Educating Ungrounded Values: Interrogating Political Versus Academic Epistemologies in Music Teacher Education

Abstract

All music education endeavors depend on the hierarchical ordering of values. Although philosophical researchers have considered which values should inform music education practices, both the nature of values and possible epistemologies or ways of thinking about values have gone largely unexamined in the music education literature. The twofold purpose of this philosophical inquiry is to examine differences between political versus academic epistemologies and to consider the benefits and limitations of utilizing these contrasting ways of knowing during preservice music teacher preparation. Political epistemologies involve promoting narrow values, encouraging emotional attachments to them, and treating them as unquestionable. Although political epistemologies enable professional cohesion that can sustain and improve practice, they limit both complexity and critiques of actions associated with favored values. Political epistemologies can also reinforce echo chambers, causing students who anticipate counterarguments to harden their initial stances. Alternatively, academic epistemologies involve sustained, rigorous, dispassionate analysis of the complexities surrounding competing values and their associated consequences. Academic epistemologies enable music educators to reimagine their actions and engage with stakeholders promoting contrasting values. Both political and academic epistemologies can serve a key role in preservice music teacher education, and teacher educators might question when and why they favor each in their practices.