Culturally Responsive Classroom Management in the General Music Class: Building Connections With Families, Part 2

Culturally responsive teaching and culturally responsive pedagogy are some of the more heartening trends in music education and the increasingly pluralistic classrooms in which we teach. However, it is easy for some teachers to develop anxiety about making connections with families out of fear of conflict, not getting administrative support, or feelings of inexperience. This column, the sixth in a series about classroom management and the second of several about the particular topic of students’ families, contains several techniques for making meaningful connections with students’ families, especially when those families are from cultures different than one’s own. Specific techniques include conversational formats to foster mutual respect and techniques for confronting one’s own implicit biases.