Joan Russell

Arts Integration in the Curriculum: A Review of Research and Implications for Teaching and Learning

Given a pile of jigsaw puzzle pieces and told to put them together, no doubt we would ask to see the picture they make. It is the picture, after all, that gives meaning to the puzzle and assures us that the pieces fit together, that none are missing and that there are no extras. Without the picture, we probably wouldn’t want to bother with the puzzle. … To students, the typical curriculum presents an endless array of facts and skills that are unconnected, fragmented, and disjointed. That they might be connected or lead to some whole picture is a matter that must be

What's to Be Done With the Fox? Inuit Teachers Inventing Musical Games for Inuit Classrooms

Abstract This paper explores the issue of culturally responsive music curriculum content in the context of a music course that I taught on three occasions for Nunavut Arctic Colleges Teacher Education Program (NTEP). The 19 Inuit students who attended the course were working toward achieving certification for teaching in Nunavut schools. One of the assignments asked the student teachers to invent and peer teach a musical activity that adapted some of the concepts, materials, and skills I brought to the course to something traditional to Inuit culture. Three questions emerged from this assignment: What themes would their musical activities address? What values and traditions would be embedded in these themes? How would these themes relate to the themes expressed in the wider culture—in Inuit‐produced carvings, printmaking, weaving, legends, and poetry? A thematic analysis of the student‐designed activities revealed a connection to the “land” in ways that we do not see in Eurocentric music curricula, and the chosen themes were consistent with those that are present in other Inuit cultural products. One students assignment is presented as an example of a musical activity that positions the Inuit relationship with the land at the core of the activity, while drawing on ideas from both Inuit and qallunaat (non‐Inuit) traditions. I conclude that Inuit‐created musical activities that are derived from Inuit experience have a role to play in decolonizing the curriculum for Inuit students.

Communities of Singing Practice in the Fiji Islands

Wenger’s (1998) notion of “community of practice” is the embodiment of his social theory learning, which rests upon four assumptions: we are social beings, and this fact is a central aspect of learning; knowledge is a matter of competence with respect to valued enterprises; knowing is a matter of active engagement in the world; and our engagement with the world as meaningful is ultimately the purpose of learning. Key concepts in Wenger’s theory – social, value, and engagement, meaningful – speak to this inquiry into the singing practices of five Fijian communities. Snapshots, chosen to illustrate a variety of singing events are presented as exemplars of these concepts in action in what I am calling “communities of singing practice.” Proposed is the notion that singing both shapes and is shaped by a culture in which Fijian boys and girls engage in, meaningful social practices that are valued by significant others and support the development of singing competence.