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was approaching aims of culturally relevant pedagogy, ing these potential barriers is not to suggest that they are
or when beliefs underlying her pedagogical actions co- insurmountable, but rather that teachers can learn from

hered with those identified in Ladson-Billings’s frame- students’ perspectives and adjust practice accordingly.
work. Gurgel’s scholarship broke new ground in choral
research by exploring intersections of culturally relevant
pedagogy and engagement theory to promote nuanced Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy
understandings of choral singers’ experiences. Her fi nd- In one recent line of scholarship, Django Paris and

ings challenge deficit-based notions of “classroom man- H. Samy Alim have critiqued, refined, and extended
agement,” instead highlighting possibilities for building previous asset-based pedagogies, particularly building
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relationships within classroom communities and fos- upon Ladson-Billings’s conception of culturally rele-
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tering singers’ genuine engagement through culturally vant pedagogy. Ladson-Billings herself has contrib-
relevant pedagogy. 16 uted toward these eff orts, explaining that “culturally
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In a series of studies, I have explored how choral sustaining pedagogy uses culturally relevant pedagogy
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teachers exemplify characteristics of culturally respon- as the place where the beat drops.” Paris and Alim
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sive and relevant teachers as well as adolescent sing- posited that the “culture of power” in schools is evolv-
ers’ perspectives on their teachers’ efforts to enact these ing as society becomes increasingly multilingual and

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pedagogical approaches. One study detailed how in- multiethnic:
struction that was intended to be culturally responsive
unfolded in three choirs situated in an urban center in For too long we have taught our youth (and our
the midwestern United States: one that served a size- teachers) that… White middle-class normed
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able im/migrant Hispanic and Latino population, one practices and ways of being alone are the key
that had an African American classroom majority, and to power, while denying the languages and oth-

one comprised of students who identified with eighteen er cultural practices that students of color bring

distinct ethnicities. The students offered a range of cul- to the classroom. Ironically, this outdated phi-
tural perspectives, self-identifying as African American, losophy will not grant our young people access
Guatemalan, Honduran, Korean American, and Puer- to power; rather, it may increasingly deny them
to Rican, as well as biracial and multiethnic. that access. 25
Students perceived their instruction to be culturally
responsive when given opportunities to deepen their They observed that educators have “responded” to
understanding of their own culture(s) and to broaden elements of student culture only in service to the goal
their horizons by learning about additional cultures, of adopting the White middle-class dominant cultural
outcomes that correspond with Ladson-Billings’s con- norms that schools position as “legitimate.” Too often,
cept of cultural competence. They valued when teach- this process requires students to sacrifi ce connections to

ers invested effort to develop knowledge of the culture(s) their own cultural heritage or identity. Therefore, they

with which their students identified, and when they took argue that terms such as “culturally relevant” and “cul-
steps to enhance the cultural validity of learning ex- turally responsive” do not go far enough toward refl ect-
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periences based on those cultures. Singers also identi- ing the ultimate aims of these pedagogical approaches:
fied barriers to culturally responsive and relevant choral

teaching: teachers’ lack of knowledge, preparation, or [T]he term “relevant” does not do enough to

confidence to facilitate experiences based on culture(s) explicitly support the goals of maintenance and
with which they were less familiar; “one-off ” experienc- social critique. It is quite possible to be relevant
es with repertoire that did not go far enough toward to something without ensuring its continuing
cultural responsiveness; and teaching processes that fo- and critical presence in students’ repertoires of
cused on musical elements while neglecting to address practice…and its presence in our classrooms
important social, cultural, historical, and political con- and communities. 26
text surrounding the music being studied. Acknowledg-

CHORAL JOURNAL October 2022 Volume 63 Number 3 53