“Disturbing the Comfortable”: Building an Activist Music Education
Juliet L. Hess, Michigan State University
“Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” (Banksy)
Based on a quote originally by Finley Dunne (1906) in relation to the role of the newspaper, the notion of “disturbing the comfortable” intrigues me insofar as “the comfortable” often represents the status quo. What might it mean if art, or music, in this case, could interrupt the status quo? Is it possible for music, and, more specifically, music in schools, to play a role in disrupting systemic inequities? This project aims to consider the work of 20 musician/activists and asks three important questions: (1) How do musician/activists view the role of music?; (2) How do musician/activists perceive the connection/relationship of (their) music to the status quo and/or various systemic injustices?; and (3) Based on their experience of music, what do musician/activists believe are the implications of their work for music education? Posing these questions allows me to closely examine the possible connections of politics, music, and education through the work of people who explicitly seek to challenge the status quo through music and activism.
This project takes the position that music is already always political and explores the work and the philosophies of these 20 activist/musicians through interviews, employing elements of critical social theory, anti-racism, anti- colonialism, and critical feminism to formulate a critical lens. In this study, I look to Paulo Freire (2000/1970) to formulate a theoretical framework. I find Freire’s notion of problem-posing education salient in considering injustices through music. Significantly, the third research question asks musician/activists to consider implications of their work on music education. This question remains relatively unexplored to date in the music education literature. While there is much discussion of critical pedagogy in music education and the possibilities of using music to express ideas (see, for example, Allsup, 2013; Benedict & Schmidt, 2007; Bradley, 2006; Gould, 2007; Schmidt, 2008; Vaugeois, 2009), the perspectives of activist/musicians have not fully been explored empirically.
This paper focuses first on what the activist/musicians perceived to be the role of music. More than half of the activists interviewed pointed to music as a means to communicate, a way to tell a story, an outlet for emotional expression, and a means to heighten global awareness. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, I discuss potential implications on music education that emerged from conversations with activist/musicians. Early findings include a participant emphasis on the study of multiple musics, the thorough contextualization of all musics, and the explicit teaching of critical thinking. Drawing on these elements allows for the construction of a potentially activist music education. Finally, this paper concludes with an exploration of how this type of activist music education may indeed “disturb the comfortable.”
References
Allsup, R. E. (2013). The compositional turn in music education: From closed forms to open texts. In M. Kaschub & J. Smith (Eds.), Composing our future: Preparing music educators to teach composition (pp. 57-70). Oxford, UK and New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Benedict, C., & Schmidt, P. K. (2007). From whence justice?: Interrogating the improbable in music education. Action, Criticism & Theory for Music Education (MAYDAY Group), 6(4), 21-42.
Bradley, D. (2006). Education, multiculturalism, and anti-racism – Can we talk? Action, Criticism & Theory for Music Education (MAYDAY Group), 5(2), 1-30.
Freire, P. (2000/1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed: 30th anniversary edition (M. Bergman Ramos, Trans.). New York, NY: Continuum.
Gould, E. (2007). Social justice in music education: The problematic of democracy. Music Education Research, 9(2), 229-240.
Schmidt, P. K. (2008). Democracy and dissensus: Constructing conflict in music education. Action, Criticism & Theory for Music Education (MAYDAY Group), 7(1), 10-28.
Vaugeois, L. (2009). Music as a practice of social justice. In E. Gould, J. Countryman, C. Morton & L. Stewart Rose (Eds.), Exploring social justice: How music education might matter (pp. 2-22). Toronto, ON: Canadian Music Educators' Association/L'Association canadienne des musiciens éducateurs.