{"id":35110,"date":"2024-05-28T10:17:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-28T16:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/suzukiassociation.org\/?post_type=journalarticle&p=35110"},"modified":"2024-09-11T09:50:42","modified_gmt":"2024-09-11T15:50:42","slug":"growing-equitable-music-studios","status":"publish","type":"journalarticle","link":"https:\/\/suzukiassociation.org\/pt\/journalarticle\/growing-equitable-music-studios\/","title":{"rendered":"Est\u00fadios de m\u00fasica equitativos em crescimento"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Growing Equitable Music Studios (GEMS) is a six-week Course of Action I created for music teachers who believe that every child can change the world. It was established as SAA Enrichment in 2021, to expand studio diversity, access, and inclusion while nurturing our students as musical changemakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started building the course soon after the police murder of George Floyd and following two impactful Zoom listening sessions organized by the SAA Board. Over four hundred teachers attended the first session in June 2020. They showed up to discuss how we might address systemic racism as an organization and community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Afterward, our leadership sent an email \u201cTo Our Suzuki Community\u201d recognizing \u201cthat while diversity and inclusion have long been core values of the SAA, there is room for growth when it comes to putting those principles into practice.\u201d The Board also wrote, \u201cTogether, we are the SAA. It is incumbent upon all of us to be leaders in our own communities.\u201d I felt encouraged, believing the most generative approach would not be top-down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The evolution of the Suzuki movement depends on individual teachers taking grassroots action to make our studios more equitable. Our studios are within our realms of power. We can not change the past, but each of us can commit to continuously shifting our studio policies, practices, and cultural messages toward justice. We practice this as a community during the GEMS Course of Action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A decade prior, I co-founded a Suzuki studio that started at a soup kitchen in Detroit. It was discouraging and lonely at times. Through GEMS, I wanted to offer solidarity, to listen, and to share some of my learnings with more people. I also wanted to get close enough to flock with them, to keep evolving the Suzuki movement with our collective findings. Since then, twenty-four music teachers have taken the GEMS journey with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The GEMS Course of Action<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

During this six-week SAA Enrichment course, each cohort of five spends a total of twenty-four hours together. In a collaborative setting, we study and personalize plans around the following five facets of growing equitable music studios:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Clarifying Studio Culture that embodies your dream for social change. We envision equitable studio environments for ourselves, our students, their parents, and for our studio collaborators so we can practice living in the world we want now.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Growing Diversity by partnering with community youth organizations to curate a mixed-income, multicultural classroom.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Expanding Access to private lessons by creating a sustainable grassroots fundraising plan that will annually refresh a financial aid fund for a minimum of one or two students’ full tuition.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Elevating Inclusion by working interdependently with students, parents, and local artists. We draw inspiration from the social justice organizing principles of Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by adrienne maree brown.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Employing Equity Pedagogy that intentionally nurtures students\u2019 essential skills for changemaking such as resilience, innovation, collaboration, and higher-order thinking.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Structure<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cHow can I use my music studio as a tool for transformation to envision and actualize a more just, creative and collaborative world?\u201d This is the essential question posed to participants on Day One. It was inspired by language from the \u201cRida Framework,\u201d a Paolo Freire-inspired equity pedagogy tool I learned to use in Detroit, originally developed by public school teachers and community educators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    During the GEMS Course of Action, each lesson week is driven by a \u201cCAR\u201d: Concept, Action, and Results. On Mondays, GEMS participants are presented with an overarching concept. They\u2019re invited to take specific actions either during class or as homework. Case studies and templates from Detroit Youth Volume are provided as inspirational tools; I subscribe to Raymond Williams\u2019s belief that \u201cTo be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair convincing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    On Fridays, we Zoom around the room for individual check-ins related to that week\u2019s subject area. We spend time honing in on each studio\u2019s plans and progress; everyone receives personalized coaching and peer mentorship. During Graduation Week, each music teacher meets with me one-on-one for hour-long culminating consultations. Together we draft a \u201cGEMS Changemaker Framework\u201d to map out their specific action plans within the five GEMS facets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    GEMS Graduation Ceremonies are hosted on Zoom during the last Friday of the course. Other teachers and supporters are encouraged to attend; this event doubles as a drop-in Think Tank \u201cgenerating practical solutions for individual music teachers to nurture their studios with diversity, equity and inclusion ASAP.\u201d GEMS participants take turns presenting their work to each other and their broader community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The concept of a \u201cSuzuki Social Justice Think Tank\u201d was originally dreamed up by Bruce Walker and I. Bruce became an SAA Board Member soon after, as co-chair of the Advisory Committee on Race. We hosted two Think Tanks in August 2020 following the SAA Board-hosted meetings in June. They were designed to \u201crecenter social justice from the margins to the heart of music education.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Concepts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Each week of the GEMS Course of Action centers around one of five facets. The remainder of this article will illuminate the course’s central concepts and actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Studio Culture<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    During Week One, each participant clarifies a studio culture that embodies their dream for social change. Everyone is working to envision an equitable studio environment that will sustain themselves, their students, students\u2019 caretakers, and studio collaborators. If they were only doing it \u201cfor the children,\u201d they would burn out. Every time we come together for a private lesson, group class, performance, or collaboration, it\u2019s an opportunity for music teachers to create and receive support from a microcosm of a more just, creative, and collaborative world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I asked one of my teenage students why she thinks people should take the course to nurture their studios to be more equitable and diverse. She said, \u201cIt’s not just about learning and growing your education, it’s also about growing as a person. You know, you wanna be the best you can be.\u201d This 15-year-old gets it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Studio culture is a set of known values that dictate how your studio will function both as a community of people and as an organization. Culture first influences how people understand they should behave and feel inside your classroom. For example, my students understand that everyone is expected to participate and carry cognitive weight in your classroom because they know that collaboration is a highly valued Youth Volume skill. Studio culture also impacts how the organization functions. For example, choosing a minority-owned, local restaurant to cater your recital will reflect a studio culture that supports equity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Personalizing tangible practices of the five GEMS facets is an essential part of the GEMS Course of Action. To establish this at the beginning of the course, participants craft an equity statement as part of the first week\u2019s homework. An equity statement clearly states your values and intentions to function as an equitable studio. Some GEMS participants have chosen affirmations such as \u201cWe are an anti-racist, queer-positive community\u201d and \u201cWe believe that Dr. Suzuki’s vision of \u201cEvery Child Can\u201d must include racial and economic justice.\u201d Youth Volume\u2019s equity statement acknowledges the active, evolutionary nature of justice work: \u201cOur studio is striving towards functioning as an anti-racist studio, both as a community of people and as a business, through our practices inside and outside of the violin studio.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The most important aspect of studio culture is knowing how to keep it going. Part of this is being willing to adjust to inevitable change. Sustainability and flexibility are often overlooked due to unhealthy definitions of progress. Making systemic change is a magical, gradual process. Because there is so much at stake, it\u2019s our job to figure out how to take care of ourselves so we have energy for the long run. Society tells us we have to go at sixty miles per hour all the time to achieve our dreams, but burning out at this work will not help anyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the early stage of the GEMS Course, we consider how each of our unique dream studios might sustainably and maximally effect social change. This involves identifying areas of our work that can be cut away or transformed. For me, this eventually meant dissolving the Detroit Youth Volume nonprofit status in favor of a non-profit fiscal sponsorship. And, after my twins were born, right-sizing my teaching load by reducing it. Ultimately, embodying sustainability in our lives and work leads by example: we project a culture of change and resilience to anyone who walks into our studios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Diversity and Racial Equity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    When I was six, Dr. Suzuki responded to a birthday card I mailed to Japan. He sent a painting of snowy mountains, and the phrase \u201cOne is a product of their environment.\u201d He was motivated to nurture young people\u2019s \u201cbeautiful humanity,\u201d and their abilities to make peace, not war. This is also part of my purpose of teaching, and the reason I strive to curate a classroom environment necessary for musical changemakers to practice collaborating creatively within diverse groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Growing diversity within our student bodies is a driving goal for most GEMS participants. Each music teacher identifies a community of families who would diversify their current studio. Participants are encouraged to curate a mixed-income, multicultural classroom that reflects their values around racial justice and economic equity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We begin discussing diversity by clearly differentiating between *equity *and equality<\/em>. One of my mentors in Detroit gifted me this anecdote: If it\u2019s snack time and one person has had breakfast while the other person hasn\u2019t eaten for weeks, giving each person half of a granola bar is equality<\/em>, but it\u2019s not equity<\/em>. The Center for Assessment and Policy Development offers this definition of racial equity:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n

    Racial equity is the condition that would be achieved if one\u2019s racial identity no longer predicted, in a statistical sense, how one fares. When we use the term, we are thinking about racial equity as one part of racial justice, and thus we also include work to address root causes of inequities, not just their manifestation. This includes elimination of policies, practices, attitudes, and cultural messages that reinforce differential outcomes by race or that fail to eliminate them.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    Access and Inclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    During Week Three of the course, we seek action to address income and wealth inequity by creating access to quality music education. Accessibility shows up in our studio in several ways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    • Giving equitable access to everyone along the continuum of human ability and experience.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • How organizations make space for the characteristics that each person brings.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Accessibility is not just about the physical environment, it\u2019s about access to and representation in content for all.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      Giving equitable access requires securing money and materials for your studio. Participants are tasked with creating a sustainable grassroots fundraising plan that will annually refresh one or two full scholarships, at minimum. We hold a workshop to draft a basic budget. This includes removing barriers to participation for scholarship students such as transportation and after-school snacks. It\u2019s important to consider other elements beyond tuition like fees for our administrative work, rent, quality instruments, music books, guest artist stipends, and venue rental.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      With our budget goals set, GEMS participants are subsequently provided with a wealth of fundraising tools. This includes direct messaging guidelines, email list-building ideas, donor letter examples, communication calendars, and event ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \u201cWhile being invited to the party via access is a wonderful thing, inclusion is being asked to dance,\u201d wrote Vern\u0101 Myers. \u201cBetter yet, inclusion is organizing the party together!\u201d asserts Allyens. During Week Four of our course, we plan to elevate inclusion in our studios by working interdependently with students, parents, and local artists. Many of our principles draw inspiration from the social justice organizing ideas presented in *Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds. *Author adrienne maree brown wrote, \u201cThere is an art to flocking: staying separate enough not to crowd each other, aligned enough to maintain a shared direction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      An inclusive studio is a cultural and physical environment in which all individuals feel a sense of belonging because they 1) are treated fairly and respectfully; 2) have equal access to opportunities and resources, and 3) can contribute fully to the organization\u2019s success as valued members of the studio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Inclusive pedagogical practices nurture cultural identity representation in studio content. For example, Youth Volume uses place-based, experiential practices each Spring to celebrate a musical genre with historical and cultural significance to our city. We do this by inviting local musicians to facilitate a series of group classes. I am intentional about the identities of people in power in my studios; I choose to collaborate with artists whose identities develop positive cultural identities in my students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      My favorite and final week of GEMS uplifts equity pedagogy. Cherry McGee Banks and James Banks define equity pedagogy as \u201cteaching strategies and classroom environments that help students from diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural groups attain knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to function effectively within, and help create and perpetuate, a just, humane, and democratic society. It is not sufficient to help students learn to read, write, compute (and play violin) within the dominant canon without learning also to question its assumptions, paradigms, and hegemonic characteristics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Equity pedagogy intentionally nurtures students\u2019 musical changemaker skills. Resilience, innovation, collaboration, and higher-order thinking are Youth Volume studio favorites. During our final week, GEMS cohort members choose a few of their favorites from eleven \u201cessential human skills\u201d presented in the Rida Framework. Then they identify teaching practices that will help students practice these skills. We are preparing our students and ourselves to meet the world\u2019s need for \u201cagents of social justice who are able to solve deep-rooted problems, imagine new realities, and build movements that span communities across the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Happily, much of the Suzuki method is inherently equity pedagogy. For instance, students practice their abilities to collaborate during group class while playing without a conductor. They practice both innovation and collaboration when they improvise a group composition or create a sound bath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      Three years after co-founding Detroit Youth Volume and eight years before creating GEMS, I sat in the audience at the Allied Media Conference in Detroit, listening to adrienne marree brown\u2019s keynote speech. \u201cEmergence is the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions. It emphasizes critical connections, authentic relationships, listening with the body and the mind,\u201d adrienne told us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      I wanted to use Emergent Strategy in my studio, as a way of functioning peacefully and interdependently with other beings. It\u2019s an organizing method for improving our collective existence within a culture of \u201cwhite supremacist capitalist patriarchy,\u201d a phrase coined by author bell hooks. Ben Nichols summarized hooks\u2019s phrase as, \u201can integrated system in which a range of forms of oppression work together in tandem: each one intensifies the effects of the others in one unified direction.\u201d Here is another complex system and pattern arising out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      It is difficult to resist societal conditioning that trains us all to internalize attitudes and behaviors that are not healthy for children or other living things. Yet, against all odds, many Suzuki teachers are changing direction with their studios by intentionally shifting studio policies, practices, and cultural messages. We are placing a modern lens on what Dr. Suzuki meant by developing \u201cbeautiful humanity.\u201d We are nurturing our studios with equity, diversity, access, and inclusion. In multiplicity, through \u201crelatively simple interactions,\u201d again and again, we turn toward something better. And we begin by asking ourselves \u201cHow can I use my music studio as a tool for transformation to envision and actualize a more just, creative, and collaborative world?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

      Call to Action<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
        \n
      • Connect with Clara. Set up a chat to share your dreams and learn more about GEMS. Email [url=mailto:clara@youthvolume.org]clara@youthvolume.org[\/url] or visit [url=http:\/\/www.youthvolume.org\/youthvolumeteachertrainingthinktank.html]www.youthvolume.org\/gems[\/url]<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Drop into the July 26th GEMS Think Tank. Think Tank sessions are also GEMS graduation ceremonies, open to the public, and held at the end of each Course of Action. Our first Zoom events happened in August 2020, aiming to recenter social justice from the margins to the heart of music education.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Sign up for the GEMS email list at [url=http:\/\/www.youthvolume.org\/youthvolumeteachertrainingthinktank.html]www.youthvolume.org\/gems[\/url]<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Donate to Youth Volume\u2019s Equitable Tuition Fund. Expand access to quality music education at [url=http:\/\/www.youthvolume.org\/donate.html]www.youthvolume.org\/donate[\/url]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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