Systems of Power, Privilege, and Oppression
Towards A Social Justice Education Pedagogy for the Music History Curriculum
Abstract
At the foundation of the history of Western music and the foundation of the canon, are systems of power and oppression that both form and inform our teaching, narrative, course objectives, and classrooms. A continued uncritical approach to teaching this narrative reinforces those systems, thereby perpetuating white supremacy through a complex web of hegemony. This article proposes that music history pedagogy take a turn towards Social Justice Education (SJE) to offer our students a critical and analytical approach to history and the canon and to avoid tacit acceptance of systematic oppression. Through a few activities I implement in my music history classroom, I offer a starting point to shift the music history narrative away from hegemonic exceptionalism and toward a critique of systems of power and oppression.
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