ABSTRACT
This chapter provides empirical evidence of the ways in which normalized music teaching practices manifest in today’s music classrooms. The purpose of this qualitative case study research was to ascertain the ways in which adolescent music students from diverse, socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds perceive the music teaching in their general music classroom. The primary data collection methods consisted of semi-structured, open-ended interviews with students and teachers and field note observations of their music classrooms. The two teachers in this study taught with contrasting music teaching approaches. One teacher employed a traditional music teaching approach with Western classical music methods and the other a non-traditional music teaching approach designed to embrace student autonomy, diversity, and creativity. The field notes and interview data emphasized the ways in which these two approaches manifested in substantially different ways with a profound impact. In this chapter, findings from interviews with teachers and students are discussed as a means of shedding light on culturally sustaining music teaching.
