Beyond performing inclusion: Lessons Learned through a Disability Studies-Centric Professional Learning Community (original) (raw)
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International Journal of Music Education, 36, 1, 34 –46. , 2018
Disability is a neglected field of diversity within music education scholarship and practices. The study reported in this article sought alternatives for the hierarchical practice-model and ableist discourses that have thus far pervaded music teacher education, through a reconceptualization of expertise. The focus is on a Finnish university special education course, where musicians with learning disabilities conducted workshops for student music teachers over three consecutive years. Student teachers’ written reflections (n = 23) were reflexively analyzed in order to examine how performing disability may disrupt, expand, and regenerate normative discourses and transform inclusive thinking in music teacher education. Performing disability is here seen to generate critical discursive learning, and create third spaces for pedagogical diversity and the co-construction of professional knowledge. It is thus argued that through teaching with, and by, rather than about, we in music education may move beyond normalizing understandings and practices of inclusion, towards an expanded notion of professionalism.
Disability As Disruption in Music Education
The Sage handbook of school music education, 2024
Disability as an identity and/or lived experience is a way of being diverse, but disability itself is diverse, too. The implications of this reality are manifold for the field of music education and amplified by the fact that the global population of disabled persons/persons with disabilities is estimated to be over 15%, which is more than one billion people. In this chapter we discuss how normative practices of music education impact disabled persons/persons with disabilities in both school and community contexts and examine the complexities of how and why pedagogical practices can be inclusive or exclusive for a given learner. Using a narrative approach, we tell the stories of a learner named Ray as they encounter different music learning contexts throughout their lifespan. First, we open with Ray experiencing the “norm” in school and community music learning settings to identify issues. Following, we offer a commentary of Ray’s experiences as a disabled person/person with a disability with regard to (1) diversity (of approach, perception, and pedagogy), (2) access (to instruction, to experiences, to instruments/tools), and (3) equity (the monetary, personal, and social costs of music learning). Drawing on key concepts from the field of Disability Studies, we discuss how Ray’s bodymind disrupts normative music education practices, thereby identifying engrained ableist practices that need to be unlearned. Furthermore, we advocate for re-learning by reorienting to a disability-centered approach that recognizes, values, and honors disability epistemology. Finally, we conclude with a vision of what a more just music education world might look like for Ray, but with the caveat that what is right for Ray may not be for others because disability is diverse and therefore the work of inclusion is always incomplete.
Inclusion, music education, and what it might mean
British Journal of Music Education
The issue of inclusion is currently a hot topic in music education both in the UK and elsewhere. There are many discussions about what it means, what it should involve, and how it can be enacted. This is to say nothing of the positive effects inclusion can have on the lives of young people in terms of personal fulfilment, as well as musical participation. For a journal concerned with educational research in music education, as is clearly the case with the BJME, there is, or there should be, more to it, however, than just these simple matters. After all, having children and young people in wheelchairs participating in a musical event is all very well – even if it does not happen often enough - but is this really all we mean by inclusion? And it is this aspect which needs problematisation for music education. After all, having young people who are disabled in some form, visible or invisible, taking part in music education should be something which just happens, we shouldn't need, ...
Music Educators' Perceived Effectiveness of Inclusion
Journal of Research in Music Education, 2014
The purpose of this research project was to examine whether music teachers’ perceptions of effectiveness of inclusion, curriculum adaptations/modifications, or student achievement had altered from previous research findings 20 years before. A survey based on that used by Gfeller, Darrow, and Hedden was sent to music educators through the United States and returned by 1,194, with all 50 states represented. Results indicate more positive responses as compared with 20 years ago, with participants generally reporting that the students were successfully integrated, their music needs were being met, and they did not hinder the progress of students without disabilities. Additionally, teachers’ responses indicated they were comfortable adapting and/or modifying their regular curriculum to meet the needs of students with special needs and that these students were graded on the same standards of music achievement as the other students in their classes.
INCLUSIVE TEACHING: A PARADIGM THROUGH MUSIC
European Journal of Education Studies , 2019
In the framework of this paper, we develop indicatively a teaching example of children with special educational needs and difficulties in their social adjustment, the children with Williams syndrome. The aim of this article is to present a brief literature review of the influence of music education as a new challenge of lifelong special and inclusive education. We will focus on the Williams syndrome, in which the aim of smooth growth and inclusion is achieved more effectively through the influence of music. The cognitive contrasts, which the people with Williams syndrome present, worry scholars and educators. The result is the education of these people to often focus on their weaknesses, e.g. cognitive tests in problem solving and not on their talents e.g. communication, music. However, when these people are approached educationally and therapeutically through their abilities-and not through their any weaknesses, then another perspective of special education and training emerges, that of the development of talents. In this, the educational environment can play a major part and the aims which is called to serve. When an educational environment is a pleasing and interesting challenge, then it acts as a framework of creativity and activation of any auspices and talents of the people with Williams syndrome. In conclusion, the coupling of knowledge and experience emerges as the main methodological and pedagogical objective, as the student with special needs is facilitated towards a process of exploration of his behavioural drives and parallel learning of ways of behaviour and attitudes which do not rely only on knowledge. Thus, the goal of the inclusive education and teaching is realised more directly and effectively.
Inclusive Pedagogy Across the Curriculum Music : Naturally Inclusive , Potentially Exclusive ?
2015
This chapter explores the way teaching music lends itself to the inclusive pedagogical approach in action framework, focusing on four key areas: working outside of ability groups, using what learners can do as their starting point, engaging in learning at their own level whilst contributing to a collaborative outcome and developing the whole creative child rather than just a skillset.