The purpose of this ethnographic study was to investigate the Montclair State University's West African drum and dance ensemble. Analyses of the data revealed three themes related to individual participants and the "lived reality" of the group as a whole, and to the social-cultural teaching--learning processes involved: spirituality,…

This article presents excerpts from a case study describing Angelica Dawson, a New York State music educator. Angelica makes improvisation a central part of her curricula in ways that transcend traditional offerings prevalent in American public schools. Qualitative research methods were used to document Angelica's work over the course of an…

This article builds from a multi-sited ethnographic study on immigrant students' musical agency, conducted in three lower secondary school classrooms in the capital cities of Finland, Sweden and Norway. The focus of the article is twofold, and concerns what kinds of meanings the participating students ascribed to the music from their own or their…