The concept of teacher as cultural manager examines two teachers working in a difficult school context and compares their characteristics and behaviour in this context to theory derived from a larger ongoing study. The paper outline a preliminary study that has been created to identify a framework of research strategies that are able to capture the characteristics of good practice in music teaching that promotes social inclusion. The study is philosophically founded upon Buber’s notion of inclusive relationships and explores a description of the characteristics of the teacher and community derived from a doctoral study into the meaning of music to children and the ways in which teachers give access to meaningful music making. The findings suggest that the teacher performs multiple roles to facilitate access to meaningful music experience through their relationship with community and the students. The role of teacher as builder of context and as a manager of the cultural life of students emerges as an important concept that requires further study in a larger investigation.