- State College, Pennsylvania, United States
The 21st century has been defined by ecological crises, and these crises have been absent from most critical conversations in music teaching and learning. Satis Coleman's music education writings, influential in the 1920s and 30s, focused... more
The 21st century has been defined by ecological crises, and these crises have been absent from most critical conversations in music teaching and learning. Satis Coleman's music education writings, influential in the 1920s and 30s, focused on music and nature. The intellectual history presented in this essay, a historiography of ideas and thinkers, frames selected writings by Coleman as an environmental philosophy. This essay is built qualitatively around the themes of nature, consumption and conservation, epistemol-ogy/ethics/policy, and evolution. Coleman's environmental philosophy provides an opening for music educators to begin teaching and learning for eco-literacy through music .
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Popular music education can ease or worsen the waste problem. Waste refers to things with "no value," and the Global North produces a lot of waste. Not limited to material, waste can be seen as a dominant metaphor in rock music. The... more
Popular music education can ease or worsen the waste problem. Waste refers to things with "no value," and the Global North produces a lot of waste. Not limited to material, waste can be seen as a dominant metaphor in rock music. The guiding question for this essay is, what opportunity does rock music present for cultivating eco-literacy through music? Before we can find solutions though, we need to recognize rock's distinctive ecological challenges. Popular music is both implicated in the challenge of waste, and can help music educators explore opportunities for resistance. In music education, qualitative research suggests instrument-making increases knowledge, interest, creativity, and builds attachment to an instrument, in addition to reducing material waste. In our field's move to incorporate popular musics, instrument-making can be a part of eco-literate music pedagogy.
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As music educators, we always teach much more than the musical concepts and skills outlined in music curriculum standards. In this article, we discuss how music teachers can address what we believe is the most pressing issue of our time:... more
As music educators, we always teach much more than the musical concepts and skills outlined in music curriculum standards. In this article, we discuss how music teachers can address what we believe is the most pressing issue of our time: environmental degradation. We first outline some specifics of ecological literacy in music education. This will include discussion of some songs that could form the center of a music curriculum for increasing ecological literacy. Next, we discuss cultivating ecological literacy using local musical practices and sounds of nature. Finally, we share an example of soundscape pedagogy aimed at increasing awareness of and propensities to care for the natural environment and ecological diversity. These components, singing, songwriting, and soundscape composition, are recommended as part of an overall creative pedagogical approach.
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Shevock, Daniel J. “Peace, Place, and Then … A Practice of Silence.” PMEA News: The Official Publication of the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association 83, no. 3 (Spring, 2019): 14-15. (Invited)
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2018 Improvisation plays a substantial role within the world’s musical cultures. The purpose of this research was to explore the essence of the experience of confident music improvising. In this phenomenological study, confidence was... more
2018
Improvisation plays a substantial role within the world’s musical cultures. The purpose of this research was to explore the essence of the experience of confident music improvising. In this phenomenological study, confidence was considered a psychological experience and the confidence of improvisers the phenomenon under examination. The researcher compiled experiences through stories describing the phenomenon by interviewing three confident improvisers: a bluegrass fiddler, a jazz bassist and a baroque violinist. Vignettes portrayed the lifeworlds of these instrumentalists. The stories told were reduced through imaginative variation to identify which themes were essential, that is, shared among the participants’ unique experiences. The essential themes revealed were: listening, criticism-free environment, sequential experiences, passion for a style, and openness to learning. Music educators could potentially use these themes to enrich their own improvisation pedagogy.
Improvisation plays a substantial role within the world’s musical cultures. The purpose of this research was to explore the essence of the experience of confident music improvising. In this phenomenological study, confidence was considered a psychological experience and the confidence of improvisers the phenomenon under examination. The researcher compiled experiences through stories describing the phenomenon by interviewing three confident improvisers: a bluegrass fiddler, a jazz bassist and a baroque violinist. Vignettes portrayed the lifeworlds of these instrumentalists. The stories told were reduced through imaginative variation to identify which themes were essential, that is, shared among the participants’ unique experiences. The essential themes revealed were: listening, criticism-free environment, sequential experiences, passion for a style, and openness to learning. Music educators could potentially use these themes to enrich their own improvisation pedagogy.
Research Interests:
2017 This essay extends an open philosophy with a philosophy of music education on soil. An open philosophy emerges from analysis of Kafka's parable " Before the Law. " I explore what " the law " might be, what it could mean for how... more
2017
This essay extends an open philosophy with a philosophy of music education on soil. An open philosophy emerges from analysis of Kafka's parable " Before the Law. " I explore what " the law " might be, what it could mean for how people relate to " the law, " and how critiquing " the law " allows music teachers and learners to challenge the institutionalization of musical values. Extended with a metaphor of soil, music educators recognize " the law " is unsustainable and deserving skepticism. Institutions require continual skepticism. Through skepticism, ways of being and musicking together emerge.
This essay extends an open philosophy with a philosophy of music education on soil. An open philosophy emerges from analysis of Kafka's parable " Before the Law. " I explore what " the law " might be, what it could mean for how people relate to " the law, " and how critiquing " the law " allows music teachers and learners to challenge the institutionalization of musical values. Extended with a metaphor of soil, music educators recognize " the law " is unsustainable and deserving skepticism. Institutions require continual skepticism. Through skepticism, ways of being and musicking together emerge.
Research Interests: Music, Music Education, Philosophy of Education, Ecological Literacy, Franz Kafka, and 15 moreIntergenerational Relationships, John Dewey, Music Technology in Music Education, Simone Weil, Praxial Philosophy of Music Education, Music Industry, Philosophy of Music Education, Music Teacher Education, Wendell Berry, Institutions, Music and Institutions, C. A. Bowers, Educational Institutions, Rachel Carson, and Thomas Berry
Link to Article: http://act.maydaygroup.org/articles/Shevock15_4.pdf This article provides a glimpse into one person’s subjective experiences of rurality, Whiteness, musicing, and teaching. Experiences are shared narratively around the... more
Link to Article: http://act.maydaygroup.org/articles/Shevock15_4.pdf
This article provides a glimpse into one person’s subjective experiences of rurality, Whiteness, musicing, and teaching. Experiences are shared narratively around the central metaphor: roots. This autoethnography was guided by the question: how has the intersection of rurality, Whiteness, and poverty affected my attitudes, actions, and roles relative to music teaching and learning? Music education, a modern certainty that is usually portrayed as a universal good, is challenged as uprooting. This institution is inextricably linked to scarcity, transforming people into homo educandus musicae—s/he who believes that music education is a prerequisite to meaningful musicing. Homo educandus musicae, with more music education, emerges further and further uprooted from soil. A rerooting music praxis—in which students’ local places are understood as valuable resources for school music and not places to be left behind in the search for better, more cultured musics—is recommended.
This article provides a glimpse into one person’s subjective experiences of rurality, Whiteness, musicing, and teaching. Experiences are shared narratively around the central metaphor: roots. This autoethnography was guided by the question: how has the intersection of rurality, Whiteness, and poverty affected my attitudes, actions, and roles relative to music teaching and learning? Music education, a modern certainty that is usually portrayed as a universal good, is challenged as uprooting. This institution is inextricably linked to scarcity, transforming people into homo educandus musicae—s/he who believes that music education is a prerequisite to meaningful musicing. Homo educandus musicae, with more music education, emerges further and further uprooted from soil. A rerooting music praxis—in which students’ local places are understood as valuable resources for school music and not places to be left behind in the search for better, more cultured musics—is recommended.
Research Interests:
2015, inaugural article for TOPICS. Link to the Article: http://topics.maydaygroup.org/articles/2015/Shevock2015.pdf Facing the prospect of global ecological crises, how can music education matter? With the advent of ecomusicology,... more
2015, inaugural article for TOPICS.
Link to the Article: http://topics.maydaygroup.org/articles/2015/Shevock2015.pdf
Facing the prospect of global ecological crises, how can music education matter? With the advent of ecomusicology, the connection between music and environment raises many new challenges. Ecological literacy has become an important topic in educational philosophy, but it is largely missing from music education literature. The question guiding this inquiry is: What might music education for ecological literacy be like? To answer this question, I consider some possible ecological theories—including ecological literacy, ecomusicology, indigenous knowledge, and spirituality—that can provide a stable starting point and framework of music education for ecological literacy.
Link to the Article: http://topics.maydaygroup.org/articles/2015/Shevock2015.pdf
Facing the prospect of global ecological crises, how can music education matter? With the advent of ecomusicology, the connection between music and environment raises many new challenges. Ecological literacy has become an important topic in educational philosophy, but it is largely missing from music education literature. The question guiding this inquiry is: What might music education for ecological literacy be like? To answer this question, I consider some possible ecological theories—including ecological literacy, ecomusicology, indigenous knowledge, and spirituality—that can provide a stable starting point and framework of music education for ecological literacy.
Research Interests:
2015 Satis Coleman (1878–1961) was a pioneering but underacknowledged teacher in the history of American music education. Hers was a voice of teaching creativity in the twentieth century, which occurred at the progressive Lincoln Lab... more
2015
Satis Coleman (1878–1961) was a pioneering but underacknowledged teacher in the history of American music education. Hers was a voice of teaching creativity in the twentieth century, which occurred at the progressive Lincoln Lab School and Teachers College, Columbia University, in New York City. This article considers Coleman’s music education philosophy, which contained a distinctly spiritual characteristic. Parker Palmer’s definition of spirituality, “the eternal human yearning to be connected with something larger than our own egos,” offers a lens for examining Coleman’s spirituality, which included a distinctive view of God, living simply, wholesome humility, emotions, and silence in nature. Our profession can benefit from deeper understanding of the work of creative teachers, such as Coleman.
Satis Coleman (1878–1961) was a pioneering but underacknowledged teacher in the history of American music education. Hers was a voice of teaching creativity in the twentieth century, which occurred at the progressive Lincoln Lab School and Teachers College, Columbia University, in New York City. This article considers Coleman’s music education philosophy, which contained a distinctly spiritual characteristic. Parker Palmer’s definition of spirituality, “the eternal human yearning to be connected with something larger than our own egos,” offers a lens for examining Coleman’s spirituality, which included a distinctive view of God, living simply, wholesome humility, emotions, and silence in nature. Our profession can benefit from deeper understanding of the work of creative teachers, such as Coleman.
Research Interests:
2015 Link to the Article: http://act.maydaygroup.org/articles/Shevock14_2.pdf Abstract Paulo Freire was an important figure in adult education whose pedagogy has been used in music education. In this act of praxis (reflection and... more
2015
Link to the Article: http://act.maydaygroup.org/articles/Shevock14_2.pdf
Abstract
Paulo Freire was an important figure in adult education whose pedagogy has been used in music education. In this act of praxis (reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it), I share an autoethnography of my teaching of a university-level small ensemble jazz class. The purpose of this autoethnography was to examine my teaching praxis as I integrated Freirean pedagogy. There were two research questions. To what extent were the teachings of Paulo Freire applicable or useful for a university-level, improvisational, small ensemble class? How do students’ confidence and ability at improvisation improve during the class? Data sources included teacher reflections, video-recordings of each class, and conversations on a Facebook page. In the Jazz Combo Lab, students who were unable to successfully navigate the competitive audition process were empowered to develop as jazz musicians and become critically reflective. A narrative of my own evolving praxis is shared around the themes “Freirean Pedagogy as Increased Conversation,” “Empowering Students to Critique Their Worlds,” “Pedagogical Missteps,” and “A More Critical Praxis.”
Keywords: music education, Freire, jazz, pedagogy
Link to the Article: http://act.maydaygroup.org/articles/Shevock14_2.pdf
Abstract
Paulo Freire was an important figure in adult education whose pedagogy has been used in music education. In this act of praxis (reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it), I share an autoethnography of my teaching of a university-level small ensemble jazz class. The purpose of this autoethnography was to examine my teaching praxis as I integrated Freirean pedagogy. There were two research questions. To what extent were the teachings of Paulo Freire applicable or useful for a university-level, improvisational, small ensemble class? How do students’ confidence and ability at improvisation improve during the class? Data sources included teacher reflections, video-recordings of each class, and conversations on a Facebook page. In the Jazz Combo Lab, students who were unable to successfully navigate the competitive audition process were empowered to develop as jazz musicians and become critically reflective. A narrative of my own evolving praxis is shared around the themes “Freirean Pedagogy as Increased Conversation,” “Empowering Students to Critique Their Worlds,” “Pedagogical Missteps,” and “A More Critical Praxis.”
Keywords: music education, Freire, jazz, pedagogy
Research Interests:
2013 PMEA News feature in "Research" discussing my phenomenological research (now published in Research Studies in Music Education as "The Experience of Confident Music Improvising")