Recognizing the Value of Two Aesthetics of Singing: A Strategy for Creating All-Inclusive Singing School Communities

LOUISE PASCALE has worked for over 25 years as a musician and educator, integrating the arts in education. Her career includes: elementary school teacher, music specialist, arts administrator, curriculum writer and teacher trainer. Louise is currently core faculty in Lesley University’s Creative Arts in Learning M.Ed. program where she teaches Integrating the arts into the curriculum, Music workshop, Arts and the special needs child and Integrated project and Seminar. The focus of her teaching centres on awakening teachers to their own creativity ability as well as guiding teachers in designing dynamic curriculum that integrates the arts in a way that reaches all learners. This Masters in Education program is offered across the United States and in Israel. Collecting traditional folk songs, dances and singing games from around the world is one of Louise’s passions. She uses this material with teachers as a tool for enhancing learning and building a strong school community. Her dissertation, Dispelling the myth of the non-singer: Changing the ways singing is perceived, implemented and nurtured in the classroom provides a focus for her continued research on ways to shift the paradigm of how singing is perceived in educational settings.