About the Book

The purpose of the second edition of Teaching Music in American Society: A Social and Cultural Understanding of Music Education is the same as the first edition, to explore social problems and classroom realities encountered by music education teachers in public schools. My ultimate goal is help future and current educators become more aware of the social components of teaching music in American society. My own bias is that teaching involves more than subject matter involving creating and performing music. Teaching music involves an awareness and understanding of how society and cultures interact with schools and individual classrooms. I have encountered few teachers who did not love the act of teaching and making music, however, I have met many who are unaware of how politics, policy, parents, business and religious leaders, cultural norms, socioeconomics, gender, and race influence students, schools, expectations, and who, what, and how we teach. It is my desire that this book is a beginning of that awareness and offers some advice as to how to cope with these challenges.

Teaching Music in American Society applies philosophical, social, cultural, and theoretical issues to common musical classroom and rehearsal situations encountered daily in a culturally and musically diverse society. The text embraces the basic sociological tenet that everything humans know and are able to do is learned through interactions with other humans and our environment. Its basic hypothesis is that schools are miniature pluralistic societies reflecting the cultural diversity of the communities they serve. Schools are therefore primary socialization agents with teachers responsible for knowing and transmitting cultural expectations, knowledge, and skills necessary for students to be successful in these communities. Learning the role of being a music teacher, as well as how music interrelates with the total school environment and the surrounding community, is essential for all teachers to learn in order to function effectively in the education profession.