Implications for Practice

It might be sensible to conclude that more qualitative work needs to be done exploring the effects that gender has on music students. However, it already seems clear that whenever gender is invoked as a means of separation and unequal treatment it has deleterious effects on all involved, whether the venue be educational, social, or public. Perhaps, then, there is enough research in existence for me to leap forward with the conclusion that what we really need is more action. The following is a list of suggestions for integrating the sexes and devising a more equal kind of education in music and elsewhere.

Discourage gender-based identities. As many researchers have shown, adults divide children along gender lines, and so do children (Orenstien 1994, Gallas 1998, Maher 2002). In fact, teachers most often introduce these separating behaviors in their students. The result is most often alienation and unsupportive behavior in the classroom. As children build their identities, they see each other as opposed to their opposite sex peers. Instead, “identity development should be recognized as involving skills that schools can teach girls as well as boys” (Cohen 1996, 88). If, as Barrie Thorne (1993) suggests, teachers exert a maximum of power in the classroom, they can use this to their advantage to assign mixed seating and projects in the classroom, encouraging their male and female pupils to learn how to work together. Furthermore, teachers can encourage an atmosphere of cooperation by not pitting male and female students against each other for the sake of competition or using gender-specific language in chastising groups of students: “I want you girls to stop talking”, “ladies in the flutes, we need more volume from you”, etc. In the bandroom, this is particularly important, since children carry the double burden of identification with a gender and also with a specific, gender-stereotyped instrument.

This requires teachers to be familiar with these stereotypes so that they can think and teach past them. Encourage boys to play musically (a supposedly “feminine” talent), and reward girls who play with strength in their sound. As Melanie suggested in Chapter Four, there is no reason why girls shouldn’t play “male” instruments and vice versa, so why not encourage it? By contradicting accepted stereotypes teachers can eventually help their students to act more as individuals, regardless of biological (or psychological) sex.

Develop an inclusive education based on cooperation. The more girls and boys interact with each other, both socially and academically, the less likely they are to objectify and stereotype each other (Thorne 1993). Furthermore, drawing girls and boys together to participate in the same activities allows them to appreciate each other’s abilities while getting to know them as people (Measor 1992). If sections of the band become more mixed, boys and girls will have to work together, rather than dividing themselves into the brass section and the woodwind section, or the trumpets versus the flutes. This will mean that not only are they making music together, but they sit beside each other, socialize more before and after band, and mingle on band trips. If the rest of the percussion section had been encouraged to see Colleen as a peer from the outset, she never would have developed such bad feelings about her “intrusion” into the male world of percussion, and the boys in the section might have learned a thing or two from her as a musician.

Teachers can also take a more active role in devising a curriculum that includes all children equally. If students are allowed to participate more actively in their band program they will feel a sense of accomplishment and ownership — together — in the ensemble. As Peggy Orenstein (1994) and Karen Gallas (1998) both discovered, teachers who allowed their students to teach lessons to the class or run a story time felt a sense of cohesion that goes beyond competition and “right” or “wrong” answers: “. . . teaching is not about allowing a win/lose situation to develop between girls and boys” (Orenstein 1994, 259). Rather, they shared responsibility for devising a part of the class curriculum and supported each other in public speaking roles that might have seemed intimidating to them all. In band programs, students can take class officer roles, share stage managing and librarian duties, and form chamber ensembles to encourage a shared learning and teaching experience. When students see that they are all in a situation together, they can more easily work as colleagues rather than competitors.

Address stereotypes and devise networks for children. In many school classrooms, bringing girls and boys together is not always enough. At times when the social pressure is too great to work cooperatively on their own, “the dynamics of stereotyping and power may have to be explicitly confronted” (Thorne 1993, 164). Raphaella Best, an elementary school reading teacher, intervened in the sexist behavior she saw in her classroom by initiating critical class discussions about the topic. She challenged her students to question assumed notions about boys and girls and tried to encourage them to relate to one another as friends rather than potential romantic partners. Barbara Porro explained the idea of sexism to her first-graders and the class began to label sexist behaviors as they arose during the course of the year. Kevin Karkau had his class make a list together of sexist behaviors that made people feel excluded, and then made a companion list of behaviors to correct the situation, such as boys making a conscious effort to invite the girls to play soccer at recess and mixing in line. In these ways, teachers addressed their students’ concerns while giving them concrete ways to tackle the issues themselves (Thorne 1993).

This may be a slightly more difficult task in the band room, as teachers usually have a limited amount of time in which to prepare each performance, upon which they are heavily evaluated. Many band directors may not feel that it is their duty to address social concerns when they have more “important” business at hand, and when they serve not as primary, but as extracurricular, teachers in most schools. While this may be true, we have heard it stressed time and again that it is crucial for every adult to provide a positive example after which their students may model themselves (Measor 1992, Green 1993, O’Neill and Boulton 1996, Maher 2002). If band directors do not encourage a sense of equality in the band room, it is unlikely that the students will treat each other accordingly.

This need coupled with the limited amount of time directors have with their students makes the call for integrated sections all the more urgent. Just as integrated seating can help a sense of comradery in a traditional classroom, girls and boys who play side by side, and have similar musical experiences side by side, learn to see each other as equals. The main obstacle to gender integration in the band room is located by numerous researchers and educators in the gender stereotyping of instruments which prevents children from choosing the instrument which is most appealing to them. When boys need no longer fear ridicule for taking up flute, and when girls no longer suffer through hazing in the trombone section, gender will no longer be an obstacle to equal treatment.

Dropping the gender stereotypes from instruments has a more practical function, as well: it may keep more children in band programs. For every student like Sunni, who wandered from instrument to instrument until she finally settled on one she wanted, there are countless others who simply give up when they realize they cannot do what they want within the confines of the current educational system. There is no data to confirm how many students were turned off to music programs because they felt restricted in their instrument choices, but it would be illogical to say that, given the strict social rules governing who plays which instruments, children always feel welcome to make their choices regardless of gender, race, or class.

Collaborate with other teachers in other disciplines who are tackling gender issues. Put on an operetta or musical with the theater department that has feminist or civil rights undertones. Stage a poetry reading with incidental music, or an open mike café at the school after hours in which social issues can be addressed in an unstructured atmosphere. Work with the dance department to create a new ballet. The greatest danger band directors may face is isolation from the rest of the school. It is all too common to remain in the band room, itself often an isolated place, rather than sharing teaching experiences and pedagogical techniques with fellow colleagues in other departments. Students also learn to see band as something different and outside of the normal curriculum. Working to integrate band back into their daily schedules will not only provide a wealth of new ideas, but it will help reinforce music teachers’ own attempts at defending their task to their students, colleagues, and administrators alike.

Change the music. Marcia Citron and Susan Mc Clary remind us of what we already know: Western classical music worships a select group of white men. There are a wealth of pieces written by women and other minorities, spanning the history books from the medieval era to modernity. Rather than playing the same Robert Jager piece every other band is playing this year, try an arrangement of Ellen Taffe Zwilich’s orchestral works, or find a (male?) flutist to solo on Cecile Chamináde’s Concertino for flute and band. Commission female composers to write something new for the band, since it is difficult to find new music by anyone at all for this ensemble when compared with orchestral works. Maureen Barbieri incorporated popular fiction written by women into her literature class when she felt women’s experiences were missing from the “Classics” curriculum. Western classical music is in the same state, and it still lacks the number of female composers that literature programs can choose from. In addition, boys are often alienated from the process when classical music is involved; Noble and Bradford cite wild popularity for rock bands and world instruments among adolescent and teenage boys, but no outlet for them to explore these interests (Noble 2000). Introducing “new” women composers and alternative musical genres may bring boys and girls together in a positive way, feeding their own interests instead of demanding that they meet the band director’s.

The attempt to deflate gendered meanings in the music classroom may seem insurmountable, but as we have seen, it can be done. Susan Tarnowski’s intervention program at the University of Wisconsin (1993) shows just how possible it is to teach music in an androgynous way if it is done early enough. Echoing Colleen’s words when she bemoaned the lack of female drummer images in her formative years, Susan O’Neill and Michael Boulton (1996) found that by simply providing examples of women playing “male” instruments, more girls showed an interest in them. There is enough information available to implement similar programs all across the country, and to finally be rid of paralyzing stereotypes that limit the effectiveness of instrumental programs.

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