Politics of Song

Music has always been intertwined with social movements. People use songs, and they are mediated by songs. Music shapes society, and society is shaped by music and musicking. Elementary students are more than able to grapple with concepts such as identity construction and representation in song. Music as protest, propaganda, and resistance is also well within their cognitive, if not visceral, understanding. This chapter serves to remind us that listening to and performing music can lead toward a heightened awareness of social inequities. With the help of John Lennon and Sly and the Family Stone, this chapter discusses the ways in which music gets used as well as what happens to musics that were intended for a socially driven purpose but become used in ways that undermine their previous social significance.

Afterword

This chapter brings the book to a close with a brief afterword reflecting on the place of dialogue in the social and the musical, returning always to John Dewey as we think through listening that challenges and moves beyond one-way engagements to genuine dialogue. Vivian Gussin Paley, an early childhood educator, for whom issues of exclusion were always foremost in her mind, helps frame a final consideration of the ways our acts of “intervention” often prevent the affordance of genuine dialogue and thus, voice. Socially just engagements, then, are the new beginnings and pedagogical encounters in which we listen and attend in ways that vow humility, recognition, and agency.

Educating for Intelligent Belief or Unbelief

We live in a time in which spiritual and religious beliefs, ways of knowing and being in the world, are positioned as conflicting and radically incompatible. The purpose of this chapter is to lay out an in-depth rationale for what happens when we engage in religion-blind practices, as well as present general lesson ideas and examples of dialogue that help all of us consider how we come to know our world through belief and unbelief systems. Using musical chant as one way to introduce talking about religion in the classroom, this chapter introduces the reader to one way of opening spaces for discussion about how we come to know our world through belief and unbelief systems.

Friendship and Bullying

Through a series of scaffolded lesson plans that begin in the classroom and then move out into the world, this chapter addresses friendship and bullying through the lens of critical literacy. Friendship has long been the sacrosanct goal of elementary socialization. This chapter calls into question the simplicity of the concept and weighs that against bullying. The texts used in this chapter begin “simply” enough, with books such as Tubby the Tuba and Ben’s Trumpet, but then moves into texts that push students to consider poverty and war as a form of bullying. Books such as Petar’s Song, The Harmonica, and finally Revolución afford opportunities for both critical reflection and musicking, while a reimagined version of Peter and the Wolf asks students to ponder ethical dilemmas grounded in loyalty, death, societal pressures, the human condition, nature, friendship, and sacrifice.

Introduction

This introduction describes the inception and purpose of the book. It situates the background and the experiences that frame the overarching message of the book: our relationships with others are what matter most. At the heart of the socially just encounter is the ability to listen and respond to the other. Thus, outlined here is the concept of genuine dialogue (Martin Buber) accompanied by examples of what dialogue is not and what it can be. This introduction argues not only that elementary students are capable of critical reflection and dialogue but that they are desirous of these encounters.

Soundscapes

Technology presents multiple ways for students to see and interact with their worlds and the worlds of others. Creating, manipulating, organizing, mixing, and remixing sounds supports opportunities for students in all grades to speak through and with sound in order to promote social awareness. Listening, as a complex and developed skill, is more than the taking in of presented information. Rather, listening is essential to the co-construction of a mutual relationship. Bringing the same kinds of listening and responding skills articulated throughout this book to the compositional process, this chapter introduces a rationale for creating soundscapes and presents a unit documenting a soundscape project that can be implemented with students of all ages.

Policy and Teaching

This chapter places all the ideas discussed throughout the book in the context of policy and presents a new way of looking at policy as intrinsically connected to the work of teachers. The chapter helps the teacher see the differences between policy as a daily practice in the school and community context and polices as rules and regulations organized around policy texts. Thus, it offers a vision that links policy to pedagogical process articulating this in terms of conscientization, participation, and activism.

Listening and Responding

This chapter makes the case that students deserve to be taught how to read texts critically and interrogate norms, givens, and assumptions. This includes re-evaluating what is meant by the word empowerment, revisiting the purpose of raising hands so that the teacher might decide and control who speaks, challenging current discussion techniques that are ostensibly geared toward teaching students how to respond to the comments of others, and interrogating the ubiquitous practice of classroom rules. The goal established here is to help both teachers and students embrace plurality and difference so that social justice is grounded in our engagements with others.

Communicating Justice and Equity

The goal of this chapter is to model the ways in which both teachers and students learn how to ask the kinds of questions that help to uncover misinformation and bias using a thinking-map exercise. The chapter then situates lullaby as a form of communication rather than simply as something one does or learns. The goal here is to introduce and present opportunities for genuine dialogue that might not occur otherwise, particularly at a very young age, using in particular different formats (books, music, media) of “Hush Little Baby.” Questions such as who gets to sing a lullaby, how certain interpretations come to be shaped and normalized, and what that means for those who hear and understand relationships differently guide the development of this chapter.