Be Intentional: Anti-Racist Music, SEL, and DEI Alignments

Abstract

A general music classroom alignment with social & emotional learning (SEL) and diversity, equity, & inclusion (DEI) can, if implemented with commitment and purpose, help promote student success in important ways by acknowledging systemic inequities, identifying personal bias, and actively interrupting obstacles to equity. SEL alone will not solve long-standing, deep-seated inequities in the education system or society. This column shares insight as to how SEL & DEI alignments in the music classroom have the potential to cultivate knowledge, beliefs, practices, and relationships that can improve lives in communities. The piece encourages music teachers to steadily work to improve practices and ensure that efforts are equitable and connect to larger, more universal goals in education.