The integration of embodied pedagogies has a long history in music education, and especially in choral singing (Benson, 2011; Ehmann, 1968; Jaques-Dalcroze, 1921). Manual mimicry gestures are hand movements that mirror the spatiotemporal attributes of speech sounds with an analogous gesture (Rusiewicz & Rivera, 2017). The present study investigated the effects of manual mimicry gestures […]
IJRCS
Choral Directors’ Self Report of Accommodations Made for Boys’ Changing Voices: A Twenty Year Replication
To explore possible changes in educators’ self-reported strategies used to accommodate changingvoices, we replicated survey data collected between 1998-2000 (Killian, 2003). The original survey,developed from strategies of 47 experienced directors, consisted of a checklist of accommodations (treble singers only, rewrite parts, sing an octave lower, assign non-singing responsibilities, separate choirs by TB or Treble) and […]
Disrupting the Choral Class System: A Journey of One High School Choral Program
This case study sought to investigate one educator’s attempt to disrupt “the choral class system” within their public high school choral program. The following questions guided this research: (a) How does one teacher restructure a choral program to increase student access? (b) What meanings do student participants ascribe to participation? (c) What do the choral […]
Barbershop Harmony Society Judge Perceptions of Expressive Performances and Contest Adjudication
The purpose of this basic qualitative study (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016) was to analyze Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS) judge perceptions of vocal and visual expression and what elements make up expressive performances. A secondary purpose was to explore how BHS judges perceived and utilized information gleaned from training. I interviewed ten current BHS judges from […]
Making Space for Inclusive Approaches: A Review of Adolescent Gender Identity in High School Choirs
Gender identity has received significant attention in choral music education, perhaps more than any other field of music education research. Issues concerning gender in choirs continue to prove challenging for adolescents and secondary school teachers. This article synthesizes a narrative literature review on gender identity research in high school choirs, offers suggestions for inclusive choral […]
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and Disengagement in the Choral Classroom: What Can We Learn from the Students?
The purpose of this study was to identify and compare eight students’ and one teacher’s perceptions of engagement/disengagement in a pluralistic choral classroom. Eight racially diverse 7th grade choir students and their teacher were interviewed to determine their perceptions of supporting conditions and behaviors that signaled engagement or disengagement. Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 1995a, 1995b, […]