"The Vulnerability in Singing Comes From Trust in the Relationship First:" Perceptions of Human Connection in High School Choral Music Classrooms

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to understand how human connection (Jordan, 2018; Miller & Stiver, 1997; Schwartz, 2019; Walker, 2020) is experienced in the high school choral music classroom. The central research question for this study was: How is human connection experienced in the classrooms of three high school choral music educators?

A multiple case study design (Yin, 2018) was employed to examine human connection at three research sites. Sources of data included: (a) three interviews per teacher participant; (b) two student focus groups per research site; (c) four classroom observations per research site; and (d) the collection of material culture and artifacts at each research site.

Findings centered on the following emergent themes: the importance of care, the importance of trust, supporting vulnerability, sense of belonging, and navigating relational challenges. Participants acknowledged that foundations of care were tied to choral teachers actively knowing and responding to students as people (through daily greetings, ‘reading the room,’ and interpersonal classroom check-ins) as well as expressions of care (conveyed through specific acts of care and perceptions of the choral teacher as a caring figure akin to a mentor or family member). Interwoven with notions of care in the choral classroom was the importance of trust within teacher-student relationships (cultivated through facets of identity and recognition of the teacher as a trustworthy adult) and student-student relationships (cultivated in relationship-building activities and early classroom experiences with low-risk singing). Threads of care and trust were found to be essential to supporting students’ expressed vulnerabilities in the choral classroom, especially as related to the singing voice (alone and with others), making mistakes, and learning repertoire. Participants also framed the high school choral classroom as a community infused with notions of belonging rooted in perceptions of the high school choir classroom as a safe and validating family; a space based in student agency, leadership, and collaboration; and rooted in legacies linked to shared memories and traditions, civic pride and activism, and perceptions of the choral community as a ‘home.’ Finally, teacher participants acknowledged that navigating relational challenges—including addressing racial and economic privilege, supporting introverted students, and maintaining rapport with students perceived as not invested in the choral program—were a factor in their efforts to initiate and maintain connections with and among students.

Implications for the profession include a call for increased attention to human connection in preservice choral music teacher education, in-service P-12 choral music classrooms, and within music education policy. Based on findings, the notion of conscious connection in choral music education is introduced as a state of curricular, pedagogical, and interpersonal awareness rooted in consciously basing relational and instructional decision-making in human connection.