期刊名称：Action, Criticism and Theory for Music Education
印刷版ISSN：1545-4517
出版年度：2007
卷号：6
期号：4
页码：163-163
出版社：Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, MayDay Group
摘要：In recent years, music educators have become interested in linking music education practices,
programs and projects to issues of social justice. However, theoretical approaches to
conceptualizing the problem or to developing strategic interventions have yet to occur within our
field. In this paper, I argue that to address social justice we need theoretical tools oriented to
injustice, its causes and its manifestations. Addressing injustice means engaging with the
political, locating ourselves historically and coming to terms with our implicatedness in injustice.
Critical exploration of our positionality and our philosophical assumptions is vital to this
enterprise. Without such critiques we risk getting caught up in discourses of charity¡ªdiscourses
that too often result in ¡®feel good¡¯ projects that valorize the giver while maintaining the inferior
position of the receiver. Discourses of charity do not require us to ask how we have come to be
in a position of ¡®superiority¡¯ relative to those defined as being ¡®in need.¡¯ In contrast, critiques
that examine the ways legal, economic and social systems¡ªand the discourses that support
them¡ªproduce and maintain systemic injustice can help move us beyond the limits of charitable
models. My argument in this paper is that a number of assumptions attributable to
Enlightenment philosophy interfere with our capacity to analyze injustice. Contradictions
between stated ideals, political claims and material reality are masked by liberal discourse,
undermining our recognition of the ways we are implicated in systems of oppression. I argue
that the literatures of critical race theory and feminist post-colonial analysis provide necessary
perspectives as well as analytical tools that are essential to addressing injustice.
