JULIET HESS
Juliet Hess is an assistant professor of music education at Michigan State University, having previously taught elementary and middle school music in Toronto. Her forthcoming book, Music Education for Social Change: Constructing an Activist Music Education, explores the intersection of activism, critical pedagogy, and music education. Juliet received her Ph. D. in Sociology of Education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. Her research interests include anti-oppression education, activism in music and music education, music education for social justice, and the question of ethics in world music study.
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Activist Music Teaching: A Way Forward or the New Autocracy?
Pete Shungu: I think wherever [teachers] individually are on the political spectrum, a lot of times, teachers want students to have the exact same views as they do. Even teachers who are really progressive or really left-leaning can unintentionally not give students much freedom, ‘cause they want students to believe exactly the same thing that they do. Regardless of the political leanings of the teacher, it’s important for them to teach students not to just trust someone because they’re a teacher—not to just trust someone because they’re older than them. That it’s important to be able to question. (Author, 2019, p. 109)
Pete Shungu, a 33-year-old hip-hop/soul/jazz/funk musician, who emceed and played trumpet in the Afro D All Starz participated in a recent research study on music education and activism (Author, 2019). He was from New Jersey, and he identified as multiracial and Black. He studied international relations and education, taught in classroom settings, and worked with youth through an organization called uAspire. In the study, I sought to construct an activist music education for PK-12 schooling and ultimately recognized that while activism likely cannot be enacted in school in the form it takes in the streets, music education in schools can indeed set the conditions for activism (Author, 2019). Pete outlined the tendency of teachers on the far left to want students to capitulate to their views in the classroom. The activist-musicians who participated in the study articulated a vision of music education in which youth could question authority and challenge their education. Within the context of schooling, however, the current paper examines what it might mean to truly dissent from the views presented in the classroom. The call for papers for MDG 32 poses an important question: “Does the ‘production’ of activist music teachers represent the potential for new forms of colonization? How might we avoid such an imposition while striving to educate teachers to be socially aware and who teach for social justice through music?” Given the push toward socially just music education (Benedict, Schmidt, Spruce, & Woodford, 2015; Gould, Countryman, Morton, & Stewart Rose, 2009), challenging whether activist music teaching may ultimately foster a new autocracy signals an important consideration.
In this paper, I consider whether it is possible for activist music teaching to genuinely encourage dissent and opposition to the activist authority of the teacher. Democracy discourse currently occupies an important place in the social justice literature (see for example DeLorenzo, 2016; Woodford, 2005, 2019). Others have leveled critiques against the concept of democracy (Gould, 2007, 2008; Vaugeois, 2007) and put forward dissent as a path forward for democracy in music education (Schmidt, 2008). I explore literature on democracy in order to consider the limits to democracy imposed by activist music teaching and further challenge whether it is possible to disinvest from authority (Schmidt, 2016) in these instances. I further consider what it might mean if the dissent ultimately encouraged through a democratic approach to music education aligns with White supremacist, heteronormative, and otherwise oppressive ideology.
Ideally, activist music education is connective, expressive, and political (Author, 2019). Its connectedness fosters community, and its expressivity encourages storytelling. Explicitly political, activist music education nurtures a “culture of questioning” (Giroux & Giroux, 2004). I draw on nomadism from Deleuze and Guattari (2005/1987) to consider what they describe as “lines of flight”—creative lines that traverse open spaces. Elsewhere, I have explored the limits of enacting activist music education within the institution of school (Author, 2018), concluding that activism likely occurs in schools only when interests converge (Bell, 1995) between activists and schools. In this paper, I address the question of the limits placed on the lines of flight drawn by the students when a leftist ideology operates in the classroom. I challenge the impact of civility and democracy discourse as well as authority on potential lines of flight. Ultimately, I consider the ethics of the limits enforced by leftist ideology in the context of the global operation of the “alt right” White supremacist ideologies (see Giroux, 2017 for a discussion of the U.S. context).
References
Bell, D. (1995). Brown v. Board of Education and the interest convergence dilemma. In K. Crenshaw, N. Gotanda, G. Peller, & K. Thomas (Eds.), Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings that Formed the Movement (pp. 20-29). New York: The New Press.
Benedict, C., Schmidt, P. K., Spruce, G., & Woodford, P. G. (Eds.). (2015). The Oxford handbook of social justice in music education. New York: Oxford University Press.
Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (2005/1987). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia (B. Massumi, Trans.). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
DeLorenzo, L. C. (Ed.) (2016). Giving voice to democracy in music education: Diversity and social justice in the classroom. New York, NY: Routledge.
Giroux, H. A. (2017). White nationalism, armed culture and state violence in the age of Donald Trump. Philosophy and Social Criticism, XX(X), 1-24. doi:10.1177/0191453717702800
Giroux, H. A., & Giroux, S. S. (2004). Take back higher education: Race, youth, and the crisis of democracy in the post-Civil Rights era. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gould, E. (2007). Social justice in music education: The problematic of democracy. Music Education Research, 9(2), 229-240.
Gould, E. (2008). Devouring the other: Democracy in music education. Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, 7(1), 29-44.
Gould, E., Countryman, J., Morton, C., & Stewart Rose, L. (Eds.). (2009). Exploring social justice: How music education might matter. Toronto, ON: Canadian Music Educators' Association/L'Association canadienne des musiciens éducateurs.
Schmidt, P. K. (2008). Democracy and dissensus: Constructing conflict in music education. Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, 7(1), 10-28.
Schmidt, P. K. (2016). Authority and pedagogy as framing. Philosophy of Music Education Review, 24(1), 8-23.
Vaugeois, L. (2007). Social justice and music education: Claiming the space of music education as a site of postcolonial contestation. Action, Criticism & Theory for Music Education, 6(4), 163-200.
Woodford, P. G. (2005). Democracy and music education. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Woodford, P. G. (2019). Music education in an age of virtuality and post-truth. New York, NY: Routledge.
Pete Shungu, a 33-year-old hip-hop/soul/jazz/funk musician, who emceed and played trumpet in the Afro D All Starz participated in a recent research study on music education and activism (Author, 2019). He was from New Jersey, and he identified as multiracial and Black. He studied international relations and education, taught in classroom settings, and worked with youth through an organization called uAspire. In the study, I sought to construct an activist music education for PK-12 schooling and ultimately recognized that while activism likely cannot be enacted in school in the form it takes in the streets, music education in schools can indeed set the conditions for activism (Author, 2019). Pete outlined the tendency of teachers on the far left to want students to capitulate to their views in the classroom. The activist-musicians who participated in the study articulated a vision of music education in which youth could question authority and challenge their education. Within the context of schooling, however, the current paper examines what it might mean to truly dissent from the views presented in the classroom. The call for papers for MDG 32 poses an important question: “Does the ‘production’ of activist music teachers represent the potential for new forms of colonization? How might we avoid such an imposition while striving to educate teachers to be socially aware and who teach for social justice through music?” Given the push toward socially just music education (Benedict, Schmidt, Spruce, & Woodford, 2015; Gould, Countryman, Morton, & Stewart Rose, 2009), challenging whether activist music teaching may ultimately foster a new autocracy signals an important consideration.
In this paper, I consider whether it is possible for activist music teaching to genuinely encourage dissent and opposition to the activist authority of the teacher. Democracy discourse currently occupies an important place in the social justice literature (see for example DeLorenzo, 2016; Woodford, 2005, 2019). Others have leveled critiques against the concept of democracy (Gould, 2007, 2008; Vaugeois, 2007) and put forward dissent as a path forward for democracy in music education (Schmidt, 2008). I explore literature on democracy in order to consider the limits to democracy imposed by activist music teaching and further challenge whether it is possible to disinvest from authority (Schmidt, 2016) in these instances. I further consider what it might mean if the dissent ultimately encouraged through a democratic approach to music education aligns with White supremacist, heteronormative, and otherwise oppressive ideology.
Ideally, activist music education is connective, expressive, and political (Author, 2019). Its connectedness fosters community, and its expressivity encourages storytelling. Explicitly political, activist music education nurtures a “culture of questioning” (Giroux & Giroux, 2004). I draw on nomadism from Deleuze and Guattari (2005/1987) to consider what they describe as “lines of flight”—creative lines that traverse open spaces. Elsewhere, I have explored the limits of enacting activist music education within the institution of school (Author, 2018), concluding that activism likely occurs in schools only when interests converge (Bell, 1995) between activists and schools. In this paper, I address the question of the limits placed on the lines of flight drawn by the students when a leftist ideology operates in the classroom. I challenge the impact of civility and democracy discourse as well as authority on potential lines of flight. Ultimately, I consider the ethics of the limits enforced by leftist ideology in the context of the global operation of the “alt right” White supremacist ideologies (see Giroux, 2017 for a discussion of the U.S. context).
References
Bell, D. (1995). Brown v. Board of Education and the interest convergence dilemma. In K. Crenshaw, N. Gotanda, G. Peller, & K. Thomas (Eds.), Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings that Formed the Movement (pp. 20-29). New York: The New Press.
Benedict, C., Schmidt, P. K., Spruce, G., & Woodford, P. G. (Eds.). (2015). The Oxford handbook of social justice in music education. New York: Oxford University Press.
Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (2005/1987). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia (B. Massumi, Trans.). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
DeLorenzo, L. C. (Ed.) (2016). Giving voice to democracy in music education: Diversity and social justice in the classroom. New York, NY: Routledge.
Giroux, H. A. (2017). White nationalism, armed culture and state violence in the age of Donald Trump. Philosophy and Social Criticism, XX(X), 1-24. doi:10.1177/0191453717702800
Giroux, H. A., & Giroux, S. S. (2004). Take back higher education: Race, youth, and the crisis of democracy in the post-Civil Rights era. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gould, E. (2007). Social justice in music education: The problematic of democracy. Music Education Research, 9(2), 229-240.
Gould, E. (2008). Devouring the other: Democracy in music education. Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, 7(1), 29-44.
Gould, E., Countryman, J., Morton, C., & Stewart Rose, L. (Eds.). (2009). Exploring social justice: How music education might matter. Toronto, ON: Canadian Music Educators' Association/L'Association canadienne des musiciens éducateurs.
Schmidt, P. K. (2008). Democracy and dissensus: Constructing conflict in music education. Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, 7(1), 10-28.
Schmidt, P. K. (2016). Authority and pedagogy as framing. Philosophy of Music Education Review, 24(1), 8-23.
Vaugeois, L. (2007). Social justice and music education: Claiming the space of music education as a site of postcolonial contestation. Action, Criticism & Theory for Music Education, 6(4), 163-200.
Woodford, P. G. (2005). Democracy and music education. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Woodford, P. G. (2019). Music education in an age of virtuality and post-truth. New York, NY: Routledge.