More Than A Feeling: An Anti-Bias and Anti-Racist Lens of Social Emotional Learning in the Elementary Music Classroom

Presented by Darlene Machacon

Time: Tuesday July 13, 15:30 EDT (Eastern Daylight Time)

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) has been a trending buzzword since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Without critical analysis of these frameworks through a lens of racial justice and liberation, our execution could potentially do more harm than good, especially with Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Asian (BBIA) students. This session will provide opportunities for teachers to engage in deep reflection of their teaching philosophy, challenge traditional systems in music education, learn about SEL in music, move beyond “diversity” and “inclusion” in these practices, and empower learners and teachers to weave anti-bias and anti-racist (ABAR) SEL as an essential asset of curriculum. This will not be a presentation with a list on what to do versus what not to do. Instead, this is an opportunity for teachers to feel encouraged to move past shallow implementation of educational frameworks.

Session attendees will:

1) Engage in a critical examination of bias, privilege, white supremacy culture, and culturally responsive teaching.

2) Learn about the framework of SEL in the elementary music classroom.

3) Examine a breakdown of the ways Music SEL without an anti-bias and anti-racist perspective can be problematic for students from BBIA communities and cultures.

4) Receive anti-bias and anti-racist SEL ideas and resources to move forward in this work.