A Self-Study on Feminist Pedagogy in a Music History Classroom
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DePaul University Via Sapientiae College of Education Theses and Dissertations College of Education Winter 3-2020 Becoming a Feminist Educator: A Self-Study on Feminist Pedagogy in a Music History Classroom Sarah Wells Kaufman DePaul University Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/soe_etd Part of the Education Commons, and the Music Commons Recommended Citation Kaufman, Sarah Wells, "Becoming a Feminist Educator: A Self-Study on Feminist Pedagogy in a Music History Classroom" (2020). College of Education Theses and Dissertations. 178. https://via.library.depaul.edu/soe_etd/178 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Education at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in College of Education Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DePaul University College of Education BECOMING A FEMINIST EDUCATOR: A SELF-STUDY ON FEMINIST PEDAGOGY IN A MUSIC HISTORY CLASSROOM A Dissertation in Education with a Concentration in Curriculum Studies by Sarah Wells Kaufman © 2020 Sarah Wells Kaufman Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2020 We approve of the dissertation of Sarah Wells Kaufman. :'iV I (.I ./ ' kffre~ll{uzm ~PhD Date DePaul University Professor Emeritus Department of Leadership Language and Curriculum Chair of Dissertation Committee Amira Prowell er, PhD Date DePaul University Associate Professor Department of Leadership Language and Curriculum Dissertation Committee Member ~ 0 R "'->-(;,~( s_ ~ine Kelly-McHa,PhD Date DePaul University Associate Professor School of Music Dissertation Committee Member Certification of Authorship I certify that I am the sole author of this dissertation. Any assistance received in the preparation of this dissertation has been acknowledged and disclosed within it. Any sources utilized, including the use of data, ideas and words, those quoted directly or paraphrased, have been cited. I certify that I have prepared this dissertation according program guidelines, as directed. iv ABSTRACT My dissertation explores the process of becoming a feminist educator as I transitioned to using feminist theory in my pedagogy for the first time. Inspired by political events and my own progression from conservative musician to progressive educator, I asked the question in my research, “What would a feminist pedagogy look like in my music history classroom?” I used self-study research, with a design based on autoethnography and autobiography, to conduct a study that took place over a ten-week term. While I taught an undergraduate course, Women and Music, I collected data from my own research journals and dialogues with a critical friend, as well as data from the students enrolled in the course (twenty women and one man). My findings reflected a shift in my epistemological and ontological orientations toward teaching as I uncovered and resisted male-dominated conventions of knowing and being in my music classroom. My feminist pedagogy manifested through a relational approach to knowledge. I encouraged my students and myself to view knowing as an in-process journey where we could creatively learn through our experiences. Using a feminist pedagogy also allowed me to explore who I am as a woman educator and how I wanted to engage in a power-with relationship with my students in order to foster collaboration and community in our classroom. Employing feminist principles in my classroom changed how I viewed myself as an educator and offered my students the space to think of their gendered selves differently as well. This study provides an example of navigating an alternative pedagogy in practice while resisting oppressive ways of knowing and being that often exclude gendered experiences from educational spaces. Keywords: self-study, feminist pedagogy, higher education, music history pedagogy v Table of Contents LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... ix LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................................... x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER ONE: SHE LOOKS FOR HERSELF .......................................................................... 1 I Do Not Find Myself There ........................................................................................................ 3 I Look for Myself ........................................................................................................................ 8 Key Terms ................................................................................................................................. 11 CHAPTER TWO: MUSIC AND FEMINIST PEDAGOGY ....................................................... 12 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 12 Curriculum in Higher Education ............................................................................................... 15 Music Academia and Music History ......................................................................................... 15 Educating Students in Music .................................................................................................. 16 Musicology’s Role in Higher Education ................................................................................ 18 Music History Pedagogy ........................................................................................................... 19 Common Practices .................................................................................................................. 20 The Role of the Canon in Music History Pedagogy ............................................................... 22 Feminism and Pedagogy ............................................................................................................ 25 Definition of Pedagogy .......................................................................................................... 26 Feminist Pedagogy ................................................................................................................. 27 A Feminist Pedagogy of My Own ............................................................................................. 29 Feminism and Music Scholarship.............................................................................................. 30 Issues in Feminist Music Scholarship .................................................................................... 32 Feminist Music Education ...................................................................................................... 34 Feminism in Music History Pedagogy ................................................................................... 36 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 39 CHAPTER THREE: SHE SEES HER: METHODOLOGY ........................................................ 41 Self-Study Research .................................................................................................................. 42 Self-Study Elements that Framed My Research ........................................................................ 45 Epistemology and Ontology ................................................................................................... 47 Feminist Concerns .................................................................................................................. 47 Poststructural Leanings .......................................................................................................... 48 My Classroom ........................................................................................................................... 49 The University ........................................................................................................................ 49 vi The Course ............................................................................................................................. 50 Students as Participants .......................................................................................................... 51 Research Design ........................................................................................................................ 52 Autobiography and Autoethnography in Self-Study .............................................................. 52 Collecting the Data .................................................................................................................... 55 Reflective Practice .................................................................................................................. 55 Data from the Course ............................................................................................................. 58 Audio-Recordings. .............................................................................................................. 59 Field Notes. ......................................................................................................................... 61 Teaching Evaluations. 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