Song Conversion Sunday: I Really Need a New Title for This Particular Series of Posts - Cultural Considerations??

I have spent the week reading and collecting information and finding bits and pieces of information to use in my quest for being informed about a particular topic. I am now going to start my graphic organizer to help me see what types of things I am learning. As I start all of these things, however, I realize that I need another title for these types of posts. Song Conversion Sunday is not really what these posts are going to be. I still want to do my Song Conversion Sundays, so I need to find another title. I'm leaning towards "Cultural Considerations" as a title for this series.

I did some reading and some organizing of topics this week. I started reading the book edited by Susan Hadley that was referenced in the last post on this topic, Feminist Perspectives in Music Therapy. I am starting to experience a point of view that I have never really considered - that of feminism. How this will work into the entirety of this series, I will not know until I get to my destination of greater understanding of these issues. 

My goal for this week was to start to understand what types of things I will need to know on this journey, so I went to the basic documents of our profession - the Competencies, the Domains, the Standards, the Scope, and the Code of Ethics. Here's what I found in those documents -

AMTA Professional Competencies:
1.2 - Identify the elemental, structural, and stylistic characteristics of music from various periods and cultures.
11.1 Select and implement effective culturally-based methods for assessing the client’s strengths, needs, musical preferences, level of musical functioning, and development.
13.12 - Develop and maintain a repertoire of music for age, culture, and stylistic differences.
17.9 Demonstrate knowledge of and respect for diverse cultural backgrounds.
17.11 Demonstrate skill in working with culturally diverse populations. 

AMTA Advanced Competencies:

2.7 Apply knowledge of norms and practices of diverse cultures to the supervisory process as indicated.
7.7 Select, adapt and utilize musical materials for different musical cultures and subcultures.
8.7 Implement music therapy approaches based on knowledge of and sensitivity to the roles and meanings of musics in diverse cultures.
8.8 Work with culturally diverse populations, applying knowledge of how culture influences issues regarding identity formation, concepts of health and pathology, and understanding of the role of therapy.

AMTA Standards of Practice: 

2.2 The music therapy assessment will explore the client's culture.  This can include but is not limited to race, ethnicity, language, religion/spirituality, socioeconomic status, family experiences, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and social organizations.
2.3 All music therapy assessment methods will be appropriate for the client's chronological age, diagnoses, functioning level, and culture(s). The methods may include, but need not be limited to, observation during music or other situations, interview, verbal and nonverbal interventions, and testing. Information may also be obtained from different disciplines or sources such as the past and present medical and social history in accordance with HIPAA permission regulation.
3.6.1 The Music Therapist will include music, instruments, and musical elements, from the client's culture as appropriate.

AMTA Code of Ethics:
1.8  acquire knowledge and information about the specific cultural group(s) with whom they work, seeking supervision and education as needed.
2.3  be aware and accepting of client's individual factors and cultural differences in the treatment process.

There are several references to being aware of client cultural backgrounds and being appropriate, but there aren't many references to how to get to this understanding. I think that tends to be one of the difficulties that we have in our profession - there are SO many possibilities that it is impossible to set out specific knowledge points to consider during working with clients. I wonder if there could ever be a comprehensive list of cultural considerations to take when working with clients - any clients.  I took exactly one course that was a bit related to this topic way back in my undergraduate studies, but that was all. I don't think that course really gave me the understanding that I needed to use this concept of cultural awareness in my music therapy practice. I don't know. I guess, as I am thinking through this, the best thing we can do for our future music therapists is to equip them with the skills that they need to learn about culture and how to figure out what to look for in their learning about each client that comes along.

So, how do we do that? That's another something to think about - something else to write down on the list of questions that I'm considering. This list is growing and growing as I continue to ponder cultural appropriation and other ideas that branch off from that particular train of thought.

Next week, I hope to have some more reading finished. I received a paper from a music therapist who has done some more studying about ethnomusicology than me, so I have that to read and think about as well as continuing with my reading in my Hadley book.

As I've been traversing this topic, I am finding SO many examples of cultural examples in social media, in my day-to-day interactions, in my consumption of television songs, and in my reading. As soon as I open my eyes to possibilities, I find examples everywhere.

Thanks for going on this journey with me.