Culturally Responsive SEL in Your Choral/General Music Classroom
Date
June 9-August 1, 2025
Online
Course Code
MECA: 8155B, MMEd: 590 *
Credits
MECA: 3, MMEd: 2 *
Tuition
$1146
Course Description
This course is not your typical professional development on social and emotional learning (SEL). Get ready to dive deeper into how our general and choral music classrooms are gateways for both teacher and student to find identity, belonging, and agency. In this class, there will be discussion of topics such as:
- Foundational understanding of social and emotional learning for both the teacher and students
- Elements of culturally responsive teaching specifically for the music classroom and going beyond “diversifying” curriculum
- Teacher positionality and philosophies
- Introduction to transformative social and emotional learning’s effect in music learning
- Approaches to co-creating student-centered material and experiences
The course will consist of reading texts and supplemental material, participating in discussions, engaging in personal reflections, and producing practical and meaningful projects that will challenge you to guide your students to be future change-makers in their communities.
* This course is offered at two course levels. Students enrolled in the MMEd program at VanderCook are eligible to enroll for the 500 course number. Students not enrolled in the MMEd program who wish to earn graduate credit as a MECA Continuing Education student should register for the 7000 course number. The difference in credits earned and tuition cost is attributed to the difference in tuition rates for the MMEd and MECA Continuing Education programs. If you are unsure which section is best for you, please contact us directly at [email protected].
Instructor
Darlene Machacon (she/her/hers) is a passionate and accomplished Filipina-American music educator with extensive experience in both the classroom and as a leader in the field of social-emotional learning (SEL) and culturally responsive teaching. As a music educator and content creator residing in southern California, Darlene has dedicated her career to reimagining the ways in which general and choral music education can be inclusive, culturally relevant, and transformative for students in a post-pandemic world.
Darlene earned her Master of Music in Music Education from VanderCook College of Music in 2022, where she conducted research on the impact of Transformative SEL in elementary general music classrooms. She holds dual Bachelor’s degrees in Music Education and Piano Performance from Biola University.
Currently, Darlene teaches at La Quinta High School in Orange County, California, where she directs three choirs and teaches other courses such as piano and AP Music Theory. Under her leadership, the school’s choirs consistently earn superior ratings and within one year of her teaching, enrollment has more than doubled in size. In addition, Darlene also serves as a key advisor for Tri-M Music Honor Society and Girl’s League.
In addition to her classroom work, Darlene serves as an adjunct professor every summer at VanderCook College of Music’s MECA program, where she teaches a course on Culturally Responsive SEL for K-12 music classrooms.