Diversifying Music Education
Elementary school teacher Shannon O'Leary ('21 MEd) inspires students to think about music on a global scale.
"Music is everywhere."
This phrase adorns the wall of Shannon O'Leary’s music classroom, directly above a map of the world that shows the Pacific Ocean—rather than North America—at its center. The pairing is intentional, and reflects two of O'Leary’s passions: music and international education.
"One of my goals is to create accessible, bite-sized activities and intros for students," says O'Leary ('21MEd), who teaches elementary (K–5) and middle school music classes at the Lyme School in New Hampshire. "I prioritize critical thinking, asking questions, diversifying perspectives, and creating awareness of perspective."
O'Leary, who earned her MEd in International Education, doesn't shy away from the Western canon when it comes to music. The point of a global music curriculum, however, is to put Western artists into conversation with those from other countries and historical narratives. Her students are just as likely to hear Chopin as they are a contemporary pianist from Tokyo. When they learn about the erhu, they pause to consider why it is known as the "Chinese fiddle," even though it predates the fiddle by centuries.
One of the activities that always gets her students talking, says O'Leary, is "composer/musician of the week." She begins class by playing an excerpt of a song, shares information about the artist's biography, and then asks students to reflect on the piece.
"I get a lot of requests to write an artist's name on a sticky note, because the students want to tell their family about the music at home," she says. "First graders make some of the most frequent requests."
A lifelong love of music—from singing in her church choir, to playing the French horn in elementary school—inspired O'Leary to become a music teacher. Introducing students to music naturally invites conversation about intersecting topics as well, she said. More often than not, she finds herself making connections to history, language, and culture. Everyone can find some type of music they enjoy, she says; after common ground is identified, teaching becomes a matter of comparing and contrasting different styles.
"My teaching philosophy is like a book shelf," she explains. "You’re not trying to balance everything against Western music. It’s all on the same shelf. When it’s time to learn about different things, we take out the book, so to speak."
Before enrolling at the College of Education, O'Leary taught music classes for two years at a British academy in Kuwait. This experience was surreal, she noted, not only because she was working in a geographic region she never thought she would visit, but also because the majority of her students grew up in the Middle East. This was a critical first step to take before pursuing her master’s degree, said O'Leary, because it fostered a true growth mindset.
By the time she began researching graduate programs, she knew that she wanted to situate music curricula within a broader, more inclusive global framework. The MEd program in International Education turned out to be an ideal fit.
"The flexibility of the capstone was appealing," she recalls. "I could choose what I wanted to do, how I gathered data, whether I wanted a qualitative or quantitative approach, and how I presented my findings. It made me feel welcome to express my knowledge however I wanted to."
"It’s not about making sure the kids can read a scale. That's a great bonus, but it's about making people want to know things, and be proud of the things that they already know."
Another benefit of pursuing her degree in International Education, rather than music theory/composition, was the continual challenge to reflect on her own identity, privilege, and purpose as an educator, said O'Leary.
"Teaching is a profession where you should be working towards balancing your comfort, what you know, with the unknown," she said. "Everywhere I ever go to teach, it's going to need to be different because the people are going to be different, the environment will be different, they're going to need different things. We can use the things we're surrounded with in the community, environment, and culture to build that toolbox, so that students can go anywhere they want to."
Introducing elementary-aged children to global issues has proved to be seamless in many ways, says O'Leary. Students and parents are free to suggest different artists and songs based on their heritage and cultural identity, for example. Online resources detailing different cultural and musical themes for each month of the year are also helpful springboards.
One of O'Leary's more memorable units focused on Native American Heritage Month in November. To introduce the lesson, she showed her classes different maps of North America that showed tribal territories and borders. Her students were quite curious about the overlap of tribal territory and state borders, she said, which invited age-appropriate conversations about political history and geography. The discussion organically led into listening to music composed by Laura Niquay, an Atikamekw singer-songwriter.
"Diversifying is all about questioning, exposing, having them ask the big questions," says O'Leary. 'I can always tie something to music."
Music classes offer students a chance to not only express how they feel about different songs and compositions, but also voice ideas about their own identities and values, O'Leary notes. When her elementary school students complete an activity called "listen and draw," they are free to depict anything that comes to mind. At a pedagogical level, this process instills a sense of freedom and choice, says O'Leary. More often than not, students end up sharing ideas about their own identities, cultures, and families.
"It's not about making sure the kids can read a scale," she says. "That's a great bonus, but it's about making people want to know things, and be proud of the things that they already know."
This teaching philosophy has also shaped O'Leary’s thinking about herself. Rather than trying to craft the ideal teaching "persona" for the classroom, she opts to simply be herself. This decision has had "beautiful results" with students of all ages, she says.
"Realizing this has only supported my love of learning and wanting to do good things for my students," she says. "I think one of the most empowering things teachers can do is address who they are, be themselves with all the difficult things they do."
