Music and Music Education in People's Lives (Oxford Handbooks) by Gary E. McPherson & Graham F. Welch

Author:Gary E. McPherson & Graham F. Welch
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780190674434
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2018-04-25T06:00:00+00:00

SHIFTING THE PARADIGM TOWARD TRANSFORMATIVE MUSIC ENGAGEMENT

Transformative music engagement begins with a paradigmatic shift in how we think about music learners. In particular, it is about shifting the focus from viewing music learners from within a deficit versus talent/expertise framework. It focuses instead on the idea that all music learners in all contexts of development have musical strengths and competencies. Transformative music engagement is about identifying and developing these competencies, reflecting on their meaning and how they are experienced and shared, as well as harnessing emergent and expansive learning opportunities in ways that empower learners to build on these competencies for further growth and change. It is also about shifting the focus from merely instructing and supporting learners to fostering the resiliency necessary for sustaining music engagement and overcoming negative constraints on learning (O’Neill, 2011c; Wang, Haertel, & Walberg, 1997). From the perspective of transformative music engagement, musical skills and knowledge are no longer viewed as the domain of a relatively few talented individuals. Instead, the focus shifts to participatory cultures that work toward common endeavors while creating highly supportive and generative learning environments (Gee, 2005; Jenkins, 2009).

Adopting the perspective of transformative music engagement also makes other important shifts in thinking possible. For example, we might begin to consider alternatives to the “community of practice” model (Lave & Wenger, 1991) that has permeated much of our thinking in music education for the past 20 years. Although this framework has been a rich resource for both research and practice, particularly in relation to the notion of fostering a sense of “belongingness” among music learners who occupy a shared space, it has also become entwined with an inclusiveness agenda that emphasizes common or shared experiences and memberships. However, music learners do not necessarily share the same meanings after engaging in similar experiences. Nor do they always share a sense of membership or ties that bond them together when they are part of a particular learning community. Further, learning communities do not necessarily acknowledge and mediate a sense of difference or learner autonomy. The notion of communities of practice has been used primarily as a mechanism for the purpose of identification and categorization between groups or forms of music learning. In many cases, this has obscured their function as a social practice. Our social affiliations are not merely important for music learning because they provide support and like-minded peers, they are a crucial component in our ability to compare and contrast differences that act as a vehicle and a catalyst for growth and change, identity constructions, creative processes, and artistic expressions. Social affiliations are used to inform, challenge, broaden, and transform our conceptualizations and representations of what music learning means in our everyday lives. They are a fluid, changeable, and dynamic feature of transformative music engagement.

Shifting the paradigm toward transformative music engagement asks us to adopt a critical, questioning approach to understanding our expectations of what music learners know and are capable of. Too often, the exchange of different forms of knowledge or know-how is neither encouraged nor valued in formal music education settings.

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