The purpose of this multiple case study was to examine the experiences of four elementary general music teachers (first year, early-career, mid-career, late-career) during the time of COVID-19. We considered impacts on the participants' instruction and professional lives from data that were collected throughout the 2020-2021 academic year. Participants reported changes to their teaching environments, schedules, and job responsibilities. They shared the technology resources they implemented and highlighted inequities that emerged for virtual versus in-person students. Participants provided insight into the impacts of the year on their personal lives as well. Our implications include considerations for music teachers, music teacher educators, and school administrators as a result of participants' experiences.
Recent curriculum policy changes in British Columbia (BC) require that educators in all subject areas-including music-embed local Indigenous knowledge, pedagogies, and worldviews in their classes. Yet facilitating such decolonizing cross-cultural music education activities requires knowledge that music educators may not currently possess. We use four models created by an Indigenous Arts scholar to examine the interface of Indigenous and Western art musics in performing arts settings: (a) integration, (b) nation-to-nation music trading and reciprocal presentation, (c) a combination of the first two models, and (d) non-integrative encounters that are in relationship but have irreconcilable elements. We consider the applicability of these models in music education settings, using them to analyze our findings from a study in which we explored the ways teachers have embedded local First Nations songs and drumming in classes in a single metropolitan school district in BC.