ALEX SCHWEIZER & BRENT C. TALBOT
Alex Schweizer recently graduated (Summa Cum Laude) from the Sunderman Conservatory of Music at Gettysburg College with a Bachelor of Music Education. He completed his student teaching placement in the Mechanicsburg Area School District, working with the high school concert, symphonic, and jazz bands and teaching AP music theory at the secondary level, and teaching elementary general music grades 1-5 and 5th grade chorus at the primary level. He has interned with the Gettysburg Children's Choir, as well as at the Billrothstrasse Gymnasium in Vienna Austria, where he taught high school music history, middle school band, and elementary general music, in English and in German. An avid performer, Alex was featured as a euphonium soloist with the Gettysburg College Wind Symphony after winning the 2017 Sunderman Conservatory Concerto Competition. In addition to teaching and performing, Alex is passionate about research. He has presented at the 2015 SMTE Conference in Greensboro, NC, as well as most recently at the PMEA All-State Conference in Erie, PA.
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Brent C. Talbot is Associate Professor & Coordinator of Music Education at the Sunderman Conservatory of Music of Gettysburg College. He is artistic director of the Gettysburg Children's Choir and founding director of Gamelan Gita Semara. Brent's research examines power, discourse, and issues of social justice in varied settings for music learning around the globe. He is the author of Marginalized Voices in Music Education (Routledge) and Gending Rare: Children's Songs and Games from Bali (GIA). Brent serves on the steering committee for the MayDay Group and is associate editor for its journal Action, Criticism, and Theory in Music Education. For more, visit www.brentctalbot.com.
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Participation Structures as Mediational Means: Making Meaning in Cross-Cultural Music Learning Environments
How is meaning constructed in a cross-cultural music learning environment? What components constitute this meaning-making process? What roles and relationships do individuals learn in institutions of higher education and how do these roles and relationships shape the pre-service music teaching experience? How might higher education institutions responsibly prepare music teachers?
In June and July of 2016, 18 participants traveled to the island of Bali, Indonesia. Over the course of four weeks, we rehearsed and performed several different styles of Balinese Gamelan in multiple locations. Using grounded theory, we developed a conceptual model for considering meaning-making in this environment.
In June and July of 2016, 18 participants traveled to the island of Bali, Indonesia. Over the course of four weeks, we rehearsed and performed several different styles of Balinese Gamelan in multiple locations. Using grounded theory, we developed a conceptual model for considering meaning-making in this environment.
Four findings emerged from our data:
- In order for transmission to occur discursive meaning must be constructed by those present.
- Students enjoy feeling successful; there is a need for them to form meaningful connections in order to feel success
- Individuals draw upon different participation structures to construct meaning during the learning process
- Participation structures are a form of mediational means; we observed three forms of participation structures in this environment:
- TEACHER DEPENDENT: This participation structure occurs between the instructor and ensemble members. Students are completely reliant on the teacher switching between Balinese and Western mediational means and discursive practices in order to understand material (e.g., student asking question, Pak demonstrating on instrument/singing/etc) For example, one student’s quote supports this saying, “Pak doesn’t tell us how to do things, he just says ‘play it like this’ and expects you to get it.”
- CODEPENDENT: This participation structure occurs between ensemble members (e.g., students often worked separately over a break without the direct assistance of the instructor in order to help each other interpret Balinese forms of mediational means and discursive practices or to develop new forms of mediational means that they could employ within their sections or across the group).
- INTERDEPENDENT: This participation structure occurs when all participants are communicating with and sharing mutually understood and developed mediational means and indexicalities (e.g., while rehearsing or performing a piece all members employ and interpret the mutually agreed upon mediational means and indexicalities, resulting in group synergy, in Bali this is a concept known as “sip”).