Marissa Silverman

Sites of social justice: community music in New York City

The purpose of this article is to integrate some philosophical reflections on music and music education with aspects of social justice as practiced in three community music sites in New York City. Through this integration of theory and practice, I offer ways in which school music educators might adapt and benefit from the practices of community workers in these contexts. After examining the nature of social justice, I discuss some prerequisites for, and aspects of, this concept in the context of western societies generally and the USA particularly. In doing so, I draw principally on the work of bell hooks, one of America’s most eminent social critics. The last section of my discussion connects salient aspects of social justice to three sites of community music in New York City.

Praxial music education: A critical analysis of critical commentaries

Since its publication in 1995, a significant literature has developed around David J. Elliott’s praxial philosophy of music education, as explained in Music Matters: A New Philosophy of Music Education. This literature includes a range of commentaries in journals, books, edited books, and dissertations. Although Elliott has replied to some positive and negative commentaries since 1995, he has not addressed several adverse discussions by leading music education philosophers. Accordingly, we posit that there is an important gap in music education’s philosophical discourse that may cause some music education students and researchers to accept or reject important criticisms of Elliott’s praxialism without sufficient information or reflection. In this article we analyze several critiques of Elliott’s praxialism. Our discussion divides into three sections related to major topics presented in the praxial philosophy particularly and music education generally: music making, music listening and musical works, and musical values. Each section presents (a) critics’ evaluations of Elliott’s position on a given topic, and (b) Elliott’s stated position on that topic, as explained in Music Matters. Where pertinent, we consult the views of other scholars on specific topics. We end each section with brief reflections on critics’ claims, reserving our final evaluations for the concluding section.

Music and homeschooled youth: A case study

One dimension of music education and community music activity remains virtually unexamined: the homeschooled community. The purpose of this research was to examine the nature, values, and teaching-learning strategies of the North Jersey Homeschool Association (NJHSA) Chorale. This case study, conducted over a period of three months, chronicled numerous musical and social interactions of the NJHSA Chorale. Analyses of the data revealed four themes related to this organization’s nature, values, and teaching–learning processes: care, community, cultural pluralism, and spirituality. The conclusions of the study include (but are not limited to) the following: the aims and values of the NJHSA Chorale resonate with central issues in contemporary educational philosophy and with central aims of community music in particular (e.g., music making for life-long learning and for community well-being).

I Drum, I Sing, I Dance: An Ethnographic Study of a West African Drum and Dance Ensemble.

The purpose of this ethnographic study was to investigate the Montclair State University’s West African drum and dance ensemble. Analyses of the data revealed three themes related to individual participants and the “lived reality” of the group as a whole, and to the social-cultural teaching–learning processes involved: spirituality, community-as-oneness, and communal joy. My motivation for undertaking this inquiry arose from the fact that, beginning in the 1960s, music education scholars in the United States have been concerned about the widespread marginalization of non-Western musics in American music teacher education programs. This situation is still a major concern because American undergraduate and graduate music teacher preparation remains overwhelmingly dominated by Western classical styles. This situation runs contrary to the massive social, cultural, situational, and musical diversity of American students’ lives. As one small effort to advance musical diversity in my own university music school context, I developed the proposal for and initiated the Montclair State University’s West African drum and dance ensemble.