Modern vocal music educators have been confronted with numerous challenges and opportunities throughout the past several years, including but not limited to the virtual world of singing through COVID-19 and its resulting trauma and isolation. Following such a significant disruption, educators could choose to embrace a new paradigm of vocal pedagogy centering care and community, a framework which the researchers investigated and reflected upon in their most recent publication. Through this presentation, this framework will be expanded in conjunction with an original study involving one researcher’s own students.

In this presentation, Sarah Stapleton and Kimberly Barber – a former student-instructor pair turned research partnership – will explore and investigate the implications of vocal music classes built upon a foundation of community and care. Voice pedagogy methods such as group technique classes, partner practice, shared self-reflection, and trauma-informed voice teaching were evaluated as components of a care and community centered pedagogical approach, and the implications of these practices were explored.

The objective of this study was to gain a thorough understanding of how undergraduate singers are impacted by pedagogical methods which create, foster, and sustain community. A small-scale qualitative study was conducted with two of Kimberly’s students as participants and Sarah as the primary researcher to avoid conflicts of interest. This allowed for an interrogation of Kimberly’s community singing pedagogy and development of firsthand insights towards community-based teaching. Participants engaged in multiple exploratory interviews and wrote weekly practice logs as research artifacts, in addition to a term self-assessment. These artifacts and transcribed interviews were analyzed using NVivo and thematically coded through a phenomenological lens.

Sarah and Kimberly’s original article revealed four “pillars” for success in a care and community based vocal pedagogy framework: self-direction, the body is the instrument, it takes a village, and lifelong learning. These themes were largely consistent with the experience of Kim’s students, both of whom resonated with the connections between community pedagogy and their whole selves. Community connection served a vital role in not only their musical growth, but also their personal development, which contributed in tandem to their identity as a musician and human being.