ERIC Number: EJ815704
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2006-Dec
Pages: 30
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1545-4517
EISSN: N/A
Music Education, Multiculturalism, and Anti-Racism--Can We Talk?
Bradley, Deborah
Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, v5 n2 p1-30 Dec 2006
This paper is a beginning attempt to "decolonize" one's understanding of multiculturalism in music education. The author first considers the ways race is embedded as coded language in discourse, and the ways one's use of coded language hinders one's ability to talk about race directly. In this regard, the author addresses the silence that sometimes results when one names races and racism explicitly. The author then looks at official multiculturalism and multiculturalism within music education as racialized discourses. The final section of this paper investigates motivations in North America for engaging in multiculturalism in music education, drawing upon the literature of postcolonial and anti-racism studies, and then connects this motivation to the ongoing project of decolonization within educational discourse. Throughout the paper, the author includes excerpts from interviews conducted with members of the Mississauga Festival Youth Choir (MFYC) to show how racialized discourses inform the thinking of the adolescents who took part in this research, and why the project of decolonization is crucial as a catalyst for substantive change within music education. (Contains 15 notes.)
Descriptors: Music Education, Music, Cultural Pluralism, Race, Language Usage, Interviews, Discourse Modes, Educational Change, Adolescents, Racial Bias
MayDay Group. Brandon University School of Music, 270 18th Street, Brandon, Manitoba R7A 6A9, Canada. Tel: 204-571-8990; Fax: 204-727-7318; Web site: http://act.maydaygroup.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A