| This study explores society's influence on our beliefs about music in general and music education in particular. My interest in this topic stems from my work as a music educator and my desire to understand more fully the apprehension of pre-service elementary education majors who frequently seem reluctant to engage personally in music-making and often appear unconvinced of their ability to teach music.;Other researchers who have been interested in this phenomenon have commonly assessed subjects from a psychological perspective by examining their attitudes and assumptions, yet the results of these studies have often been confusing, contradictory, and inconclusive, with little of the research influencing practice. As my research direction crystallized, I became more and more convinced that this inquiry would benefit from moving out of the psychological paradigm and exploring socially-constructed meaning. My research question therefore has been, "How do societal beliefs construct our understanding of music and music education?";In particular, I have chosen to explore this question through discourse analysis. Discourse analysis is interpretive work that attempts to investigate how meaning is made through language and other signifying practices in society. In order to locate and generate texts that speak to the construction of meaning in musical experience, I deconstructed texts from various sources that included interviews with pre-service elementary education teachers, an interview with a fine arts coordinator, commentaries on selected musical events and other musical representations in various media, and reflections on my own experience. An inquiry into the institutionalization of music was an important part of this research.;To organize the beliefs represented in the texts, I identified dualisms that operate in society at large and then teased out how these dualistic relationships construct our understanding of music and music education. My interpretation pointed to areas of conflict in the teaching and learning of music and showed how ideological differences about music are represented and managed in various discourses. Finally, in order to provide the groundwork for a possible disruption and challenge to the status quo, I explored a generative "Third Space" that suggests how music could be constructed as "Music for Living" rather than "Music as Art."... |
