SEAN ROBERT POWELL
Sean Robert Powell is Associate Professor and Chair of Music Education at the University of North Texas where he teaches graduate courses in sociology, philosophy, qualitative research, and music teacher education. Dr. Powell is a member of the Editorial Review Board of the Journal of Music Teacher Education and the Advisory Committee of the Music Educators Journal. He also serves as the Southwest Division Chair of the Society for Music Teacher Education. An active scholar, Dr. Powell’s research interests include music teacher education, identity, teacher evaluation, competition, neoliberal education policy, and the sociology of music education.
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The Non-Duped Err: Competition, Cynical Compliance, Disavowal, and Decaf Resistance in Music Education
“If you live by an ideology, the most dangerous ideology to you is your own, because someone may expect you to do what you say.”—Rick Roderick(1)
In this provocation, I will explore how cynicism has become a primary mode of music teacher subjectivity within high-stakes competitive school music environments, mirroring the cynicism found among workers in late capitalism. Cynical music teachers engage in a fetishist disavowal of the competitive structure that, paradoxically, allows that structure to maintain hegemony (and allows teachers to “enjoy” without guilt). The cynic errs by failing to be “duped” by competitive ideology, believing she has direct access to a “true” and “authentic” praxis. This disavowal allows the cynic to relinquish responsibility for changing the system, leading to a “decaf” resistance without risk, which has little effect.
Competition, both formal and informal, structures much of the work of music teachers, especially within secondary schools in the United States. In many contexts, results from competitions among school music programs serve as both a standardized test for students and a form of teacher evaluation. These competitive results have more power than any other evaluation instrument employed by schools, such as administrator observations. This compulsive system of competition reduces music education to a one-dimensional practice, exacerbating inequity and disallowing for culturally-responsive work.(2)
Although many music teachers enter into competition with an earnest belief that it enhances the education of students(3), many music teachers develop a cynical attitude toward this structure. Often, teachers will state their desire to opt-out of competition, but feel they must compete in order to maintain credibility among students, parents, administrators, and peers. Music program handbooks, websites, and advocacy materials often include statements such as “the process is more important that the product” or “our competitive successes are only the result of learning, not the goal.”
This discourse of cynical distance acts as a “fetishist disavowal.”(4) The cynically-compliant music teacher may renounce the over-emphasis on competition and lament the restrictions on her agency that the system imposes. However, these teachers see no other choice than to go along with a system they may not fully support in order to do work they supposedly “truly” value. This attitude can be encapsulated by the phrase “I know very well, but nonetheless.”(5) This is what Lacan termed the non-duped err(6): by believing that they see through the ideological veil of competition but comply in order to accomplish “real” teaching, the cynical teachers strengthen the system that they claim to oppose.
Paradoxically, an earnest, forthright, widespread endorsement of the ideology of competition would threaten its hegemonic position. However, the common cynical, individual, informal, and disconnected acts of subversion do not threaten the hegemonic structure—they work to strengthen it. Like our neoliberal capitalist system at-large, the ideology of competition sustains its efficacy though the subsuming of (and dependence on) harmless acts of cynical transgression.(7) This acts as a “pressure release valve” that keeps the hegemonic structure intact as teachers believe they are allowed to resist the system. They are free to “enjoy” without remorse.
This is what Contu refers to as “decaf resistance”—resistance without risk; resistance without bearing the cost of dismantling the sociosymbolic network that provides music teachers material and social support, “resistance without the cost of radically changing the economy of enjoyment that ties us to our master.”(8) The Real act of resistance would be one in which we risk giving up the comforts of the current structure.(9) Surpassing self-interest, we must work together in solidarity to change the oppressive, agency-limiting, compulsive competitive structure for the good of all. To this end, we have enacted a regularly-meeting group of teachers at my university who are formulating plans for systemic change originating in their praxis. Rather than a space for improving results within the current system (or cynically complaining), we work to name the structures that control the work of music teachers and envision alternative realities for music education within our contexts. I will include a description of the project in the full paper.
1. Rick Roderick, “Hegel and Modern Life,” YouTube Video, 40:43, August 25, 2012, https://youtu.be/2MsNyR-epBM.
2. Sean Robert Powell, “One Dimensional Praxis: The Ideology of Competition in School Music,” (2019), manuscript in review.
3. see Emmett J. O’Leary, “A Phenomenological Study of Competition in High School Bands,” Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education 220 (2019): 43–61.
4. Slavoj Žižek, The Sublime Object of Ideology, 2nd ed. (New York: Verso, 2009), 33.
5. Slavoj Žižek, “With or Without Passion,” retrieved from https://www.lacan.com/zizpassion.htm.
6. Jacques Lacan, Seminar XXI: Les Non Dupes Errent, trans. Cormac Gallagher (1973–1974), retrieved from http://www.lacaninireland.com/web/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Book-21-Les-Non-Dupes-Errent-Part-1.pdf
7. Alessia Contu, “Decaf Resistance: On Misbehavior, Cynicism, and Desire in Liberal Workplaces,” Management Communication Quarterly 21, no. 3 (February, 2008): 367.
8. Ibid.
9. Slavoj Žižek, The Ticklish Subject: The Absent Centre of Political Ontology (London: Verso, 1999), 264.
In this provocation, I will explore how cynicism has become a primary mode of music teacher subjectivity within high-stakes competitive school music environments, mirroring the cynicism found among workers in late capitalism. Cynical music teachers engage in a fetishist disavowal of the competitive structure that, paradoxically, allows that structure to maintain hegemony (and allows teachers to “enjoy” without guilt). The cynic errs by failing to be “duped” by competitive ideology, believing she has direct access to a “true” and “authentic” praxis. This disavowal allows the cynic to relinquish responsibility for changing the system, leading to a “decaf” resistance without risk, which has little effect.
Competition, both formal and informal, structures much of the work of music teachers, especially within secondary schools in the United States. In many contexts, results from competitions among school music programs serve as both a standardized test for students and a form of teacher evaluation. These competitive results have more power than any other evaluation instrument employed by schools, such as administrator observations. This compulsive system of competition reduces music education to a one-dimensional practice, exacerbating inequity and disallowing for culturally-responsive work.(2)
Although many music teachers enter into competition with an earnest belief that it enhances the education of students(3), many music teachers develop a cynical attitude toward this structure. Often, teachers will state their desire to opt-out of competition, but feel they must compete in order to maintain credibility among students, parents, administrators, and peers. Music program handbooks, websites, and advocacy materials often include statements such as “the process is more important that the product” or “our competitive successes are only the result of learning, not the goal.”
This discourse of cynical distance acts as a “fetishist disavowal.”(4) The cynically-compliant music teacher may renounce the over-emphasis on competition and lament the restrictions on her agency that the system imposes. However, these teachers see no other choice than to go along with a system they may not fully support in order to do work they supposedly “truly” value. This attitude can be encapsulated by the phrase “I know very well, but nonetheless.”(5) This is what Lacan termed the non-duped err(6): by believing that they see through the ideological veil of competition but comply in order to accomplish “real” teaching, the cynical teachers strengthen the system that they claim to oppose.
Paradoxically, an earnest, forthright, widespread endorsement of the ideology of competition would threaten its hegemonic position. However, the common cynical, individual, informal, and disconnected acts of subversion do not threaten the hegemonic structure—they work to strengthen it. Like our neoliberal capitalist system at-large, the ideology of competition sustains its efficacy though the subsuming of (and dependence on) harmless acts of cynical transgression.(7) This acts as a “pressure release valve” that keeps the hegemonic structure intact as teachers believe they are allowed to resist the system. They are free to “enjoy” without remorse.
This is what Contu refers to as “decaf resistance”—resistance without risk; resistance without bearing the cost of dismantling the sociosymbolic network that provides music teachers material and social support, “resistance without the cost of radically changing the economy of enjoyment that ties us to our master.”(8) The Real act of resistance would be one in which we risk giving up the comforts of the current structure.(9) Surpassing self-interest, we must work together in solidarity to change the oppressive, agency-limiting, compulsive competitive structure for the good of all. To this end, we have enacted a regularly-meeting group of teachers at my university who are formulating plans for systemic change originating in their praxis. Rather than a space for improving results within the current system (or cynically complaining), we work to name the structures that control the work of music teachers and envision alternative realities for music education within our contexts. I will include a description of the project in the full paper.
1. Rick Roderick, “Hegel and Modern Life,” YouTube Video, 40:43, August 25, 2012, https://youtu.be/2MsNyR-epBM.
2. Sean Robert Powell, “One Dimensional Praxis: The Ideology of Competition in School Music,” (2019), manuscript in review.
3. see Emmett J. O’Leary, “A Phenomenological Study of Competition in High School Bands,” Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education 220 (2019): 43–61.
4. Slavoj Žižek, The Sublime Object of Ideology, 2nd ed. (New York: Verso, 2009), 33.
5. Slavoj Žižek, “With or Without Passion,” retrieved from https://www.lacan.com/zizpassion.htm.
6. Jacques Lacan, Seminar XXI: Les Non Dupes Errent, trans. Cormac Gallagher (1973–1974), retrieved from http://www.lacaninireland.com/web/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Book-21-Les-Non-Dupes-Errent-Part-1.pdf
7. Alessia Contu, “Decaf Resistance: On Misbehavior, Cynicism, and Desire in Liberal Workplaces,” Management Communication Quarterly 21, no. 3 (February, 2008): 367.
8. Ibid.
9. Slavoj Žižek, The Ticklish Subject: The Absent Centre of Political Ontology (London: Verso, 1999), 264.