The impact of dysconscious racism and ethical caring on choral repertoire
Abstract
The purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate choral directors’ experiences as they navigate Whiteness through their own personal philosophies and practices related to repertoire selection and how those lived experiences may or may not impact their students. Twelve practicing choral directors from middle school through university settings were interviewed. Three important themes arose during analysis including the presence of dysconscious racism with episodes of white fragility, the presence and absence of ethical caring, and the development of a critical consciousness along a spectrum based on experiences. Implications for music educators are offered.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The pervasive Whiteness of many LV and UV choirs reflects inequalities that researchers have also identified in choral music education, publications of sheet music for choirs, community choirs, recreational a cappella singing, and congregational singing in churches.
“The pervasive Whiteness of many LV and UV choirs reflects inequalities that researchers have also identified in choral music education (Howard 2022), publications of sheet music for choirs (Bradley 2003), community choirs (Yerichuk 2015), recreational a cappella singing (Mantie & Talbot 2020), and congregational singing in churches (Moore 2021).”
From ‘I don’t care who joins my choir’: Investigating attitudes to diversity and inclusivity in lower- and upper-voice choirs in the United Kingdom (2025) · cites this paper as Howard 2022
Cited by
Sorted by citations
MacGregor, E. H., & Pitts, S. E. (2025) · International Journal of Community Music · doi:10.1386/ijcm_00119_1 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
- Authors
- Howard, K.
- Affiliations
- University of St. Thomas - Minnesota (US)
- Corresponding author
- Howard, Karen
- ORCID
- Howard, Karen
- Venue
- Music Education Research
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2022-02-14
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 340-349
- ISSN
- 1461-3808 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-9893
- OpenAlex
- W4213272235
- Cited by
- 6
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1
- FWCI
- 1.44
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Music Education Research (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Critical Race Theory in Education
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Music › Diverse Music Education Insights
- Social Sciences › Education › Music Education and Analysis
- Keywords
- white fragility, choral conductors, whiteness, critical consciousness, music education, choral music
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
