My school year began as all had for the past several years. As I greeted the students, I couldn't help but wonder what this year would bring. The two middle school choir classes I teach at Southern Secondary School (a pseudonym) are non-auditioned groups. Each class is a mix of both seventh and eighth grade students with varying musical backgrounds. Students may opt to take chorus for either a full or half year, resulting in a loss of about 15 students per class at the semester break.

The scheduling is not ideal and I am a guitarist rather than a vocal music specialist, but I have always enjoyed directing the middle school vocal groups at Southern. As the school year wore on and the Fall Concert began to loom large, the first period choir began to develop as I expected. The students began to understand and demonstrate proper vocal technique, and the typical, timid sound of the first few days became more confident; students were beginning to sing their own parts and I began to hear harmonies.

During the same time frame, however, I was unable to detect similar progress in my seventh period group. I spent most of the class begging students to open their mouths and sing. The students seemed to be disengaged from the class; I was at a loss. I could envision a long, catastrophic series of concerts followed by disastrous festival performances. Nothing I did seemed to make an impact. The first concert of the year confirmed my worst fears.

I had hoped that, by "crashing and burning", the students would finally take the class a little more seriously. I assigned a one page critique of the concert. Their task was to review their performance and reflect on what they could have done to make it better. The seventh period group shifted responsibility onto everyone and everything but themselves; their critiques focused on subjective issues and included comments such as "the music we sang was stupid", "you didn't teach us the music", and "you can't expect seventh and eighth graders to sit still for an hour and act appropriately". At this point, I was thoroughly frustrated. What could I do to get these students on track? Why was one group succeeding while the other was languishing?

As my dilemma with my performing groups was unfolding, I became aware of the "Cultural Inquiry Process" (Jacob, Johnson, Finley, Gurski, & Levine, 1996). The Cultural Inquiry Process is designed to provide a framework for addressing educational issues from a cultural perspective by utilizing data gathering techniques similar to those used by anthropologists.

The process consists of six steps: 1) select a focus group from a particular culture; 2) identify "puzzlements" (i.e., problems, student behaviors, etc. that are not understood) and what is already known about the focus student or group; 3) develop alternative cultural hypotheses and select one or more of these to explore; 4) gather relevant information; 5) develop and implement an intervention; and 6) monitor the results of the intervention (Jacob, Johnson, Finley, Gurski, & Levine, 1996). By following the process, educators are encouraged to explore a variety of hypotheses, enabling them to develop situationally specific interventions.

After some consideration, I decided to experiment with the Cultural Inquiry Process in my classroom. This paper will document that experiment, and will focus on two themes: the process itself and, by extension, the applicability of the process to a music classroom.

I found the first two steps in the Cultural Inquiry Process happening simultaneously; as I began to reflect on the student or group of students I would identify as the focus of the project, the nature of my puzzlement began to change. A key to the process was understanding the nature of culture. My initial approach was to separate out individual students whose actions in the class were particularly puzzling to me. As I struggled through this process, however, it soon became clear that the difficulties I was having with the class were ubiquitous; I was unable to understand the actions of the class as a whole.

The next step was to think about framing the issue from a cultural perspective. The class was homogeneous; all of the students were upper-middle class and most were of European ancestry. Two of the students were African-American; one eighth grade boy and one eighth grade girl. It seemed to me that this was not a study of ethnicity; rather, the culture of the class as a whole was somehow in conflict with my expectations as a choral director.[CIP Question 3.3] This became the basis of my puzzlement: what was causing the seventh period chorus class to experience difficulty meeting expected performance standards?

The primary focus of my puzzlement was the disconnect I perceived between what I, as a choir director, expected the group to learn and accomplish and the expectations the group brought with them to the class. Further reflection brought me to three primary questions: 1) what were the group expectations; 2) how were these expectations different from those of other chorus classes I had taught; and 3) what were the forces driving these expectations. To begin answering these questions, I needed to ascertain the following information: 1) what grade level were the students in the class and 2) what was their previous choir experience.

I conducted an informal survey of the students in each class. The students were asked to write down on a piece of paper their grade level, prior choral experience, and their reason for taking the class. The results of the survey were enlightening. In each class, the majority of students had not previously been in choir. The primary difference between the two groups was the number of students who were completely new to choir. In the first period group, 31 of the 43 students in the class were seventh graders; all of the seventh graders had taken choir in the sixth grade and all but one of the eighth graders had taken choir in the seventh grade. By contrast, 29 of the 54 students in the seventh period group were in the seventh grade and 25 were in eighth grade. Of the 29 seventh graders, 22 were in choir in the sixth grade; of the 25 eighth graders, six were in choir in the seventh grade. The total number of students in the group with no previous choir experience was 25, 19 of whom were eighth graders.

Students cited many reasons for taking the class. Although the survey was anonymous, students' grade levels and prior experience were listed on the paper, giving some indication to patterns of response. The most common reason seventh graders in both classes gave for taking choir was "because I like to sing". The most common answer among eighth graders who had taken the class the previous year was "I had fun last year"; some also listed the annual spring trip as their primary incentive. The most common response from eighth graders in seventh period with no previous choral experience was "because it was the only elective that would fit into my schedule".

At this point, I began to develop two hypotheses based on the following information: 1) several students in the class were new to choir; 2) several students new to choir took the class primarily because it was the only elective that fit into their schedule; and 3) the majority of the students in choir were in the seventh grade. Based on this information, I believed the puzzlement I was experiencing arose from either 1) a disconnect between expectations in the elementary "feeder" programs and expectations in Southern's choral program or 2) a disconnect between students' expectations who had not taken the class before and the actual class experience. In order to formulate an effective intervention, however, I had to gather further information concerning the elementary choral programs and the expectations of eighth grade students new to choir.

In order to gather more information on the elementary choir programs, I viewed video-tapes of the elementary choirs' performances and several video-taped elementary school music classes. This investigation led me to two discoveries; 1) the elementary music classes I observed incorporated very little singing and 2) the elementary choral groups focused heavily on choreography and lighter music. These discoveries led me to the following conclusions: 1) students who have not had choir prior to middle school may not have developed the foundation for proper singing in elementary school, and 2) students who had taken choir in elementary school may expect to perform lighter, "pop" pieces that include choreography, which contrasts with my typical choice of more serious concert literature and little or no choreography.

In order to explore possible sources of conflict between the expectations of eighth graders who had not taken choir before and my expectations for students in the class, I spoke with the students in question and the eighth grade counselors. I found that the majority of the students who had taken the class simply to fulfill their elective credits were in the school's Gifted and Talented (GT) program. As I looked back over my records, I found that, indeed, the seven eighth grade students taking GT classes had enrolled in choir after the school year had started.

The students in question were engaging, popular students. It appeared through observation that they were class leaders. However, their commitment to the group was questionable. While none of the students were disruptive, they were apathetic in their approach to classroom activities. I began to develop a hypothesis based on the information gathered through observation and conversations with the students; could the expectations of these GT students and my expectations in class be at odds?

Vogt, Jordan and Tharp (1993) theorized that some students may learn better in groups; through their work in both the KEEP and Rough-Rock projects, they demonstrated that both Hawaiian and Navajo children were more likely to succeed in school when they were able to function as a group. The programs succeeded by removing the competition equated with traditional, Eurocentric schools. In my choir class, success depended on all students functioning as a single unit. Southern Secondary is a very competitive school; over 90% of the graduates go on to attend higher education of some sort. Most of the other programs in the music department are dependent on competition; "Top" groups are all auditioned in the band and orchestra classes, and students are seated within the groups based on auditions. In my program, students simply registered for the class. My hypothesis was that this lack of competition may be contrary to the competitive nature of Southern. I hypothesized that this lack of competition may be particularly disorienting to the many GT students in my class who have had little experience with classes in which success and achievement is dependent on group rather than individual performance.

I developed the following interventions to address my hypotheses: 1) I decided to program one "light" piece including choreography for each group on the Winter Concert; 2) I made explicit my belief that chorus was a "team sport" by beginning and ending each class with team oriented statements; 3) I stopped assigning individual detention and began implementing group consequences for individual actions (e.g., the class was required to rehearse standing if one or two students were not sitting with correct posture) 4) we began "practicing" performance - the group would sing through the program from beginning to end without losing focus and intensity. If I determined that focus and intensity were waning, we would go back to the beginning of the program; and 5) Students received written feedback relating to their contribution to the group in addition to grades on their report cards.

In order to test the efficacy of my interventions, I decided to monitor the groups performance at the Winter Concert and compare the students' written concert evaluations with those submitted after the Fall Concert.

The inclusion of lighter music with choreography was inconsequential. The first period group performed the lighter piece well and seemed to enjoy it. The seventh period group learned their lighter piece, but didn't enjoy it. They complained that the lighter piece was "elementary kid" music. It wound up cut from the program.

The attempts at group building went well. After two weeks, students were monitoring themselves. They began to take an interest in the music learned, and technique improved. Soon, they were able to perform three part music with little effort. Tone quality also improved; all parts were heard, and the sound was confident and resonant. In short, the concert was successful, to the point that it exceeded my expectations.

The concert evaluations reflected the group's improvement. The students indicated that they were proud of their performance, and that their parents enjoyed the concert. In addition, evaluations were much more insightful than those submitted after the Fall Concert. Criticism focused on nuances of balance and expressiveness rather than on behavior and finger pointing. As a follow-up, we discussed in class the improvements made by the group; they now hold the distinction of "most improved" of any group I have directed.

It may be argued that the interventions developed were simply "good teaching" that could have been arrived at intuitively. I would point out, however, that I am not a choral music specialist. My background is in classical guitar performance. As a solo recitalist, I am not as familiar with the techniques necessary to develop a cohesive group. The Cultural Inquiry Process allowed me to move beyond my limitations by framing my difficulties with the class in terms of cultural dissonance. By viewing the difficulties I was having as a puzzlement, I was able to avoid the trap of turning an educational dilemma into a confrontational situation; rather, it became an educational challenge that I was able to overcome. By investigating the students' perspective, I was able to address both the underlying problems facing the group and the shortcomings of my teaching style and engage students in music learning.

Using the Cultural Inquiry Process made explicit for me the disconnect I often feel as a teacher between the academic culture of the school and expectations in music classes. Interestingly, I was better able to address these differences once they were framed as differences in cultural assumptions. Music education faces many challenges from the larger education community regarding standards, assessment and curriculum development. Perhaps, as these questions are explored further, the Cultural Inquiry Process may be useful.

Jacob, E., Johnson, B. K., Finley, J., Gurski, J. C., & Lavine, R. S. (1996). One student at time: The Cultural Inquiry Process. Middle School Journal, 27(4), 29-35.

Vogt, L.A., Jordan, C. & Tharp, R. G. (1993). Explaining school failure, producing school success: Two studies. In E. Jacob and C. Jordan (Eds.), Minority education: Anthropological perspectives (pp. 53-65). Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing.