Community Music and Social Capital

Author(s):  
Patrick M. Jones ◽  
Thomas W. Langston

This article discusses how music educators serve community music (CM) functions and CM facilitators serve music education functions. A key community role of music educators is to help students develop the musical skills, knowledge, habits, and dispositions to engage musically throughout life. A key music education role of CM facilitators is to help musicians in CM settings develop similar attributes, as well as fostering the types of ensembles and musical experiences in which people of various ages and social and economic strata can engage.

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Virginia Eulacio Cierniak

Music is an accessible tool for positive change within people and societies, even in places facing socioeconomic marginalization due to poverty, discrimination, and lack of access to resources. Social capital has to do with the resources and networks available within society, which may help confront issues faced by individuals and communities. Community Music Therapy (CoMT) and the music education movement known as El Sistema both utilize music—understood as social capital—to address social justice. The purpose of this study was to comparatively examine the ways in which CoMT and El Sistema programs may address the empowerment needs of individuals and communities facing socioeconomic marginalization and suggest how these two approaches may be able to work synergistically to achieve their shared goals. Its findings reveal many parallels and divergence between El Sistema and CoMT in terms of the role of the music, program structure, social justice goals, outcomes, music education practice, areas of intersection, existing scholarly research, and criticisms each has received.


2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita Prest

The inclusion of local Indigenous knowledge, pedagogy, and worldview in music education is increasingly relevant to music educators globally. This article contributes to the extensive body of knowledge already written on the subject by focusing on the contribution of such inclusion to localized societal change. My doctoral study examined the growth and contributions of bridging social capital to rural community vitality in British Columbia (BC), Canada via three school–community music education partnerships. I found that the members of one of those partnerships, the International Choral Kathaumixw Festival in Powell River, BC, engaged in ongoing cultural dialogue with local Tla’amin First Nation members over a 30-year period in order to foster meaningful inclusion of local cultural practices in that festival. This cultural dialogue ultimately contributed to more harmonious social, cultural, political, and economic relationships between settler and Tla’amin First Nation populations. The mandate of the festival, the ongoing music making activities that featured Tla’amin themes and cultural participation, the large contingent of local community volunteers and performers, and the physical commons created by music making all contributed to a shift in relations between the community of Powell River and the Tla’amin First Nation. I offer that the bridging social capital fostered by this partnership may provide insight and direction for music educators globally who wish to promote Indigenous cultural practices in their schools. A bridging social capital or relational approach based on long-term reciprocity with local Indigenous culture bearers may help music educators work towards more culturally appropriate/responsive curriculum and pedagogy in their practice.


2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurie Sklar

<p>The purpose of this comparative case study was to investigate, explore, and describe the methods and practices of secondary instrumental music education in a public school setting. Two sites, a Rhode Island public school and a Rhode Island community music school, were chosen for observation. Two major ensembles, a jazz band and a concert band, were observed at each site on four different occasions. Observations were organized by the National Standards of Music Education, although the study did not focus on whether or not the programs “met” the standards. Data was also placed into the category of non-musical factors. Observations and analysis found that the non-musical factors, and themes that emerged from those factors, were the largest noticeable difference between the two sites. These factors also contributed to the disparity in the two sites abilities to address the standards. Non-musical factors such as scheduling and interruptions were the major issues facing the public school site, including split rehearsal times between ensembles and missed rehearsals due to assemblies. Both sites had significant gaps in their addressing of the standards, although the community music school met more of the standards. This may just be a result of the increase in time spent in rehearsal. This research opens the questions of whether or not the constraints facing public school music educators are hindering their ability to fully educate their students. Research can also be performed to gauge the perceptions that secondary instrumental music educators have on the standards.</p>


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 30
Author(s):  
Virginia Eulacio Cierniak

Music is an accessible tool that has been used to foster change within people and societies, even in those places facing socioeconomic marginalization due to poverty, discrimination, and lack of access to resources. Social capital has to do with the resources and networks available within a society, which may help confront issues faced by individuals and communities. Community Music Therapy (CoMT) and the music education movement known as El Sistema* both utilize music—understood as social capital—to address social justice. Part I of this article defines CoMT and examines the purpose and goals of CoMT and El Sistema comparatively, and the ways in which their programs may address the empowerment needs of individuals and communities facing socioeconomic marginalization. Part II reviews the findings of a study that leads toward a suggestion of how these two approaches may be able to work synergistically to achieve their shared goals. Findings reveal many parallels and divergences between El Sistema and CoMT which may be useful in advancing change. This article defines the role of the music, program structure, social justice goals, outcomes, music education practice, areas of intersection, existing scholarly research, and criticisms each has received, in an effort to further advance the understanding and possibilities music’s influence may have on society. 


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.


Author(s):  
C. Michael Palmer

This chapter acknowledges the growth of jazz ensembles in instrumental music education and the value of preparing future music educators to teach jazz. It situates jazz pedagogy in an authentic, experiential framework, emphasizing the important role of the rhythm section and what it means to be culturally literate through improvisation. Topics such as jazz theory, swing feel, and jazz styles are examined. The chapter also discusses a paradigm shift in the conceptualization of music education, whereby an interpreter-performer perspective is replaced by a creator-performer perspective. Musicians’ roles as composers and improvisers in the jazz idiom suggest learning this art form is relevant for developing creative performers who may then be able to participate in a variety of other musical cultures.


2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 243-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilia–Ángeles Campayo–Muñoz ◽  
Alberto Cabedo–Mas

Developing emotional skills is one of the challenges that concern teachers and researchers in education, since these skills promote well-being and enhance cognitive performance. Music is an excellent tool with which to express emotions and for this reason music education should play a role in individuals’ emotional development.This paper reviews the results of previous studies that explore the connections between active engagement with music and the development of emotional skills, specifically in the field of music education. A sample of 21 investigations was analysed.The results from the selected studies show that music has multiple benefits for the development of certain aspects of emotional skills and positive implications for education. Suggestions for music educators gathered from the previous research are presented and potential areas of interest for further exploration in the field are identified.


Author(s):  
David J. Elliott ◽  
Marissa Silverman

This chapter offers a philosophical perspective on the central aims and values of music teacher education with a specific focus on the ethical dimensions of music teaching and learning. Drawing on the work of music education scholars, philosophers of mind, and philosophers of education, the chapter builds an argument for the view that music teacher education should be ethically guided and ethically applied in practice. Additionally, it suggests that “pedagogical content” should include dialogical discussions and activities related to the role of ethics in music teacher education because, among many values, the professional work of future music educators involves highly refined ethical sensibilities and opportunities for their own students to learn the nature of and strategies for acting rightly, appropriately, and responsibly in their future circumstances. Indeed, ethically guided music teacher education offers the profession rich opportunities to develop “ethically right” compassion, caring, and generosity toward others.


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