Popular Music in the K-12 Classroom and the Quest for Education Justice

Authors

  • Kathryn Metz Oberlin College & Conservatory

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jwpm.40178

Keywords:

popular music, ethnomusicology, K-12 education, activism

Abstract

Popular music can be an exceptional tool, and popular music scholarship and pedagogy can help sharpen that tool in the K-12 classroom. Teachers work to prepare K-12 students to go to college or vocational school, to have successful careers and to perhaps move beyond their economic circumstances, and popular music studies can provide intellectual and practical models to engage with professional development. Offering students different access points to what sometimes feels a crushing, oppressive history of racism and classism has the potential not only to accommodate differentiated learning, but also to stimulate critical thinking and analysis. We, as over-educated academics, tend to be very dismissive of K-12 education, without realizing or acknowledging how lack of access to quality music education shapes who shows up in our collegiate classrooms.

Author Biography

  • Kathryn Metz, Oberlin College & Conservatory

    Kathryn Metz is Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology at Oberlin College & Conservatory. Prior to arriving at Oberlin, Metz was manager of community and family programmes at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, where she fostered sustainable relationships with community organizations, and collaborated with community leaders in order to better serve their constituents’ needs in connecting music and social justice. She co-produced public programmes and concerts, taught thousands of K-12 students on-site, and designed and developed curricula for digital learning spaces.

References

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Partnership for 21st Century Skills. 2009. “P21 Framework Definitions”. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED519462.pdf (accessed 1 June 2019).

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. 2019. “Rockin’ the Schools”. https://www.rockhall.com/learn/education/rockin-schools (accessed 1 June 2019).

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Published

2019-12-23

Issue

Section

Special Section

How to Cite

Metz, K. (2019). Popular Music in the K-12 Classroom and the Quest for Education Justice. Journal of World Popular Music, 6(2), 237-242. https://doi.org/10.1558/jwpm.40178

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