Becoming part of the city: Influences on the career choice of an urban music educator

The purpose of this case study was to examine and describe the life experiences that influenced one music teacher’s career choice to teach music in an urban school. The primary research question is: What experiences influenced the participant to pursue urban music education as a career? Calling upon research into urban music education and career choice, the article used a “secondary analysis” of survey, journal, and interview data collected in a larger investigation of the teacher career cycle, as viewed through the lens of narrative research. Findings are presented in four categories, and indicate that the teacher’s career choice was influenced by three primary elements: (a) feeling a need to be of service to others; (b) experiencing cultural differences; and (c) curiosity about the city; all of which led to (d) being a part of the city. These elements combined to form not just a career choice, but a strong sense of commitment to teaching music in a specific city. Implications for both urban music education and music teacher education are discussed, as are suggestions for further research.

Social Justice and Urban Music Education

Music education has had an ambiguous and fraught relationship with urban schools. This chapter seeks to address this tension through an elucidation of two related problems: how to understand the notion of “urban music education,” and how to approach the intersection between the former and various commitments to social justice. To do this, the authors challenge the taken-for-granted definition of urban music, suggesting that social justice commitments require a more nuanced understanding of what constitutes “the urban,” which highlights social inequalities. The authors provide an introduction to various understandings of social justice and summarize four different approaches to anti-oppressive pedagogy in music education, focusing on access, representation, pedagogy, and ideology. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of a cultural production approach to social justice in urban music education.