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Radical musicking: towards a pedagogy of social change

2014; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 16; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14613808.2014.909397

1469-9893

Juliet Hess,

Teacher Education and Leadership Studies

Abstract This research examines the work of four elementary music educators who strive to challenge the dominant paradigm of music education. I employed the methodology of a multiple case study to consider the discourses, practices and philosophies of these four educators. I observed in each school for an eight-week period for two full days each week, conducting semi-structured interviews at the beginning, middle and end of each observation process. At each school, I followed an observation protocol, in addition to completing three interviews and keeping a journal. In this work, I mobilise a tri-faceted lens that combines the theoretical frameworks of anti-colonialism, anti-racism and anti-racist feminism towards counterhegemonic goals. The teachers' diverse practices include critically engaging with issues of social justice, studying a broad range of musics, introducing multiple musical epistemologies, contextualising musics, considering differential privilege and subverting hegemonic practices. In many ways, these four individuals interrupt the traditional Eurocentric focus on Western classical music to explore different possibilities with their students. I argue that a truly radical music education involves shifting from a liberal to a critical paradigm. Drawing on the work of French philosophers Deleuze and Guattari, Russian literary theorist Bakhtin and music education philosopher Elizabeth Gould, I work to reread the findings of this study radically, and ultimately put forward tenets of a radical music education. Keywords: music educationcritical pedagogysocial justice Notes on contributors Juliet Hess is an Assistant Professor of music education at the Setnor School of Music at Syracuse University with a dual appointment in the School of Education. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in elementary and secondary methods, foundations in music education, assessment in music education, and choral literature for elementary and secondary school teaching. Juliet Hess' research interests include anti-oppression education, music education for social justice, and the question of ethics in world music study. Her doctoral thesis, "Radical Musicking: Challenging Dominant Paradigms in Elementary Music Education" (University of Toronto), focused on the work of four elementary music teachers who strove to challenge dominant paradigms of music education in their classrooms. She has presented at many international conferences, most recently including the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) Conference in St. Louis in April 2014, Research in Music Education (RIME) in Exeter, UK in April 2013, MAYDAY in East Lansing, Michigan in June 2012, and Images of Whiteness at Oxford, UK in July 2012. Her scholarly research has been published in the Philosophy of Music Education Review (PMER), Visions of Research in Music Education (VRME), Music Education Research (MER), Research Studies in Music Education (RSME), Proteus: A Journal of Ideas, and Encounters on Education. Notes 1. Conferences such as the First International Conference on Equity and Social Justice in Music Education at Teachers College, Columbia University in 2006, musica ficta/Lived Realities: Engagements and Exclusions in Music, Education and the Arts at the University of Toronto in 2008, Race, Erasure and Equity in Music Education Conference at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 2010, and the 2nd Symposium on LGBT Studies and Music Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in 2012 bring issues of social justice and music education to the table, as do special issues in journals such as Music Education Research (MER), Gender, Education, Music, Society (GEMS) and Action, Theory and Criticism for Music Education (ACT). 2. For discussion, see in particular Goldberg (Citation1993, 4–5) and Bonilla-Silva (Citation2006, 26–28). 3. As Allsup (Citation2013) illuminates in his work on closed and opens forms, the discussion of Barthes (Citation1977) concept of the death of the author is important here. The 'text' or music no longer privileges its author. Rather, after writing, the place of the author in the text is that of a guest (65). 4. All names are changed to protect confidentiality. 5. Creswell's (Citation2007) sample case study was 'bounded by time (six months of data collection) and place (situated on a single campus)' (93). 6. In Canada, students in grades 7 and 8 range from age 12 to 14. 7. Orff instruments are barred pitched percussion instruments that include xylophones, metallophones and glockenspiels of various sizes. The bars on Orff instruments are inscribed with letter names of each note. 8. I note here that although the majority of students were white, they were not all Western European. Many students had family histories of marginalisation. 9. I remind the reader that the discussion of smooth and striated space is from the work of Deleuze and Guattari (Citation1987). 10. The instant association with the plantation owners is interesting and disturbing, but for the purposes of this conversation, I do not extend this discussion.