Chasing Legitimacy:
The National Music Standards Viewed Through a Critical Theorist Framework
Kassell Benedict, Cathy Lynne. Columbia University Teachers College, 2004. 3135354.
ProQuest document ID: 305209492
Copyright: Copyright UMI - Dissertations Publishing 2004
Abstract
This study examines the National Music Standards from two perspectives. The study situates the status of music education as a marginalized society and postulates that the Music Standards are a byproduct of larger forces and powerful assumptions. The second perspective compares the National Music Standards to the National Mathematics, Language Arts, Science, and History Standards in order to examine the ways in which those National Standards reflect a paradigm shift in the educational climate.
The purpose of this study was to examine the National Music Standards by comparing and contrasting them to the National Standards in Mathematics, Language Arts, Science, and History, and then situate these differences through a lens of critical theory, thereby providing the basis for a reorientation of the National Music Standards. Reactions to this reorientation was sought from the seven original members of the writing task force for the National Music Standards. Besides reacting to the reorientation, they then also shared their reflections, insights, and perspectives on the writing process, the development, and historical context of the National Music Standards.
The comparison of the documents reveal pedagogical and philosophical discrepancies that exist between the music standards and the other standards. Among these discrepancies are the ways in which the other documents address and incorporate research on teaching and learning as well as the ways in which their standards address how content should be delivered, including the "why" and "how" and "how not" to teach. It was also found that the authors of the music standards felt the music standards needed to be simple, should read as an executive summary, and that they should be about content and behavioral actions and consequently, measurable.
Other findings suggest that while the music standards have provided external visibility and support that had not existed previous to this document, a focus on philosophical and pedagogical matters was seen as too political and that a neutral stand on "methodology" and thus, pedagogy, would create space for all "methodologies." However, the neutrality of this stance is less than neutral in that a pedagogical focus that is ends-mean oriented permeates the National Music Standards.
The National Music Standards Viewed Through a Critical Theorist Framework
Kassell Benedict, Cathy Lynne. Columbia University Teachers College, 2004. 3135354.
ProQuest document ID: 305209492
Copyright: Copyright UMI - Dissertations Publishing 2004
Abstract
This study examines the National Music Standards from two perspectives. The study situates the status of music education as a marginalized society and postulates that the Music Standards are a byproduct of larger forces and powerful assumptions. The second perspective compares the National Music Standards to the National Mathematics, Language Arts, Science, and History Standards in order to examine the ways in which those National Standards reflect a paradigm shift in the educational climate.
The purpose of this study was to examine the National Music Standards by comparing and contrasting them to the National Standards in Mathematics, Language Arts, Science, and History, and then situate these differences through a lens of critical theory, thereby providing the basis for a reorientation of the National Music Standards. Reactions to this reorientation was sought from the seven original members of the writing task force for the National Music Standards. Besides reacting to the reorientation, they then also shared their reflections, insights, and perspectives on the writing process, the development, and historical context of the National Music Standards.
The comparison of the documents reveal pedagogical and philosophical discrepancies that exist between the music standards and the other standards. Among these discrepancies are the ways in which the other documents address and incorporate research on teaching and learning as well as the ways in which their standards address how content should be delivered, including the "why" and "how" and "how not" to teach. It was also found that the authors of the music standards felt the music standards needed to be simple, should read as an executive summary, and that they should be about content and behavioral actions and consequently, measurable.
Other findings suggest that while the music standards have provided external visibility and support that had not existed previous to this document, a focus on philosophical and pedagogical matters was seen as too political and that a neutral stand on "methodology" and thus, pedagogy, would create space for all "methodologies." However, the neutrality of this stance is less than neutral in that a pedagogical focus that is ends-mean oriented permeates the National Music Standards.
