Mind the Gap

Inclusive Pedagogies for Diverse Classrooms

  • Louis Kaiser Epstein St. Olaf College
  • Taylor Okonek University of Washington
  • Anna Perkins

Abstract

Music courses contain students from a wide variety of demographic backgrounds and disparate levels of prior musical experience and ability. How can we ensure that all students have equitable opportunities to learn and succeed in these courses? In this empirical study, we disaggregate measures of student learning to better understand how major designation (music vs. non-music), prior musical experience, GPA, and underrepresented status affect student success in an introductory, undergraduate music course designed to leverage inclusive pedagogies in order to provide equitable learning opportunities for all students. We present our study as a much-needed initial effort to measure the ways introductory music classes intentionally or unintentionally privilege sudents with certain prior experiences. We argue that research on equity and inclusion in music classroom pedagogy matters not just for classes that attract non-majors or a mix of majors and non-majors, but also for classes composed exclusively of majors. While we find that groups of students experienced disparities in learning opportunities in the course, the relatively small size of those disparities suggest that implementing further inclusive pedagogies might help close the gap in achievement between student groups.

Author Biographies

Louis Kaiser Epstein, St. Olaf College

Louis Epstein is an Assistant Professor of Music at St. Olaf College. He completed his AB in Music at Princeton University, and his PhD in Historical Musicology at Harvard University. His articles appear in Music & Politics and Revue de musicologie, and he is the 2016 winner of the AMS Teaching Award for the collection of interactive, digital, music historical maps he developed with students, accessible at www.musicalgeography.org.

Taylor Okonek, University of Washington

Taylor Okonek is a Biostatistics Ph.D. student at the University of Washington. She completed her BA in Mathematics and Religion at St. Olaf College, with a concentration in Statistics.

Anna Perkins
Anna Perkins is a 2018-2019 Fulbright U.S. Student Researcher in Moscow, Russia. She received her B.A. in Sociology/Anthropology, Russian Language, and Russian Area Studies from St. Olaf College. 
Published
2019-08-06