Transforming Learning through Performing Arts and Community Engagement

El Sistema is a Venezuelan music program that has inspired a global movement due to its social mission to fight poverty and improve the human condition.  The El Sistema model provides high-quality instrumental instruction to children from a broad range of socio-economic backgrounds in over twenty-five countries around the world (Fundacion, 2012).  Inspired by El Sistema’s paradigm for social change, this Venezuelan model has emerged as the catalyst for the University of Michigan (U-M) to develop an innovative, multi-disciplinary teaching and scholarship approach.  The U-M School of Music, Theatre and Dance (SMTD), School of Social Work (SSW), and School of Education (SOE) partnered with Ann Arbor Public Schools (AAPS) to develop an afterschool music intervention program. The program was designed to target underperforming schools in under-resourced communities for purpose of: i) addressing racial and ethnic disparities in student achievement and improving overall school outcomes; ii) developing a social engagement curriculum for SMTD graduate students; and iii) creating research and training opportunities for students in the SSW and SOE.  Through the interdisciplinary research partnership, faculty, graduate students, school administrators, and key stakeholders utilized a participatory research approach in designing, implementing, and evaluating the El Sistema Mitchell pilot program. SMTD students provided string instrument instruction to 22 fifth-grade Mitchell Elementary students in partnership with Mitchell’s school orchestra/general music teacher. It was expected that by having children participate in regularly and extensively high-quality, ensemble music education students would develop music literacy, a stronger sense of personal agency, improved academic performance, and increased sense of community.  In addition, U-M graduate student music instructors would develop an improved sense of social consciousness in delivering music instruction in untraditional community settings using the El Sistema pedagogical model.  A single group pretest-posttest multi-method research design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the El Sistema Mitchell pilot project and a formative evaluation was performed to document the program’s emerging curriculum for replication and expansion purposes.  The results of the program evaluation offered evidence that: i) students’ feelings of acceptance from family members, teachers, and peers improved significantly; ii) students’ showed significant positive improvement in the way they felt about school; iii) students’ experienced high levels of musical achievement, increased opportunities for learning, an understanding of the benefits of discipline, perseverance, and hard work; iv) there was a greater sense of school pride and school community post program; v) graduate instructors developed a greater sense of self and social consciousness in relation to their instruction and its impact on improved music and developmental outcomes of students and the increased level of school and community support; and vi) graduate instructors experienced personal and professional gains from teaching and engaging the students, their families, and the school community.