal to create

informed and empathetic citizens for our democracy. Despite examples of how collegiate and

community conductors are implementing social justice conversations and changes into their

program, the central research question that seems to remain unanswered is “How can

conversations about social justice be included in a school choral curriculum?” The described

community choirs and collegiate courses that have implemented curriculum and programs for

change have seen success in their programs. However, with different structure and resources, a

further inquiry would be to prepare research on how their can be applied to the K-12 choral

curriculum. The current trend to go through a transformative learning process as a collegiate or

graduate level teacher seems as though we are breaking down and rebuilding embedded social

habits of subconscious biases from years of silence. Instead of waiting to put out a long-time

burning fire that was started by blatant bias or silence, our goal as teachers should be to

extinguish early sparks of bias and silencing by demonstrating empathy daily and explicating the

exposure of misuse of power in society through our curriculum. Specifically in the choral

classroom, where research supported earlier the direct effects of singing on social bonding, we

can take advantage of our strong bond and impressionable adolescent minds to practice listening,

empathizing, and sharing experiences. Attempting this format of choral dialoguing and

democratic conversations on issues of social justice at a younger age, would not only expose

students to the more obvious misuses of power in our society, but unmask their subconscious

biases and involvement in silencing. This is approached with growth and empathy in mind to

create a strong and healthy minded citizen for our communities. A qualitative study on student’s

unconscious biases before and after an integration of dialogue on social justice and supported
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curriculum would provide information on internal growth of student empathy and education on

matters of social justice.

Many musicians found love in the field through an experience of community, bonding,

and unity in creating or sharing music with others. From there, those who chose to shape young

musician minds, express passion in recreating the environment they once found to love and

contribute to the outcome of a more aware and active citizen through the power music holds on

the mind and emotion. As society continues to move forward and expose mistakes and

unconscious biases of predecessors and current communities, our definition of an informed

citizen must change in order to truly progress. Silencing, whether intentional or not, stunts that

progression and must now be filled with productive and useful sound. My hope is that this

culmination of research and proposal for continued inquiry has filled an area of silence for those

who have experience silencing or have unfortunately, known nothing else.

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