VII Colloquium: April 30 - May 2, 1999:
The University of Washington, Seattle, WA
"Can Music Teachers Influence a Culture's Musical Life?"


... on Music Teacher Agency
Marie McCarthy
School of Music; University of Maryland, College Park

Just a century ago, in April 1899, John Dewey delivered a set of three lectures at the University of Chicago Elementary School, one being "The School and Social Progress". In it, he confronted the radical change that American society was undergoing, and he warned that "if our education is to have any meaning for life, it must pass through an equally complete transformation." (1900/1990, 28) The kind of school he envisioned was "an embryonic community life, active with types of occupations that reflect the life of the larger society." (29) Here we are, one century later, gathered to discuss similar kinds of issues revolving around the relationship between school and society, in particular the power of school music curriculum to affect positive change in society. Are we too in need of transformation in school music culture? The late Max Kaplan gave his view on that question in 1966 when he laid out the "big phases" of development in public school music education since its foundations in the late eighteenth century.

1776-1838 preparation for public school music education

1838-1907 emergence of public school music education

1907-1966 growth of public school music education

1966-2025 maturity: decadence? transformation? of music education (1966, 2)

His projection would indicate that we're in the middle of a turbulent period in our history, launched symbolically, one could say, by the Tanglewood Symposium in 1967. The reason I draw on Kaplan's historical perspective is that he was a musician and sociologist with an intense interest in lifelong music education, and that's surely part of our concern in this forum.

A turn-of-the-century period such as this is a time to reflect, to question, to assess, and to critique the forms and functions of music education within the institution of schooling and in the society at large. The proceedings of the MayDay Group are an integral part of this critical process, going one step further in proposing Action Ideals based on the group's views of the shortcomings of Western music education. Action Ideal #3 is a bold statement, implying that the individual music teacher is in a position to influence the direction and development of musical culture not only in the school and home but also in the context of larger social units such as communities and nations.

Action Ideal #3 reads as follows: "Since human musical actions create, sustain and reshape musical cultures, music educators can and should formally channel this cultural process, influencing the directions in which it develops and the individual and collective human values it serves."

As an inspiration and an aspiration, this Ideal links our professional work in schools, colleges and universities to the quality of a culture's musical life and well-being. The question that arises is not whether we should formally play a role in channeling this cultural process, but to what degree and under what conditions can we be change agents in musical culture beyond our school setting. As Tom Regelski rightly asks, "Is there sufficient agency in music education to channel the musical process?" And that brings me to the question I'll be addressing, Action Ideal 3.b: "What can music teachers do to improve the individual, family and society through the musical alternatives, initiatives and choices made available and advanced through the school music curriculum?"

A basic assumption of this sub-question is that if we can improve a culture's musical life (as suggested by the Action Ideal itself) that may have positive benefits for the "the individual, family and society". I base my comments on the premise that it is only through the agency of individual teachers that change can take place; but such agency is made possible only when teachers view their mission holistically -- that is horizontally (in the context of all aspects of the child's contemporaneous cultural experiences), and vertically (in the context of the young person's entire life). In order for the individual teacher to integrate those influences and visions into the school curriculum, she needs to work collaboratively with peers and other enabling agencies, and to be supported and guided by professional organizations and cultural policy makers who also see preK-12 music education as part of the cultural process. I'm talking then about agency originating both at the grass roots level (through teacher empowerment in studios and classrooms) and at the macro level (through a network of institutions, media and policies that advance the cause of the arts and function to educate the public). It is necessary, then, to look at the question of teacher agency in the context of music in school and society, because they are interdependent sociocultural factors in improving musical life.

The structure I'll use to answer the question is simple: using the frame of Music in School and Society, I look to the past to get to know the scope and possibilities for music teachers to be change agents, to the present to evaluate what changes may be needed in school music, and to the future to describe the curricular contexts and actions that are likely to affect positive change in the musical and social life of individuals, families and society. I borrow the idea of linking the past, present and future from Max Kaplan who said that of all the social functions of the arts in society, that of linking the past, the present and scenarios of the future was of particular relevance during periods of rapid social change. He goes on to say that this function is central to the teacher's mission. Addressing the teacher, he wrote:

You may think that in your classroom you are insignificant, one teacher of music among thousands. Not so. Every thoughtful priest is conscious of his place in the history of his church; every judge, as he puts on his robe, knows he is a symbol in the link with past centuries of law and order.... The music teacher is likewise a link, an historic role, generally hidden from public view, but there. There is a job to be done, a responsibility to fulfill, a continuity to be maintained. (1997, 60)

With that strong endorsement of the music teacher's potential to make a difference and to make a significant contribution to society, I'll proceed to look more closely at the context in which the teacher can realize that potential.


I: Music in School and Society: The Past

As a curriculum subject music is poised at a particularly significant juncture between school and society. Music teachers function at the intersection of a highly complex set of social institutions--the school, the home, the community and other agencies related to schooling. Although the transmission of music is common to all these settings, the underlying perceptions, values and practices may be quite different. As Jerome Bruner notes in his critique of the culture of education, "schooling may even be at odds with a culture's other ways of inducting the young into the requirements of communal living." (1996) This has been the case since the early 19th century when music was introduced into public education, but less visibly so since the goal of education in general was to transmit a certain version of reality and an accompanying set of values that were rooted in Euro-American culture. To improve society through music education meant transmitting a repertoire that reflected Euro-American values and practices. Music education was seen to play an important role in ameliorating society. This perception of the value of music in education was fundamental to its presence in the curriculum of several Western countries. In the Unites States the social rationale for music was intensified at times of great upheaval such as mass immigration in the fin-de-siècle years, the two world wars, and more recently in efforts to recognize and celebrate the cultural diversity of the nation. At times like this society looks to teachers as important agents of social change. While the social role of music in education has accorded it certain value as a school subject it is evident that music has had an ambivalent and uncertain existence in education.

School music has developed in highly complex (and in many cases negative) relationships within school culture, with other groups and agencies that shape musical culture, and with the public. The public expectations and demands for schools to solve the ills of society have increased over the decades, and have created tensions for teachers in their daily practice, in part because the school as a social institution has not changed internally to reflect the shifting paradigms and values of our time. For example, it's only in recent years that the diversity of young people is beginning to be acknowledged in a systematic way in the school curriculum. It is this very celebration of diversity that is the great challenge of our time as educators. As change agents many music teachers struggle in balancing tradition and change in their curriculum, in transmitting the values of a common culture believed to be "the best that is known and thought", and embracing the musical diversity that fills their reality, concretely and virtually. The struggle to find a new common cultural vision or "narratives", as social critic Neil Postman calls it, is ongoing (1995, 3-18). Such narratives for tomorrow's culture are prerequisite for a profession seeking "to improve" musical life and society through music education. They must be created based on a synergistic relationship between the school and society. This scenario for the future can then begin to transform the philosophy, curriculum and pedagogies that have been passed on with only some modifications through the generations.

A second area which needs attention if we are going to initiate action for change is the quality of communication between groups and agencies who shape musical culture, and the music teacher. This point is central to Max Kaplan's social perspective on the arts. He says that even though each of the four core groups directly involved in the development of musical life--creators, distributors, educators and the public--ought to be independent, they also need to be coordinated and support each other. It is easy to lay the blame at the school door and argue that teachers ought to network more, to be more concerned with musical culture in its totality, to teach so that public attitude toward the arts is more positive, in other words, to be the pivotal change agents. (And some of those criticisms would be fair, a point I'll return to in a moment.)

In defense of music teachers, Christopher Small points out that they are not to blame for the state of the arts in society and the attitude toward the arts. Teachers, he writes, are at the mercy of other elements of society and it's not possible for them to make any radical changes without concomitant change in society and in musical culture. (1980, 204) Art, education and society, according to Small, "move in a kind of loosely lockstepped three-legged race; each can change only very little without involving corresponding changes in the other two." (206) Max Kaplan saw the daily life of the music educator as "a constant reminder of the position of the arts within the social structure, its values, its foibles, its sources of power, its technological techniques and applications, its administrative fads and responses as to what is basic and what is peripheral." (1991, 4) Charles Folwer believed that the arts in society and in education are two "interlocking and interdependent components of the same universe." (1996, 81) It is clear that we need to recognize and incorporate that relationship into all considerations of improving musical life. We need to base our models and actions on a synergy of school and cultural agendas. (By synergy I mean the inter-action of discrete agencies such that the total effect is greater than the sum of the individual effects.) That means cooperating with a multiplicity of agencies who can lend credibility to the institution of school music and who value its contribution to the greater musical life.

While Small in a sense removed the blame from the purview of the teacher, reasoning that the problems of school music are part of a greater social force, some scholars have been critical of the way school music culture has developed. Kaplan says it's time to open the school doors and look out into the society once more. I quote:

Whereas in 1907 a new MENC was committed to put music education into the schools, the task of 1977, 1987, and 1997 will be to get it out again into the full daylight of the community and the society. This will have been the fruit of success in the school, and new strengths and potentialities in the society. (1966, 237)

In his book Music Matters (1995), David Elliott is critical of the nature and culture of schooling itself--its assumptions, its structures, its goals, and its lack of humanistic orientation. His ideas on a more humanistic, life-oriented approach to music education are reiterated by Tom Regelski who focuses on the lack of transfer from school music experiences to "out-of-school musical benefits for students now and after graduation." (1999, 3:2) He also points out that teachers are typically unaware of the influence of the multiple (and often competing) ideological forces both from outside the school and within the field of music education itself. (4:5) Consequently they cannot begin to change curricular directions.

Charles Fowler was critical of teachers for failing to communicate with the public the long-term values of a musical education. He viewed the education of the public as a primary goal of music teachers, saying: To the extent that we are dissatisfied with the public's attitude toward the arts and artists, want larger audiences for the arts, and want the arts to reach a broader public, and the schools attempt to do something about these problems, the schools serve what I call the first fundamental goal of arts education: To establish the arts as a vital and valued component of American society. (1996, 33)

(It's interesting to note that he considers the big picture first, and that gives a raison d'etre for music in education: his second fundamental goal is "To establish the arts as a significant force in American education.") Fowler suggested ways teachers can begin to interact with society and function not only in the custodial role of transmitting heritage, but also as "cultural engineers" or agents for change, transforming contemporary society. Describing his own teaching career, he wrote: "I was not happy as a teacher with merely passing on the culture. I wanted a role in creating it. The classroom is not just the place for learning about yesterday, but a laboratory for inventing tomorrow."

The notion of music teachers being change agents is reiterated by many scholars in music education. Estelle Jorgensen believes that when we view music education as socialization, the teacher has the twin roles of conserving institutions by transmitting ideas validated in the past and subverting them by communicating ideas oriented toward change. (1997, 21) I have already cited Max Kaplan's idea of the arts as creating scenarios for the future, and music teachers being part of that process. He believed that music teachers need to have faith in the transformative power of the arts. "Any teacher", he wrote, "who does not possess at least a glimmering of such faith has no business to be in charge of anyone's musical education."

In a similar vein, Maxine Greene considers social imagination as central to the process of teaching and of change. She defines that as "the capacity to invent visions of what should be and what might be in our deficient society, on the streets where we live, in our schools." This mode of thinking, she wrote, "...refuses mere compliance...[It] looks down roads not yet taken to the shapes of a more fulfilling social order, to more vibrant ways of being in the world." (1995, 5) Utilizing social imagination, she believes, will help "to cultivate multiple ways of seeing and multiple dialogues in a world where nothing stays the same." (16)

Some basic facts have emerged here in this brief overview of the patterns that have developed between music in school and society: first, the realities of school music are born out of and channel back into the realities of music in society; second, music teachers are products of musical and educational sub-cultures that are not necessarily cognizant or respectful of the variety of ways in which music is present in society; third, the status of music in education is directly related to the public perceptions of the value of music, and fourth, the arts are transforming agents and he music teacher can be part of the transformative process.


II: Music in School and Society: The Present

Emerging from this overview of music in school and society, we can speculate as to the ways music teachers may have influenced the direction and values of national musical life up to the present time. Rather than attempt such a task, I'll pose some questions on that topic. A traditional view of the contribution of music education to American musical life would include questions focused on musical literacy, musical participation, and audience development for classical music. For example: To what degree has public school music education succeeded in developing a musically literate population? a musically informed and appreciative audience? a population that participates regularly in music making?

Based on today's cultural values and social realities, we would also want to probe other areas. Has school music contributed to: developing individuals who find in music a creative outlet for expressing their individuality? a population whose musical interests continue to develop after K-12 schooling and whose lives are the better because of their engagement with music? communities that look to the school for musical leadership and inspiration? communities that understanding and value the role and importance of music in human development to the extent that they view an education without music as deficient and incomplete? Based on Tom Regelski's paper he answers "no" to many of these questions, arguing that few students gain any functional music skills, or any musical independence; the average graduate of general music classes cannot read music effectively for personal purposes; most students who were in ensembles do not seem to have learned to value active performing enough to make time for it in their lives, (3:2) and there is a lack of personal musical agency for individual students "to empower them musically for life." (3:5)

We could proceed to debate these questions and offer opinions on the achievements of school music, but we first need to ask if these are the long-term goals that define the social influences of an effective K-12 music education. Defining these goals is fundamental to a discussion of what music teachers can do to improve musical and social life on a large scale. Neil Postman addresses the need for people to have "a narrative" as a way to give meaning to the world. He writes: "Without a narrative, life has no meaning. Without meaning, learning has no purpose. Without a purpose, schools are houses of detention, not attention." (1995, 7) He says schooling involves two major considerations, a technical one, the means by which the young will become learned, and a metaphysical one, a reason to be there that gives clarity and purpose to learning. (1995, 4-5) "Metaphysical", according to Postman, includes an explanation of who you are, a sense of a community life, a basis for conduct, and an experience of that which cannot be articulated in words and rationalized -- a cosmology.

In the context of contemporary music education, the National Standards are helpful and effective signposts to guide instruction; they tell us what students ought to know and be able to do, but not the purpose of that knowing nor the desired meaning of music in the lives of individuals and communities. They do not provide a vision for a lifetime of/in music, nor for the desired long-term effects of our professional work on students. I would recommend then, that the first step of an action plan for answering the question under discussion is to identify the social-cultural goals of a preK-12 music education.

Incorporating these goals into a school music curriculum may mean that we redefine our role to include the following assumptions: we are agents of change and we educate toward the betterment of society in general; we need to link the curriculum to other musical sources in the child's life such as the home, community centers, cultural clubs etc.; our most noble goals are set in the context of awakening all children to the gift of music and equipping them to use it for a lifetime.


III: Music in School and Society: toward mutual values and actions

Now I offer some ideas that suggest better relationships between music in school and society, paving the way and increasing the possibility for more lasting, profound and meaningful effects of school music on individuals, families, and society

* music education opportunity for every student:

If music teachers are going to impact musical life and raise the value and status of music in American society, as Charles Fowler suggested as the first fundamental goal of music education, then we must reach a much greater percentage of the student population, preK-12; this is based on the democratic belief that all people contribute to the cultural fabric of society. Subsequently, a more democratic musical culture in school will hopefully spread to the outer reaches of society and help dispel notions of elitism associated with music in school and society.

* music education for a lifetime

Neil Postman says that schooling is the central institution through which the young may find reasons for continuing to educate themselves." (1995, xi) Does the school music experience provide students with reasons for continuing to make music? Does the teacher education experience develop in prospective music teachers a mindset that looks at the goals of music education beyond formal schooling? At the moment it seems we educate teachers narrowly in terms of the way they view their professional work, (band or choral or general music or orchestra), not to mention a view of their work having lifelong implications. A recent statement from the NEA describes an education in the arts as a "Lifelong Journey" that begins in infancy, "a journey of discovery, a metaphor by which we may live our lives most fully." (1996, 3)

* the creation of "narratives" to lend cohesion to music in school and society

Music, in a sense, is a narrative of life; it helps students reach out for the meaning of things. (1996, 27) Already I mentioned Postman's lament that education lacks narratives or unifying sets of principles. Bruner also places the role of narrative as central to the culture and process of education. He explains it as closely related to "the mode of thinking and feeling that helps children (indeed, people generally) create a version of the world in which, psychologically, they can envisage a place for themselves--a personal world." (1996, 39) The concept of narrative is as important for the cohesion of a culture as it is for the structuring of an individual life. (40) As educators we could benefit from probing this idea more deeply.

* a new music literacy to "read narratives"

Traditionally, music literacy referred to the written sound. In today's multi-media world, this narrow concept of literacy doesn't prepare students to access or evaluate the myriad of ways music is mediated. We must prepare students to "read" critically a much broader array of musical signs and symbols.

* a value-centered approach based on the role of music in students' lives

Here I'm referring to a curriculum built on the social values of music, at all times emphasizing the role and importance of music in students' lives, their family members, their peers, their communities. Patricia Campbell used Alan Merriam's social functions of music to explain the role of music in the lives of the children she studied (1998, 175-78); young children, it seems, aren't asked often enough to articulate these values, and it would help immensely to deepen their awareness of music as an ongoing part of their life experiences. Listening to young people's voices telling about music in their lives gives the teacher valuable insights and may lead to more meaningful instruction. Such instruction would seek to improve the quality of their lives, help them to look critically at the music that appeals to them and question the musical values have they internalized.

How we can improve individual lives is often stated in terms of preparing them for a life worth living (Elliott, 1995; Regelski, 1999) Pat Campbell reports in her book Songs in Their Heads the words of an 11-year old who said: "You wouldn't starve without musicÉ [But] it makes my life worth more." Campbell continues: "There it was in a nutshell, the clear purpose of musically educating children, to make life--their lives--worth living. (183) This point leads directly into the next since Regelski points out that "musical agency is an important means by which humans make a life worth living." (1999, 4:4)

* development of personal agency

Here I wish to emphasize the teacher's role in building musical and social identity and being a co-helper with the student in constructing a reality where music plays an ongoing and meaningful role. Regelski provides us with much food for thought on music education as a provider of agency; agency implies, among other things, the ability to initiate and carry out activities on one's own; a personal vision and effort, empowerment, freedom of voice, ownership of performance, self-engagement and self-knowledge, consciousness of possibility. (Bruner 1996, 36-7) Identity or selfhood is formed around a sense of personal agency and that is why we need locate it at the center of our pedagogy; in fact it becomes our pedagogy. Bruner, in identifying tenets that guide a psycho-cultural approach to education, placed "the tenet of identity and self-esteem" next to last, reason being that it's "so pervasive as to implicate virtually all that has gone before." (1996, 35)

Maxine Greene says that a primary concern of educators should be "to create the kinds of contexts that nurture--for all children--the sense of worthiness and agency" (1995, 41) The arts can allow for all children to be viewed as capable of imagining, of choosing, and of acting from their own vantage point (41) and as individuals in the continuous process of becoming. Participation in music allows them to envision and experience possibilities, try our new worlds in the safety of an expressive art form.

* focus on music as community

But personal agency is not the end. We will also work toward valuing individual agency and difference in the context of building a community of young people who have a feeling of agency and who share beliefs. (Greene, 1995, 42) Greene says that in thinking about community, "we need to emphasize the process words: making, creating, weaving, saying, and the like. Community cannot be produced simply through rational formulation not through edict. Like freedom, it has to be achieved by persons offered the space in which to discover what they recognize together and appreciate in common." (39)

* focus on music as community

Authors in the 1999 ASCD Yearbook advocate stronger and more permanent programs of partnership with families and communities, where parents, teachers and community form a caring community around students, one that supports learning and nurtures well-being. As music educators, we need to reach out beyond the musical life in classrooms into the community. Get to know musical life in families, what music students hear in the home; communicate with ; involve family members in school programs; convey to parents the idea that they are collaborators in the process of educating their children musically and in helping them to be better individuals, intrapersonally and interpersonally (to use Howard Gardner's way of naming personal intelligences). Value and validate musical practices in the home; talk publicly to parents about the role of music in their children's lives; if we believe that the experience of music education contributes socially then we need to communicate that value to families and community members.

* coalitions and partnerships with agencies of arts learning/arts advocacy

The improvement of musical life is a task that is best accomplished by teams with common goals; thus I recommend coalitions between music teachers and other arts teachers within the school, and partnerships with community cultural centers, arts agencies, and other organizations that can support and intensify the musical life within schools. David Elliott's recommendation to develop "dynamic communities of musical interest by expanding music education horizontally and vertically beyond conventional schooling" (1995, 306) is particularly useful in this context.

* embrace the ideals of cultural/musical diversity

Beginning at the local level, help students interact with the musical diversity of their communities. Begin to expand their cultural horizons accordingly. Maxine Greene is passionate in advocating classrooms that "pulsate with multiple conceptions of what it is to be human and alive." (1995, 43)

In conclusion I return to Action Ideal #3, and its sub question: "What can music teachers do to improve the individual, family and society through the musical alternatives, initiatives and choices made available and advanced through the school music curriculum?" Musical alternatives will be based on a value system that honors cultural diversity and democracy and manifest in the performing groups available to students, the composition of ensembles, the spaces created for learning (e.g. traditional classroom, or alternatives in the community), and ways in which music is valued, both within the school and in the community. Musical initiatives will reflect a broad network of communication with various populations. Musical choices will reflect diversity in repertoire, in ways to be musical, in ways to assess music learning, in the learning styles accommodated in instruction, and in the perspectives that the teacher brings to music teaching and learning.


References

Bruner, J. (1996). The culture of education. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press.

Campbell, P. S. (1998). Songs in their heads: Music and its meaning in children's lives. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Dewey, J. (1900/1902, 1990). The school and society/The child and the curriculum. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.

Elliott, D. J. (1995). Music matters: A new philosophy of music education. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Fowler, C. (1996). Strong arts, strong schools: The promising potential and shortsighted disregard of the arts in American schools. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Greene, M. (1995). Releasing the imagination: Essays on education, the arts, and social change. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Jorgensen, E. R. (1997). In search of music education. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

Kaplan, M. (1966). Foundations and frontiers of music education. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

_______. (1990). The arts: A social perspective. London and Toronto: Associated University Presses.

_______. (1997). "Sociology and music education: Issues and connections." In On the sociology of music education. Ed. by Roger Rideout. Norman, OK: The University of Oklahoma Press.

National Endowment for the Arts. (1996). Lifelong journey: An education in the arts. Washington, DC: National Endowment for the Arts.

Postman, N. (1995). The end of education: Redefining the value of school. New York: Vintage Books.

Regelski, T. (1999). "Critical theory and praxis: Professionalizing music education." Paper presented at the MayDay Group Meeting, University of Washington, Seattle, April 30-May 2.

Small, C. (1980). Music, society, education. London: John Calder.