A feminine and poststructural extension of cosmopolitan ethics in music education

2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 414-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Kapalka Richerme
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Ethical Principles ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Historical Factors ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Teachers And Students

The interconnected nature of 21st-century life demands that music educators and students consider those beyond their immediate communities in their ethical deliberations. While Appiah’s cosmopolitan ethical principles of universal concern and respect for legitimate difference may serve as a starting point for global ethical considerations in music education, they are potentially problematic for three reasons: their abstract nature can lead to the dehumanization of those about whom one claims concern; they can reinforce existing hegemonic divides between “legitimate” and “deviant” music-making; and they can lead to fixed understandings of practices and people. A feminine and poststructural extension of cosmopolitan ethics may assist music educators and students in addressing these issues. First, through a synthesis of the principle of universal concern and Noddings’ feminine ethics, music educators and students can resist dehumanizing others by aiming to “care for” and “care with” them. Second, teachers and students can use Foucault’s writings to consider how power-laden, socio-historical factors produce conceptions of legitimacy. Finally, drawing inspiration from Deleuzian ethical writings, music educators and students can challenge stagnant worldviews by promoting “legitimate differing” and imagining creative, evolving ethical futures.

Creating Virtual Ensembles: Common Approaches from Research and Practice

2021 ◽  
Vol 107 (3) ◽  
pp. 38-46
Author(s):  
Christopher Cayari
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Music Production ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Online Music ◽  
Education Courses

A virtual ensemble is a digital musical product that uses multiple recordings edited together to form a musical ensemble. Creating virtual ensembles can be a way for music educators to engage students through online music-making. This article presents eight steps for creating virtual ensembles in music education courses and classrooms. The steps are (1) identifying objectives and desired outcomes, (2) selecting repertoire, (3) developing learning resources, (4) creating an anchor for synchronizing, (5) choosing a recording method, (6) setting up a collection platform, (7) editing in postproduction, and (8) distributing the product. As online music production becomes more prevalent, projects like virtual ensembles can provide creative and exciting experiences for music teachers and students, whether produced in the classroom or through remote means on the Internet.

Could There Be Deleuzian Assessment in Music Education?

2019 ◽  
pp. 121-136
Author(s):  
Lauren Kapalka Richerme
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Continuous Assessment ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
Philosophical Inquiry ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Musical Practices ◽  
Contemporary Education

Authors of contemporary education and arts education policies tend to emphasize the adoption of formal, summative assessment practices. Poststructuralist philosopher Gilles Deleuze’s emphasis on ongoing differing and imaginative possibilities may at first glance appear incompatible with these overarching, codified assessments. While Deleuze criticizes the increasing use of ongoing assessments as a form of control, he posits a more nuanced explanation of measurement. This philosophical inquiry examines four measurement-related themes from Deleuze’s writings and explores how they might inform concepts and practices of assessment in various music teaching and learning contexts. The first theme suggests that each group of connective relations, what Deleuze terms a “plane of immanence,” demands its own forms of measurement. Second, Deleuze emphasizes varieties of measurement. Third, those with power, what Deleuze terms the “majority,” always set the standard for measurement. Fourth, Deleuze derides continuous assessment. His writings suggest that music educators might consider that assessments created for one musical practice or style should not transcend their own “plane of immanence,” that a variety of nonstandardized assessments is desirable, that the effect of measurement on “minoritarian” musical practices must be examined carefully, and that it is essential to ponder the potentials of unmeasured music making.

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.

Accountability Concerns

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay Dorfman
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Music Instruction ◽  
National Standards ◽  
Music Listening ◽  
Educational Culture ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Music Educators National Conference ◽  
Music Standards ◽  
Teachers And Students

With the advent of technology-based music instruction, we are at an important juncture in terms of standards and accountability. To date, there are no sets of standards that directly address the ways in which TBMI teachers and students work, and therefore there is a lack of clarity as to how we are accountable to the larger educational culture. Several sets of standards exist that come close; they address either the musical or the technological portions of TBMI, but not both. Others address teachers’ roles or students’ roles, but not both. In this chapter, we will examine relevant sets of standards and explore how they imply accountability for TBMI teachers and students. In 1994, the Music Educators National Conference (now the National Association for Music Education) released a document outlining the National Standards for Music Education, in coordination with similar standards in theater, art, and dance. The nine music standards from 1994 were the following: Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music. Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments. Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines. Reading and notating music. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music. Evaluating music and music performances. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts. Understanding music in relation to history and culture. The NAfME standards suggest curricula that are distributed among performance, musical creativity, and connections between music and context. These are noble goals for which teachers should strive. The NAfME standards are widely accepted, and many teachers refer to them as benchmarks to assess the completeness of curriculum. In no way do the NAfME standards suggest that musical learning should be achieved through technology, nor do they contain suggestions about how students should meet any of them. In this way, the shapers of the NAfME standards are to be commended because the standards are flexible enough that they can be addressed in ways teachers see fit. Therefore, the standards passively suggest that technology-based music instruction is as valid a means of music learning as are other forms.

Education Through Music: Towards A South African Approach

1993 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-261
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Oehrle
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Music Education ◽  
South African ◽  
Present Situation ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Intercultural Education ◽  
Western Music ◽  
African Music ◽  
Paradoxical Situation ◽  
Music Making

Music making in Africa has been, and is, an essential aspect of living. The philosophy and process of music making in South African schools bares no relevance to this idea. The present situation is that South African music educators are propagating western music education methods, while so-called ‘western’ music educators are turning to Africa to find answers to their perplexing problems. This paradoxical situation highlights the importance of evolving a philosophy and process of intercultural education through music for South Africa which draws upon research into music making in Africa.

The Oxford Handbook of Social Justice in Music Education

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Refugee Camps ◽  
Student Agency ◽  
Music Learning ◽  
Cultural Perspectives ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Comprehensive Survey

This handbook seeks to present a wide-ranging and comprehensive survey of social justice in music education. Contributors from around the world interrogate the complex, multidimensional, and often contested nature of social justice and music education from a variety of philosophical, political, social, and cultural perspectives. Although many chapters take as their starting point an analysis of how dominant political, educational, and musical ideologies serve to construct and sustain inequities and undemocratic practices, authors also identify practices that seek to promote socially just pedagogy and approaches to music education. These range from those taking place in formal and informal music education contexts, including schools and community settings, to music projects undertaken in sites of repression and conflict, such as prisons, refugee camps, and areas of acute social disadvantage or political oppression. In a volume of this scope, there are inevitably many recurring themes. However, common to many of those music education practices that seek to create more democratic and equitable spaces for musical learning is a belief in the centrality of student agency and a commitment to the too-often silenced voice of the learner. To that end, this Handbook challenges music educators to reflect critically on their own beliefs and pedagogical practices so that they may contribute more effectively to the creation and maintenance of music learning environs and programs in which matters of access and equity are continually brought to the fore.

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.

Thinking, being, teaching and learning with Spotify: Aspects of existential and essential musical bildung through listening in the classroom

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia Ferm Almqvist
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Streaming Media ◽  
Border Crossing ◽  
Communication Tool ◽  
Virtual Communication ◽  
Dance Teacher ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
And Function

Streaming media seems to have become a natural part in teachers’ professional life. Streamed music, primarily distributed by the company Spotify, sounds in most music and dance classrooms, not least in Swedish schools. Hence, the concepts of digitalization and listening are accentuated within the area of music education. Within the frames of a larger border-crossing research project financed by Wallenbergstiftelsen ‐ ‘Evolving bildung in the nexus of streaming services, art and users: Spotify as a case’, which aims to explore the meaning and function of streaming media as a facilitator of bildung, using Spotify as a case ‐ this presentation takes two interviews regarding Spotify use as a starting point. One music teacher and one dance teacher, among sixteen participants, were interviewed about their use of Spotify. The aim with the specific analysis was to describe the phenomenon of bildung regionalized to relational school settings, where streamed music, teachers and students come together in intended learning situations. The interviews were stimulated by the teachers’ own Spotify interfaces, and documented by the virtual communication tool Zoom. They were transcribed and analysed in a phenomenological narrative manner. The narrative is shaped as a dialogue between the two teachers, to make similarities and differences regarding relations with Spotify in the classroom setting visible. The result shows aspects of existential and essential bildung through listening taking place as being, thinking and acting with Spotify in the spirit of Heidegger.

scholarly journals MUSIC-MAKING IN A FAMILY – THE LIFELONG LEARNING TRADITIONS AND CHALLENGES OF HOME-LEARNING

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 78-89
Author(s):  
Iveta Dukaļska
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Field Study ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Opportunity To Learn ◽  
Musical Instrument ◽  
Cultural Environment ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Home Learning

The aim of the present study is to compare the training of folk musical instrument play within families until 1960s in the traditional cultural environment of Latvia’s countryside to the opportunities of the same training in the early 21st century – outside the formal education but within the context of life-long learning.Data for the research were acquired in field study, questionnaires in the virtual environment, and also the information from the Internet on the offer of music schools and institutions of non-formal education in the field of musical instrument play was used.Until 1950s and ‘60s the basics of the musical instrument play were acquired by children within their respective families, with the musicians of the elderly generation being their tutors. The aspirations to become a musician were sparked by family traditions, the high esteem of a musician as a personality by the local community, as well as the child’s own willingness and perseverance in acquisition of an instrument’s technique. The field-study interviews show musicians always referring to past experience and family tradition, namely, some member of the family already was a musician – granddad, dad, uncle – while granny or mother have been good singers. In the cultural environment of 1960s’ countryside the two traditions – singing and music-making – are separated. The tradition of singing (both everyday and church) and its functioning in the local community was mainly sustained by the women, while playing the instruments was the part of the men. The children started to acquire the technique of a musical instrument roughly at the age of 6–10 years, while the full status of a musician within a community could be acquired by the aspiring player as early as at the age of 16, after having played for several times at some community events (an open-air dance “zaļumballe” or an evening get-together „večerinka” in Latgale). During that period the playing skills were acquired without the ability to read score, based on musical memory.At the end of the 20th century and the early 21st most frequently the playing skills of an instrument (like violin, clarinet or accordion) are acquired attending some institution of music education, while both children and adults have an opportunity to learn the technique of some folk instrument (zither, harmonica, little drum, etc.) within some non-formal education setting or that of an amateur group.The present study analysis the factors either helping or hindering the continuation of the folk music- making tradition in the cultural environment of the 21st century, based on the opportunities for learning the techniques within the home-learning and life-long learning contexts.  

Challenges in Music Education Facing the New South Africa

1998 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Oehrle
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Music Education ◽  
New South ◽  
Informal Institutions ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Formal Sector ◽  
Dynamic Changes ◽  
Relevant Today ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Musical Practices

South Africa is undergoing dynamic changes affecting all aspects of life, and legacies of the previous regime have a bearing on these changes. Music educators informal institutions face many challenges. Music-making in the informal sector is extensive, ongoing and relevant. Today, one of the greatest challenges for music educators in the formal sector is to realise the importance and value of developing a philosophy and process of music education that emanates and evolves from musics and musical practices existing in southern Africa.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document