Transcultural pedagogy, or what is often described as world music pedagogy, in U.S. and Canadian classrooms often utilizes an extractive logic, serving to essentialize culture, invisibilize logics that are incongruent to European, Canadian, and U.S.-centric epistemologies, and uphold the goal of white assimilation under the guise of…

The second half of jazz's history has been defined by its expansion from more informal spaces into academies and concert halls. Integral to this cultural transformation has been the advent and standardization of collegiate jazz education. This paper explores the pedagogical and institutional responsibilities of institutional jazz education through…

Teaching for musical meaning can be a multifaceted topic, since a universally accepted definition of musical meaning is elusive; yet musical meaning remains at the heart of music literacy. Music literacy is equally complex, as changes in technology constantly reorganize how musical sounds are produced, recorded, and transmitted. Today, musical…

Choirs are lauded for their psychological, physiological, and social-emotional benefits. For 2SLGBTQ+ people (two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and expansive gender and sexual identities), choir is a place to forge kinship, develop identity, and rally for political action, regardless of whether the choir labels itself as a…

This paper offers an invitation to higher music education communities to think differently about the significance of the connections between music and play. We highlight the many texts that articulate these connections and draw together a speculative ontological claim that all musicking is an enactment of play. In other words, we ask how…

This paper has two parallel components--one a storied prose account, the other a presentation of elements of the story compressed into six-word reflections to underscore or in some cases to expand on the narrative. Katherine Norman Dearden gathered data through means of serial interviews with the choir director and review of related media accounts…

Although academic discussions of whiteness in music education have been prevalent for over a decade, critical examinations of whiteness in world music education have been disproportionately lacking. One specific world music ensemble that warrants examination is the steelband within American schools. The steelpan was introduced in the United States…

Diversity has long been an area of interest for music education. Interculturalism, with its emphasis on cultural competence, dialogue, and humility, has emerged as a popular concept for the negotiation of difference in music education. Based on an examination of the international non-governmental organization-sponsored intercultural music exchange…

This paper explores aspects of Creative Music in Education [CMinED] practices through a political philosophy perspective based on Jacques Rancière's approach to the notion of democracy. The paper begins with three cautionary tales about the difficult encounter between democracy and music education. This sets the stage for introducing a Rancièrian…

My string quartet, "Out of the Snowstorm, an Owl" was begun in 2014, but personal circumstances delayed its completion until 2017. It received its premiere at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2018, performed by the Brodick Quartet. In the present inquiry, I will explain how this music was created in response to the transformation…

Conservatories and orchestras based in the US have attempted to become more diverse by increasing their recruitment of students of color. This approach, however, fails to acknowledge that the aesthetic environments of these institutions, having been designed by and for a White majority, require these students to assimilate into environments that…

In this article, I visualize the relationship between tonewood exploitation and the import of musical instruments for Venezuela's El Sistema, with the participation of the Venezuelan State, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and manufacturing companies from China and the Global North. My basis…

Critical scholars have noted a tendency in the field of music education toward idealization of the socially transformative power of music and a disregard of the counterproductive or ambiguous outcomes of social music making. In this article, I discuss some of the dominant conceptualizations addressing music as a means of social transformation, and…

In this essay, I critique and critically reflect upon two questions derived from Action Ideal VIII of the MayDay Group: "We commit to understanding the wide range of possibilities and the limitations that technology and media offer music and music learning." Before we can address the "how," it is necessary to know the…

Being able to play the guitar and sing one's favorite songs is often an unrealized adolescent dream. Guitar Express is a group music making approach that aims to enable people to realize this dream and develop an identity of amateur musician regardless of age. This is achieved through the use of an alternate tuning of the guitar and a variety of…