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Third Culture Students’ Understanding of Music from their Home Cultures

Linda Kiekel

Northern State University

December 4, 2022
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Abstract

This is a summary of my research project for the MME Research in Music Education Course.

My project asked the question “how do third culture students understand and value the music

of their home cultures?” This study drew participants from the sixth through eighth grade

band program at my school. All participants completed a closed-question survey about their

experiences and value of the music of their cultures. After the survey, four students opted to

join a focus group, which held an open-ended discussion about the students’ knowledge and

experience with the music of their cultures. Data from the survey and discussion showed

mixed results, finding that some students greatly valued the music from their cultures, while

others desired an international music education based mostly on recognizable Western

melodies.
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Third Culture Students’ Understanding of Music from their Home Cultures

To meet the requirements of the Research in Music Education course, I researched the

knowledge that my students hold about the music of their home cultures. All of my students

experience some type of blending or contrast of cultures through their home, school, and

community environments. Our school system currently includes very little from our students’

cultures in the music education curriculum. Through this study, I wished to discover to what

extent my students valued the music from their home cultures and what knowledge they

possessed about the music of their cultures. My research question asked “how do third culture

students understand and value the music of their home cultures?”

This study benefited me because I heard firsthand from my students, thus gaining

insight into their experiences. By gaining background knowledge about my students, I better

understand how to incorporate the music of their cultures into my curriculum. This study can

benefit other teachers of third culture students in very similar ways, as it gives a glimpse into

the experiences of these unique learners. The participants themselves benefited from this

study by reflecting on the music from their cultures and considering the value that cultural

music held in their lives. Participants in the focus group had the opportunity to listen to

classmates from other cultures who described both similar and differing experiences of music

in their lives.

This study was conducted using participants from the middle school band program at

my school who elected to take part in the survey and focus group. All students in this

population experienced some sort of cultural mixing through the environments in which they

live and go to school. Cultures represented included Chinese, Korean, American, and

Canadian. Some students identified with more than one culture in their home.
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Literature Review

Recent education research highlights the value of teaching with cultural sensitivity

and through cultural connections. These issues become particularly important when the

culture of the teacher is different than that of the learner. Research studies such as Abril and

Robinson in 2019 examined the effectiveness of educating teachers through cross-cultural

experiences. Other studies such as Du and Leung (2022) and Han and Leung (2017) looked at

teacher attitudes and student perspectives of Chinese cultural music education. Similar to Du

and Leung, my study sought to understand students’ knowledge and value of the music of

their own cultures.

Du and Leung (2022) examined the effectiveness of multicultural music education in

a village of the Miao ethnic minority in Guizhou Province, China. The researchers concluded

that multicultural music education in Xijiang was unsustainable and unhelpful for the

community, citing inadequate and unequal educational resources, devaluation of state

institutions, teacher shortages, and a high rate of illiteracy among the population.

Furthermore, Du & Leung (2022) demonstrated the importance of valuing and

listening to the people of a given culture when conducting music education within and about

that culture. Data showed that the Chinese government made claims of diversity and interest

in ethnic minority populations but failed to consult voices of the Miao ethnicity or to provide

multicultural music education in a way that was accessible to the Miao community.

A similar fault was suggested by Han and Leung’s 2017 study, titled “A Survey on

Weifang Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Teaching Chinese Folk Music”. This study was

conducted in Weifang City, Shandong Province, China, and sought to understand the local

teachers’ attitudes toward teaching Chinese folk music. The study also examined the

teachers’ perceptions of their students’ attitudes towards learning Chinese folk music.
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Han and Leung (2017) found that teachers in Weifang valued Chinese folk music as

an art form but not as something that should be taught in the classroom. Teachers who were

interviewed for this study demonstrated a misunderstanding about the function of music

education. The teachers said that music classes gave the students a break and helped develop

emotional intelligence, but the teachers did not say that music education cultivated musical

identity. These teachers also expressed feelings of intimidation and claimed that they did not

know how to teach Chinese folk music. Many teachers blamed the textbook, saying that it did

not provide enough materials or resources about Chinese music. However, the teachers did

not understand that they could go beyond the textbook to develop resources and curriculum.

Furthermore, the teachers echoed the same attitude that is present in most education

systems around the world (Han & Leung, 2017). In many countries, a modern music

education equals an education in western classical music. The interviewed teachers expressed

this sentiment by saying that, for music teachers, piano skills were much more important than

skills on a Chinese traditional instrument. Interestingly, the teachers who had studied Chinese

folk music showed no difference in attitude from the ones who had not studied it. The

researchers concluded that most teachers in Weifang had a positive attitude towards Chinese

folk music instruction but devoted little time for teaching it in the classroom.

The attitude and experience of the teacher makes a principal difference for the

experience of the learner. “Comparing Situated and Simulated Learning Approaches to

Developing Culturally Responsive Music Teachers” was a study conducted by Carlos Abril

and Nicole Robinson (2019). The study examined two learning experiences, situated and

simulated, that were given to preservice music teachers and music teachers in graduate

school. Both learning experiences focused on the development of cultural awareness and

responsiveness in the classroom.

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Both the simulated and situated experiences effected reflection and a change in

attitude among most participants (Abril & Robinson, 2019). Both experiences were

particularly effective at developing empathy in the participants, as participants gained insight

into their students’ experiences. Both experiences taught the foolishness of making sweeping

generalizations about a particular community or ethnicity. The situated experience

particularly allowed the participants observe and understand the depth of culture, while the

simulated experience particularly developed in the participants an awareness of the struggle

of others. Participants from both experiences felt empowered to elicit change in their

communities.

Methods, Data, and Results

This study was conducted using a mixed-methods format. To begin the study, a

closed-question Microsoft Forms survey was sent to all middle school band students. The

survey asked demographic questions such as name, age, gender, home culture(s), and years

spend in international education. The survey then asked questions about music and culture,

which are listed below. Students answered the questions either by selecting from a list of

possible answers or by choosing an option on a Likert scale. At the end of the survey,

students expressed whether they would be willing to participate in a focus group. Responses

from the survey were collected as data for the study.

Questions asked included 1) How valuable is music in your home? 2) What type of music do

you usually hear being played or performed in your home? 3) Do you ever seek out

traditional music from your culture? 4) How would you rate your interest in learning about

music from your culture? 5) Did your parents, grandparents, or other adults teach you folk

songs when you were a young child? 6) Rate your familiarity with the music of your culture

7) Rate your familiarity with the instruments of your culture 8) Have you ever learned to play
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an instrument that belongs to your culture? 9) How much of the music that you listen to has

lyrics in your native language?

Four students who completed the survey also indicated willingness to join the focus group.

This focus group met one time during the school day for 30 minutes. I facilitated a discussion

by asking the students to further clarify answers given in the survey, and to share their

knowledge and experiences with the group. The students talked together about their

knowledge and experiences in the music of their cultures, and I listened. I took detailed notes

from the focus group and used these notes as data in the study.

Data and Results

Twelve students elected to complete the initial survey. Seven students were male and

five were female. Students ranged in age from 11 to 14, with the median ages being 12 and

13. Eight students identified with Korean culture, two students identified with Chinese

culture, one student identified with Chinese and Korean culture, and one student identified

with Chinese and Canadian culture. Students’ time in international schools ranged from one

to nine years, with the average time being 3.8 years.

Seven students agreed with the statement “I am interested in learning about music

from my family's culture(s).” Only two students reported hearing traditional Chinese or

Korean music in their homes. Four students were taught traditional songs from their cultures

as a young child. All but one student claimed some knowledge of the music of their home

cultures. Five students have learned to play a traditional instrument from their culture.

Overall, the duration of time that individuals spent in international schools seemed to have no

effect on their knowledge and interest in traditional music from their cultures.

Four students volunteered to participate in the focus group. These students reflected

the range of demographics existent within the survey respondents. To begin the discussion, I

asked the students to share their first thoughts when they hear the phrase “music of your
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home culture(s).” Student A immediately responded with the word “boring.” Student B

expressed that he only hears traditional music in the context of especially happy or sad

situations, such as funerals and weddings. Student C spoke fondly of singing traditional

Korean songs in morning assemblies at her previous Korean school, and Student B spoke of

the qualities of the music, describing it as having a slow tempo, and usually being vocal with

instrumental accompaniment.

Table 1

Participants in the Focus Group

Student: Gender: Age: Ethnicity: Years in international school:

A Male 11 Chinese, Korean 7

B Male 13 Chinese 3

C Female 13 Korean 1

D Female 14 Korean 3

After this introduction, students began discussing the traditional instruments from their

cultures. They described the names and qualities of instruments that they recalled, and they

compared Chinese and Korean instruments, finding many similarities. I asked the students

where they learned about these instruments. The Korean students spoke of learning about the

instruments in Korean elementary schools, while the Chinese students described traditional

instrument performances during wedding and funeral ceremonies.

I asked the students whether they wished to have more cultural music education at our

international school. Students A and B replied that they did not want to learn about their

home cultures’ music at school because they hoped to move to western countries as adults,

and eastern music would not be valued in the west. Student C said that she missed singing
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Korean songs every morning and it is good to learn both western music and Korean music in

school.

To close the focus group, I asked the students one final question: “Does the music

from your home culture(s) form part of your personal identity?” Student C, who throughout

the discussion spoke very fondly of Korean traditional music, answered “yes” with

confidence. Students A and D struggled to understand the question but eventually answered

with a strong “no.” Student A said that he preferred western songs, while Student D

explained that Korean traditional songs were not a part of who she was. Student B answered

that he valued Chinese cultural music, but he wanted it to be refreshed, so that it included

more elements from western music and ideas.

As the discussion was ending, Student B expressed his desire that our international

school would include music that is known and appreciated by the entire world. The other

students agreed with this and gave as examples “We Will Rock You” and “Jingle Bells,”

songs that are known all around the world.

Conclusion and Discussion

Survey results showed that student interest in their cultures’ music was mixed. Some

students reported a background knowledge of their cultural music, while others did not. Some

reported an interest in learning about their cultures’ music, while others reported no interest.

No trends were apparent from the survey data, as the students described a variety of interests

and experiences.

The focus group discussion provided understanding into the complexity of students’

survey responses. Each individual spoke about their home cultures’ music in a different way.

The student who identified with two home cultures was the most adamant that he did not

value traditional music from either culture. Meanwhile, the student who had spent only one

year in an international school spoke the most fondly about the music from her culture, and
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she could heartily say that it formed an important part of her identity. All of the students

voiced appreciation for music that is recognized all over the world, but they did not identify

this music as being specifically from Western cultures. Two of the students particularly

described themselves as international more than as Chinese or Korean. They expressed

musical values similar to the trend described in Han & Leung’s 2017 research, that a modern

music education contains almost entirely western music.

After listening to my students’ conviction that Chinese and Korean music would not

be valued by people in the west, I considered how as a Caucasian from the West, I can help

change this belief. If I show appreciation for the music of my student’s cultures, they might

individually value it more and understand that their own cultural music should be esteemed

around the world and that it can be a part of their international identity.
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References

Abril, C. R., & Robinson, N. R. (2019). Comparing situated and simulated learning

approaches to developing culturally responsive music teachers. International Journal

of Music Education. 37(3) 440-453. DOI: 10.1177/025576141984242

Du, J. & Leung, B. W. (2022). The sustainability of multicultural music education in Guizhou

Province, China. International Journal of Music Education. 40(1) 131-148. DOI: 10.1

1177/02557614211027375

Han, R., & Leung, B. W. (2017). A survey on Weifang teachers’ attitudes toward teaching

Chinese folk music. International Journal of Music Education, 35(2), 202–215.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0255761415620521