A presentation at an international conference grew out of an elective practicum experience for two music education students. While seniors at Luther, both Colin Cosgrove ’20 and Jordan Phillips '20 volunteered to facilitate weekly music-making experiences with middle and high school students from Crossroads Academy in Decorah. Colin, Jordan, and I recently presented “Alternative” Music Education at the Association for Popular Music Education annual conference on June 9-12, 2021 at Columbia College in Chicago. The theme for the conference was Creating Space: Critical Reflections on Challenges and Opportunities for Popular Music Education.

According to the organizers, the goal of the APME conference was to create spaces for dialogue and critical reflection around music’s power to heal. It’s goal was to recognize that popular music education has not always been responsive to issues of social justice, access, and economic inequities. The conference also stressed the need to offer spaces to connect communities that give participants actionable ideas and inspiration to take back to their communities to enact change in their own spaces.

Partnerships in Practicums

Our elective practicum experience was made possible by lead Crossroads teacher, Diane Engen, who was with her students every step of the way in their weekly journeys to campus. The first iteration of the partnership (which took place in the spring of 2019), saw five Luther students working together to tutor and play alongside 6-10 Crossroads students as Modern Bands using the Little Kids Rock curriculum.
 
In the fall of 2020, two preservice teachers in their senior year—Colin with extensive guitar and songwriting experience and Jordan with extensive singing and keyboard experience—came together to design and execute a multi-week experience with this group. We decided to use this experience as the basis of their senior research project. Each wrote lesson plans and kept a journal throughout the experience; Colin completed a questionnaire following each meeting.

Discoveries and Outcomes

The goal of the class was to engage students, build community, and provide an expressive outlet for secondary students. I hoped to explore the rewards and challenges of this unique undertaking and gauge these preservice teachers’ levels of confidence with popular music pedagogy. Themes that emerged in both Colin and Jordan’s data included the importance of relationship-building, the necessity of preparation, and the significance of easing student uncertainty. Unfortunately, the pandemic brought the partnership to a halt, but we hope to reinvent the experience this fall.

Colin Cosgrove now teaches high school band, choir, and general music at Nicholas Senn High School, Chicago. Jordan Phillips is a middle school music specialist at Neal Math and Science Academy, North Chicago.