Invited annually, graduate schools of music present the Presser Graduate Music Award to an outstanding graduate music student whom they select. The program is designed to encourage and support in a special way the advanced education and career of truly exceptional graduate music students who have the potential to make a distinguished contribution to the field of music. The Award is a cash stipend of up to $10,000, which is made available to a graduate student designated by the institution.
Wendy Chen Gunther received the Award in 2021-22 from the University of Miami. For her project, she purchased technology (iPads and headphones) to implement a new cross-cultural curriculum that aims to reduce prejudice through the exploration of experiences and emotions in literature, the learning of musical concepts, and the creation of digital music compositions in GarageBand, an app found exclusively on Apple products. The curriculum and technology is used at the Miami Community Music Center, a nonprofit music organization she co-founded that serves students of all ages in southwest Miami-Dade County, Florida. It is also being used in research for her doctoral dissertation.
Background
Research in the fields of psychology and education has shown that learning about others often leads to increased empathy and acceptance and is a direct path to prejudice reduction. Scholars have noted that this type of education should be done during childhood or early adolescence while individuals are still in the process of developing their intercultural sensitivity. This is not to say that prejudice reduction education is only for children, but that their attitudes are more malleable at this stage of their development. The most effective interventions involve multi-faceted, immersive units that incorporate a variety of learning activities.
Music is an ideal vehicle for these types of interventions. Music education researchers have already demonstrated the effectiveness of such interventions at reducing prejudice, using culturally responsive curricula that approaches the learning of music hand-in-hand with the learning of a culture.
The Project
As a response to rising anti-Asian sentiments, I created a curriculum unit centered on Chinese musical culture titled “Prejudice Reduction through Musical Storytelling: Many Voices in Harmony.” Though racist acts have been committed against persons of many different Asian ethnicities, I concentrated this unit around the music of China, because it is the place where the coronavirus began and has been the focus of anti-Asian hate.
Other similar cross-cultural units exist, though they often emphasize the unique qualities of foreign musics and cultures. This is important, but when differences are emphasized, these foreign cultures can become exoticized and essentialized. This unit makes a point of placing traditional Chinese instruments and musical elements in a contemporary context through the exploration of contemporary Chinese fusion music. For example, the unit introduces the pipa, a traditional plucked Chinese instrument. Students see and hear (through YouTube videos) an expert pipa player talk about the instrument and perform a traditional piece. Students then hear how the pipa is used in contemporary Chinese popular music. This listening example resembles Western rock music and, with the exception of the traditional instruments and lyrics in a foreign language, is a recognizable genre to most American students. Ultimately, students can see both similarities and differences between their own musical preferences and those of contemporary Chinese youths.
In addition to learning about Chinese music, the unit uses a picture book and a digital composition project to address racism and reconciliation. The story is a connecting thread for this unit as it provides a basis for students to explore their own social-emotional development. As they hear the story, they are asked to reflect on their own experiences which may include fear, bullying, conflict, and resolution. The unit ties these feelings to musical concepts and explores how non-musical ideas can be expressed through sound. The students use the digital application GarageBand to create their own musical stories. GarageBand is uniquely suited for this task because it includes a traditional Chinese instrument sound library.
Prior to this project, I had already fully created the curriculum (and presented it at the 2022 Florida Music Educators Association conference), with seven distinct lessons that will: (1) ask students to reflect on their own experiences and identities, (2) teach a musical concept, and (3) incorporate creativity through a digital composition project. No previous knowledge of or experience with digital music making is required. The portions of the lessons dedicated to creativity are set up sequentially to simultaneously teach musical creativity and how to use GarageBand.
Student Feedback and Curriculum Updates
The curriculum was piloted through the Miami Community Music Center, a non-profit organization that provides music education and experiences for students of all ages. The pilot program was presented to students ages 5–adult and was a success. The students enjoyed the experience and eagerly participated in both the discussions and the music-making activities. The students particularly enjoyed the creative tasks using the iPads and were consistently engaged on their devices. At the end of each lesson, almost all of the students volunteered to share their compositions with the others. Samples of student compositions from the pilot project can be found here.
The pilot program produced several valuable insights that led me to revise the Musical Storytelling curriculum. The most notable change was the addition of a lesson that introduced the musical concepts of arranging, improvising, and composing. This lesson allows students to use the pipa and erhu interfaces in GarageBand to create their own music with those instrument sounds. The students enjoyed having this new freedom to explore traditional Chinese sounds and recording original melodies.
Another significant revision included making more opportunities for creative choices. I added a selection of picture books that could be used as the basis for the final project. Each of these books features an Asian character, is written by an Asian author, and addresses social justice in some way. I did this to provide alternative stories that students might feel more connected to as they thought about how to create their musical stories.
Work After the Award
During the 2023-2024 school year, I conducted a research study to examine the impact of the Musical Storytelling curriculum on students’ learning and intercultural sensitivity. I recruited an elementary general music teacher and 38 of her fourth-grade students to participate. During the study, I trained the teacher on the curriculum and technology. I observed and took notes on all class sessions. I interviewed the music teacher and 30 of the students at four points in time: before the curriculum began, at the mid-point, at the conclusion, and 10 weeks later. I collected written reflections and musical compositions from the 38 student participants.
Data Collected
The original intent of the Musical Storytelling curriculum was broad: to reduce anti-Asian sentiment in elementary-aged students through their experiences with fusion music. Analysis of the data failed to show apparent changes in the students with regard to their attitudes towards Asians. However, further analysis of students’ comments in class, written reflections after each lesson, answers to interview questions, and musical compositions led me to conclude that the students developed skills in the five areas of social emotional learning: self-awareness, self-management, social-awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. For instance, one lesson centered on the idea of conflict and resolution. The lesson began with a brief recap of the conflict and resolution depicted in the picture book. Students were then asked to reflect on their own experiences and to remember when they faced conflict in their own lives (self-awareness). They listened to their peers share deeply personal stories (social-awareness) and offered suggestions on how to navigate these difficult experiences (responsible decision making). They then transferred these experiences into a musical story that reflected their experiences (self-management). Finally, they shared their music with peers, getting and giving constructive criticism of their work (relationship skills). These types of experiences happened throughout the curriculum, which provided the students with many opportunities to develop and practice their skills in each of these five areas.
In addition to developing social emotional skills, the students developed music technology skills. They learned how to use the GarageBand app available on iPads to listen to music, arrange music, and record original music. Nearly all of the students described using technology in class as “fun.” This enjoyment translated into an overall increased interest in music and music class activities. The music teacher and I observed positive changes in behavior and attitude, specifically in students who were previously reluctant or disengaged in music classes. Several of the students were so excited about their experiences in music class that they continued to create music on their own devices outside of school. Technology seemed to be the catalyst for increased interest in music, music technology, and creative music-making.
There were several extra-musical goals for the musical storytelling curriculum, but its core aim was to teach students about music. Students learned about arranging, improvising, and composing music in GarageBand. They explored Chinese traditional music and fused it with other genres of their choosing. They learned how to use music to represent people or emotions. They learned to tell stories through music. Perhaps most importantly, they learned that they were capable of creating music and expressed a great deal of pride in their work. They created several types of songs throughout the curriculum including fusion songs, songs that use traditional Chinese instruments, and songs that tell stories. Examples of student compositions can be found here.
Impact of the Presser Graduate Music Award
This generous Award has enabled me to further my career as a music educator and a music education researcher. As an educator, I was able to bring a new program to a diverse audience through a community music center. I now have a special interest in creating opportunities for intergenerational music making and engagement, especially for those adults who are interested in digital music, but who are not digital natives.
As a researcher, I was able to conduct my dissertation research with elementary-aged students. I confirmed that iPads and the GarageBand app can be used as an effective and engaging tool for teaching and learning Chinese music. This research also showed how a music teacher expanded her pedagogy to include music technology into a general music curriculum. My dissertation study used a qualitative approach, but future research might take a quantitative approach to examine how this curriculum can impact the perceptions of students’ music learning, interest in music, and intercultural sensitivity.
In the future, I hope to publish this curriculum so that music teachers can teach Chinese music and guide students in digital music-making activities. I hope to create other similar curricula that feature other world music cultures. I plan on searching for additional uses for the technology, including offering new digital music-making sessions through the Miami Community Music Center to engage students of all ages. I could not do any of this without the generous support of The Presser Foundation.
Wendy Chen Gunther is a doctoral candidate in Music Education at the Frost School of Music, University of Miami. She holds degrees from the University of Miami (Master of Music) and Wheaton College, Illinois (Bachelor of Music Education). She was the recipient of the Frost School of Music’s Outstanding Graduate Student award in 2020.
An experienced music educator with over twenty-five years of teaching experience, Chen Gunther previously taught K-5 elementary general music in Aurora, Illinois. During that time, she earned National Board Certification and completed three levels of Orff-Schulwerk certification. In 2021, she co-founded the Miami Community Music Center, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to bring comprehensive intergenerational music education and experiences to students of all ages, and serves as the Director of Educational Programming.
Her research focuses on cultural identity, race, gender and sexuality, and their intersection with music education. Her dissertation studies the impact of music curriculum that uses musical storytelling on the intercultural sensitivity of elementary-aged students. She has presented her research regionally and nationally at the Florida Music Educators Conference and the National Association for Music Education’s biannual conference. Her research has been published in the article, The Unicorns of Elementary Schools: Male Elementary General Music Teachers, which can be found in Music Education Research.
