Concepts of informal learning in music education have been developed from adult interpretations of the ways in which young people are perceived to learn. Informal learning can therefore be reified or transformed into pedagogy that prioritizes an adult understanding of the processes of learning. This article presents the first part of an analytical…

In this article, we aim to develop a theoretical model to understand what we refer to as "musical gentrification" and to explore how this model might be applied to and inform music education research. We start from a Bourdieusian point of view, elaborating on the connections between social class and cultural capital, and then move on to…

Studies on sociology and music education are important because they can enlighten how music education relates to social change. By studying how music education changes and is changed by society we enable ourselves to describe how it can contribute to the understanding of social change generally. This may lay the ground for us in contributing to…

This article traces the formation of community music through professional and scholarly articles over the last century in North America, and argues that community music has been discursively formed through social rationales, although the specific rationales have shifted. The author employs an archaeological framework inspired by Michel Foucault to…

In this article I discuss a case study of how a music teacher in a postcolonial context has addressed and resisted colonialist practices in education/socialization processes. The case study addresses preliminary findings from a broader ethnography on the social organization of music learning from the standpoint of music teachers. The ethnography…

This article presents a meta-analysis of one area of sociological literature in music education: Where are the women and "others"? Where do we raise concerns about social values? Institutional Ethnography provides the basis for the meta-analysis, presented in two historical periods, pre-1960 and 2007-2012. A short story of an actual…

The purpose of this study was to determine relationships among social identity, value of music education, musician-teacher orientation, selected demographic factors, and self-concept as a music educator. Participants (N = 968) were volunteer undergraduate music education majors enrolled at four-year institutions granting a bachelor of music…

In this article I discuss children's everyday uses of recorded music (such as CDs, Mp3-files) in the light of sociological notions of "children" and "childhood". The discussion provides perspectives on musical engagement and musicality that supplement perspectives within developmental psychology. The study is based on…

Like professionals in other disciplines, music educators are expected to observe certain behavioral standards. In addition to teaching musical skills, concepts, and context, music educators are also expected to protect the welfare of children, serve as trustworthy stewards of public property, and generally behave responsibly and professionally…

Once an area of debate, there is now general consensus among media and social science researchers that online communities represent community in the traditional sense of the term, albeit with some important epistemological differences. If one considers online communities as genuine functioning communities situated in a legitimate cultural context,…

In a seminal article, Philip Alperson (1991) first argued that a proper philosophy of music and music education should account for all musical "praxis." Nonetheless, his introduction of the concept of praxis into the philosophical discourse of music education seems to occasion either a yawn or hostility, despite having a much longer and more solid…

"Poor white trash" is likely the most enduring and degrading in a long line of "stigmatypes"--"stigmatizing boundary terms that simultaneously denote and enact cultural and cognitive divides between in-groups and out-groups"--such as "redneck," "cracker," and "hillbilly." Some people apply these terms in reference to poor or working-class, usually…

In this article, the author proposes that now is a propitious time to consider developing one or more distinctive teacher education programs in music. Undergraduate education should prepare some educators for more than excellence in the classroom, the concern of Karl Gehrkens in the 1920s. Individuals considering doctoral work, those with an…

This paper presents a research that emerges from a set of community-based outreach activities associated with a large-scale, interdisciplinary project, Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice (ICASP), which focuses on the social and pedagogical implications of improvised musical practices. Working from the premise that musical improvisation…

Most people think of the teaching and learning of music as taking place in formal, institutional contexts like schools and universities. This study looks at the transmission of music teaching and learning that takes place in a more informal, musical environment, namely at a "popular music festival." In particular, it discusses the OM music…