Chapter 3

Re-thinking “Music” in the Context

of Education

Marie McCarthy
• It finally entered the discourse of music educators in the
late 1970s and 1980s, beginning with the writings of
Barbara Reeder Lindquist,
Thomas Regelski, and Patricia Shehan Campbell, and
culminating more recently
in a praxial approach to music education that is advocated
by numerous scholars,
including Wayne Bowman (1998, 2005), David Elliott
(1995, 2005), Estelle Jorgensen (1997, 2003), and Thomas
Regelski (2004).
• from music as “work” or object to be
performed or consumed
to seeing music as action, evident in phrases
such as “to music,” “music-making,”
“musicking,” or “musicing.”
• music educators are asked to re-conceptualize the way they
hear and see music, that is, to attend to new aspects of a
musical event; to listen
for new levels of meaning from the sounds in context; to look
with new eyes at the
interaction of participants, place, and sound; to acknowledge
the human values that
are transmitted in the act of music making; and to
acknowledge the role of cultural
and social contexts as an integral part of embedded musical
meaning
Roots of Contemporary Music Education Practice

• The values and meanings of music are situated in

the lives, needs, beliefs, and artistic traditions of a
particular group at a particular point in time. Yet, as
music in public
education evolved since the middle of the
nineteenth century, its connections with
the functions and practices of music in society
weakened (Kaplan 1966; McCarthy
2002).
• The wealth of musical traditions in the culture
at large was not tapped or
integrated into the school curriculum. Rather,
the institution of music education narrowed
its focus and aligned its values with the
transmission of Western art music,
in keeping with the goals of general education
that advanced “the best of the West.”
• ignoring the fact that, “Fundamentally,
music is
something that people do” (Elliott 1995,
39).
• The aspects of music transmission that
came to be valued were: standardization,
technical virtuosity, competition, classical
music repertoire, aesthetic idealism, individual
musical talent and achievement, and
development of musicianship based on the
model of the professional musician
• that is, the goal of transmitting art music was seen as
noble, valuable, and appropriate for increasing one’s
cultural capital and gaining access to the delights of
middle-class respectability.

• however, the music curriculum brought to students a

kind of music that was for the most part beyond
their realm of experience and unrelated to their
everyday lives.
• did not place a similar emphasis on educating
students to perform, understand, or evaluate
the music that surrounded them in their
daily lives.
• It was not until the middle decades of the twentieth
century that the music of minority groups, popular music,
and the musical expressions of all peoples began to be
accepted as appropriate for inclusion in school music
programs. In recent decades, albeit in small, incremental
steps, the musical worlds
of school children have been opened up to the sounds of
non-Western musical cultures, and connections are
beginning to be made with the music that students value,
popular music.
Standing at the Crossroads of Tradition and Change:
Paving a Way Forward

• Such traditions can be described using a number of sources that

include
school music textbooks, academic music and music education
textbooks, research
studies, and policy statements.

• The present purpose is to stand at the crossroads of

tradition and change, as it were, and to explore how traditions
associated with music
education practice can be expanded to pave the way for a more
comprehensive and
global music education.
• music educators have come to
a deeper understanding of the role of context
in the meaning and transmission of a
piece of music.
Connecting Students to Multiple Musical Worlds

• At no other time in the history of music education, has

there been access to such
a variety of world music as there is today.

• Furthermore, global musical trends reflect increased

amateur and community music making, collaboration
among musicians across the world, increased
consumption of music, and growth of
hybrid musical genres.
Re-inventing Tradition: Music Education in Tune with Music in Contemporary Life

• . In this approach, music instruction is likely to be relevant

to students’ interests and skill levels, true to contemporary
trends in musical culture, and flexible in its responses to change
in that culture.

• In general education today, the demand for relevant learning

material, concrete results, measurable outcomes, and clear
benefits to the consumer (that is,
learner) represent values that are embedded in school culture.
• As music educators, we are
challenged to incorporate these qualities of musical
experience into instruction:
the spiritual, which connects humans to a divine
source; the therapeutic, which
assists in the healing process; and the psychosocial,
which facilitates the bonding
of human beings and the achievement of self-
actualization.