Karen Howard
University of Washington
United States

Karen Howard received her BME and MME from the University of Hartford. During her 20 years as a music educator, she has taught elementary and middle school general music and choir. Karen has extensive training in multicultural music and dance including study in Cuba, Tahiti, Ghana, Turkey, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Thailand, Morocco, India, Bali, and Tanzania. She has presented workshops and graduate level courses at the national and international level helping teachers make connections with music and dance of diverse cultures with a special emphasis on hand drumming, vocal techniques, and indigenous dance traditions, as well as arts assessment. She held conducting positions with the Connecticut Childrens Chorus and with district choral festivals.
Karen was recognized as CTMEAs Elementary Music Educator of the Year in 2003. She now resides in Seattle and is a doctoral candidate at the University of Washington in music education. Her research has focused on childrens musical culture, world music pedagogy, and the fusion of ethnomusicology and music education practices. Her published work includes articles on community music in a school setting, the history of multicultural music education in the United States, childrens informal singing, and pedagogical ideas for archival materials. Her dissertation research revolves around multicultural goals including equity pedagogy and knowledge construction and their role in an elementary music classroom.