In recent years, the study of musical cultures has gained popularity as a curricular intervention for increasing cultural diversity in school music curricula. Informed by Michel Foucault's analytics of power-as-effects, this paper examines some of the underlying epistemic premises of the notion of musical culture as it operates in music curricula.…

In this paper I begin to theorize what secondary school music education might look like "post-deconstruction." In particular, I explore the argument for a reconsideration of the importance of conceptualization in the process of music education. I argue that is it through coming into contact with powerful conceptual knowledge that…

This paper explores the idea that wellbeing and healthy development should be the central goal of school music programs. After establishing a framework of student wellbeing, the metaphor of rites of passage experiences is employed--through Joseph Campbell's hero's journey and Jane McGonigal's analysis of the benefits of online gaming--as one way…

This article examines the relationship between authority and music. It starts with the proposition that music--as an art or an educative enterprise in Western environs--remains a highly idealized enterprise and this idealization creates an alibi for action that is characteristically narrow and guided by authority. Schmidt claims that authority is…