Promoting cultural understandings through\ncollaborative teaching: virtual drumming\nopportunities in teacher education

Valuing diversity in education and educational research is at the heart of higher education institutes. This research takes place in Australia, a multicultural society that is still predominantly Western Anglo-Celtic. Through blended modes of delivery, this paper focuses on three tertiary educators collaborative autoethnographic voices sharing how they used drumming as a conduit to teach about music and culture\n\nfrom different lands. In preparing initial teacher education\nstudents to be culturally responsive, they argue that pre-\nservice teachers need to be exposed to different pedagogies and practices that foster cultural competencies. Through reflection and collaboration, they provide insight into promoting\n\ndiverse music and culture that can build cultural\ncompetence and culturally responsive pedagogies. They\nrecommend working with colleagues, culture bearers, and\nlocal communities locally or virtually as an effective way to\npromote intercultural understandings. This paper adds to the body of the literature for teacher educators to work reflexively in blended modes. Further research is required to support the value of teaching diverse music and culture to pre-service teachers.<p></p>