BRIAN GELLERSTEIN
Brian Gellerstein is an arts education administrator in Cambridge, Massachusetts where his work centers around K-12 arts curriculum and instruction. Prior to being a public schools arts administrator, he was a non-profit music education administrator and public-school music teacher in both New York City and Cambridge. Brian received his Ph.D. in Urban Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Massachusetts Boston where his dissertation research addressed the connections between White supremacy and gatekeeping in music education. Brian has presented on topics including White supremacy in music education, anti-racist teaching, culturally responsive practices, and classroom culture.
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Daring to See: White Supremacy and Gatekeeping in Music Education
Music education in the U.S. maintains a legacy of cultural hegemony that has historically and systemically benefited the White students it was designed to serve, at the expense of Black and Brown students and teachers. As a subdiscipline concerned with cultural production and reproduction, the persistence of White supremacy within music education contributes to its indefatigability within the broader society.
This study is cast within a theoretical framework that connects critical race theory and critical pedagogy in order to address the manners in which music teachers make meaning of gatekeeping practices mediated within hidden structures of White supremacy. This inquiry utilizes a methodology grounded in critical discourse analysis (CDA) that employs a seven-stage dialectical-relational elucidatory approach (DREA) in order to expose and confront the manners in which White supremacy permeates the professional world of music teachers through professional discourse and gatekeeping apparatus. In order to expose, so as to subvert, the mechanisms of White supremacy and gatekeeping within music education, this study draws connections between both, so that the foundations which support their persistence can be addressed directly. The findings reveal that White supremacy and gatekeeping are visible to music teachers and through dialogue, their relationship became discernable.
Implications of this study can inform strategies which educators employ to confront White supremacy within fields of public-school education, as well as social and professional networks outside of teaching and learning.
This study is cast within a theoretical framework that connects critical race theory and critical pedagogy in order to address the manners in which music teachers make meaning of gatekeeping practices mediated within hidden structures of White supremacy. This inquiry utilizes a methodology grounded in critical discourse analysis (CDA) that employs a seven-stage dialectical-relational elucidatory approach (DREA) in order to expose and confront the manners in which White supremacy permeates the professional world of music teachers through professional discourse and gatekeeping apparatus. In order to expose, so as to subvert, the mechanisms of White supremacy and gatekeeping within music education, this study draws connections between both, so that the foundations which support their persistence can be addressed directly. The findings reveal that White supremacy and gatekeeping are visible to music teachers and through dialogue, their relationship became discernable.
Implications of this study can inform strategies which educators employ to confront White supremacy within fields of public-school education, as well as social and professional networks outside of teaching and learning.