VINCENT BATES
Vincent Bates teaches elementary arts integration and foundations of education at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. Most of his scholarship relates to social class and rural music education. He is past editor of Action, Criticism, and Theory in Music Education, and serves as director of the Weber Snow Music Licensure program that adds teaching licensure courses to the Snow College Bachelors in Commercial Music degree. Vincent has earned degrees from Brigham Young University (BM in music education and MM in orchestral conducting) and from the University of Arizona (PhD in music education). He lives in Layton, Utah, with his wife and four children.
|
Decolonizing School Music:
Critical Reflections on This Land is Your Land
Critical Reflections on This Land is Your Land
Place has received some attention in recent years in music education philosophy and sociology, a timely development given the current planetary climate crisis wherein geographical places are becoming unstable and tenuous—no longer as reliable as they once may have been as sources for human dwelling and sustenance. Latour (2018) pursues this line of reasoning, going so far as to frame geographical places as increasingly active participants in society. It is also noteworthy that this apparent turn to material considerations of place coincides with the growth of new materialism in sociology (e.g. Fox and Alldred 2017).
Any contemporary critical theory of place in music education, to approach comprehensiveness, must begin with Sandra Stauffer, especially her chapter in the Handbook of Philosophy in Music Education, intended (given the nature of academic handbooks) as a definitive overview of music education and place from a philosophical perspective. I argue that Stauffer’s philosophy of place, although constructive and insightful, is incomplete for at least three reasons. First, it appears to be more anthropocentric than ecological, environmental, or geographical: “Places become places, in other words, in the lived experiences and interpretations of people who act and interact within them, and through the human meanings that are associated with them” (436). Second, Stauffer characterizes music education as “place-bound,” thereby identifying place as a negative concept—something from which it is best to be free. Third, Stauffer’s philosophy of place for music education tends towards urbanormativity (see Fulkerson and Thomas 2013); it has the potential to privilege urban(e) and cosmopolitan places and ways of thinking/interacting (see Bates 2014). All three reasons underscore potential injustices experienced by people marginalized due to the places where they reside, as well as ecological injustices heaped upon an already over-burdened and exploited planet.
As both contrast and complement to Stauffer’s philosophy, I propose a materialist philosophy and sociology of place and music education. I first draw from some of Stauffer’s own sources wherein place is inextricably grounded in matter and geographical location (e.g. Black, Kunze, and Pickles 1989, Davis 2014). For instance, Jung and Jung (1989; in Black, Kunze, and Pickles 1989) base their decidedly materialist discussion of ecopiety upon concepts associated with music aesthetics. I further suggest that to be immersed in place can actually be beneficial for self, society, and the natural environment. Scruton (2014), for example, has identified oikophilia—the love of home—as an essential quality pursuant to environmental sustainability; if people truly care about the places in which they live, they will work to be good stewards, preserving places intact for future generations. In addition, Theobald (1997) promotes the concept of intradependence—working together as community within geographical location. Finally, Wendell Berry (e.g. 1996; also discussed at length in Black, Kunze, and Pickles 1989), has long advocated a return to rural and agricultural conceptualizations of place and community. Throughout the presentation, building especially upon the music education scholarship of Vincent Bates (e.g. 2013) and Daniel Shevock (e.g. 2017), I will highlight implications of a grounded, materialist, and critical theory of place for music teaching and learning.
References
Bates, Vincent C. 2013. Drawing from rural ideals for sustainable school music. Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education 12 (1): 24–46.
Bates, Vincent C. 2014. Rethinking cosmopolitanism in music education. Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education 13 (1): 310–27.
Berry, Wendell. 1996. The unsettling of America: Culture and agriculture. Third edition. San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books.
Black, David W., Donald Kunze, and John Pickles. 1989. Commonplaces: Essays on the nature of practice. New York: University Press of America.
Davis, Philip E. 2014. The philosophy of place. North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Fox, Nick J. and Pam Alldred. 2017. Sociology and the New materialism: Theory, research, action. Singapore: SAGE Publications.
Fulkerson, Gregory M., and Alexander R. Thomas, eds. 2013. Studies in urbanormativity: Rural community in urban society. New York: Lexington Books.
Jung, Hwa Jol, and Petee Jung. 1989. The way of ecopiety: A philosophic minuet for ecological ethics. In Commonplaces: Essays on the nature of practice, edited by David W. Black, Donald Kunze, and John Pickles, 81–99. New York: University Press of America.
Latour, Henry. 2018. Down to earth. Politics in the new climatic regime. Translated by Catherine Porter. Medford, Massachusetts: Polity Press.
Scruton, Roger. 2012. How to think seriously about the planet: The case for an environmental conservatism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.
Shevock, Daniel J. 2017. Eco-literate music pedagogy. New York and London: Routledge.
Stauffer, Sandra. 2012. Place, music education, and the practice and pedagogy of philosophy. In The Oxford handbook of philosophy in music education, edited by Wayne D. Bowman and Ana Lucia Frega, 434–52. New York: Oxford University Press.
Theobald, Paul. 1997. Teaching the commons: Place, pride, and the renewal of community. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Any contemporary critical theory of place in music education, to approach comprehensiveness, must begin with Sandra Stauffer, especially her chapter in the Handbook of Philosophy in Music Education, intended (given the nature of academic handbooks) as a definitive overview of music education and place from a philosophical perspective. I argue that Stauffer’s philosophy of place, although constructive and insightful, is incomplete for at least three reasons. First, it appears to be more anthropocentric than ecological, environmental, or geographical: “Places become places, in other words, in the lived experiences and interpretations of people who act and interact within them, and through the human meanings that are associated with them” (436). Second, Stauffer characterizes music education as “place-bound,” thereby identifying place as a negative concept—something from which it is best to be free. Third, Stauffer’s philosophy of place for music education tends towards urbanormativity (see Fulkerson and Thomas 2013); it has the potential to privilege urban(e) and cosmopolitan places and ways of thinking/interacting (see Bates 2014). All three reasons underscore potential injustices experienced by people marginalized due to the places where they reside, as well as ecological injustices heaped upon an already over-burdened and exploited planet.
As both contrast and complement to Stauffer’s philosophy, I propose a materialist philosophy and sociology of place and music education. I first draw from some of Stauffer’s own sources wherein place is inextricably grounded in matter and geographical location (e.g. Black, Kunze, and Pickles 1989, Davis 2014). For instance, Jung and Jung (1989; in Black, Kunze, and Pickles 1989) base their decidedly materialist discussion of ecopiety upon concepts associated with music aesthetics. I further suggest that to be immersed in place can actually be beneficial for self, society, and the natural environment. Scruton (2014), for example, has identified oikophilia—the love of home—as an essential quality pursuant to environmental sustainability; if people truly care about the places in which they live, they will work to be good stewards, preserving places intact for future generations. In addition, Theobald (1997) promotes the concept of intradependence—working together as community within geographical location. Finally, Wendell Berry (e.g. 1996; also discussed at length in Black, Kunze, and Pickles 1989), has long advocated a return to rural and agricultural conceptualizations of place and community. Throughout the presentation, building especially upon the music education scholarship of Vincent Bates (e.g. 2013) and Daniel Shevock (e.g. 2017), I will highlight implications of a grounded, materialist, and critical theory of place for music teaching and learning.
References
Bates, Vincent C. 2013. Drawing from rural ideals for sustainable school music. Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education 12 (1): 24–46.
Bates, Vincent C. 2014. Rethinking cosmopolitanism in music education. Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education 13 (1): 310–27.
Berry, Wendell. 1996. The unsettling of America: Culture and agriculture. Third edition. San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books.
Black, David W., Donald Kunze, and John Pickles. 1989. Commonplaces: Essays on the nature of practice. New York: University Press of America.
Davis, Philip E. 2014. The philosophy of place. North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Fox, Nick J. and Pam Alldred. 2017. Sociology and the New materialism: Theory, research, action. Singapore: SAGE Publications.
Fulkerson, Gregory M., and Alexander R. Thomas, eds. 2013. Studies in urbanormativity: Rural community in urban society. New York: Lexington Books.
Jung, Hwa Jol, and Petee Jung. 1989. The way of ecopiety: A philosophic minuet for ecological ethics. In Commonplaces: Essays on the nature of practice, edited by David W. Black, Donald Kunze, and John Pickles, 81–99. New York: University Press of America.
Latour, Henry. 2018. Down to earth. Politics in the new climatic regime. Translated by Catherine Porter. Medford, Massachusetts: Polity Press.
Scruton, Roger. 2012. How to think seriously about the planet: The case for an environmental conservatism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.
Shevock, Daniel J. 2017. Eco-literate music pedagogy. New York and London: Routledge.
Stauffer, Sandra. 2012. Place, music education, and the practice and pedagogy of philosophy. In The Oxford handbook of philosophy in music education, edited by Wayne D. Bowman and Ana Lucia Frega, 434–52. New York: Oxford University Press.
Theobald, Paul. 1997. Teaching the commons: Place, pride, and the renewal of community. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.