The Arts and Social Change

This chapter analyzes the relation of the arts, and particularly music education, to social change. The first section discusses what social change is, presenting important research and ideas. It situates the notion of social change within the framework of utopia and connects it with human flourishing as its ultimate goal. The second section is concerned with the social impact of the arts, discussing important notions such as their relation to cultivation and to moral intentions, and their political purpose. The third section is explicitly focused on music education’s relation to social change, presenting general considerations and examples such as El Sistema or developments in international music education policy.

Shaping Music Education Policy through Insight, Collaborating, Deliberating, and Strategizing

Policy capacity in music education can be enhanced through understanding the policy-making process and state governmental policy. Three examples of engagement in state-level policy action are used to explore agency, negotiation, and visioning as important dispositions for advancing music education policy goals. First, influencing state-level policy necessitates knowledge of how state government informs policy action, and this knowledge can be used to advance policy thinking. Second, policies change through both incremental and dramatic processes, often requiring different policy strategies. Third, policy is influenced by random and unpredictable factors. State associations can enhance agency and policy capacity through timely and informed communication and provide meaningful opportunities for music educators to deliberate problems and possibilities as a means to move music education policy forward.

The Need for Theory

This chapter establishes the need for theorizing and explores how policy has been conceptually developed in the literature. It traces the relationship between policy thinking and practice, making the case for how theories developed or employed by scholars are used to help, clarify, justify, and explain practice—not to mystify. Further, it develops the notion of policy knowhow placing it within two sides of the same coin, namely, conceptual design and structured action. Last, the chapter delineates distinctions between traditional and progressive views on policy, exploring how these apply to music education policy scholarship.

Developing Music Education Policy Wonks: Preservice Music Education and Policy

The typical undergraduate music education student is focused on developing their musicianship and leadership abilities, professional education competencies, and specific pedagogical expertise. While these are desirable outcomes of a music education degree, music teachers must learn how to effectively interact with a range of policies that will influence how they navigate their professional and private lives. The purpose of this article is to outline and explore mechanisms to engage preservice teachers with educational policies and policy-related practices. We discuss resources for learning about federal and state policies related to education and music education and strategies for interfacing with policymakers. We suggest models that integrate policy topics into existing coursework and new curricular structures that may facilitate the development of “scholar-musicians.” Implications of music teacher educators bringing their role as politically active citizens into the classroom and adding political knowledge to the expectations placed on new teachers are considered.

International Perspectives on Assessment in Music Education

Music education is part of the public school curriculum in many countries, as either a compulsory or an elective subject. While it offers many young people an opportunity to acquire musical knowledge and skills, it also has its challenges. Being part of the public school curriculum results in a need for assessment in music education. While some problems related to assessment are similar internationally (e.g., concerning music as art), assessment in different countries varies. It depends on various factors such as the general assessment culture, the goals of education, music education policy, individual teaching philosophies, and school culture. By utilizing approaches from comparative music education, philosophy, and sociology of music education, this chapter analyzes music education assessment policies and practices in different countries. By scrutinizing global similarities and differences, it proposes new approaches to assessment that may help address some of the challenges the global music education community faces today.

Imagining Ends-Not-Yet-in-View

The intensifying diversity and fast-paced social change characterizing contemporary societies requires music education policy and practice to contend with various and at times conflicting musical and cultural values and understandings. In Nepal this situation is intensified, with a music education curriculum adopted by the Ministry of Education in 2010 guiding music teaching and learning for 77 national districts and over 125 caste/ethnic groups within a rapidly globalizing society. In this context assessment plays a key role in framing the knowledge and pedagogical approaches deemed useful or desirable for Nepali music students, and contributes to the legitimation of music as a subject and as a career. Assessment is therefore of ethical concern and warrants critical reflection if music education is to uphold democratic ideals, such as participation and equal opportunity. In this chapter we identify four institutional visions framing music education in Nepali schools. Considering these visions through John Dewey’s Theory of Valuation (LW13), we suggest that ethical deliberations regarding assessment focus on the relationships between means and ends in learning processes and thereby the quality of student experience. Leaning on Arjun Appadurai’s theories of the imagination (1996) and the capacity to aspire (2004) we then propose that imagining ends-not-yet-in-view may allow for ethical engagements with values different to one’s own and encourage reflection upon the inclusive and exclusive processes of assessment that frame whose ends-in-view count, when, how, and what for.

Music in our lives: Using the concept of “Bildung” to understand the role of music education policy in England

This article considers whether the German concept of “ Bildung”, meaning human personal growth—a term not often used in English debates about culture or education—can help in understanding differing pedagogical and philosophical approaches to recent music education policy in England. It explores connections between two conceptions of Bildung: “object-oriented” and “subject-oriented”; two key approaches to education: “traditional” and “progressive”; and two models of cultural policy: cultural democracy and democratisation of culture, in explaining one of the significant debates in music pedagogy about how to engage children and young people in music education. In considering these questions, the article examines recent developments in the provision of music education in the English school system, particularly the National Plan for Music Education, Music Education Hubs and the independent Musical Futures initiative. We conclude that recent government policies incorporate ideas of the authority of teachers and a musical canon, while other approaches give more priority to children’s own musical references and activity. Our three related theories shed light on this continuing debate about value and engagement in music education, and on the place of children and young people in their musical learning.