By Dr. Georgiary Bledsoe and Dr. Sonya White Hope

May 2021

What do we aim to accomplish when we teach? We can define aims in terms of goals and objectives (what students should know or be able to do) or in terms of intentions and purposes (why students should know or be able to do a thing). In this third of five articles, we address Aims, the second of four pillars in the BaobaoTree Framework. By focusing on the “why” and its relationship to the “what,” we seek to illuminate intimate links between music teaching and larger narratives, and to frame the aims of music education in Africentric contexts.

We - Dr. Georgiary Bledsoe (GB), ethnomusicologist and piano teacher, and Dr. Sonya White Hope (SWH), middle school string teacher and music education scholar - have noticed that it is quite common to discuss aims primarily in terms of the “what.” Dr. S offers a scenario to illuminate how that can typically look.

SWH: In our scenario, our music teacher - we’ll call her “Ms. Allison” - engaged the Massachusetts standards to set a goal of selecting “...varied musical works to present, based on interest, knowledge, technical skill, and context.” She created a program for her beginning instrumental ensemble’s first performance that included a round, “Frere Jacques,” and an American folk tune, “Charlotte Town.” Ms. Allison then focused her instruction on helping students demonstrate technical competency through  performance of the literature. She also hoped to reflect the diversity of her students by selecting both Euro and Africentric literature.

GB: Though Ms. Allison explicitly chose her repertoire with diversity in mind, we believe it is fair to say there are forces at work beyond her literature choices that will shape her students’ learning experience. We want to call out some of the forces that are not typically articulated and may well operate below the level of consciousness. These forces are the “grand narratives” that circulate in our field. We can describe these narratives as the values that shape the way we teach, or the common stock of stories that we use to decide what is and is not important. It is critical to uncover the grand narratives through which we operate. That knowledge equips us to recognize, value, and meaningfully engage music that operates through different narratives. It equips us to begin to level the playing field. With that in mind, what grand narratives underlie Ms. Allison’s choices and practices? Dr. S expands on our scenario to illustrate how it engages some of the grand narratives of music education. 

SWH: Whether Ms. Allison recognizes it or not, her repertoire choices are attended by common grand narratives. The two songs occupy different spaces in relation to the canon. Frere Jacques is ubiquitous in children’s music. It can be heard everywhere children are found - ice cream trucks, television, playgrounds, radio, and school. Its diatonic melody, even rhythms, and French language fit neatly into standard orthodox standards and curricula. Frere Jacques is at the center of the canon, part of a common vocabulary that serves to reflect and reinforce a powerful narrative. We hide this narrative from our students and sometimes ourselves. This narrative asserts that the music of European and European descended people is at the top of a global hierarchy of musical value. 

Charlotte Town, on the other hand, is neither ubiquitous nor part of the canon. Its storyline features Liza Jane, a stock character in African American folklore. The short-long syncopated rhythm in its refrain limits its usefulness to music education orthodoxy. This song is not part of the common vocabulary shared by music teachers. It will be quickly forgotten because it is not situated within schools’ (or society’s) vertical or horizontal alignment. While Frere Jacques helps to define who “we” are at the center, Charlotte Town reinforces the narrative that an occasional token representation of “other” non-Eurocentric traditions suffices to reflect the diversity of the classroom. 

GB: Grand narratives are powerful because they make claims to “universal truth.” When we fail to examine just how universal, or not, their underlying values and truth claims are, these values remain hidden. In this way, grand narratives can easily camouflage the interests of the powerful behind ideal constructs and lofty sentiments and divert our gaze from very real circumstances that should command our attention (Raschke, 2014). Not only do they camouflage the interests of the powerful, but more to our point, grand narratives omit and obscure Black and Brown people and our values, narratives, and traditions.

We want to offer a solution to the egregious problem of exclusionary grand narratives in music education - one that frames the aims of music education in Africentric contexts. Our solution is threefold and we encourage teachers to document each step in writing. First, we think teachers should surface and articulate the grand narratives that operate as hidden aims in their own practice. Second, teachers should specify, to the best of their ability, who and what those grand narratives omit and obscure. Third, teachers should consciously and systematically center the people and stories that are essential to American music, by engaging Africentric aims. Through a compendium of Africentric themes, teachers can anchor their aims in specific cultural and musical values and contexts. They can push back against hidden agendas and shape students’ music education experiences with intentionality. The compendium is called SCRRM HOPE (“scream hope”). It is an acronym for Spirituality, Communalism, Resilience, Realness, Musicality & Rhythm, Humanism, Orality, Personal Style, and Emotional Vitality. SCRRM HOPE facilitates connections between Africentric music culture, practices, values, styles, forms, and expression. 

The grand narrative of Eurocentric superiority presupposes that all songs can be taught effectively and meaningfully using mainstream approaches. This narrative obscures the musical tradition that produced Spirituals, the blues, and jazz. It omits the values and narratives that make the tradition meaningful and the people for whom it is meaningful. The “O” in SCRRM HOPE (Orality) is a significant strand in these traditions and a solid one in which to anchor pedagogical approaches!

Orality is a type of verbal expressiveness that is key to oral traditions. In Africentric culture, oral virtuosity and the transmission of knowledge through word of mouth are highly important. One result is that there are many versions of a given song in the oral tradition. This is in keeping with the expectation that a song’s lyrics, melody, and rhythm will change over time and that performance style may vary in keeping with received practice. 

When we value the stories and narratives that circulate in African American communities, we are able to better engage American music on its own terms and reflect the common culture of all students. Now, let’s reexamine our scenario in light of SCRRM HOPE generally and orality specifically. Dr. S offers an example of how orality can transform the aims of Ms. Allison.

SWH: Taking into account the role of orality in Charlotte Town leads to different ways of teaching it. Engaging orality suggests different aims - both in the sense of the music standards to be met - the “what,” and in the sense of cultural values and narratives to be centered - the “why.”

In contrast to the way Frere Jacques is taught as a single song with a discrete set of lyrics, Charlotte Town might be taught as a “Liza Jane” song, part of a group of songs with a fluid set of lyrics. Rather than trying to track down a “definitive” explanation of the lyrics, teachers could leverage the range of historical contexts that different versions of the song highlight. These aims focus on the “what.” Note: Our fourth and final pillar will go deeper into methods and content!

In contrast to the way the grand narrative normally remains hidden, in our scenario Ms. Allison could compare and contrast with her students the values and narratives that underlie both songs. This aim will help her to center the importance of orality as a significant factor in the development of American music. She can bring to the fore voices of African American people whose orality and oral traditions have contributed so much to our identity as Americans. She can work with other teachers to ensure that the curriculum’s vertical and horizontal alignment is inclusive of Africentric narratives. She can use SCRRM HOPE to consciously and systematically center Africentric people, stories, and practices essential to American music. These aims focus on the “why.”

In our next article, we will consider the third pillar in the BaobaoTree Framework - Pedagogy. Pedagogy structures culturally meaningful interaction between student and teacher. 

Reference:
Raschke, C. (2015). Retrieved May 1, 2021 from: https://politicaltheology.com/the-end-of-grand-narratives-and-americas-spiritual-recession/

To cite this article:
Bledsoe, G., & White Hope, S. (2021, May). Engaging Africentric Aims. Retrieved [insert date] from https://www.sankofasongs.org/articles/africentricparadigm-aims 

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