Kansas State University

Gurgel and undergraduate researchers in music education present at conferences in Nepal, Virginia and Minnesota

Submitted by Ruth Gurgel

Ruth Gurgel, assistant professor of music, and seven undergraduate researchers in music education presented two research studies at national and international conferences.

Student researchers Stephanie Goering, Logan Caywood, Alicia Jackson, Shelby Goss, Elias Gillespie and Talia Falcon presented their study, "Humans, Not Heroes: Teachers' Implementation of Culturally Sensitive and Relevant Pedagogy in Music Classrooms." The study documents the pedagogical practices and ideologies of music educators across the U.S. who maintain proportionate membership of minoritized populations in their classrooms.

Each student researcher completed a data collection trip with Gurgel, interviewing and observing music teachers in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Los Alamitos and the Bronx. Ryan Dillon, student researcher, presented his project, "Shattering the Glass Ceiling: Identifying and Overcoming Barriers to Access in Music Education," as both a paper and a poster. In this phenomonological study, Gurgel and Dillon describe the experiences of undergraduate students who have encountered barriers to access in school music education; explore how these barriers are constructed, how they function and their effects; and translate the experiences of the participants into strategies to provide equitable and open access to music education. Students also received research and travel grants from the Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Inquiry and the College of Arts and Sciences to support their research and presentations. 

Gurgel and the student researchers presented their work in March at the Cultural Diversity in Music Education international conference in Kathmandu, Nepal; in May at the Mountain Lake National Colloquium in Pembroke, Virginia; and in September at the Symposium on Music Teacher Education in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Publications resulting from both projects are in the writing phase.