This article presents the author's views on the concepts of the philosophers Deleuze and Guattari on striated (sedentary) space and smooth (mobile) space, asserting that "nomads" can move freely about their space. She relates these concepts to music education, incorporating Deleuze and Guattari's concept of mapping as it…

This article addresses the intrapersonal aims of music education with specific emphasis on musical identity. For the author, the question "Who am I?" is ingrained, shaped, and experienced by the contexts, relationships, and activities in which people are most deeply invested. Thus, he believes that music education should have mechanisms…

The author of this article proposes an agrarian vision of music education that underscores fundamental, "down-to-earth" principles for human actions and interactions. An agrarian world-view encourages mass participation ("y'all come")--"musicing" is free and available to all and it is not treated as a…

"Meaning" fascinates Marissa Silverman. Partly because the question "What is the meaning of "meaning"?" is not only conceptually challenging, but also because a reasonable answer would be enormously helpful to her in the pursuit of "a good" personal and professional life. So, in probing…

In recent years, several corporate leaders have lobbied for schools to promote studies in science, mathematics, and technology to better prepare students for the kinds of jobs these business leaders anticipate will exist in the future. This spring, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, called for "higher standards and accountability in schools…

"Why is the practice of teaching worth putting at the centre of one's life?" Chris Higgins believes that this question must be properly addressed if people who become teachers are to become themselves--are to discover a way of simultaneously practicing their profession and "flourishing" as human beings. In this essay, the author aims to give an…

This article presents the author's response to the reviews of his book, "The Good Life of Teaching: An Ethics of Professional Practice." He begins by highlighting some of the main concerns of his book. He then offers a brief response, doing his best to address the main criticisms of his argument and noting where the four reviewers (Charlene…

Descriptions of the urban contemporary format remain strongly grounded on the assumption that it is based on musical styles associated with African Americans, such as R&B, soul, hip hop, rap, and reggae. Even for the most progressive educators, to speak of urban music is to refer to a narrow set of musical genres associated with the umbrella term…

Turner's (1974) conception of liminal space provides an entry point to look beyond the given and to create opportunities to examine, critique, and challenge the assumptions inherent in many music programs. Building upon his theory of liminality as a place that is "ambiguous, neither here or there, betwixt and between all fixed points of…

In this article, the author states that she supports Wayne Bowman's (2006) concern with the impact narratives can have, including their potential to legitimize "existing patterns of privilege and possibility." She argues that "there is nothing inherently emancipatory about narrative." In fact, narrative "may, and often does, legitimatize existing…

Elizabeth Parker's reflection on her experience as a musician educator working with children in an urban non-profit context is an uncomfortable read for me. In a courageous act, Parker makes public her private misgivings about her past experience and allows scrutiny of them in the form of two public commentaries as well as the private musings of…

According to Hedges (2010), the real enemies of the liberal class are radical thinkers such as Noam Chomsky and Ralph Nader, iconoclastic intellectuals who possess the moral autonomy to defy the power elite. While this author agrees with Hedges, he would take this argument even further. In this article, the author argues that the real enemy of…

In this article, the author aims to make evident how instructional practices could be modified or expanded in order that music education might have a "more clearly tangible and beneficial effect on the present and future lives of music learners, communities, and society at large." First, the author explains briefly how pragmatist philosophy and…

The radical outside claimed by Gloria T. Hull, Patricia Bell Scott, and Barbara Smith nearly 30 years ago was comprised of black feminism and feminist race theory in the context of black lesbian studies, which had no academic precedent. What today makes their actions, words, and meaning-making brave is material realization of their subjectivities.…

Philosopher Richard Shusterman's book "Body Consciousness" is the most recent and most extensive addition to Shusterman's project of "somaesthetics," an area of philosophy dealing with experiences of embodiment. Shusterman distinguishes three aspects of somaesthetics. Analytic somaesthetics is a "descriptive and theoretical enterprise"; pragmatic…