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MULTICULTURAL MUSIC EDUCATION: TERMINOLOGY OR IDEOLOGY?

A music departments faculty member is teaching music philosophy to an undergraduate
music education class. At a certain point, he touches the topic of Multicultural Music Education
(MME). He wants to understand his students perceptions on the topic, so he ask them to write a
paper on it. By the day the paper is due, he receives the students papers and take them home to
review what he thinks is going to be a broad discussion on methods and contents to teach music
from different countries and ethnic groups. To his surprise, although majority of the papers
fulfilled his expectations, a considerable number of papers referred to pop and urban musics.
This was not all of a surprise: multiculturalism not only encompassed Multi-Ethnic Music
(MEM) or folkloric music, but also World Musics, which, to some degree, incorporated issues of
urban and pop musics. Yet, one paper called his attention towards something he had not thought
before. This paper was about Western Art Music. It dealt with historical and theoretical issues,
but overall, it discussed the epistemology of Western culture on the basis of its musical
development. He understood the message: music is a cultural issue and it might be understood as
bearer of cultural values beyond the musical system itself. He still did not associate this message
with the concept of multiculturalism, so he wanted to know the motivation for the student to
write that paper. When asked, the student answered: Well, the paper was about multicultural
music education, so I thought about two things. First, as individuals in todays society, we all are
multicultural to some extent, so Western Art Music (WAM), as composed and performed today,
might be multicultural as well. Second, as I read, MME is related to World Musics (WM). I think
WAM and Western Culture in general are part of the world, so I considered that by
contextualizing WAM as the product of a specific culture it should fit in the category of WM,
and thus could be understood under the umbrella of MME. The student was obviously trying to

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provoke him, and he had succeeded. The teacher was surprised and, to some extent, annoyed. For
him, it was clear that the student had understood the main objective he had in mind for this paper
and deliberately had done something different. However, even if that was not the case, the
student presented the terms in a way that, although simplistic, he had not thought about before.
As the good teacher he attempted to be, he was not able to tell the student that he had
misunderstood the goals of the paper and just move on. He had realized that he had a
preconception of what MME was and that the student was challenging it. Now he could not keep
using the term and assume that everyone understood the same thing. He would have use more
clear and specific terminology if he wanted the students to understand what he really meant.
More important, the professor now had seen that he was using a term assuming a specific
definition, and that that definition was questionable. The student had a point: If WM was really
music from around the world, then WAM should be understood as WM, nevertheless it was not.
As he kept troubled by his thoughts, he got more and more convinced that this differentiation
was impregnated with ideological connotations.
From this hypothetical situation a few conclusions can be drawn: (1) the term
multicultural is complex and encompasses a variety of issues beyond national or ethnic
descriptors, (2) the teacher had a fixed idea of what MME was and he probably learned that
definition from somewhere else, (3) some issues contained by MME can be conceptualized in a
variety of terms such as MEM or WM, and (4) whether intentionally or not, the use of specific
terms could be ideologically charged. Maybe more conclusions could be drawn as well, but there
is plenty material to be discussed even if we only consider those four statements. If the term
MME is complex, is it right to use it to define only a few aspects of this complexity? Should we
use different terms to refer to every aspect of MME? How did the teacher learn a specific use of

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the term that seemed to have an implicit connotation that could, according to his estimations, be
understood by all of his students? What might be the implications and consequences of specific
uses of the terminology? Should we ignore all of this and accept the positive aspects of MME or
should we attempt to be critical?
There is evidence that the use of a specific terminology has been an issue for the
development of a consistent discourse regarding MME. The different ways in which various
authors have decided to address the topic are, consciously or not, connected to ideological
principles. These postures are not the isolated attempts by individuals to establish their
individuality, but are connected to the historical context in which specific terminology has
developed.
Thesis
Ambiguity on the use of MME related terminology makes it difficult to understand and
take a position regarding the political implications of the different discourses. Traditional notions
of MME within the music education field understand the term culture mainly as a descriptor
for nationality or ethnicity. This notions are not politically neutral. Critical perspectives can
provide a theoretical framework under which specific terminology can be better associated with
its political discourse.
Because of the lack of standard definitions the study of MME in any of its possible
definitions turns complicated and ambiguous. Since the term is used in so many ways, it is hard
to understand what the socio-political implications are in any given context. Researchers need to
examine a large amount of literature in a variety of fields just to understand their own position
regarding the term multiculturalism. As a consequence some scholars use the term loosely and
attach a specific meaning to it that, implicit or explicit, might be rather arbitrary. Others simply

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prefer other terms to set up their discourse on, usually avoiding the complexities of
multiculturalism and disassociating their discussion from social and political implications. In
both cases, the discussion remains shallow and lose energy in terms of the impact it might have if
it considered deeper implications.
On the other hand, when the term is used in a more holistic manner, it loses credibility as
it is hard to understand what the exact implications are for each case. This untrustworthiness is
related to the fact that it is hard to construct a body of knowledge when a term is used in such a
variety of ways. It is also hard for a system to adopt new perspectives when terms have multiple
meanings. This lack of clarity undermines the applicability of specific research to broader
segments of society. Critical theory has the potential to clarify what each term means used in
which context.
Theoretical framework
When discussing political implications of education regarding relationships of power
throughout society, Henry Giroux, an exponent of Critical Pedagogy (an application of Critical
Theory to Education) asserted that education is not neutral and that it is impossible to
separate what we do in the classroom from the economic and political conditions that shape our
work.1 What and how teachers teach, as well as the use of specific terminology in educational
discourses, must have political implications. Current and historical uses of specific terminology
regarding MME, when analyzed under critical perspective, evidence the relationship between
MME and political agendas. However, since the term multicultural education means different

1 Henry A. Giroux, Democracy, Education, and the Politics of Critical Pedagogy, in Critical
Pedagogy: Where are We Now?, ed. Peter McLaren and Joe Kincheloe (New York, NY: Peter Lang
Publishing, 2007), 23.
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things to different people, it is hard to see all the political nuances different discourses might
take.2
Charlene Morton applied Kincheloe and Steimbergs categories of Multicultural
Education, drawn from Critical Pedagogy, to identify implicit or explicit problems in diverse
discourses regarding MME.3 These categories will be useful as well in the context of this paper,
since the will provide a framework from which we can critically interpret the different
discourses. Table 1 provides a comparison of the different categories.4
Table 1
Conservative
Committed to the preservation of a dominant culture as the superior one, it
multiculturalism/ advocates for a common culture and rejects multiculturalism as divisive.
monoculturalism Embraces the myth that Western culture is a common culture where all
social groups participate equally and relies on politics of assimilation.
This view benefit those groups that have privileged access to power [that]
involves their ability to define what constitutes se so-called common
culture.
Liberal
Advocates for unity in the sense of sameness and amalgamation and claims
multiculturalism that peoples humanity will illustrate that men and women and various
races and ethnicities share more commonalities than differences. It puts
different people to compete as equals in an unequal society, allowing to
blame on individuals for they lack of success. It applies a color blind
approach under which the effects that race, gender, and class have for
oppressed people are ignored.
Pluralist
Differs from liberal multiculturalism in that it celebrates cultural
multiculturalism differences as opposed to sameness. Although less sympathetic with
processes of assimilation or amalgamation, it fails to understand how the
embracement of cultural equality disrupts the dominant Western narratives,
overlooking systemic forms of oppression. Diversity is pursued for its
2 Sleeter and Grant as cited in Yannis C. Miralis, "Clarifying the Terms "Multicultural," "Multiethnic,"
and "World Music Education" through a Review of Literature," Update - Applications of Research in
Music Education 24, no. 2 (Spring, 2006): 54.
3 Charlene Morton, Boom Diddy Boom Boom: Critical Multiculturalism and Music Education,
Philosophy of Music Education Review 9, no.1 (Spring, 2001): 3241.
4 The content of this table, including all quotations, is extracted from Joe L. Kincheloe and Shirley R.
Steinberg, Changing Multiculturalism (Buckingham, PA: Open University Press, 1997), 329.
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Left-essentialist
multiculturalism

Critical
multiculturalism

Camilo Leal
own sake to the point that difference is exoticized and fetishized. This
approach has become the mainstream articulation of multiculturalism.
Assumes the important role that race, class, and gender issues play for the
oppressed, but tends to draw on essentialist conceptions of culture. It fails
to appreciate the historical situatedness of cultural differences, and to
recognize the dynamic elements of identity formation. It is not aware that
social constructs such as race change in time to mean different things for
different groups. It focuses in one of oppression as elemental and
precedent to all other forms of oppression, thus alienating itself from a
broad range of individuals and groups and obscuring the possibilities for
strategic democratic alliances for social justice.
Is concerned with the contextualization that give rise to race, class, and
gender inequalities with the ways power has operated historically and
contemporaneously to legitimate social categories and divisions.[and]
shape consciousness. Its main focus are issues of justice and social
change and their relation to the pedagogical. By being aware of how
racism, sexism, and class biases are economically, semiotically,
politically, educationally and institutionally produced, teachers become
researchers of their students and their place in the dynamics of power, and
are able to help them to overcome social barriers.

In addition, Richard Prattes categories of ideologies of cultural diversity, further adapted

by David Elliot in his concepts of multicultural music education, can be used to illustrate the
ways in which political agendas have driven curricular decisions.5 Concepts such as assimilation,
amalgamation, and pluralism are often used to point out the political implications of historical
underlying philosophies of education. These taxonomies are not only theoretical constructs, but
are attempts to represent the historical underlying philosophies employed to shape political
decisions regarding curriculum. The first categories of all these taxonomies, including
Kincheloes and Steinbergs, can be associated with the philosophies implied in curriculum
previous to any multicultural approach, although we can also see it in some current discourses.

5 To a description of these categories see Pratte as cited in Teresa M. Volk, Music, Education, and
Multiculturalism: Foundations and Principles (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 10; David J.
Elliot, Key Concepts in Multicultural Music Education, International Journal of Music Education 13,
no.1 (May, 1989): 1118.
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The remaining categories cover a variety of discourses regarding MME, allowing us to see how
these discourses represent socio-political postures.
Discussion
Traditional Use of the Term Multicultural in MME
Following Volk and Jordan, Sangmi Kang pointed out that the concept of multicultural
music education has its origin in the beginning of the 20th century in the United States.6 She
referred to the study of music from different cultures, but did not provide definitions on what
culture or multiculturalism means for her. Volk stated that she does not claim that 19001916
saw the creation of what would be considered truly multicultural music education today, but I
believe that the increasing diversity of musics used in American schools was an important
precedent for multicultural developments.7 Her overall discussion, which probably influenced
Kangs assertion, implies that culture, for her, refers to some type of ethnic, racial, or national
distinction. The same is applicable to the case of Jordan, who constantly gives examples based
on ethnic or national descriptors.8
Ethnic distinction is part of multiculturalism, but to assume that culture is defined only by its
ethnic component would be extremely reductionist. Culture means more than ethnicity and
multiculturalism means much more than interactions between ethnic groups. By addressing
multiculturalism as an exclusive indicator of ethnicity, we negate broader definitions of culture
6 Sangmi Kang, The History of Multicultural Music Education and its prospects: The Controversy of
Music Universalism and its Application, Update: Applications of Research in Music Education
(forthcoming), 1.
7 Teresa M. Volk, Folk Music and Increasing Diversity in American Music Education: 19001916,
Journal of Research in Music Education 42, no. 4 (Winter, 1994):137155.
8 Joyce Jordan, Multicultural Music Education in a Pluralistic Society, in Handbook of Research on
Music Teaching and Learning, ed. Richard Colwell (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1992),
735748.
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as dynamic, and in which gender, age, social status, and many other factors play an important
role. Although, it would be presumptuous to generalize and say that the whole field of music
education uses the concept in the same way, there is plenty evidence that shows how, for at least
a period of some thirty years, the term has been used many times as a descriptor of nationality or
ethnicity.
Volk discusses a series of special issues by the Music Educators Journal (MEJ) that
addressed multiculturalism in the years 1972, 1983, and 1992. 9 Although the 1972 special issue
was titled Music in World Cultures and did not use the term multiculturalism, Volk and Kang
considered it an issue on multicultural music education. Based on the content of the issue, one
can say that the term culture is used to imply mostly ethnicity or nationality. The 1983 and 1992
issues are called The Multicultural Imperative and Multicultural Music Education
respectively and both use the term as a descriptor for ethnicity or nationality as well. The 1990
Music Education National Conferences (MENC) symposium on multicultural approaches to
music education follows the same line.10 The 2002 publication by the MENC World Musics and
Music Education does not include the word multiculturalism on its title, but most of the
articles contained in it do, and in various cases the term is used almost exclusively as a descriptor
for ethnicity even when admitting that the term is much more complex.11 Yannis Miralis observes

9 Teresa M. Volk The History and Development of Multicultural Music Education as Evidenced in the
Music Education Journal, 19671992, Journal of Research in Music Education 41, no. 2 (Summer,
1993): 137155.
10 Volk, The History and Development of Multicultural Music Education, 142148.
11 Bennett Reimer ed., World Musics and Music Education: Facing the Issues (Reston, VA: MENC, the
National Association for Music Education, 2002).
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that when music educators refer to multicultural music education, the majority of them is
actually referring to some sort of multiethnic music education.12
The traditional use of the term may vary on its socio-political implications depending on
which approach is used by each author to set up her specific discourse regarding nationality or
ethnicity. Some of those implications will emerge later on this paper, as well as an explanation on
some of the terms used so far. For now, however, the discussion makes somewhat clear why the
professor in the example given at the beginning of this paper had a specific understanding of the
term and believed that the same understanding was shared by his students.
The Search for the Proper Terminology: Inclusive Approaches to MME
That there is a traditional understanding of the term multiculturalism in MME does not
mean that there is total agreement on the specific use of terminology or in the political agendas
that each term might imply. Some scholars have used the term multiculturalism in a more
inclusive, complex, and multidimensional way, incorporating dimensions such as gender, social
class, religion, language, ability/disability, sexual orientation, geography and age to the overall
notion of culture.13 Moreover, Miralis observes that culture is a compound of elements and that
individuals can be multicultural in the sense that their identity is linked to a variety elements
from different cultures.14 Articles by several authors exemplify this tendency towards inclusive
perceptions of the term culture.
12 Miralis, "Clarifying the Terms, 60.
13 Steven N. Kelly and Kimberly Van Weelden, "Connecting Meaningful Music and Experiences in a
Multicultural, Multimusical Classroom," Music Educators Journal 90, no. 3 (January, 2004): 3539;
Miralis, "Clarifying the Terms, 5467; Morton, Boom Diddy Boom Boom, 3241; Robert W.
Stephens, Memory, Multiculturalism, and Music: An African-American Perspective, in World Musics
and Music Education: Facing the Issues, ed. Bennett Reimer (Reston, VA: MENC, the National
Association for Music Education, 2002), 91102.
14 Miralis, "Clarifying the Terms, 5556.
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Robert Stephens discusses MME from an African-American perspective.15Although in his

context ethnicity plays a significant role, the emphasis on the philosophical understanding of
racial dynamics of the dichotomy White/Non-White, evidences a complex understanding of the
term. These understanding goes beyond the simple perception of culture as ethnicity and
incorporates issues of social justice. He declares that if multiculturalism is to be meaningful and
lasting, then it must include a much broader agenda than simply singing, dancing, or making
instruments from different ethnic origin.16
Julia Koza incorporates a Social Reconstructionist perspective to MME.17 She avoids to
demonize the field and acknowledges the practical difficulties faced by educators in their
everyday exercise of the profession. She also recognize that the development of a multicultural
discourse, although biased and flawed, opened the door for acceptance of diversity. However,
although she notices that issues of social class, gender, and disability are addressed by the music
education field, she points out that they are not generally found under the multicultural
umbrella and calls for an inclusive definition of the term.18 In a different article, Koza highlights
how music school systematically excludes applicants who might have musical aptitudes different
than those needed for WAM. By associating musical preference to race constructs, she concludes

15 Stephens, Memory, Multiculturalism, and Music, 91102.

16 Stephens, Memory, Multiculturalism, and Music, 97.
17 Julia Koza, Multicultural Approaches to Music Education, in Campus and Classroom: Making
Schooling Multicultural 2nd ed., ed. Carl A. Grant and Mary Louise Gomez (Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice-Hall, 2001), 239258
18Koza, Multicultural Approaches to Music Education, 239.
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that this approach racializes the selection of students.19 In doing so, she is discussing culture, and
multiculturalism, in terms of the relationships of power set up by the music school institution.
Morton asserts that confusion and inconsistencies are generated by the popular notion
that music curricula should simply reflect diverse cultures.20 This notions are a reaction to the
observations that school population is increasingly culturally diverse and music is as varied as
the human species is.21 Although she is not suggesting that culture is being understood only in
terms of ethnicity, she asserts that such notions do not provide an adequate moral vision.
According to her, music educators (and students) could more fully realize the potential of
multicultural education in general by attending to the ethical tensions and socio-political
contradictions manifest in cultural perspectives and hierarchies.22
Other authors, such as Steven Kelly and Kimberly Van Weelden, and Emma BrooksBaham (although she still uses the term somewhat in the traditional way) suggest that one of the
best resources to address multiculturalism can be found within our students and communities.23
This suggestion aligns with Kincheloe and Steinbergs perception of teachers as researchers of
their own students and their communities, and are consequent with Kozas call for keeping the
focus on people more than in rigid visions on content and method.24
19 Julia E. Koza, Listening for Whiteness: Hearing Racial Politics in Undergraduate School Music,
Philosophy of Music Education Review 16, no.2 (Fall, 2008): 145155.
20 Morton, Boom Diddy Boom Boom, 33.
21 Morton, Boom Diddy Boom Boom, 32.
22 Morton, Boom Diddy Boom Boom, 33.
23 Kelly and Van Weelden, "Connecting Meaningful Music, 3539; Emma Brooks-Baham, Collecting
Materials in your Community, Music Educators Journal 69, no. 9 (May, 1983): 5255.
24 Kincheloe and Steinberg, Changing Multiculturalism, 29; Koza, Multicultural Approaches to Music
Education, 256.
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The Search for the Proper Terminology: Multiethnic and World Musics Education
Miralis discusses the terms multiethnic education and world musics education,
observing that Patricia S. Campbell and Barbara Lundquist, by using the former term, provided
the first attempts to differentiate what the main focus of the music education field was when
talking about MME.25 He points at Campbell as she suggests that multiethnic education appears
as a more reasonable term to be addressed by the field of music education.26 It is her opinion that
multiculturalism is an excessively broad task and ends up to be destructive for the field since it
puts teachers un the too complex situation of knowing every facet of the music of one or multiple
cultures in the broader sense of the term.27 Then, she advocates for multiethnic music education
and WM education as a less ambitious tasks concerned with de study of music from many
cultures based on ethnic and national descriptors. She differentiates multiethnic music education
and WM education by pointing that, while the former focuses on an in depth study of a small
selection of ethnic groups, the later is concerned with cross-cultural comparisons that span a
great many musical styles.28
In her book Teaching Music Globally, Campbell is very consistent with her discourse on
terminology and effectively avoids the use the term multiculturalism.29 It might be the case that
the title of the 2002 publication by the MENC, as well as its introduction by Bennett Reimer,

25 Miralis, "Clarifying the Terms, 58.

26 Campbell as cited in Miralis, "Clarifying the Terms, 60.
27 Patricia S. Cambpell, Music instruction: Marked and molded by multiculturalism, American Music
Teacher 42, no. 6 (June/July 1993): 15.
28 Cambpell, Music instruction, 16.
29 Patricia S. Campbell, Teaching Music Globally (Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press, 2004).
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avoid the term multiculturalism for similar reasons.30 However, in this publication authors do use
the term in various ways, showing a tendency towards the traditional definition even when
acknowledging the complexity of the issue.31
Not All that Glitter is Gold
The articulation of concepts such multiethnic and WM education, as well as the apparent
convention in the use of the term multiculturalism might suggest that the topic is, to some extent,
well defined and that too much discussion is futile and redundant. However, the fact that many
authors still have to delimitate their definitions in order to generate their discourse proves that
the situation is not that simple. Moreover, when analyzing the different discourses from a critical
perspective, one can identify problems and contradictions that are not all evident.
Campbell, who has dedicated plenty of her work to the definition and application of
MME related concepts, honors the validity of all music traditions, but questions their potential
use in education. She focuses on possible ways in which various musical traditions could
improve self-musicianship and emerge in new creative ways of making music. However, for her,
WAM should still be central (as our musical tradition) and multiculturalism secondary to
musicianship, which is still defined in Western aesthetic terms.32 This view is problematic not
only because it contradicts more radical discourses involving social justice, but also because, as
noted by Kincheloe and Steinberg, a common culture where all social groups participate equally

30 Bennett Reimer, The Need to Face the Issues, in World Musics and Music Education: Facing the
Issues, ed. Bennett Reimer (Reston, VA: MENC, the National Association for Music Education, 2002), 3
11.
31 Reimer, World Musics and Music Education.
32 Campbell, Music instruction, 6869.
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has never existed in the West.33 This statement implies that the concept of common culture is
socially and politically defined by those who have access to power from a dominant culture
perspective.
Campbells conservative discourse becomes evident as she states that multiculturalism is
potentially explosive and might suggest unintended socio-political connotations.34 This statement
can be understood as an attempt to be politically neutral, which, as suggested by Giroux, is not
possible in education.35 Moreover, Campbells discourse negates itself since her own position has
a political agenda which is, apparently, close to those of liberal and pluralistic multiculturalism.36
Campbell uses the term our music to refer to WAM, which necessarily generates a
counterpart, namely their music. This distinction suggests the dualist mechanism of color
blindness.37 We do not recognize the effects that racial construct have on people of color, but we
overlook them by assuming race does not matters. In such way, we tend to disguise our racial
perspectives in the reaffirmation of whiteness as opposed to a generic other.38 Juliet Hess
discusses how the dual relationship between the us and the other serves the purpose of

33 Kincheloe and Steinberg, Changing Multiculturalism, 4.

34 Campbell as cited in Miralis, "Clarifying the Terms, 60.
35 Giroux, Democracy, Education, and Critical Pedagogy, 23.
36 See Table 1.
37 For further discussion on color blindness see Adrienne D. Dixon and Celia K. Rousseau, And we are
Still Not Saved: Critical Race Theory in Education Ten Years After, Race, Ethnicity, and Education 8,
no.1 (March, 2005): 727.
38 For further discussion on ways we reaffirm our whiteness, see Frances E. Kendall, Understanding
White Privilege: Creating Pathways to Authentic Relationships across Race 2nd ed. (New York, NY:
Routledge, 2013).
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Western culture construction of the self in terms of the excluded other.39 She introduces what she
calls the politics of self-congratulation to point out how, by congratulating ourselves on our
tolerance of the racial other, we establish our position of superiority.40
Hess applies these ideas to the concept of WM by pointing out that, since the term is used
to refer to all non-Western music, it follows the same dualistic pattern, reaffirming WAM as
dominant against an excluded (and racialized) other. Hess is like our student in the example that
opened this paper. She explains that, by definition, the term WM should encompass all musics,
including WAM, but in the practice it does not, thus keeping WAM at the center of the
curriculum as our (and dominant) music.41 According to Hess, WAM should be treated as equal
to other musics in a historically and culturally contextualized manner and suggests that the term
WM should include WAM or at all disappear, thus decentralizing WAM in the music
curriculum.42
Campbells conservative discourse is explicit and easy to read. However, there are
authors who, consciously or not, have similar ideas, but their discourses are rather hidden. An
example is provided by Volk, who has devoted a great deal of her career to discuss, among other
aspects, the historiography of MME. Being a declared advocate for MME and WM, she
expresses her concern that Western art music not be relegated to a corner in favor of so much

39 Thobani as cited in Juliet Hess, "Performing Tolerance and Curriculum: The Politics of SelfCongratulation, Identity Formation, and Pedagogy in World Music Education," Philosophy of Music
Education Review 21, no. 1 (Spring, 2013): 70.
40 Hess, "Performing Tolerance and Curriculum, 7172.
41 Hess, "Performing Tolerance and Curriculum, 72.
42 Hess, "Performing Tolerance and Curriculum, 8284.
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diversity.43 This statement becomes political when understanding that, as it will be discussed
later, some studies show that WMs content is barely addressed in university music departments.
Therefore, WM by no means poses a real threaten to the dominance of WAM in our music
curriculum.
Ethnical or Ethical?
Problems arise as well when using any of the discussed terms to refer exclusively to
national or ethnic descriptors. Koza points out that there is not full agreement on what is ethnic
music. Drawing on Bessom, she suggests that all music is ethnic, and that using the label of
ethnic to refer to a specific music follows the dynamics of exclusion.44
Authenticity, another prominent issue when talking about ethnic music, has been
addressed in depth by Anthony Palmer, who is often cited by other authors when discussing the
topic.45 Authenticity is discussed in several of the articles contained in the 2002 MENCs
publication.46 Kangs article is an example of how, to this day, authenticity poses a problem for
MME and WM education discourses.47
The discussion has usually been centered on the authenticity of materials and teaching
methods. A common answer to those issues has been the encounter with culture bearers that are
able to offer an insider perspective. Hess problematizes this approach since she perceives it as

43 Teresa M. Volk, Multiculturalism: Dynamic Creativity for Music Education, in World Musics and
Music Education: Facing the Issues, ed. Bennett Reimer (Reston, VA: MENC, the National Association
for Music Education, 2002), 22.
44 Bessom as cited in Koza, Multicultural Approaches to Music Education, 240.
45 Anthony J. Palmer, World Musics in Music Education: The Matter of Authenticity, International
Journal of Music Education 19, (1992): 3240. When discussing the issue of authenticity, Palmer is often
cited by many authors including Kang and various authors in the 2002 MENCs publication.
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potentially essentialist.48 Culture bearers might present essentialized versions of their culture, as
opposed to dynamic ones. She points out that, in any case, the use of culture bearers does not
challenge stablished relationships of power, but rather reaffirm them. 49
To have an essentialist perspective is like taking a picture of cultural behaviors in a
specific historical context and assume that this cultural behavior is applicable to any historical
context. In this sense, cultural essences are read as something inherently belonging to the past
and therefore primitive.50 These notions can be seen as inherited from the first attempts in the
early twentieth century to include non-Western music in the school repertoire, if we consider the
evolutionist perspectives that were in vogue.51 Campbell offers an alternative solution to the issue
of authenticity when she proposes composing and improvising as a way to re-create WM.52
46 Anthony Palmer, Multicultural Music Education: Pathways and Byways, Purpose and Serendipity, in
World Musics and Music Education: Facing the Issues, ed. Bennett Reimer (Reston, VA: MENC, the
National Association for Music Education, 2002), 3153; Volk, Multiculturalism: Dynamic Creativity
for Music Education, 1529; Ellen McCullough-Brabson, Passing the Cultural Baton of Music, in
World Musics and Music Education: Facing the Issues, ed. Bennett Reimer (Reston, VA: MENC, the
National Association for Music Education, 2002), 119137; Milagros Agostini Quesada, Teaching
Unfamiliar Styles of Music in World Musics and Music Education: Facing the Issues, ed. Bennett
Reimer (Reston, VA: MENC, the National Association for Music Education, 2002), 139159;Bryan
Burton, Weaving the Tapestry of World Musics, in World Musics and Music Education: Facing the
Issues, ed. Bennett Reimer (Reston, VA: MENC, the National Association for Music Education, 2002),
161185; Rita Klinger, A Meterials Girl in Search of the Genuine Article, in World Musics and Music
Education: Facing the Issues, ed. Bennett Reimer (Reston, VA: MENC, the National Association for
Music Education, 2002), 205217.
47 Kang, The History of Multicultural Music, 45.
48 Hess, "Performing Tolerance and Curriculum, 7274.
49 Hess, "Performing Tolerance and Curriculum, 7778.
50 Hess, "Performing Tolerance and Curriculum, 7274.
51 Kang, The History of Multicultural Music, 2; Gustafson as cited in Hess, "Performing Tolerance
and Curriculum, 83; Volk, Folk Music and Increasing Diversity, 285305.
52 Campbell, Teaching Music Globally, 191213.
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Another problem for music teaching music from a multiethnic or WM perspective is that
of teachers training. Much research has been dedicated to determine the offer of courses of WM
at universities and schools and to understand the approaches, perspectives, and beliefs that
faculty members, pre-service teachers, student teachers, and teachers have in relation to MME.
Miralis provides a study of the amount and type of world music courses offer in a group of ten
well-known and respected universities.53 Wang and Humphreys present a study of the
multicultural and popular music content in American music education program.54 Although their
study is based on research done in only one university, they mention some other studies related
to the inclusion of multicultural content in music departments courses.55 All of the studies
concluded that there is scarcity of courses that address music from non-Western art tradition.
Studies by Katherine Norman, Dawn Joseph and Jane Southcott, and Roy Legette address
perceptions and beliefs by pre-service teachers, faculty members, and public school music
teachers regarding multicultural music education.56 The study by Norman provides perceptions
by some faculty members that embrace multiculturalism and others that are overtly against it.57
53 Yannis Miralis, Multicultural-World Music Education at the Big Ten Schools: A Description of
Course Offerings, Update: Applications of Research in Music Education 22, no.1 (Fall-Winter, 2003):
4456.
54 Wang, Jui-Ching, and Jere T. Humphreys. Multicultural and Popular Music Content in an American
Music Teacher Education Program. International Journal of Music Education 27, no.1 (February 2009):
1936.
55 Katherine Norman, Music Faculty Perceptions of Multicultural Education, Bulletin of the Council
for Research in Music Education, no.139 (Winter, 1999): 3749; Dawn Joseph and Jane Southcott,
Experiences and Understandings: Student Teachers Beliefs about Multicultural Practice in Music
Education, Australian Journal of Music Education, no. 2 (2010): 6675; Roy M. Legette, Multicultural
Music Education: Attitudes, Values, and Practices of Public School Music Teachers, Journal of Music
Teacher Education 13, no.1 (Fall, 2003): 5159.
56 Norman, Music Faculty Perceptions, 4648.
57 Legette, Multicultural Music Education, 57.
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Legettes study reveals that music teachers seldom received training on multicultural issues at the
undergraduate level. However, although it states that majority of participants felt comfortable
teaching multicultural music, the study is based only on surveys and it does not clarify any
implications beyond those of the participants perceptions.58
Where are We Now?
Despite the efforts for clarification on the appropriated terminology and its social and
political implications, much of the literature developed during this first fourteen years of the
twenty-first century keeps using the term MME in the traditional way. An example is an article
by Jui-Ching Wang and Jere T. Humphreys in which they use the term multicultural music as
distinctive from popular music.59 Understanding popular as a concept that is not included under
the term multicultural shows the extent in which, for these authors, culture is defined in terms of
ethnicity or nationality rather than in other cultural indicators. Another study, by Emily Mason in
2010, compares textbooks in search for what they call multicultural music representation. In her
article, she refers exclusively to songs from different countries.60 This also illustrates how
multiculturalism is still accepted in the traditional sense.
The above discussed issues on authenticity and teachers training still prove current.
Jacqueline Kelly-McHales recent study on the influence of music teacher beliefs and practices
on the expression of musical identity in an elementary general music classroom is illustrative on

58 Legette, Multicultural Music Education, 57.

59 Wang and Humphreys, Multicultural and Popular Music, 19.
60 Emily Mason, "Elementary - Multicultural Music Represented in Current Elementary Music
Textbooks: A Comparative Study of Two Published Music Series." Update: Applications of Research in
Music Education 28, no. 2 (May, 2010): 2941.
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how all of those elements related to teachers training have consequences on our students.61 In
her study, Kelly-McHale describes the isolation of music, as taught in the music classroom, from
the construction of musical identities by the students outside the classroom. A shocking element
of her study is the exclusive perception, by the students, of a musician as someone who was
able to read, write and perform music.62 This perception disregards many other ways of
musicianship and establish the dominant discourse of WAM.
Summary and Conclusions
When talking about multiculturalism in music education, there is lack of clarity regarding
terminology. Terms are used in a variety of ways and as interchangeable to define different
things. The resultant confusion is harmful to research and practice in the field in two ways: by
making the literature ambiguous and hard to relate when creating theoretical constructs, and by
blurring the sociopolitical implications of the use of any specific term. However, the main use of
the term MME has been in relation to ethnic and racial descriptors. This use does not solve the
problems derived from the lack of consensus about the meaning of the term and delineation
between terms. Furthermore, the traditional use of the term within the field of music education
tends to carry (uncritically), as observed on the issue of essentialist notions of culture, old
philosophies of education that favor current relationships of power.63

61 Jaqueline Kelly-McHale, The Influence of Music Teacher Beliefs and Practices on the Expression of
Musical Identity in an Elementary General Music Classroom, Journal of Research in Music Education
61, no.195 (June, 2013): 195216.
62 Kelly-McHale, The Influence of Music Teacher, 207.
63 See Kang, The History of Multicultural Music, 2; Gustafson as cited in Hess, "Performing
Tolerance and Curriculum, 83; Volk, Folk Music and Increasing Diversity, 285305; as cited in page
16.
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Implications on music educators training are various, including the proper addressing of
diverse musics, cultural responsiveness, and formation of a clear philosophic foundation on the
role of music education. The lack of consensus on the meanings of the terminology reflects
differences in political positions that, if unexamined, might just obscure the topic, making it
suspicious to educators. Some teachers still advocate, overtly or in an unacknowledged manner,
for a Western centered curriculum. Others show interest in diversity but do not understand the
implications of adopting one or another approach, without questioning the ways they teach
whatever they consider as diverse, and expecting diversity per se to have a positive impact on
students. Those approaches might be a response, as suggested by Koza, to practical problems and
obstacles posed by elements beyond their own philosophies, such as the time they have to teach a
class and assessment approaches that favor specific contents.64 Some scholars, however, perhaps
a minority, are critical of the way the ambiguous use of terminology might have sociopolitical
implications, and advocate for structural changes that would address multiculturalism in is full
complexity.
Critical perspectives might help to better delineate the specific terminology, having a positive
impact on the level of awareness researchers and educators show regarding the socio-political
implications of multiculturalism and related terms. This awareness would help to redefine
college music education programs, providing better underlying philosophies and rationales, more
and better defined courses, and the environmental responsiveness needed to better serve our
students in their own multiculturalism.
Our students and communities are cultured, and therefore have the ability to provide
information about their needs and concerns, and the way we address cultural diversity must be

64 See Koza, Multicultural Approaches to Music Education, 239; as cited in page 10.
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related to those needs and concerns. Culture cannot be understood as fixed or in an essentialist
manner, and we must work to examine our own ways of being multicultural before we are able to
understand the culture of others. When referring to ethnic musics, authenticity is important, but it
loses some relevance when we tend to essentialize culture. A creative approach, such as the one
proposed by Campbell, might offer alternatives when used in an honest way. We must see
ourselves as co-learners with our students. When addressing the diversity of our students and
communities, the profile of a teacher-researcher, as proposed by Kelly and Van Weelden, and by
Brooks-Bahams, offers an alternative methodological approach. However, this approach cannot
understand culture neither as static nor as defined exclusively by ethnicity or nationality.
Finally, to some degree, the discussion will always be political. In the context of a
multicultural society that is pervaded by the Western logic of dominant/excluded, and us and
them, is school to reproduce what some might consider a fairly acceptable order of social
relationships or is it to challenge oppressive structures of power? If we are not willing to make a
judgment on our own political position, further discussion is deemed to redundancy and failure
to provide alternative solutions.

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Bibliography

Brooks-Baham, Emma. Collecting Materials in your Community. Music Educators Journal 69,
no. 9 (May, 1983): 5255.
This short article Emma Brooks-Baham draws on Nettls fieldwork methods to propose
that teachers should search for diversity within the communities they assist. This is not to
say that she was conscious of the multidimensionality of multiculturalism, but her
approach offer alternatives to consider when that awareness does exist. In this way, her
approach is not far from those by Kelly and Van Weelden, and Kincheloe and Steinberg.
Cambpell, Patricia S. Music instruction: Marked and molded by multiculturalism. American
Music Teacher 42, no. 6 (June/July 1993):1417, 6769.
In this short article, Campbell discusses how MME has influenced the priorities of music
curriculum. As many authors, she justifies MME from the stand point of the demographic
makeup of American classrooms. She makes the case that MME is an ambitious goal that
is beyond the possibilities of teachers, thus she proposes the advocacy for multiethnic
music education and WM education. The article offers some suggestions on how teachers
can use musical characteristics of non-Western musics to enhance students musicianship,
evidencing how for her, musicianship is defined in terms of Western aesthetics. Campbell
overtly defends the centralism of WAM in the curriculum by suggesting that we cannot
afford to disregards years of training and development of teachers in WAM.
. Teaching Music Globally. Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press, 2004.
In this book, Campbell develops extensively on her own philosophical ideas. Because of
her disregard of multiculturalism as a too ambitious goal, she sets up a different
terminology and follows it consistently, effectively avoiding the term multiculturalism.
However, from her 1993 article to this point, her discourse has opened her terminology to
elements that could be considered as multicultural in a complex understanding of the
term. In this way, although the book is mainly focused in the teaching of WM, she
incorporates elements such as sound-surround, the students styles, and, perhaps most
importantly, she provides a creative solution to the issue of authenticity. A whole chapter
is dedicated to the creation of WM, thus implying creative elements that imply honesty
when approaching authenticity.
Dixon Adrienne D., and Celia K. Rousseau. And we are Still Not Saved: Critical Race Theory
in Education Ten Years After. Race, Ethnicity, and Education 8, no.1 (March, 2005): 7
27.
In this article, Dixon and Rousseau discuss the evolution of Critical Race Theory in
education from its beginnings, as influenced by CRT in legal studies, to the date of the
publication. They describe the foundational principles of CRT and explore their
applications to education as proposed by theorists such as Gloria Ladson-Billings. The
authors further discuss issues such as how the concept of color-blindness pervades
current institutional discourses. They also use the concept of convergence of interests to
analyze cases in which the law has apparently favored people of color regarding
education, but noticing that all of those laws have had a degree of convergence with the
political agendas of dominant institutions.
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Elliot, David J. Key Concepts in Multicultural Music Education. International Journal of

Music Education 13, no.1 (May, 1989): 1118.
This article provide an extensive discussion on philosophical issues regarding our
understanding of music, music education, and multiculturalism. The author presents his
personal views and discusses common perceptions of what music, education, and
multiculturalism are. He explores the implications of music education as culture. The
author adapts Prattes categories of ideologies of cultural diversity to his own categories
of multiculturalism. Some illustrations are used to support his ideas. References are
provided. This source is used as a reference to Prattes categories of multiculturalism and
its application to music education by Elliot, providing theoretical framework to
understand sociopolitical implications behind MME discourses.
Giroux, Henry A. Democracy, Education, and the Politics of Critical Pedagogy, in Critical
Pedagogy: Where are We Now?, Edited by Peter McLaren and Joe Kincheloe, 23. New
York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, 2007.
This short article serves as the introduction to the book, thus providing basic information
on the philosophical approaches of Critical Pedagogy to education. Giroux, as well as
McLaren and Kincheloe, is one of the most prominent exponents of Critical Pedagogy in
North America. He, as well as the editors of the book, have learned through working
directly with Paulo Freire, who is pointed out as the founder of this theory. According to
Kincheloe, Critical Pedagogy fuses liberation theological ethics and the critical theory of
the Frankfurt School in Germany with progressive impulses in education.65 However,
Kincheloe, McLaren, and Steinberg, on the other hand, notice that critical theory has
evolved since the orthodoxy of the Frankfurt School as a reaction to the challenges posed
by post-modern theories, reformulating their conceptions on the construction of
individuals.66
Hess, Juliet. "Performing Tolerance and Curriculum: The Politics of Self-Congratulation, Identity
Formation, and Pedagogy in World Music Education." Philosophy of Music Education
Review 21, no. 1 (Spring, 2013): 6691.
This article adds a new perspective to the field of multicultural education: that of ethics. It is
framed under critical pedagogy and critical race theory perspectives. It discusses how the
issue of authenticity can lead us to essentialist perspectives on culture and to do cultural
tourism. It also discusses how the very concept of world musics is framed in a bipolar
framework that reinforces power structures and reaffirm Western culture as dominant
against an otherized rest of the world. This article is key to generate discussion that could
help to develop a new perspective on multicultural music education. Extensive notes are
provided.
65 Joe L. Kincheloe, Critical Pedagogy in the Twenty-first Century in Critical Pedagogy: Where are
We Now?, ed. Peter McLaren and Joe Kincheloe (New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, 2007), 942.
66 Joe L. Kincheloe, Peter McLaren, and Shirley R. Steinberg, Critical Pedagogy and Qualitative
Research: Moving to the Bricolage, in The Landscape of Qualitative Research, ed. Norman K. Denzin
and Yvonna S. Lincoln (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2013), 339370.
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Joseph, Dawn. "Experiences and Understandings: Student Teachers' Beliefs about Multicultural
Practice in Music Education." Australian Journal of Music Education, no. 2 (2010): 66
75.
This article is based on a qualitative research on the perception of pre-service Australian
music teachers on multicultural music education. The research focused in the responses
of student-teachers to their observations on music classroom settings. Although there are
obvious differences between the Australian and the American music education systems,
this article can provide valuable information regarding practical concerns that may be
applied to almost any context.
Kang, Sangmi. The History of Multicultural Music Education and its prospects: The
Controversy of Music Universalism and its Application. Update: Applications of
Research in Music Education (forthcoming).
This article presents a discussion on the development and evolution of American
perspectives on multicultural musics and the question of music universality. It provides
an account of historical development of the concept of music universality and contrasts it
with the more current perspective on music as a non-universal phenomenon. It also with
the issue of authenticity projected to the classroom setting and makes projections of the
development of the multicultural approach in the future, incorporating the element of
technology. The value of this source lies in its currency, its effective historiography, and
the bibliography it provides, which will be of help in founding sources for my own
research.
Kelly-McHale, Jaqueline. The Influence of Music Teacher Beliefs and Practices on the
Expression of Musical Identity in an Elementary General Music Classroom. Journal of
Research in Music Education 61, no.195 (2013): 195216.
This article discusses the relationship between a music teachers beliefs regarding music
education and the development of musical identity on second generation students from
immigrant families. Four students, besides the teacher, were the participants. The author
discusses how the teachers beliefs influence her curricular decisions how those curricular
are perceived by her students. Finally she concludes that the teachers decisions help to
generate a music class that is isolated from the musical identities of her students outside
the classroom. Notes and extensive references are provided.
Kelly, Steven N. and Kimberly Van Weelden. "Connecting Meaningful Music and Experiences in
a Multicultural, Multimusical Classroom." Music Educators Journal 90, no. 3 (January,
2004): 3539.
This article addresses the issue of connecting multicultural music teaching with the
backgrounds of our students as a mean to achieve meaningful teaching and learning and
promoting musical diversity. The authors provide a historical perspective and discuss the
current cultural make up of music classroom by the time the article was written. They
advocate for the inclusion of pop music as an important element in the curriculum both
for honoring students cultural backgrounds and to open the discussion on diversity. They
provide a list of tips to connect ourselves with our students music. They also call for an
inclusive perspective in MME. Notes are provided.
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Kendall, Frances E. Understanding White Privilege: Creating Pathways to Authentic

Relationships across Race 2nd ed. New York, NY: Routledge, 2013.
Frances Kendall is an authority with thirty years of experience in the field of diversity. In
this book, she explores the faces of racism as embodied by explicit and implicit
discourses on Whiteness. She provides many examples of how Whiteness, as inherently
favored in the current social context, is reinforced by everyday discourses and behaviors.
She also highlights the way institutional discourses favor Whiteness, and provides
strategies to challenge institutionalized White privileges.
Kincheloe, Joe L. and Shirley R. Steinberg. Changing Multiculturalism. Buckingham, PA: Open
University Press, 1997.
This book is part of the series Changing Education, edited by Andy Hargreaves and Ivor
Goodson. Kincheloe and Steinberg are exponents of Critical Pedagogy, and the book
approaches multiculturalism from that specific perspective. They advocate for a Critical
Multiculturalism that is concerned with issues of power and democracy, hegemony,
representation, social justice, and that incorporates perspectives of class, gender, and race.
The book provides a taxonomy similar and complementary with Prattes and Elliots
categories of multiculturalism, offering the additional alternative of Critical
Multiculturalism.
Koza, Julia. Multicultural Approaches to Music Education, in Campus and Classroom:
Making Schooling Multicultural 2nd ed. Edited by Carl A. Grant and Mary Louise
Gomez, 239258. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2001.
In this article, which is included in a book on general education, Koza presents a general
picture on how the music education field has addressed the issue of multiculturalism. She
explores some historical issues and discusses some pros and cons of what she calls
Modern MME. Following, she proposes changes in four areas: schooling at large, the
music education paradigm, instructional practices, and the music curriculum. She
incorporates gender component and social justice issues to the discussion on MME.
. Listening for Whiteness: Hearing Racial Politics in Undergraduate School Music.
Philosophy of Music Education Review 16, no.2 (Fall, 2008): 145155.
This article explores how students selection policies at a determined university may
favor specific cultural groups on detriment of others. The author discusses how the
technical requirements in a specific aesthetical view are used as a filter and hide racial
and cultural discrimination under the blanket of color blindness. Notes are provided.
Legette, Roy M. Multicultural music education: Attitudes, values, and practices of public school
music teachers. Journal of Music Teacher Education 13, no.1 (Fall, 2003): 5159.
This article presents a quantitative approach to the questions of attitudes, values, and
practices of public music teachers regarding multicultural music education. The
introduction section discusses the demographic profile of American society and how this
profile poses questions to the understanding of music education. Following, the author
acknowledges the existence of multiple definitions of multiculturalism in music
education. The author poses some questions regarding the adherence or neglect, and the
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reasons behind it, by music teachers to incorporate a multicultural approach to their

programs. The method utilized was a survey applied to 394 participants. References are
provided.
Mason, Emily. "Elementary - Multicultural Music Represented in Current Elementary Music
Textbooks: A Comparative Study of Two Published Music Series." Update: Applications
of Research in Music Education 28, no. 2 (May, 2010): 2941.
This article presents the differences in number of songs, representation of countries, and
the categorization of the songs in two current music textbook series. Positive conclusions
are made regarding the increased number of songs and representation of different
countries regarding older series. However, the author recognize problems regarding the
categorization of the songs. This article represents the currency of a specific approach to
multiculturalism (the traditional one) in music education and presents some issues to be
addressed within the specific approach. References are provided.
Miralis, Yannis C. "Clarifying the Terms "Multicultural," "Multiethnic," and "World Music
Education" through a Review of Literature." Update: Applications of Research in Music
Education 24, no. 2 (Spring, 2006): 5467.
In this article, the author acknowledges the need of clarification of terms regarding
multicultural education. She starts by introducing the issue of the interchangeability of
terms and their meanings perceived by specific authors. Further, she discusses the terms
culture, multicultural education, multiethinic education, and world music education by
means of the discussion of available literature. The author argues that there is still the
need for further clarification on the terminology and advocates for a broad interpretation
that includes, besides the music of different ethnic groups, issues related to social class,
gender, and disabilities.
. Multicultural-World Music Education at the Big Ten Schools: A Description of Course
Offerings, Update: Applications of Research in Music Education 22, no.1 (Fall-Winter,
2003): 4456.
This article discusses the amount and type of multicultural and world music courses
offered at a group of ten universities of great prestige. The author classifies and discusses
the nature of the courses. Findings reflect a lack of quantity and variety in the offer of
such type of courses. Related bibliography in the form of references is provided.
Morton, Charlene. Boom Diddy Boom Boom: Critical Multiculturalism and Music Education.
Philosophy of Music Education Review 9, no.1 (Spring, 2001): 3241.
This article presents a Critical Pedagogic perspective drawn from Kincheloe and
Steinberg categories of multiculturalism, as presented in their book Changing
Multiculturalism, to discuss possible political positionality within the discourses of
multiculturalism advocates. The author addresses the conceptual ambiguity of
multicultural education and attempts to identify its political implications on common
multiculturalism discourses. She provide examples and analyze them to support her
claims. Notes are provided.

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Norman, Katherine. Music Faculty Perceptions of Multicultural Education. Bulletin of the

Council for Research in Music Education, no.139 (Winter, 1999): 3749.
Katherine Normans qualitative study explores the perceptions by music faculty members
on the issue of multicultural education. Throughout the article, Norman uses the answers
given by faculty members to questions such as What is multicultural music education?
At what point do stylistic considerations seem authentic? Do we have the resources to
deliver MME? How do you choose the content of a multicultural music curriculum? and
more. Norman then discusses the different challenges for MME as she identify specific
trends in the respondents discourses. Two faculty where directly opposed to the inclusion
of multicultural issues in the music curricula. Their reasons, as well as their assumptions,
are discussed extensively by the author.
Palmer, Anthony J. World Musics in Music Education: The Matter of Authenticity.
International Journal of Music Education 19, (1992): 3240.
This article discusses specific issues regarding authenticity when dealing with world
musics in education. To articulate the discussion, the author relies on related literature
and his own experiences as a researcher and educator. Examples drawn from his
experience teaching Japanese music are used to illustrate and support his claims. Issues of
authenticity are not only discussed in terms of non-Western music, but also in the context
of Western art music. The main argument centers in turn of the question of how much
compromise regarding the authenticity of music can be allowed before the original is
lost. References are provided.
Reimer, Bennett, ed. World Musics and Music Education: Facing the Issues. Reston, VA:
MENC, the National Association for Music Education, 2002.
This book is a compilation of articles by authoritative scholars in the topic of MME. In
the introduction, Bennet Reimer discusses the current issues on the topic, considering its
development since the inclusion of world musics in the Tanglewood Symposium of 1967.
He offers a list of issues, which are suggested to be covered by the articles in the book.
Many of the authors are constantly being published in research journals. Some articles
include only a few notes, but some others include a very comprehensive list of references
that includes works from diverse fields such as psychology, anthropology,
ethnomusicology, education, music education, physical sciences, and more. This book
can be used as a point of departure for exploring the topic.
Volk, Terese M. Folk Music and Increasing Diversity in American Music Education: 1900
1916. Journal of Research in Music Education 42, no. 4 (Winter, 1994): 285305.
This article discusses the reactions of music education field, in the period between 1900
and 1916, to radical demographic changes throughout the United States. The author
accounts the current interest in multicultural education and uses it as a rationale to discuss
the topic from a historical perspective, arguing that this specific period (19001916)
could have marked the beginnings of multicultural education in public schools. Volk
summarizes some research done regarding the topic in different historical periods, but
argued that little research has attempted to link its findings to the development of a
multicultural approach in music education. Throughout the article, the author presents
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and discusses contextual and historical issues and concepts related to American society.
The discussion necessarily involves issues outside the music education field since the
phenomena implies changes in the structure of society and conceptualization in the field
of general education. Notes, but no bibliography, are provided.
. The History and Development of Multicultural Music Education as Evidenced in the
Music Education Journal, 19671992. Journal of Research in Music Education 41, no. 2
(Summer, 1993): 137155.
This article explores the development of multicultural music education by surveying
other articles published by the MEJ between the years 1967 and 1992. The interest in this
particular journal lies in the understanding by the author that the journal represented an
important source for music educators with an interest in multicultural issues in the field.
This interest had been, in great measure, fostered by the address of the topic in the
Tanglewood symposium of 1967. Volk starts by doing a small historiographical
discussion on multicultural music education in the period previous to 1967. Then, she
gets to state what the symposium meant in terms of determining the inclusion of
multicultural issues to the school music curriculum. From thereon, the author presents
and discusses various special issues by the MEJ dedicated to multicultural music
education. Each issue presented various articles exclusively related to the topic. Notes,
but no bibliography, are included.
. Music, Education, and Multiculturalism: Foundations and Principles. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1998.
This book contains plenty of useful material for further research. It is divided into three
parts. The first part discusses philosophical issues concerning multicultural education and
multicultural music education, including a survey of definitions of terms and
conceptualizations by various authors. The second part is a comprehensive history of
multiculturalism in education and in music education since the tur of the twentieth
century on not only in the United States, but also in a number of other countries. The
third part addresses the implications of what is presented in previous chapters for music
education, discussing curricular changes, methodologies, materials, and discussion on the
issue of authenticity. Appendixes and an extensive set of notes, but no bibliography, are
provided. This source is of great importance since it is very comprehensive, but it needs
to be complemented with more current literature.
Wang, Jui-Ching, and Jere T. Humphreys. Multicultural and Popular Music Content in an
American Music Teacher Education Program. International Journal of Music Education
27, no.1 (February 2009): 1936.
This article presents a case study on a specific music teacher education program. It
explores the amount of time spent in different musical styles by observing elements such
as the offer of courses in different musics, courses credits taken by students, and the
amount of time spent by different teachers in each music. The authors estimated the
amount of time spent on each music as follows: western art (92.83%), western non-art
(6.94%), non-western traditions (.23%), and popular music (.54%).

29