Cultivating cultural competence: exploring selected professional development activities for music educators
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Abstract
Music educators embody multiple cultural identities and come from a variety of cultural backgrounds. In order to develop cultural competence, it is important that educators develop an awareness of their own cultural identities and the ability to appreciate the identities of those around them. For music educators, professional development is on avenue by which such growth may occur. There was a robust body of literature on the topics of both cultural identity and educator professional development; however, the intersection of music educator professional development toward cultural competence remained relatively underexplored. Using the lens of culturally responsive music education in conjunction with the theory of figured worlds, I selected multiple dialogue-based and music-based professional development activities which showed potential to promote self-reflection and help educators develop their cultural competence. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of a particular group of music educators in a professional development session consisting of these activities in order to understand the ways that the selected activities might have impacted the participants’ and facilitators’ abilities to engage in critical reflection and develop their own cultural competence.I conducted this study as a qualitative case study situated within the Windham Public School system, where I was employed. The participants were the other members of the music faculty with the addition of one senior music education student who joined the six-hour professional development session which took place on October 10, 2025. Following the session, I conducted individual interviews with each participant in order to understand their perceptions of the activities. Findings revealed that overall, the participants felt the dialogue-based activities promoted self-reflection but did not lead to a great degree of new learning about their colleagues; however, the new learning that did occur was the result of vulnerable participation in the activities and led to deepened respect and appreciation between the participants. In contrast, the musical activities primarily reaffirmed existing self-perceptions but also presented opportunities for them to hear the creativity and expertise of the other participants. As the facilitator, my own self-understanding grew through all activities by reflecting on which of my experiences set me apart from the other participants, and my understanding of my colleagues grew through the process of planning for them and observing their actions in both music and dialogue-throughout the session.
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2026