Writing a Different Story of Music Learning

Recently, the United States has witnessed an uptick of racially and culturally motivated events that continue to challenge the role of our schools in creating a more socially just nation. In light of these issues, it is important that we consider what role school music education plays in addressing issues related to social justice. In this column, I started by sharing a class conversation on the analogies related to immigrants in the U.S. and then explored the implication of these analogies/stories. Inspired by Chinua Achebe’s analysis on literature and its relation to reality, I ask, not only what stories we tell about music learning at school, whose interest these stories serve, and whose voices/music are privileged? I propose that multiple stories of our students’ music learning may be enacted as forces to counter the dominate narrative. I end with some curriculum ideas for teachers to adapt in their classrooms.