Music and Social Justice

This book challenges and reframes traditional ways of addressing many of the topics we have come to think of as social justice. Offering practical suggestions for helping both teachers and students think philosophically (and thus critically) about the world around them, each chapter engages with important themes through music making and learning as it presents scenarios, examples of dialogue with students, unit ideas, and lesson plans geared toward elementary students (ages 6–14). Taken-for-granted subjects often considered sacrosanct or beyond the understanding of elementary students, such as friendship, racism, poverty, religion, and class, are addressed and interrogated in a way that honors the voice and critical thinking of the elementary student. Suggestions are given that help both teachers and students to pause, reflect, and redirect dialogue with questions that uncover bias, misinformation, and misunderstandings that too often stand in the way of coming to know and embracing difference. Guiding questions, which anchor many curricular mandates, are used throughout in order to scaffold critical and reflective thinking beginning in the earliest grades of elementary music education. Where does social justice reside? Whose voice is being heard, and whose is being silenced? How do we come to think of and construct poverty? How is it that musics become used the way they are used? What happens to songs initially intended for socially driven purposes when their significance is undermined? These questions and more are explored, encouraging music teachers to embrace a path toward socially just engagements at the elementary level.

Dziecięcy repertuar muzyczny w procesie elementarnej edukacji muzycznej

Children’s musical repertoire in the process of elementary music education The aim of the article is the initial/preliminary systematization of the types of children’s musical repertoire. The definition of the repertoire and its forms were analyzed and interpreted. Based on the analysis of the literature on the subject, the categories of children’s repertoire were described in correlation with musical activities. An attempt was also made to describe the structure of the children’s musical repertoire.

Elementary Music Education in the Era of Remote Teaching – Constraints and Prospects for Development

In the discourse undertaken, an attempt was made to indicate the limits and perspectives for the development of music education of distance teaching. The specificity of music education based on experience, emotions in action, a creative approach to an artistic creation and expressive action requires special attention in this regard. The teacher is expected to develop a new strategy for action, which in the existing educational situation will result in an increase in students’ interest in music. Obtaining satisfactory results should be seen in the use of teaching methods and forms appropriate for the given situation and means of communication.

Rethinking the Elementary “Canon”: Ideas, Inspirations, and Innovations from Hip-Hop

This article offers perspectives on disrupting the typical elementary school “canon” through providing considerations and pedagogical orientations for including hip-hop. Three issues of critical importance in elementary music education are addressed: decentering Whiteness in elementary music, understanding hip-hop in relation to culturally responsive teaching, and establishing new pathways for musical creativity through hip-hop. Engaging with hip-hop both as a genre and the product of a culture offers music educators opportunities to meaningfully reconsider their practices.