Statement of Diversity
Students of DreamYard
I have a long-standing commitment toward improving equity and diversity in music and musical theatre education by focusing my efforts on breaking down barriers. This includes challenging long-held “common sense” assumptions which might imply racist, classist, heterosexist, or cisgender attitudes. Accordingly, my research centers on identifying anti-oppressive teaching practices and deconstructing traditional norms in the music classroom. To this end, when I act as a collaborator, model positive social interactions, and include course content which centers less on norms and more on students’ musical values, I aim to enable students to name their own realities. By relating research to my own experiences while teaching music and musical theatre in the South Bronx, a school predominantly populated by students of low socioeconomic status (SES), I have presented on anti-oppression for pre-service music educators at state and regional conferences offering these pedagogical themes as ways to reimagine teaching and learning in their classrooms.
My teaching practice centers around the core value of creating safe spaces in schools. As bullying and persecution continue to escalate and teenage LGBT suicides increase, it is critical, now more than ever, that educators work to consider these students in their classrooms. It is easiest to hear and to understand these voices when I minimize teacher-centered practices and maximize student-centered approaches based in empathy. I define empathy not as a measure of innate ability to understand a different perspective, but as a skill required for bringing people together, fostering connection, putting people at ease, and making everyone feel included. By this definition, listening without judgement and perspective taking are crucial. As a teacher, I highlight the importance of these non-judgmental, empathetic approaches and model additional ones such as self-disclosing and highlighting shared values or common interests. These connection-building strategies are often adopted by students in my classes, particularly during student-led small group discussion, and because I seek out collaborative learning models, LGBTQIA+ students then have the space and the listening required for them to healthfully discuss their stresses and to potentially remove the barriers and feelings of isolation, both of which might develop as the result of claiming their identity.
My level of commitment to diversity is also personal. Attending public school in rural America as a young gay man in the 1990s, I was expected to normalize experiences of profiling, harassment, ridicule, and bullying as part of the price tag for my difference. I was subtly and overtly conditioned to suppress my queer identity as to avoid having to shoulder the potential burden of sharing my whole self. My research, values, and teaching practices are all aimed at mitigating this potential for future generations as I relentlessly work to cultivate welcoming spaces where no one feels threatened by their own background, self-expression, or authenticity, particularly in the arts where uniqueness can be and should be highlighted.
