Where politics and music meet : why developing critical consciousness is important to the education of professional musicians

Abstract

My hypothesis is that the intersections of music and politics are not adequately addressed in professional music education as it is currently conceived and that the tools of critical theory and critical pedagogy and the goal of developing critical consciousness address this gap. My objective is to show the necessity to situate ourselves and our work in relation to political, economic, personal and communal locations. This thesis is a conceptual study and draws on the literatures of philosophy of music education (i.e., B. Reimer; D. Elliott, T. Regelski and E. Jorgensen) and critical theory/critical pedagogy (e.g., Paulo Freire). I argue that critical consciousness enables us to consider political aspects of materiality, ideology, and power, thus affecting our understandings of ourselves as musicians, suggesting changes to our practices, and contributing to our capacity to participate as citizens in a democracy. In conclusion, I offer a series of recommendations, pointing to extant work that could contribute to a music program that has developing critical consciousness as a goal.