Hello. My name is Keitha Lucas Hamann, and I'm
an Associate Professor of Music Education at the University of
Minnesota. I am also chair of the Community Engagement Leadership
Team, a group founded in 2009 to advance the integration
of public engagement activity in the scholarly and teaching
missions of the school of music. In this role,
I have witnessed how adhering to some basic principles of community
engagement can lead to more opportunities to share musical
experiences, and it is these principles that we will discuss
today. Everyone comes from multiple
communities. We come from large towns and small towns. We participate
in teams, bands, choirs, and other activities.
We move among different groups of friends.
Each community has its own unique culture comprised of the unique
behaviors of the group. Two small towns in
Northern Minnesota might seem to have a lot in common, yet
each community has its own traditions and significant events.
Think for a moment about your own town or family
or high school or friends. What makes your community
special to you? What are some of your favorite
traditions? Did you develop your own unique
shorthand for communication? Language, traditions, and
values comprise the culture that sets communities apart.
Any time we move into a new school,
neighborhood, or town, we move into a new community.
It is important to understand, and it is important to our
future success, to understand and incorporate aspects of
community into our teaching. Importance of
community is reflected in teacher preparation standards for each state.
In my home state of Minnesota, the word community or
communities is mentioned fifteen times in the teacher
preparation standards. When you have the opportunity, check out your
state's standards to discover how many times the word
community appears in the standards.
Music programs often reach out to community to build audiences
or raise money. This kind of reaching out is called
advocacy. Communities can be rich sources of
information and assistance for our music programs.
Understanding the culture of a community can help make a teacher
more effective in developing opportunities for students to learn.
Understanding what makes a community unique can be useful
in relating to students and in differentiating instruction.
While these are all effective ways to connect music
programs to the community, they primarily benefit the music
without considering the needs of the community. What would happen
if we fully collaborated with our various communities
to find common needs or address common
issues? When we talk about cultural competency,
in the field of education, the typical features of a
group or community are emphasized and often reported
in averages. This is a good start, but no one
is average. There are subtle differences between communities
that may seem very similar at the surface level. To build
a lasting relationship within any community requires that
one come to know and understand a community
at the deep level. This is where the practice of community
engagement becomes useful, as some of the most promising
practices in this field can also help music educators to develop
rich relationships with their various communities.
I will share with you three of these
principles: exchange of knowledge, reciprocity, and a
mutual benefit. Exchange of knowledge emphasizes the
many sources of knowledge within a community. Each
partner has something valuable to share
and each partner should be valued for sharing.
Reciprocity means that the knowledge and resources of both partners
are involved in all stages of a project.
Partners share in planning, implementing, and assessing a
project. A project should work to benefit both partner
and school equally. This mutual benefit
values the needs of all partners and seeks to
balance these needs through the course of the project.
Getting to know a new community require research
and making connections. Research requires
you to be a bit of a history detective. Use
resources and observations to see if you can find out more
about the community. What are the significant traditions of that
community? Who are the significant historical figures?
What role has the music program traditionally played
within the school or community? What does
this community value?
Make connections within the community. In a school, go to the teachers'
lounge, or an athletic event, and have conversations with different
people. Ask people what they think is important about this
community and what they know about traditions and people within this
community? Listen carefully to the answers, and
observe how the community functions, strengths and
weaknesses, and begin to identify how you could potentially fit within
the community? As you begin to work with a partner,
identify shared needs, goals, or values.
Using a venn diagram is one way to see where your perspectives
and the perspectives of a partner intersect.
Balanced community engagement require that both your
needs and the needs of your partner receive equal consideration.
While you must be considerate of your partner's needs,
it is also important that you advocate for your
program's needs as well. Community
engagement bring shared opportunities. For example,
a teaching artist residency can provide new experiences for students while
providing an artist with an opportunity to share their craft.
Guest performers and joint concerts provide other mechanisms for
sharing and opportunities for reciprocal collaboration.
Community engagement requires persistence
and creativity, collaboration and mutual
respect, but the work also provides opportunity to
re-envision music leading and learning for the 21st century.