Jarritt Ahmed Sheel is in his fifth year as a graduate student in the Department of Music and Music Education at Columbia University Teachers College. He also teaches at Berklee College of Music. As a professional musician, he has gone on tours worldwide and worked with hundreds of high school band students in Illinois, Florida, and New York.
Sheel taught college-level critical theory classes, art history, and democracy at the City University of New York system. He has also taught music at NYU’s Valencia College, which won the Aspen Award.
Sheel works in the Jazz Education Department at New York City’s Lincoln Center and used to lead the Youth Workshop Band. His research is mainly about the hip-hop movement in music education and teacher training. He is a strong supporter of arts education.
He is on the Board of Directors of the Association for Popular Music Education and the Innovation Committee of the National Association for Music Education. He helped start the music resource site Hip-Hop Music Ed and is a leader in the #hiphopmusiced conversation on social media.
Sheel is proud to be a son, husband, and father. When he’s not working, he likes to spend time with his family and friends.
“I want my students to have a deeper practical and philosophical understanding of what it means to educate students to be artistic, culturally relevant, democratic actors, and good citizens, while using music as a means, not an end.
I want them to think deeply about Think about and try to understand what critical theory is, what it’s for, how, why, and what it’s about, as well as the small goals that are hidden in the course. In short, listen up!”
“I want my students to feel like they have my back as I study. Since a lot of my work is about critical thinking and applying critical theory to my courses, I want my students to go home with a better understanding of both. I later learned that it’s important to interact with different points of view to deepen understanding and create good teaching concepts and practices.
