Critical Pedagogy as Choral Pedagogy

In this chapter, the author suggests that choral directors use the tenets of critical pedagogy as the framework for the choral experience, a shift in traditional choral pedagogies. The chapter explores the roots of critical pedagogy. In particular it discusses the ways an approach grounded in critical pedagogy might remedy issues of the inappropriate uses of power, the marginalization of singers, and hegemonic practices in school politics. The text suggests rehearsal strategies and explains techniques of reciprocal teaching to better connect the ways singers engage with music and in the process develop musical agency and hone the 21st-century learning and innovation skills of collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking. Finally the chapter addresses the artistic processes of creating, performing, and responding, which are the cornerstones of the 2014 National Core Arts Standards in the United States.