Module 5
5.1 Worksheet
5.3 Two-Part Video Explanation
Module 5 Summary, Synthesis, and Inquiry
Summary/Synthesis
Allsup’s Remixing the Classroom: Toward an Open Philosophy of Music Education explores reimagining the role of the music educator from master to guide and from leader to community member. He breaks down the traditional structure of the master-apprentice model, gives suggestions for turning the classroom into an adventurous laboratory in close proximity to the resource of tradition, and the democratization and decolonization of an education that centers students not as empty vessels waiting to be filled, but as “intrepid explorers” (14) who “muddle” in “mutual exploration” (32) with their educators.
Allsup takes a decidedly averse stance towards the master-apprentice model of music education, painting a picture of a classroom led by a specialist “ladling” out doses of knowledge (John Dewey) and traditions to children. Students in these highly controlled environments take in information in classrooms that are optimized for maximum knowledge efficiency demonstrated by fear-inducing public performances under the watchful eye of the “Master” (45). The learner submits to a learning environment that keeps them in a state of constant external stimulation from the teacher’s thoughts instead of from their own. These environments exclude “novice input” or “learning through discovery” (3). Allsup proposes an a better environment that is less of a “specialist” concerned with overwhelming “future specialist” with too many corrections, but one of a “master facilitator, experimentalist, and guide” (22). This proposal is supported by a quote by Barthes on page 9, stating “the famous ‘teaching relation’ is not the relation of teacher to taught,” but the relation of those taught to each other. Teachers and students discover knowledge and meaning together through “student-initiated quests” that do not have predetermined endings, allowing students’ own thoughts and paths to emerge. Allsup refers to classrooms following these ideals as “laboratories.”
A laboratory classroom consists of “open and unfinished” instruction and views curious and adventurous inefficiency and unfinished or ongoing processes as “value-adds” in a field dominated by educators who strive for instructional efficiency (2). The traditions of the past are not to be excluded or disrespected, but laboratory classrooms are spaces devoted to the “innovation and transformation of a culture’s recorded inheritance" (9) and not merely places to replicate the accomplishments of the past. There is a symbiotic relationship between the laboratory and the “museum” and one cannot survive without the other. The close connection of the two eliminates the chicken/egg question of “which comes first? An interest developed in school, which is applied to life outside? Or an interest developed outside school later shaped and clarified in school?” (13) There must be a constant effort towards “conserving, transmitting, rectifying, and expanding” (Dewey, 20) and towards playfully making and breaking laws (30). Allsup defines four natural impulses that must be prioritized in a laboratory classroom to value and activate the resources inherent in our students: communication, inquiry, construction, and expression. He also outlines an iterative approach to curricular scaffolding (one that closely resembles the “design-thinking” approach that I personally use) that involves investigation, dialogue, stating the problem, creating a response, assessing the response, and repeating.
This generative approach creates “a formal setting in which community members can test out, refuse, and construct not only new musical forms but new human identities” (51) and build upon the traditions of the past to create democratized and decolonized art forms over which present generations can take agency. New music technologies make it possible for peer learning and self-mastery to take place beyond the gate-kept traditions and pay-wall museums of the past.
There is an overall sense of urgency underscoring the entire text, exemplified by the Peter Webster quote “The North American music educator seems unable to reimagine the role of the music teacher. We have to learn to give up control. ” (50) Allsup offers that “the best kind of teaching is a muddle of mutual interest, a longing for openings by both the teacher and her students, a journey alone and together.” (30) As an educator who is also an administrator and fundraiser, I do struggle with the quote that “learning does not need to be visible or be made visible to account for its meaning or impact” (35). Completed performance projects may receive accolades from all community stake-holders, but Allsup points out that the “assessment-driven system of study is highly effective as long as we don’t factor in the damage that takes place when problems can’t be fixed, or fixed right away.” (3) The trope of the administrator getting in the way of a quality education has long existed. As a member of both camps who yearns for educational freedom but must survive in a capitalist system, I consider this an “open and ongoing” challenge. However, I do feel a slightly greater sense of peace around the challenge, now that I have Allsup’s blessing that “open and ongoing” processes are a better approach than concrete and finished pieces. There is inherent harm in every system, but the laboratory model does seem to mitigate the transference of trauma from master to apprentice. In all of my roles, I will lean into the difficulty of being a laboratory facilitator and away from the lure of being a Master.
I found the scholarly contributions of John Dewey most significant in this text, and make the assumption that Allsup shares my sentiments due to the frequency of reference. Dewey's scholarly work challenged the traditional “stimulus/response” behavior model, arguing that the view was “mechanical and fragmented” and is regarded as one of the first major contributors to the functionalist school of psychology. In his 1896 paper, “The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology,” Dewey invites us to expand the context of the stimulus being provided solely by the teacher and the response being provided solely by the student, and proposes that curiosity and past experience make the student-teacher relationship a never ending circuit of adaptation and learning. Dewey’s Human Nature and Conduct (1922) views morality and ethics as “flexible” and “evolving” concepts, supporting Allsup’s assertion that laws are meant to be created and broken in a playful environment, and that the museum (moral and ethical traditions) and the laboratory (curiosity and play) are not opposing forces, but must work together in concert. Dewey’s 1888 quote “Democracy and the one, ultimate, ethical ideal of humanity are to my mind synonymous” sadly comes across as political in today’s context. I found it encouraging to find evidence of support for a constructivist education from over 100 years ago, but also disheartening that our educational systems still fall short of those ideals. Not only in education, in educational policy, must the circuitous process of “conserving, transmitting, rectifying, and expanding” be championed. Education must not be “ladled out in doses” by masters, instead learners should be guided to “use past experiences to make sense of and shape new tomorrows.”
WC: 1268
Inquiry
Drawing from Allsup’s text and personal experiences, create a list of pros and cons of the teacher-apprentice model of music education.
How might you restructure a traditional private music lesson that provides ample opportunities for communication, inquiry, construction, and expression?
How might you use Allsup’s text to respond to an administrator who is demanding to see more concrete data and proof of learning in your open classroom?
Find a previous lesson plan/project outline and analyze which elements were created for the teacher, which for an administrator/supervisor, and which for the students.
What are some of the risks involved in running an open classroom, and how might those be mitigated throughout the year?
Reference Page
Allsup, Randall Everett. Remixing the Classroom: Toward an Open Philosophy of Music
Education. Indiana University Press, 2016.
