Jonathan Henderson Teaching Statement

As a music educator over the past fifteen years, I have endeavored to develop dynamic and effective pedagogy, most recently as the Darron Collins Chair of Music and Sound Studies at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, ME. I consider effective teaching to be a reflexive, layered, and student-led process that allows students agency in their own learning while encouraging collaboration and the co-creation of knowledge. Three key principles guide my approach as an educator: teaching students to make sense of musical cultures through the lens of history and politics, instilling the value of critical listening as a way of accessing and producing knowledge, and valuing experiential modes of learning for students to integrate and apply knowledge.

The courses I’ve offered at College of the Atlantic and at Duke University have furthered my pedagogical commitments and reflect my broad range of expertise (Dissecting Popular Music; Black Atlantic Music; Music Ensemble: African Liberation; Arts and the Anthropocene; Samba Percussion Ensemble; Film, Sound, and Image; Jazz Manouche; Musicianship). In the introductory reading-, writing- and listening-based course Dissecting Popular Music, I provide students with a broad overview of the study of popular music, moving between social history, music analysis, and the exploration of studio production practices. My goal in this introductory course is to begin with music students are interested in, then scaffold a critical examination of the technologies, aesthetic movements, and political histories that bring various popular musics to our listening attention. In a course evaluation, one student wrote that the course provided them “the knowledge and opportunities to discuss topics ranging from AI in music, to the power of Beyonce’s ‘Formation,’ to copyright laws surrounding music.” Another student wrote, “Classes would often fly by because Jonathan is so good at planning multimodal lessons that simultaneously felt cohesive. Every second felt like it was productive.”

In my Music Ensemble: African Liberation course, students engage in praxis-based work: moving between studying African liberation movements from the 1950s to the 1980s, and performing a repertoire of musical styles connected with these histories. For instance, readings on Guinean independence and the rule of Sékou Touré complimented the class’s study and performance of Bembeya Jazz’s “Armée Guinéenne.” I designed the course to be divided between rehearsal, seminar discussion reflecting on reading, listening, and viewing, and historical lectures/presentations. By the end of the term, students learned a repertoire consisting of my transcriptions of music by Hugh Masekela, E.T. Mensah, The Scorpions, Bembeya Jazz, Sharhabil Ahmed, Fela Kuti, Miriam Makeba, and Saif Abu Bakr. In the final week of the term, students prepared a multi-modal performance of the music alongside archival video and audio clips, and reflective speeches contextualizing the songs, all created and presented by the students. The performance was well-attended by students at the College and was a rewarding way to generate community conversation about how decolonial movements of the second half of the 20^th century reverberate today.

I am honored that my dedication to developing dynamic and effective pedagogy has translated positively for students in the classroom. One student commented, “Jonathan is an excellent teacher because he knows how to enliven a classroom and build relationships with every single student. It’s wonderful to see a teacher with that spark of passion for educating. He makes learning creative, interactive, and fun. [His class] was a joy.” This comment speaks to the ways in which I strive to implement values of diversity, equity, and inclusion in my teaching. I create an inclusive learning environment by providing multiple avenues for successful engagement, helping students both understand and develop their individual strengths, and identify and address their needs. My teaching and research both prioritize musical cultures often underrepresented within secondary and post-secondary music education. A focus on black popular music invites students to consider music they encounter in their daily lives as a way of exploring issues of social history, race, representation, and inequity. My experience as a popular educator over six years with Dismantling Racism Works, leading workshops on racial equity in institutional and community settings, has further prepared me to support and connect with a diverse student body.

At the heart of my research and teaching is a commitment to cultivating the ability to listen across lines of difference. Learning how to listen in a close and informed manner to musical cultures outside one’s usual worldview is a humanistic project that hones practices of compassion and appreciation, one that builds trust and intercultural understanding. In a moment when we strain to listen across cultural boundaries, even within our own national context, cultivating the capacity to hear another’s humanity through sound is a skill that takes on renewed urgency. By exposing students to a broad range of musical expressions from across the world, my teaching aims to help students develop both self-awareness and an appreciation for the multiplicity of human brilliance through the practice of listening.