The way that we perceive control in schools needs to be re-examined. Currently, strict classroom control is noted as the mark of a good teacher, necessary for student success. Too often, this control manifests itself through fear-based practices which punish students that do not conform. The classroom tension that develops when students and teachers compete for control is symptomatic of the negative learning environment of the hyper-teacher-centered classroom. By employing reciprocal classroom control, teachers demonstrate trust in their students to partake in control responsibly. Further, students are able to engage in their learning as empowered individuals.
Music education is in a unique position to capitalize on reciprocal classroom control’s benefits. By shifting focus away from a director-centered product-based subject to a more student-lead artistic exploration, music’s expressive qualities can support learner’s creativity, innovation, and agency. However, this can only be achieved when music teachers accept that they must relinquish some artistic and procedural control in the classroom. In re-conceptualizing the idea of control and to whom it should belong, educators and administrators have the opportunity to re-engage apathetic and disenfranchised students, to empower them to take command of their own education, and to nurture initiative in young people actively involved in the course of their futures.
Elisabeth Baker
Monique Cellemme
Westminster Choir College
13 December 2011
Music education is in a unique position to capitalize on reciprocal classroom control’s benefits. By shifting focus away from a director-centered product-based subject to a more student-lead artistic exploration, music’s expressive qualities can support learner’s creativity, innovation, and agency. However, this can only be achieved when music teachers accept that they must relinquish some artistic and procedural control in the classroom. In re-conceptualizing the idea of control and to whom it should belong, educators and administrators have the opportunity to re-engage apathetic and disenfranchised students, to empower them to take command of their own education, and to nurture initiative in young people actively involved in the course of their futures.
Elisabeth Baker
Monique Cellemme
Westminster Choir College
13 December 2011