Artistic Social Action

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19

Critical Pedagogy for Creative Artists: Inviting Young Composers to Engage in Artistic Social Action
Michele Kaschub
University of Southern Maine, USA

Abstract The Critical Pedagogy for Creative Artists course emerged as a possible answer to the question of how issues of social justice could be brought into the world of music education. Its goal was to empower students to recognize and exercise a socially conscious musical voice within their communities. Participants drew upon their knowledge of complex social, political, cultural, and societal issues as impetus for creation of works of artcompositionsto inform themselves and others. Introduction It is often said that change begins with one person. A single thought, question or idea potentially holds incredible power. Equally understood is the notion that the single person holding the thought/question/idea has to initiate action. Trying something new, or even something familiar in a new way, is not an easy commitment within the confines of the educational enterprise. New ideas are often considered suspect. Ideas become powerful when enacted and the results often include shifts in any number of balances-of-power. Those of us practicing within the field of education prefer to be in charge. Establishing and maintaining control within our instructional environments creates both a physical and mental space where we can stand comfortably before students to share what we know. Unleashing the power of ideas, especially those that lean toward giving students some of our power implies a degree of letting go, of seeking answers rather than providing them, and of engaging in a more open and inclusive form of teaching. These ideas, echoing both the tenets of social justice and constructivist practice, led me to develop a course which sought to re-balance power within the curriculum and classroom to allow students to discover the power of their own

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Kaschub voices as they engaged in a synergistic study of social justice and music composition. I describe The Critical Pedagogy for Creative Artists program just as it unfolded. It was a creative and generative process marked by exciting revelations. It began with the impetus of a compelling question, how can issues of social justice be approached within music education settings? and was fueled by the inspiration of educational challenge, how can high school generalist music courses be more relevant to students? It proceeded through a series of sometimes linear and sometimes recursive steps seemingly unaware of the many intended destinations envisioned by teacher and students. Each step was fraught with surprising twists, turns, and exhilarating discoveries. Regardless of pathway, the final steps led to points of reflection and wonderments about the past and the future of music education and the role of the musician in society. Aims of Research Contemporary music educators face many complex issues. The most challenging of these is that of enacting inclusive educational practices that are cognizant of contemporary cultural values while still honoring the personal knowledge and experience of each student. Our philosophical literature is ripe with rationales and theoretical frameworks for equalizing educational opportunities for all students in music (Williams, 2007; Allsup, 2007; Woodford, 2005; Reimer, 2003; Jorgensen, 2003), yet the implementation of inclusive education practices rests squarely on the shoulders of practitioners (Giroux, 1992) who still lack resources to guide classroom activities. We need models of instruction to guide the development of knowledgeable practices and practitioners. Teachers, constantly driven by outside forces and external stakeholders, often engage in tried and true practices passed from generation to generation. Many do this unaware that each choice they make reveals a level of socialization and cultural valuing that they will transmit to students (Giroux, 1992). As is often noted, teaching is a fundamentally political action (Villegas & Lucas, 2002; McLaren, 1998; Freire, 1970), which exerts control over interactions and value systems. Even when unknowingly enacted, this type of teaching contributes to the maintenance of a status quo that prevents alternative views and practices from gaining foothold (Gramsci, 1971). Noted with increasing frequency, the idea that the profession of music education has preserved its practices so well that many students can find little to no connection between the music of their daily lives and the music they encounter within formal education (Williams, 2007; Kratus, 2007; Bowman, 2004) seems sadly true in too many cases. Our practices, however, need not be limited in this way. New models can be established to provide a meaningful music education. Indeed, the education we offer might gain relevancy if we were to give consideration to the needs of the students in our classes. The Critical Pedagogy for Creative Artists program was designed to address the challenges of balancing power between teacher and students, interrogating issues of

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Artistic Social Action social justice, developing compositional capacities, and finding ways to honor the unique perspectives of all members of the classroom community. This study was designed to parallel and evaluate the program by examining two key questions relevant to program concept and implementation: 1) Can issues of social justice be effectively combined with the development of compositional capacities with high school students? and 2) How does this approach function in practice? Methodology The activities of this project are presented from my perspective as a participantresearcher and guest teacher in a high school general music course. Data were obtained through the use of field notes, reflective journals, questionnaires, and both guided and freely written student journals. Data were collected over an 18-week period during which the class met daily for 50-minute periods. The data set was identified to gather multiple viewpoints from different stages of the project so that the efficacy of the course structures, activities and outcomes could be considered. The conceptual phase that I undertook as the teacher/researcher occurring prior to interaction with students was not formally documented within the timeline of the project. The co-collaborators in the design of this curriculum were 18 high school sophomores and juniors from an existing music appreciation class in a semi-urban public school. The class members, comprised of Caucasian, Asian, and immigrant African students initially identified themselves as music listeners. Further discussion revealed that two students had two to three years of formal piano lessons and four students were self-taught guitarists. All of the students owned mp3 players with 300 or more songs and most had attended rock concerts by major name acts in large local venues. Approximately half of the students had attended a symphony orchestra concert as part of a school field trip, but none had attended with family or through a non-school group. Three of the students also mentioned attending multiple community center events celebrating the musical heritages of Somalia, Ghana, and Ethiopia. Most of the students had signed up for the course expecting to study so-called classical music holding onto the hope that they would get to some good stuff, too. The music appreciation class that emerged in this project included a one-week introductory period, three units of study, and a one-week period for reflection. The first week of the course was devoted to community building and outlining the general scope of the curriculum. Units were designed through full class discussion. The overarching goals designed by the class provided a starting point for small groups of students who brainstormed ideas for activities and located resources before the finer points of the daily work were formalized. The first two units, Understanding the Roles of the Artist-Composer and Identifying and Analyzing Issues of Social Justice were each completed in about four weeks. The final unit, Projects in Musical Social Justice, took approximately eight weeks and included significant time devoted to the creation and performance of original compositions. One week was reserved for summative activities and reflection at the end of the term.

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Kaschub A Series of Curriculum Evolutions and Reflections Community Building and Course Design The first week of the course was designed to invite students into the creation of a music appreciation course inclusive of their interests, cultural values, and personal perspectives. We began our first day by engaging in a number of activities to identify musical interests and abilities. We also identified multiple issuessome related to music and others in the current news cycle that the students considered important in their own lives. These activities were designed to allow students to contribute anonymously in an attempt to elicit the most forthcoming answers. The discussions were lively and the students animated, even impassioned, as they resonated with specific topics and ideas. With our many interests identified and posted before us, the students were asked if they could imagine any way to bring these ideas together in our course. The students quickly identified several major groups or key personnel from bands who have become spokespeople for various issues and causes and suggested that we could do something similar. I invited the students to think about what that course might look like as their first nights homework. Our discussion of what our music course should include ranged broadly across numerous genres, interests, and famous performing artists, but the central theme of making our own music gained steady momentum. As we discussed what we liked best about particular genres and performers, we discovered a common theme that of musicians expressing their beliefs and interests (or at least beliefs and interests likely to attract consumers). By the end of the first week we had arrived at a rough course outline that included three units of study culminating in the students creating and performing their original compositions. Reflections The development of a quasi-grassroots curriculum movement required careful consideration of the needs of the students. Their interests, expectations and connections to each other and the world beyond our classroom provided the foundation for our collaborative study of musics many roles. As such, it was imperative that their voices be heard from the outset. Students were invited to speak freely, were not edited or paraphrased, but were required to find ways to explain their perspectives so that every member of the class could understand even if disagreement remained. Through this approach, students immediately sensed the power of their ideas and the struggles that people expressing their personal viewpoints can and do encounter. Establishing a more equalized balance-of-power between teacher and students was a key goal of this project. The first week of class was based completely upon the idea that students needed to express their expectations and then take action designed to fulfill their visions. The students were more than willing to complain about what

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Artistic Social Action they thought music appreciation would be, but they initially struggled to find a consensus amongst themselves when the pre-existing model was removed. The balance-of-power found to work best within this first week was one in which the tasks of curriculum development were dispersed by skill sets rather than one in which all members of the class equally contributed across topics or stages. The students generated dozens of content ideas evidencing an incredible wealth of cultural knowledge, musical recordings, print, and other media sources. My role in the process involved monitoring distributions of types of music and activities to ensure sufficient breadth of experience. While students knowledge of contemporary musics (those occurring within the last decade) was impressive, I suggested additional examples to expand the scope of their work. I also asked many guiding questions to provide a framework for organizing course development. This was another area in which the students had many wonderful ideas, but were at a loss as to how to formalize the activities and topics they identified into a cohesive plan. In this aspect of course design, I served as a guide pointing out different possible pathways, but allowing the students to select the route they thought would lead to achieving their goals. Understanding the Roles of the Artist-Composer (Unit 1) The overarching goal for the course became the creation of compositions connected to issues of social justice. The students decided that in order to learn how to create their own compositions they would need to listen to what many other composers had done. They also determined that the context for the creation of these types of pieces was very important and thus they needed to identify some of the non-musical influences for each piece. Four goals were established: 1) to identify existing pieces focusing on issues of social justice 2) to critically analyze historical events influencing composers of music in different time periods and cultures 3) to identify what composers have done to musically highlight or emphasize the issues theyve chosen to sonify 4) to seek evidence of the impact of artists music. The students began by identifying focus pieces. They quickly named several recent popular examples and sought additional pieces through Internet searches and discussions with other teachers and their parents. As they reviewed the titles/artists/historical context of the pieces that they had identified, they generated a list of guiding questions to be used to discover what types of contextual information might have inspired or contributed to the process of creating the piece. Through class discussion, the students and I developed guidelines that were used in identifying historical contexts or event sequences. The students sought to determine key factors influencing composer viewpoints. They planned to analyze the music created in response to particular situations to identify the techniques that the composers used to make strong impressions. Finally, the students evaluated the impact of such

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Kaschub works on artists (composers/performers), audience, and larger social, political and cultural landscapes as appropriate to the piece under study. Reflections The process of creating musical interpretations of social justice issues holds a long, well-documented, and highly accessible history relevant to the project that students identified as their end goal. Recent musical examples identified by the students included Green Day's American Idiot and Bob Marley's signature anthem Get Up, Stand Up. These pieces, along with others that the students brought to class, were paired with my suggestions of Krzystof Penderecki's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, and the traditional South African song, Siyahamba, to illustrate a history of practice. The students were open to suggestions of pieces unfamiliar to them because these suggestions were not just those made by their teacher, but came from multiple sources both inside and beyond our class membership. We have such a cool collection of pieces to use. Everyone had suggestions. I only knew about half of the list, but thats OK. I think it is so awesome that we get to pick what we listen to and what we study. On the pre-hearing day I heard a bunch of stuff that is really out there, but I think it will be interesting to figure out how composers tried to do this stuff before we do it ourselves. I hope I find some good ideas to help with my piece. [Student journal 17. Contributing composer to Its A Meow Mix, Dawg!] The students created an initial listening list with nearly 20 hours of music. As the majority of the pieces were three to four minutes long, it became necessary to focus and shorten the list. The process began with the students revisiting their reasons for creating a list. They then categorized pieces by historical period, culture and topic. As the task started to loom large, the students grew nervous about their initial vision of working individually. It was then decided that while we would all listen to, discuss and complete the musical analysis of each piece, we would also divide pieces up between teams by topic to research context and impact. I am really nervous, but excited, too, that I am on the team that is going to create a piece about child abuse. I live in foster care. My home life was pretty ugly when I was little. This is a chance to say something about it in music, maybe some of the stuff that I dont say about it. [Student journal 8. Contributing composer to A Childhood Not Mine] As the final project proposal began with the dual musical focus of compose and perform, the final listening list included a few pieces that the class would be able to perform. The South African song Siyahamba was added because we could sing it and be inside the making of it. This activity was critical to the development our understanding of musics power from the perspective of the performer. The students learned to sing the piece in class, but then performed it at a local museum opening

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Artistic Social Action an African art exhibit. For many students, it was their first public performance since elementary school class shows. As we sang the piece, I was really nervous. We were marching in singing and at first no one was listening. The guests werent really paying attention. Our voice couldnt be heard over the talking. Some of us starting singing softer, but others got louder and then we all got louder and people starting paying attention. Thats what the song was made forto make quiet voices strong and to make others pay attention. [Student journal 14. Contributing composer to A Childhood Not Mine] I got a chill when the crowd went from talking to almost silent really quickly as they realized we were singing. I didnt want to do this project when we were in class talking about it. I didnt want to have to sing like that. But, the song was created to draw people together and peaceably express solidarity. We drew together in fear, but then we werent afraid. It was still scary, but I felt stronger at the same time. [Student journal 9. Contributing composer to Invisibly Present] The conclusion of unit one marked a significant shift in the role of the teacher. As the students steadily gained confidence in their own abilities to shape their study of music in this context, the teacher-as-leader became less needed. The teaching role shifted to that of a resource provider and guide. While occasional direction was necessary in managing time or checking programs, students became increasingly selfreliant. Identifying and Analyzing Issues of Social Justice (Unit 2) The issues that students selected for study during the second unit of the course formed the basis for their final composition. The primary work of the unit involved establishing a framework for using the tools of critical inquiry to gain a thorough understanding of complex social, political, and cultural issues. The students drew on issues present in the music models that they had identified and studied. They also explored other issues that they considered both important and strong candidates for artistic rendering. This process required incredible amounts of thinking time, rather than outwardly doing time. Students identified issues and then problematized approaches to data gathering and defining possible artistic intentions. The interrogation of focus issues included finding answers to the students own questions about who makes decisions, who profits, who suffers, who dominates and how such situations and events come to occur. The class worked together to brainstorm a long list of guiding questions to identify stakeholders, direct and contributory issues, ecological constraints, and financial and human implications. These questions were then adapted to fit each working groups focus issue. This first set of questions guided initial research efforts and often led to the development of two or more sets of additional questions as students sought further information. Each re-

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Kaschub visioning of the problem allowed students to more closely examine the full complexity of highly charged situations. The work that the students designed for themselves was academically challenging. Each group produced a reference list of books, magazines, newspapers, journal articles, and web-based resources used to reveal contexts, problems and solutions. In some cases, the students were also able to interview people who were directly affected by the focus issue they were researching. These interviews came toward the end of the unit and allowed the students to secure information that was difficult to find in print form. Reflections The work of unit two drew upon students' knowledge and experiential base in partnership with their ability to critically question the world around them as an impetus for artistic work. Students identified issues, asked questions, sought answers, and asked more questions until they felt prepared to make an artistic statement in sound. The process varied in length and depth, but was approached with a focused seriousness by each student. It was never necessary for the students to be redirected as no significant off-task behavior was observed. The level of intent focus was remarkable. The students identified many important and challenging issues, but ultimately decided to focus on those that were most relevant to them on a personal level. The connection points, those things that personalized an issue, were not always readily apparent. Some students explained their choices while the connection to others sometimes remained a mystery. In all cases, the process of deciding what issue was most important led students to develop a personal sense of ownership in the issue, and more broadly, the curriculum. They embraced a certain sense of responsibility to both themselves and the issue. Their motivations were no longer about the course, but about working on something larger than themselves and of more worth than their final grade. When I signed up for this course I thought it was just going to be an easy A. I can remember facts and dates, so music history wouldnt be that hard. But this course is different. I dont even think about a grade. I just want this project to be really good. Ive worked a lot harder than I thought in this class, but its been OK. I want to work harder. [Student journal 1. Contributing composer to Its a Meow Mix, Dawg!] The students engaged in a number of role-playing exercises where they adopted the perspectives of all the stakeholders in their focus issue. These exercises allowed the students to gain a better understanding of the pros and cons, triumphs and trials, and feelingful states/emotion of each position. Making these connections gave students important insights into the challenges that they would face as composers trying to a sound-based version of a multifaceted reality.

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Artistic Social Action Ive never been abused by anyone, much less my mom, but my friend was before she moved into foster care. We dont really talk about it. I tried to imagine myself as smalleran easy target. What is it like when your mom comes crashing into your room, drunk, angry, and not even really seeing you? Will she hit me? Will it end soon? Will it hurt? What hurts, her hitting or her not seeing that its me? As I try to imagine all this, I guess what Id feel is uncertainty. Its like Im there, but not there. Terrifying. The stories and reports that weve read about abuse in preparing for this project are horrible. I cant begin to wrap my head around it. What is this as music? Is it sad, empty, full of anger, screaming to be free, praying to be safe? And what of the abuser? The focus is usually on the abused, but there is a dark sadness to the person who is dealing out the blows, too. What is it exactly that they are feeling? What rage or pain is there and what does it feel like? The sound palette for my composition is filled with the timbres of raw, frazzled nerves, tired minds and broken everything. [Student journal 6. Contributing composer to A Childhood Not Mine] The impending project of unit three was ever present. As the students began to gain a better sense of the problem they had set for themselves, they became an increasingly quiet and focused group. Careful consideration was given to the ways in which the multiple perspectives found within their topics might take artistic form. The questions raised and the images conjured in response were powerful. Students were often observed sitting quietly, evidently moved to places beyond words by what they were beginning to understand. The merging of expressivity and artistic intention was evidenced in multiple ways. Some students would sing or hum musical ideas that they reported to be the sounds of how it feels to be ___. Other students made rough sketches. These often served as transitional gestures that the students described as aids to clarifying their own thinking about themes and feelings. Many of these sketches made their way to inspiring sound gestures and even whole pieces of music. Student journals offered another window into how their connections with expressive capacities intertwined with their evolving intentions. Their journals, full of descriptive language, captured thoughtful debates weighing the facts and feelings of each issue and its metamorphosis to music. This entry was written by a student in response to hearing a radio report about the children of Darfur. When I think about the children of Darfur walking from their homes to the gated compounds where they are to be safe at night, I cant help but remember my father telling me bedtime stories when I was very, very young. Who is reading these little children bedtime stories? Where are their fathers? Dead? Hiding in fear? Fighting to save their families? I want to capture this juxtaposition of childhoods - those of us who have so much without thinking much about it against those who have so little and who need so much. As I think about themes I think that here (in America) we are a big theme crashing and banging around, and the children of Dar-

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Kaschub fur are a little, quiet theme. But no. The children of Darfur must be very strong. It is we who are weak for not defending them. How do I take a theme that starts strong and make it weak and then do the opposite for the Darfur childrens themeweak to strong? But perhaps, that isnt really it either. The children remain the same. It is my thinking that is changing. This project is hard. [Student journal 2. Contributing composer to What Courage?] The process of considering troubling issues with a goal of first understanding, then taking action that could invoke changes, prompted students to consider how their work as composers might impact the issues they had chosen to highlight. They wondered if they could create pieces that an audience would understand. They wanted their ideas to be understood and held some reservation as to whether music was the best vehicle for their message. Present, there, but not really acknowledged. We are seen by others, but they dont look, dont want to acknowledge that we are here. The music will be there and then be gone. The themewhich will be the theme of the immigranthas to catch the audiences ear and then disappear and then come back. But how will the audience know it? It has to be uncomfortable when present and a relief when out of sight. Some part of the music has to be always present, but sound like it is from homenot this home, but the first home. [Student journal 3. Contributing composer to Invisibly Present] How can I be sure that the audience will get my piece? We hear words all the time and words are easy to forget. How can I be sure that they really understand my piece? I have a particular message in mind, but Im not going to write program notes that say it exactly, because its more words theyll forget. I want to provide a connection for the feelings Ive tried to harness. I want the audience to feel the shock of the slap that youve been expecting all day. [Student journal 10. Contributing composer to A Childhood Not Mine] The students journal entries were full of descriptions that featured key components of focus issues partnered with imagined sounds. Some of the entries were so descriptively detailed that they were nearly translated to sound during the final unit of the course. Students were often observed re-reading their journal entries as they sat with instruments or computers and transitioned into the work of unit three. Many of the students complained that where they had once feared not having enough ideas for their pieces, they now found themselves surrounded by so much information that they wondered how they would ever decide where to begin. Projects in Musical Social Justice (Unit 3) The students developed unit three to be the capstone activity of the course in which the earlier studies of music expressing perspectives on issues of social justice and

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Artistic Social Action the analysis of the same would come together. The vision described at the beginning of the course featured each student composing his or her own music, but as the course progressed it became clear that small group work was advantageous both during the period of research (unit 2) and during the processes of composing and performing. The work of unit three arose organically out of unit two. The students identified topics of interest and began to form working groups as common interests became apparent. Tasks were then divided amongst interested parties and research materials sought and studied. As information came back to the group for discussion, musical ideas emerged and were bantered about in very general descriptive terms. In this process, the foundation for creating music was created in an informal pre-planning process that allowed group members to form a shared vision of their intended product. The formal work of unit three solidified as each group presented a brief overview of their preparatory work to the full class. In these presentations, the students identified their focus topic, related issues, and the key components of the viewpoints and experiences of various stakeholders. The students also shared their own experiences, either directly lived or as researchers of the topic, and painted their future projects in broad strokes. After each presentation, the full class was invited to ask questions, offer comments and make suggestions. Unit three concluded with two performances. The first performance gave students an opportunity to share their work and gather feedback from the class. Feedback was solicited by each group and focused the audience on some aspect of the piece or performance. A few days were then devoted to a period of refinement and rehearsal before the students presented the official premieres of their work. Reflection Many of the key challenges identified in the journals written during unit two suggest that the pre-planning phase of composition began at that point in the course. The journal entries of unit three had a decidedly different focus. While musical thoughts and ideas were still present, though fewer in quantity, journal entries were predominantly about bringing the sounds into being. Some composers approached this challenge physically and found instruments and ways of playing them that captured their artistic vision. Other composers, however, grew frustrated in personal performance and quickly moved to computers as tools and resources for their work. The most reported compositional challenge articulated by students was that of the decision to include or exclude text. Working out the definition of the product song with lyrics, instrumental piece, instrumental piece with program notes, etc. took considerable time and discussion within each composition group. Some students used lyrics while others opted to use program notes. Approximately half of the resulting pieces were created and shared with no verbal cues other than their titles.

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Kaschub Deciding what to call our piece was very difficult. We wanted a title that made people wonder what our music would sound like before they heard it and then wonder why these sounds were chosen after [they heard it]. We also wanted people to hear the music and decide what it means for themselves. We did not reach that decision easily. Telling everyone what the piece is about would make it easier for the listener. But, after a couple of weeks of arguing about it, we realized that we learned about our issue and how it felt by digging into it and making it music. We hope that listeners will hear our composition and wonder what the questions were. I guess it is sort of like going backwards and unraveling our process of creating to find the meaning that we found to compose. It will mean more to the listeners if they have to figure it out for themselves. [Student journal 5. Contributing composer to Unravel It] Capturing the emotional content of the human experience of the focus issue exercised students developing capacities in expressivity. They actively sought to expand their musical focus beyond the primary stakeholder typically characterized as victim and looked to the aggressor as a source of musical inspiration as well. The pieces created typically began with at least two themes, but as the students had sought to identify and understand the perspectives of multiple stakeholders, thematic work was found to be cumbersome or limiting. Most of the pieces avoided development of themes in the traditional sense and were purposefully comprised of motives or other brief musical gestures that were to represent the many voices present in any complex issue. As we made up our piece we each had a bunch of instruments and were playing around with them. All of sudden we noticed that we had each made up our own ideas for the same key issue. We debated for a while about which one to use, but then we realized that just as we had five different musical visions, so did the people in this situation have at least five different viewpoints. So, we kept it all and made it all fit together. When I hear it now, it seems like the only logical choice. The issues arent simple and the music that comes from them cant be too simple either or it wont be able to capture how complicated it all is. [Student journal 11. Contributing composer to Too Many Hates] Without reservation, the skills of artistic craftsmanship, both in terms of composition and performance, were found to be the most challenging aspect of the course. As with all beginning composers and performers, the mind can imagine music beyond the skill set required to produce it. Students often expressed frustration in finding the idea that they had in their heads on an instrument or the computer. As familiarity with the compositional tools increased, frustrations abated. In some cases, however, students reported compromising musical intentions and simplified their ideas to advance production. As pieces grew into their finalized forms, the students began to make further refinements to the course. The original course plan featured students personally per-

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Artistic Social Action forming their pieces, but about half of the class had created pieces using computers and wanted computers to either fully perform or support the performance of their pieces. It was decided through full class discussion that the music was more important than the mode of delivery and both physical and computerized performance was determined to be appropriate. In some cases the students were very much wed to the idea of performing the music that they had created. Often these groups had created scores that only they could completely decipher and they didnt want to risk losing the essence of their work in the translation to other performers. Other groups, however, had created pieces that required performers beyond the membership of their groups. In these cases, rehearsal time was created and class members who had completed their projects donated their performance skills to other groups. Once we got going, we just kept adding stuff. After a couple of weeks we realized that we had added so many ideas, ideas that we thought were absolutely necessary, that we needed to figure out how we were going to play this thing. We thought about putting it all into the computer, but we liked how we played it off each other, and it would take too much time to sort it all out again and put it in [to the computer]. We decided to write out some instructions, sort of a chart of the piece and made special notes so that some people from outside of our group could follow along and play in the five or six places where we needed extra hands to make it all work. [Student journal 13. Contributing composer to Too Many Hates] Toward the end of unit three, each group shared their piece with the class. This performance functioned as a progress report in which the entire class heard a recap of each groups work and their final project. The class audience provided feedback that usually suggested some refinements to performance, but very few comments addressed compositions. While applause and enthusiasm for the pieces was readily apparent, so was a level of awe and respect. I loved Its a Meow Mix, Dawg! The rap section was amazing. The part about getting pets spayed and neutered was very funny, but most importantly its still stuck in my head. It had a hook. When people hear this song, the message is going to stick. I hope that one of the animal shelters or rescue places adopts their song as the music for the ad campaigns. Way cool! [Student journal 15. Contributing composer to Invisibly Present!] I didnt know what to say after we heard A Childhood Not Mine. I needed it to be quiet. I needed time to think. We talked about a few things that the group could do to improve their interactions as an ensemble, like timing with the computer, but the piece was emotionally draining. There was no way to comment on it. [Student journal 7. Contributing composer to What Courage] With in-class sharing complete, the students were eager to present their work to a larger audience. Invitations were sent to other classes, parents, and local agencies representing or working to resolve some of the issues addressed by the class. The

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Kaschub performance of the six pieces took about one hour including welcome speeches and introductory remarks for pieces that composers wished to set-up. The students offered their observations of the concert in their journals: My mom hates rap, but she liked how our group rapped in the Meow Mix. She said it was great because it used what I like to listen to, but in a productive way. [Student journal 4. Contributing composer to Its a Meow Mix, Dawg!] I thought our piece on child abuse went really well. I think the audience was surprised to hear a computer perform since the first two groups had all students playing stuff, but I still think it was good. I saw two people wiping tears away. The guy from [an agency] asked if he could have a recording of our piece to use in a PowerPoint presentation that he gives to State each year about his agencys efforts to end child abuse. How cool is that? [Student journal 14. Contributing composer to A Childhood Not Mine] My friends said that they could hear the music come and go like I described when I talked about the piece before we played it. Theyve only been here for a couple of years, like me, and they notice the things about how people see them, but look away. They said my music was really like what they see and feel every day. [Student journal 12. Contributing composer to Invisibly Present]

Student Reflections on the Critical Pedagogy for Creative Artists Experience In the final week of the course we took time to talk, reflecting on what we had done and how it had worked. Several themes emerged in both classroom discussions and journal entries. The concept of voice was immediately raised. The students appreciated that on the opening day of class they had an immediate invitation to say what they thought. They believed that this atmosphere carried throughout the course as the ideas they presented were treated as equal in value to those ideas offered by the teacher. Allowing students to express their thoughts and their expectations contributed to a balancing-of-power that the students perceived as facilitating complimentary learning by all members (teacher and students) of the class. Beyond expressing their own interests, the students also voiced an appreciation for the level of independence they were given in self-directing their projects. They believed that the openness of the process contributed to the way in which everyone participated and shared their perspectives, knowledge and resources. Further, they found the flexible, or loose, timeline advantageous to their work in that they had sufficient time to figure out what they needed to know and to pursue new questions without the pinch of a tight deadline. Several students expressed continuing interest in the critical analysis of issues of social justice. Beyond learning about a specific

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Artistic Social Action topic or issue, they described the value of learning to evaluate media and other sources of information. Getting beyond what is apparent to see what is real is the most valuable lesson that I learned in unit two. It is easy to believe what you hear on the news or what you read on a blog, but asking questions and seeking answers to how and why allowed me to understand that issues are never as simple as they seem at first. [Student journal 9. Contributing composer to Invisibly Present] The final theme present in our discussions was that of the challenges of making meaningful art. The students reported difficulties in the creation process. Common observations included worrying about having no ideas as well as having too many ideas and not being able to decide what to do. The young composers were also frustrated by their developing skills. They often sought to accomplish musical ideas that exceeded their technical knowledge. While all reported finding ways to adjust, the ever-present challenge of balancing vision and technique led some composers to identify things they wished were better about their pieces. These observations were usually linked to the sense of obligation that students felt as they worked to convert knowledge about an issue to the perceptual knowledge of the issue as situated in music. While many aspects of composing and compositional decisions arose in our discussions, the one aspect that dominated the discussion and writings was that of audience considerations. Several students wrote about how audiences confirm musical meaning through extra-musical cues. They noted that the title of the piece, a verbal introduction or the provision of notes to the audience became increasingly desirable as they worried about whether or not their audience would get it. The general consensus apparent in their entries was that without the cue the listener would be challenged to assign meaning to the experience of the music and to accept that assignation as the meaning. A note about the piece, however, would make the job easier for the listener and, some acknowledged, for the composer as well. Journal entries along these lines revealed both the students desire to make sure their work was understood, and their developing philosophical understanding of meaning in music. In considering how the inspiration of social justice issues might or might not gain conveyance through a music composition, students discovered that the exact meaning of the piece is left to the listener to create just as it was left to the composer to solve for him or herself earlier in the process. We cant give the meaning away. We worked hard to discover all the themes, the issues, the feelings and complexities of this situation. It was in the work that we discovered what we know. We made it into sound based on what we understood. I think that the listener has to work....to figure it out for themselves as well. Well title our piece and introduce it, but the exact meaning that we feel in the ostinato may be interpreted differently, and still hold meaning, by another person who meets the piece.

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Kaschub The main thing is we want them to think about genocide and to feel genocide. [Student journal 16. Contributing composer to What Courage?] Implications for Research The Critical Pedagogy for Creative Artists program was designed to acknowledge the wealth of cultural capital that students can bring to their interpretations of social phenomena. As such, it offered rich ground for the development of both artistic techniques and skills of critical inquiry. The students experiences focused attention on the finer details of the issues they explored, but also provided a foundation for engaging future issues as well. Framed within class-defined goals, the directed and increased focus of these activities led students to consider the roles, functions, viewpoints, experiences and feelingful capacities of all the stakeholders in specific situations. The understandings gained through these experiences contributed to the students process of envisioning the sonification of the feelings of the situation, the roles of the players, and other important factors in the phenomena that they problematized. The process of critically analyzing social realities provided a forum for collaborative dialogue between the students and the teacher, but also presented opportunities for dialogue between artist/student and art/music compositions (Reimer, 2003). Engaging in situational analysis coupled with artistic interpretation was found to be validating and empowering as students developed an understanding of how their actions as artists impacted perceptions, influenced future actions and shaped realities. Although the participants were pleased with the overall process and products of the course, several key questions about implementing programs like CPCA remain. While I was able to provide guidance and serve as a resource to the students, it is important to consider the teachers role in general. How can, and should, teachers contribute to the creation of a community of socially cognizant artist-composers? Musically, it is important that each student develop the capacity to envision a product, employ expressive nuances and command the tools of artistic craftsmanship. While the techniques of craftsmanship are easily identified, enabling young composers to conceive of pieces and to imagine how music's expressiveness can be used to move or motivate people, however, is a different kind of challenge. The students of the CPCA course struggled with the process of transitioning from thinking about social situations to considering the feelingful impact of conflict, power, oppression, and other states of being. Yet, this is the very heart of what artists do when they decide to engage in social action or make commentary on what they observe in the world. As a profession, we need to know much more about how teachers can effectively address and support students in this phase of the composition process. One of the most interesting twists in the evolution of the CPCA course was the students decision to invite community members representing charities, relief workers,

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Artistic Social Action governmental officials and others to the premiere of their pieces. While the final step of taking art to a place of action was a desirable outcome of this process, and indeed of critical pedagogy praxis, it was difficult to find ways to forge connections to the community. This may have been due to the evolutionary nature of this particular course. Additional planning time could be devoted to making these connections. However, it is imperative that students realize the potential power their art can wield when given proper opportunity. Further research and consideration must focus on the connections between student-artists and the community in educational settings. Conclusions The CPCA program provided opportunities for culturally relevant learning that drew upon the unique experiences of the class membership to form meaningful relationships with diverse musics and complex issues as preparatory activities for the creation of original music intended to invite social action. Students engaged in explorations of socio-political environments within specific cultural contexts and drew impetus for their own artistic expression, preservation, commentary and emancipatory action. To gain better understanding of complex issues, students critically questioned and interrogated narratives of domination and responded artistically to what they had seen, heard and felt. As students engaged in this process they realized that they were not only witnesses to their world, but had the power to capture the unique features of social phenomena through their work as artist-composers. They came to appreciate the Freirian notion that change is achieved through new consciousness (Freire, 1985, p.78). In this case, rather than through verbal literacy alone, the new consciousness was made evident through and in new approaches to music. Coming to musical voice brought about a change in perspective that students found empowering. The synergistic weaving of critical pedagogy and music education, specifically the sequence of listen-compose-perform, can be used to allow students to draw upon their own realities, perspectives and lived experiences to consider, imagine, and create new possibilities and opportunities for meaning to be discovered in sound. To be sure that we as teachers honor the unique voice of each student in developing musical skills and knowledge, we must consider our own frames of reference and seek to understand our own assumptions about music, teaching and learning. We must take time to identify and know our students, understanding that a thorough knowledge of each individual is required to ably facilitate growing critical skills and musical artistry. We must give careful consideration to how teaching and learning shape both the student and the teacher so that we both expect to see change and become changed ourselves. And finally, we must consider how we will grow along with our students within the musical and human community we seek to establish.

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References Allsup, R. (2007). Democracy and one hundred years of music education. Music Educators Journal, 93 (5), 52-56. Bowman, W. (2004). Pop Goes? Taking popular music seriously. In Bridging the gap: Popular music and music education, C. X. Rodriguez, Ed., Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, pp. 29-50. Freire, P. (1985). Politics of Education. New York: Bergin and Garvey. Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Herder and Herder. Giroux, H. (1992). Border crossings: Cultural workers and the politics of education. New York: Routledge. Gramsci, A. (1971). Selections from the prison notebooks. Edited and translated by Q. Hoare and G. N. Smith. New York: International Publishers. Jorgensen, E. (2003). Transforming music education. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Kratus, J. (2007). Music education at the tipping point. Music Educators Journal, 94(2), 42-48. McLaren, P. (1998). Life in schools: An introduction to critical pedagogy in the foundations of education. New York: Longman. Reimer, B. (2003). A philosophy of music education: Advancing the vision, 3rd edition. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Villegas, A. & Lucas, T. (2002). Preparing culturally responsive teachers: rethinking the curriculum. Journal of Teacher Education, 53 (1), 20-32. Williams, D. (2007). What are music educators doing and how well are we doing it? Music Educators Journal, 94 (1). Retrieved 9.26.2007 from http://www.menc. org/publication/articles/mejfeaturearticle.html Woodford, P. (2005). Democracy in music education: Liberalism, ethics and the politics of practice. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

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