Pedagogy

This study investigates the impact of the Trinidad and Tobago Panyard steelpan experiences on the development of the secondary school, forms one to three (middle school), music teachers’ pedagogical implementation, and how these pedagogical practices are represented in today’s classroom or not. The case study exploration acknowledges that while the instrument was being developed in formal educational systems, there was already a history of teaching and learning of the steelpan in the community Panyard contributing to its global growth. The symbiosis among instructional practices in the Panyard, the K-12 system, and postsecondary institutions continues to be the fertile space for understanding steelpan curriculum and instruction. Using the lenses of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy, Decoloniality and Legitimation Code theory I analyzed these Panyard steelpan experiences and their impact on teachers’ pedagogical practice. I used some of the data to map the observed integrative knowledge building using the Autonomy dimension of Legitimation Code Theory. “Within-group cultural practices” and “common, across-group cultural practices” (Paris, 2012, p. 95) were also analyzed iteratively, contributing to the growth of both the researcher and participants. This study intentionally provided opportunities to understand Steelpan's histories and social constructs better. Moreover, participants’ backgrounds, biographies and experiences also provided contextual evidence for their pedagogical perspectives (Greene, 2001).

This mixed-methods phenomenological bounded case study sought to uncover how who teachers are as people impacts what they do in their classrooms. The study examined how teachers’ personal lives (e.g., backgrounds and prior knowledge), their experiences with intersectionality (e.g., race, class, gender, and sexual orientation), and professional lives (e.g., pedagogical beliefs and curricular choices) influence one another. The sample for this student consisted of seven high school female English Language Arts teachers who were teaching the required text, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Lee (1960). Through the use of survey questionnaires, interviews, document analysis of unit lesson
plans, and a focus group, a portrait of the relationship between teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and curriculum design choices emerged. Four key themes emerged in relation to the research questions for this study: (a) whether teachers are teaching with the students in mind, (b) uncovering the power structure of the teaching experience, (c) the role of teaching versus facilitating, and (d) curriculum design focusing on the process of learning versus end products.