Blurred lines and queered spaces: an examination of teachers’ visions of multi-styles curricula

Abstract

Multi-styles string education includes musical practices from close to 30 identified styles. Adding the multi-styles approach into curriculum may not be easy: Pedagogies may be different from those needed for Western classical music, the primary style most practicing teachers have studied. As such, the decision to start incorporating multi-styles into curriculum can present a challenge as an unsupported leap in an unknown direction. This study examined how string teachers implement a multi-styles approach into their P-12 string class curricula. Questions guiding this study are: (1) How do school orchestra teachers describe their visions for a multi-styles approach to curriculum? (2) What planning and action is taken in order to enact their visions, including programme and infrastructure changes, additional resources, professional development? Data were collected through a qualitative interview design and analysed through a queer theory lens. Themes include blurred visions of multi-styles, stepwise shifts in curriculum and pedagogy through a both/and student-centred approach, and the utilisation of human resources. We found that multi-styles is less a curriculum and more a philosophical approach. However, the name itself of this approach caused dissonance, leading towards a vague future. Implications provide new avenues of research and practice in this line of inquiry.

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