Supporting Immigrant,Intercountry Adopted,and Refugee Students in Music Classrooms with Culturally Relevant and Responsive Approaches

Abstract

In this article, we discuss the rationales for supporting immigrant, intercountry adopted, and refugee students in music classrooms and provide instructional examples from our lived experiences. Being uprooted from their familiar cultures and reimplanted in unfamiliar circumstances, immigrant, intercountry adopted, and refugee students may encounter various cultural, social, emotional, and linguistic obstacles. Music classrooms can be a safe place to empower them by adopting culturally relevant and responsive frameworks. Based on these asset-based frameworks, music teachers can (a) work with students’ uniqueness and strengths, (b) cultivate competence toward the host culture through music, and (c) maintain identity toward the homeland culture through music.