Sociology and Music Education

Sociology and Music Education addresses a pressing need to provide a sociological foundation for understanding music education. The music education community, academic and professional, has become increasingly aware of the need to locate the issues facing music educators within a broader sociological context. This is required both as a means to deeper understanding of the issues themselves and as a means to raising professional consciousness of the macro issues of power and politics by which education is often constrained. The book outlines some introductory concepts in sociology and music education and then draws together seminal theoretical insights with examples from practice with innovative applications of sociological theory to the field of music education. The editor has taken great care to select an international community of experienced researchers and practitioners as contributors who reflect current trends in the sociology of music education in Europe and the UK. The book concludes with an Afterword by Christopher Small.

Dr Ruth Wright is Associate Professor and Chair of Music Education in the Don Wright Faculty of Music, The University of Western Ontario, Canada.

Contents: Preface; Sociology and music education, Ruth Wright; Research in the sociology of music education: some introductory concepts, Lucy Green; Class, power, culture and the music curriculum, Ruth Wright and Brian Davies; Music education from the perspective of system theory, Geir Johansen; Unpopular music: beliefs and behaviours towards music in education, Alexandra Lamont and Karl Maton; The sociological critique of curriculum music in England: is radical change really possible?, Chris Philpott; Ethnicity and music education: sociological dimensions, David G. Hebert; Towards a sociological perspective on researching children's creative music-making practices: an exercise in self-consciousness, Panagiotis A. Kanellopoulos; Gender identity, musical experience and schooling, Lucy Green; Modernity, identity and musical learning, Geir Johansen; Towards a broader conception of creativity in the music classroom: a case for using Engeström's activity theory as a basis for researching and characterizing group music-making practices, Pamela Burnard and Betty Anne Younker; Revealing musical learning in the informal field, Sidsel Karlsen; Musikdidaktik and sociology, Geir Johansen; Culture, society and music education, Ruth Wright and John Finney; Listening to children: voice, agency and ownership in school musicking, Felicity Laurence; Democracy, social exclusion and music education: possibilities for change, Ruth Wright; Afterword, Christopher Small; Index.