scholarly journals Critically Assessing Forms of Resistance in Music Education

2019 ◽  
pp. 81-100
Author(s):  
Brent C. Talbot ◽  
Hakim Mohandas Amani Williams
Keyword(s):  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Paulo Freire ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Multiple Forms ◽  
Consciousness Raising ◽  
The World ◽  
Music Classrooms

In their classrooms, music educators draw upon critical pedagogy (as described by Freire, Giroux, and hooks) for the express purpose of cultivating a climate for conscientização. Conscientização, according to Paulo Freire (2006), “refers to learning to perceive social, political, and economic contradictions and to take action against the oppressive elements of reality” (p. 35). This consciousness raising is a journey teachers pursue with students, together interrogating injustices in communities and the world in order to transform the conditions that inform them. Learning to perceive social, political, and economic contradictions often leads to multiple forms of resistance in and out of music classrooms. This chapter explores the following question: What do critical forms of assessment look like in music classrooms that use critical pedagogy and embrace resistance to foster conscientization?

Trans Voices Speak: Suggestions from Trans Educators about Working with Trans Students

2021 ◽  
Vol 108 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-56
Author(s):  
Christopher Cayari ◽  
Felix A. Graham ◽  
Emma Joy Jampole ◽  
Jared O’Leary
Keyword(s):  
Identity Development ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Gender Nonconforming ◽  
The Past ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Trans People ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Music Classrooms

The social climate in the past decade has seen a rise in visibility of trans students in music classrooms and ensembles, leading to a need for scholarship on how to serve this growing population. Literature is being published to address this topic; however, the lack of scholarship by trans educators might lead many music educators to conclusions and practices that can be, at the very least, discouraging to some trans students and may disrupt their learning experiences. This article was written by four educators who identify as part of the trans community (a genderfluid and gender-nonconforming individual, a trans man, a trans woman, and a gender-nonbinary person) to fill this gap in the literature by illuminating some of the pitfalls inherent in the lack of discussion on (and by) trans people in music education. In addition, this article provides five actionable suggestions for working with trans students: (1) Learn about the trans community, (2) inspect your language and biases, (3) represent the diversity of trans people in your teaching, (4) promote healthy music-making and identity development, and (5) model allyship.

A toe-tapping good time: Informal musicking through critical pedagogy in inclusive settings

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 497-511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Verne Hélène Lorway
Keyword(s):  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Western Society ◽  
Good Time ◽  
Student Voices ◽  
Inclusive Settings ◽  
Music Class

This article draws upon the experiences of the author as a music educator creating inclusive music programmes over the past 24 years. She describes how informal learning gleaned from the approaches of popular musicians, combined with musicking as a means of building powerful relationships and critical pedagogy to infuse student voices into the teaching and learning process is a potent recipe for building an inclusive music class. Such a method needs to be guided by music educators throughout the learning process. Examining inclusive music education leads to further questions regarding what constitutes musicality and non-musicality in western society. When persons of all ages are involved in musicking in school and community contexts, music educators need to be involved in the challenges surrounding notions of musicality and non-musicality to steer processes that can create spaces for learning and growth.

Optimizing Optimal Experiences: Practical Strategies to Facilitate Flow for 21st-Century Music Educators

2020 ◽  
Vol 107 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-41
Author(s):  
Leonard Tan ◽  
Hui Xing Sin
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Flow Theory ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Flow Experience ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Theory Research ◽  
Flow Experiences ◽  
Music Classrooms ◽  
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

In 1990, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi warned against an excessive emphasis on how well music learners perform rather than on the experiential aspect of music in and of itself. Whereas the former approach is, in his words, “a source of psychic disorder,” the latter approach offers access to “flow”: the optimal, enjoyable, meaningful, and happy state. What might an approach to music education that aims to optimize optimal experiences (i.e., flow) look like? This article presents concrete strategies to facilitate flow experiences in music classrooms and rehearsal halls by drawing on flow theory, research findings, and the authors’ own professional and applied experiences. The authors clarify the nature of the flow experience, sketch the benefits of flow, and propose ten strategies to facilitate flow for music educators.

Choosing Engaging Tools for the Music Classroom

2021 ◽  
pp. 43-55
Author(s):  
James Thomas Frankel
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Music Classroom ◽  
Software Designers ◽  
Music Making ◽  
The World ◽  
Software And Hardware ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
Music Classrooms

Over the course of the past fifty years, countless software and hardware products have been introduced into music classrooms around the world with varying degrees of pedagogical success. The majority of these products were geared toward professional and amateur musicians and composers, only to be introduced to music teachers, either organically (teachers bringing real-world products into their classrooms) or through the efforts of manufacturers to obtain a new revenue stream for their products by selling them to schools. Knowing this, teachers often find it difficult to become aware of, identify, and choose these tools for use in their classroom instruction. The chapter presents key elements in successfully identifying and implementing creative, intuitive, and engaging tools for teaching, learning, and music making in the music classroom, as well as measuring their efficacy. Case studies focusing on the practices of several music educators are presented, including interviews with the software designers to illuminate the process behind innovative design. In addition to these case studies, a discussion of current products and their individual features and design ethos is given, with an emphasis on concepts instead of brands and devices.

scholarly journals Learning to live with doubt: Kierkegaard, Freire, and critical pedagogy

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 834-848 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Paulo Freire ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
The Political ◽  
The World ◽  
Pedagogical Theory ◽  
Political Commitments ◽  
Ethical Significance

What role does doubt play in education? This article addresses this question, initially via an examination of Søren Kierkegaard’s Philosophical Fragments. Kierkegaard, through his pseudonym Johannes Climacus, draws attention to the potentially debilitating and destructive effects of doubt on both teachers and learners. The work of Paulo Freire is helpful in responding to the problems posed by Kierkegaard’s account. It is argued that in Freire’s pedagogical theory and practice, doubt has both epistemological and ethical significance. It is linked with other key Freirean virtues such as humility and openness, and it forms part of the process of learning how to question. It is also related, through the Freirean idea of being ‘less certain of one’s certainties’, to the ethical priorities we determine, the political commitments we have, and the actions we take as we negotiate our way in the world.

Integrating Cantonese Nursery Rhymes Into Early Childhood Music Classrooms: A Lesson for Learning Music, Language, and Culture

2021 ◽  
pp. 104837132110262
Author(s):  
Yingying Pan
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Cultural Awareness ◽  
Lesson Plan ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
World Music ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Early Childhood Music ◽  
Chinese Music ◽  
Music Classrooms

As cultural diversity is increasingly celebrated in classrooms, multicultural learning in music education has become more essential and meaningful. Therefore, this article emphasizes the integration of Cantonese nursery rhymes into early childhood music classrooms by providing a detailed lesson plan and some teaching suggestions. This effort aims to enhance students’ cultural awareness and knowledge of world music by integrating Chinese music elements into general music learning. It also serves to provide inspiration and suggests possibilities for music educators who wish to incorporate multicultural elements in music education.

scholarly journals What if Freire Had Facebook? A Critical Interrogation of Social Media Woke Culture Among Privileged Voices in Music Education Discourse

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-52
Author(s):  
William J. Coppola
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Paulo Freire ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Ivory Tower ◽  
Education Professionals ◽  
Alive Today ◽  
Shared Humanity ◽  
Education Discourse

In this paper, I critique the ways in which music education professionals—especially the privileged voices within our field—engage in dialogue through social media outlets such as Facebook. While social media has become a valuable and ubiquitous discursive tool within our field, especially in that it theoretically removes the “ivory tower” of dialogue in academia, here I critique its darker side. Were he alive today, I question how philosopher Paulo Freire would respond to the dialogical opportunities afforded by social media and the emergence of “woke culture.” Particularly when engaging in the work of antiracism, I highlight how privileged music educators can silence any dialogue through their hostility or fragility alike through various forms of call-out culture, cancel culture, virtue signaling, and tone policing. I draw upon the full corpus of Freire’s works to examine the overall veracity of these approaches to antiracist efforts and offer that Freire’s pedagogy was interminably rooted in humility, love, and the pursuit of shared humanity.

The Oxford Handbook of Philosophical and Qualitative Assessment in Music Education

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Qualitative Assessment ◽  
Community Music ◽  
Music Teaching ◽  
Education Assessment ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The World

The Oxford Handbook of Philosophical and Qualitative Assessment in Music Education offers global, comprehensive, and critical perspectives on a wide range of conceptual and practical issues in music education assessment, evaluation, and feedback as these apply to various forms of music education within schools and communities. The central aims of this Handbook focus on broadening and deepening readers’ understandings of and critical thinking about the problems, opportunities, “spaces and places,” concepts, and practical strategies that music educators and community music facilitators employ, develop, and deploy to improve various aspects of music teaching and learning around the world.

Music Education, Curriculum Design, and Assessment: Imagining a More Equitable Approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 106 (4) ◽  
pp. 57-65
Author(s):  
Jennifer Mellizo
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Curriculum Design ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Education Curriculum ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Planning Strategy ◽  
School Music ◽  
Music Classrooms ◽  
Content Pedagogy

Although it is not their intent, conventional curricula may place some students at a disadvantage in school music classrooms. This article offers a practical planning strategy that music educators can use to confront and resist some of these curricular tendencies in subtle yet important ways. By reimagining long-standing norms related to content, pedagogy, and assessment, we can build a system that provides more students with access to a high-quality, equitable, and personally meaningful music education.

Equity via relations of equality: Bridging the classroom-society divide

2021 ◽  
pp. 025576142110058
Author(s):  
Lauren Kapalka Richerme
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Academic Skills ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Community Formation ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Philosophical Inquiry ◽  
Relational Value ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Music Classrooms

Although music educators have asserted the importance of naming systemic inequities, the mechanisms through which practices within music classrooms, such as community formation, may directly challenge the systemic inequities beyond them remain undertheorized. The purpose of this philosophical inquiry is to investigate the nature of equity and to consider which music education practices might best support more equitable societal relations. Explaining the problems of paternalistically imposing one’s vision of equity on others, I offer that by functioning in “relations of equality,” members of society might collaboratively name and challenge contemporary inequities. In considering how music educators might best foster the skills and dispositions needed for lifelong relations of equality, I posit the possibilities of communicative cultural capital, which involves community members interacting effectively across cultural differences, and academic skills cultural capital. When music educators assume that students will develop academic skills through music making, rather than emphasize how to develop such skills, they may end up benefiting students who learn those dispositions in privileged home environments. I also consider how identifying as part of a musical community can motivate individuals to challenge inequities throughout their lives. Equity is not a stable end but a relational value.

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