This book addresses the nature of music education and argues for a broad-based view which is globally inclusive and acknowledges a long, distinguished history. The book asserts that music education has often been too narrowly focused on music instruction in elementary and secondary schools. Through a process of intellectual questioning, the reader is drawn into an expanded definition that finds music education across a broad spectrum from family to churches and businesses and explores the interdisciplinary nature of music across diverse literature and fields. The author emphasizes world music and ethnomusicology as equal partners alongside more conventional sounds and styles that have dominated the classroom. Chapters include: (1) "In Search of Music Education"; (2) "On Spheres of Musical Validity"; and (3) "A Dialectical View of Music Education." (EH)