Functions of critical pedagogy in music education
Some brief thoughts on diversity and repertoire selection under the umbrella of a critical approach to music education pedagogy
Diversity: At the time of my primary and secondary education, I didn’t give much thought to the way in which a diverse education had impacted my learning and the way I conducted myself; both musically and personally. However, throughout my tertiary study it has become increasingly important to how I would like to frame my own practice as the time comes to seek out a full time teaching position. It is reassuring to see my own sentiments backed up by established educators and official publishing. As I have grown up it has become more apparent the impact teachers have on the later life of students after they graduate (which was also a big point of Regelski’s, 2016). This understanding made it more pertinent when I reshaped how I thought about the neutrality of teachers themselves. Being able to establish that education itself is not neutral and both the learner and the educator bring their own ideologies and experiences to the learning environment changes how music educators themselves need to see the relationship between them and the student. Being able to recognise that their student’s ability to enact change in their life and create agency for themselves is directly related to the ‘amount’ of opportunity afforded to them. This is done through creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive lesson, this is important as it helps budding and established educators adjust their praxis to assist the students in taking advantage of these opportunities.
Repertoire selection in school music: When reading through Hess’ (2017) writing on how music educators must acknowledge the history and experiences of their students, my first thought was to determine the function of critical pedagogy on a macro level. In what order do critical approaches to music education happen, in terms of student and teacher actions. In that, making the education a collaborative act and taking onboard these student histories and experiences it is possible to understand that critical pedagogy, in my opinion, is an additive methodology. By this I mean that, first: the student/s bring an ideology or discourse within the context of a piece of music they would like to include in a study, second: the educator applies their own knowledge and expertise to the understanding the theoretical and macro level ideas of the piece in order to assist the student in their understanding and increase their agency in the subject area. Specifically, the educator uses their professional expertise to increase the agency of the student in such a way that the skills they learn transgress the learning activity and even the piece they have studied and allow for the student to use these skills in other contexts (personhood /sociability), or again in a similar music education environment.
The relationship between music education and positive effects it has on the personhood and sociability of graduates is well documented. Thus, the advocation for the inclusion of music education in a modern curriculum is an argument for another time. However, I have some quick thoughts that relate to my last point of repertoire selection.
The value added criterion (Hess, 2017, p. 27), in music education, is a loose descriptor for identifying and assessing what music education as a whole is contributing to the daily lives of school graduates. This is important as it plays a role in how school administrators determine funding, employment and accreditation. For example: if there is no straight-forward way to assess what music classes are contributing to students, then how can the school administrators decide whether or not the subject is contributing in a ‘value added’ way. I understand the need for this commercialization and business way of assessment, but I feel as though it puts the burden on educators to prove their worth in a stressful way. Will music educators forever be fighting for the inclusion of their subject in the curriculum, or will we always be at the mercy of key performance indicators and value added criterions? Food for thought.
References:
Hess, J. (2017). Critiquing the critical: The casualties and paradoxes of critical pedagogy in music education. Philosophy of Music Education Review, 25(2), 171–191.
Regelski, T. A. (2016). Music, music education, and institutional ideology: A praxial philosophy of music sociality. Action, Criticism & Theory for Music Education, 15 (2), 10–45
