Agency and Classroom Culture in the Composition Classroom

The culture of a music classroom is a major determinant in how students employ their agency during compositional experiences (Albert, 2020; Allsup, 2003; Green, 2008b; Wiggins, 2005 and 2015). For the purposes of this chapter, classroom culture is defined as the common and patterned practices of classroom members (students and teacher) shaped by the values and ideas that reflect the societal norms and mores of a community (Geertz, 1983; Prentiss, 1998). Every classroom has a unique culture due to the expectations and suppositions that students and the teacher bring to new contexts based on their lived experiences (Prentiss, 1998) and knowledge constructed via processes of social constructivism (Bruner, 1996; Rogoff, 1990; Vygotsky, 1978; Wenger, 1998).

Music education researchers have encouraged music educators to employ democratic learning principles in music classrooms, particularly those with learning based in creative processes (Allsup, 2003, 2011, and 2016; Cremata, 2017; Jaffurs, 2004; Partti & Westerlund, 2013; S^tre, 2011, Snell, 2009). Teachers who seek to create a democratic-based approach provide students the opportunity to share authority of the classroom rather than teachers being the locus of power and control (Bruner, 1996). Students also serve as distributors of knowledge to all (including teachers). In turn, students feel encouraged to assert their agency and risk-taking. Both actions are important for compositional activities to flourish (Albert, 2020; Muhonen, 2016; Odena, 2012; Ruthmann, 2012; Ruthmann & Dillon, 2012; Wiggins, 2015; Wiggins & Medvinsky, 2013), as is recognizing them for their efforts. Student agency also helps to shape the classroom culture in which they interact, thus influencing how students learn and participate in musical activities. This phenomenon produces a synergistic cycle: student agency fueling the desire to learn more, which, in turn, creates an increase in student agency.

Teacher Influences on Classroom Culture and Student Agency. The teacher plays an important role in the creation of a classroom culture and community, as well as in the facilitation of student agency. Teachers bring beliefs grounded in lived experiences, such as their own experiences as students and their relationships with current and past students and colleagues, that can strongly influence classroom proceedings (Fairbanks & Broughton, 2003; Sturtevant, 1996). Teachers also guide students in more overt ways. They determine how students will use their lived experiences to inform use of agency in present and future situations, model reflection techniques and feedback delivery for students to scaffold musical growth and use amongst their peers and recognize students for their efforts and contributions to the community (Albert, 2020; Deutsch, 2013; Kaschub & Smith, 2009 and 2017; Wiggins, 2011a and 2015; Wiggins & Medvinsky, 2013). Teachers also play an important role with the development of a classroom’s physical climate—resources and physical layout of the room; intellectual climate—programming activities which provide students an appropriate level of challenge commensurate with their skill level; and emotional climate—students feeling safe to take risks without fear of failure (Odena, 2012; Odena et al., 2005). All three play an influential role with the successful implementation of composition in the music classroom.

Part of the work of constructing such an environment includes teachers being facilitators (Cremata, 2017; Green, 2002 and 2008a; Watson, 2011), as well as learning how to get out of students’ way and providing them with space so that students feel empowered to employ their agency. As a result, they feel that they can have control over their situation, feel capable of learning and that their ideas are valued, and can take risks and be vulnerable (Albert, 2020; Kaschub & Smith, 2009 and 2017; Stauffer, 2013; Wiggins, 2015; Wiggins & Medvinsky, 2013). Teachers sharing their own composed works also can challenge students’ conceptions of creativity (Burnard et al., 2013) and help facilitate a collaborative and mutually respectful environment (King, 2012).

Representative Studies of Student Agency in Action. Randall Everett Allsup (2003) undertook an ethnographic study of informal music learning (Green, 2002 and 2008a) with high school band students who self-selected into a “garage band model” of music-making. He purposefully placed himself in the role of facilitator, rather than an authority figure. By enabling students to utilize their learner and musical agency, participants learned from each other, utilized respectful dialogue, and negotiated power dynamics through shared decision-making. Allsup related these actions to the democratic learning environment and noted how it assisted students’ use of agency and reflected their identities:

When students are given space to explore freely, to work democratically, they will create (from one of their musical worlds) a context about which they are familiar, conversant, or curious. We might refer to context as a workable space, a landscape for exploring the curiosities of a given genre. Context, thus, may take the form of a popular tradition like progressive rock, a contemporary brass ensemble, or the reimagining of 1930s swing music. The materials that students choose to explore will represent a world that is theirs, a world they understand, a world that defines who they are. (p. 35)

In their studies of the influences of classroom culture on students’ agency and compositional processes and how to construct a classroom environment conducive for such practices, researchers have found that teacher and peer-to-peer criticism and feedback processes help to challenge students’ musical beliefs and ideas during creative endeavors (Albert, 2020; Burnard et al., 2013; Lapidaki et al., 2012; Ruthmann, 2012). For example, Deborah Blair (2009) studied how her fifth-grade music students utilized musical maps while listening to music to enable their musical understanding. Two particularly insightful findings related to learner agency emerged: students’ desire to enable and further their own understanding by taking initiative to make discoveries for themselves and have ownership of that process. In the music classroom, this was manifested in the students’ desire to function as musicians—to participate with others as composers, listeners, and performers. Blair found that this mapping process provided students with opportunities to employ their learner agency as young musicians and share their understandings via the music listening process. Students seemed to have learned a great deal through problem-solving experiences that imitate real-world “everyday” contexts and provide meaningful learning (Dewey, 1938).

These feelings of success, fueled by learner agency, increased their levels of confidence, encouraged them to participate in additional experiences (Wiggins & Espeland, 2012), and helped them apply their newfound understandings to new musical experiences with the expansion of their zones of proximal development (Wiggins et al., 2006). Blair also found that students used their agency to communicate their desire to be respected as members of the learning community who had valid musical ideas to be valued. Respecting students’ agency and the knowledge that they are creating by using that agency is an important attribute of a successful learning community that influences the classroom culture.

Daniel Albert (2020) undertook an ethnographic study of the culture of a middle school music technology classroom based in musical composition, seeking to understand how the classroom culture was co-created between the educator and students and how that classroom culture influenced participation in musical composition activities. Through individual interviews and a focus group discussion with students, as well as through multiple observations of the class, Albert found that the educator, Gerard, encouraged use of student agency through his active participation in the creation and sustainment of classroom culture.

Gerard employed a strategy recommended by multiple scholars (Burnard et al., 2013; Lapidaki et al., 2012; Ruthmann, 2012; Shouldice, 2019) and affirmed students’ efforts using positive and constructive feedback. He also encouraged further creative growth through utilization of specific feedback and constructive criticism (e.g., “Yeah, that’s cool. Maybe think of this . . .”; “OMG, that’s so awesome!”; “Uh, that’s okay, try this sound over here. . . . yeah, I like that more”) to create a sense of support in the classroom culture and have students feel comfortable with creative explorations, as well as feeling comfortable composing music that has meaning for them. Students, in turn, were observed employing similar feedback techniques as Gerard. This suggests that the teacher was modeling actions he deemed appropriate with the students incorporating these techniques learned in the social constructivist classroom. Gerard also composed his own musical works as students were composing themselves, further demonstrating that he, as his students, is also a composer and a learner. He also made sure to share his work when it was time for students to share with each other.

Also, rather than utilizing direct, whole-class instructional techniques, Gerard utilized musical and social scaffolding practices (Wiggins, 2011a, 2015) to foster student creativity and agency. He provided his students with individual and group time to compose, as well as space to work in various parts of the rehearsal room and surrounding environs that gave them “room” during class to create and refine ideas for their compositions. In this sense, students felt free to experiment and explore their creative selves, enhancing the synergy that contributed to the classroom culture and students’ use of their agency for creative endeavors.

However, Albert (2020) noticed several moments of tension between students as well as off-task behaviors, demonstrating the “messiness” of social life (Greener, 2011; Murchinson, 2010) undergirded by a classroom culture that supported learning, another “messy” process (Davis-Seaver, 2000; Stauffer, 2013). Indeed, tension and conflict are to be expected during the learning process (Argyris & Schon, 1978; Delamarter, 2018; Osterman & Kottkamp, 2004). Gerard helped to create an environment sustained by students’ sense of agency within an overarching and supportive framework in which “messiness” was permitted, as Gerard recognized that it is a necessary part of learning and the creative process (Kaschub & Smith, 2009; Stauffer, 2013).

S. Alex Ruthmann’s (2008) study presents another angle of the influence the teacher and the nature of their feedback have on students’ use of their agency. Using a multifaceted qualitative approach (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000), Ruthmann explored the relationship between learner agency and the nature of feedback and compositional intent through the lived experiences of the teacher of a music technology class (Mary), a student composer (Ellen), and Ellen’s peers with whom she interacted. Ruthmann attended and collected data from all 43 class sessions of a general music class based in technology for students ages 10 and 11. A focus of Ruthmann’s analysis was what transpired during a movie soundtrack project and the tension between Ellen’s interpretation of her work and Mary’s vision for the piece. Throughout their interactions, Mary provided feedback that communicated an agenda to conform to her interpretation of the work, assuming the role as “expert.” Rather, Ellen was looking for Mary to be a “guide.”

Ruthmann and others (Calkins, 1994; Wiggins, 2003) advocated for educators to discover the student’s vision for the piece, ascertaining their reason(s) for asking for feedback, and providing scaffolding feedback that is appropriate for the student-as- composer. While Ruthmann freely admits that the descriptive and interpretive sections of his study are reflective of his own biases, his findings demonstrate the importance of music educators putting personal agendas for students’ compositions aside. In helping students attain both personal and educational goals, teachers should seek and understand their students’ musical intentions.