Global music making a difference: themes of exploration, action and justice

Abstract

The educator is not obligated to clear the entire jungle; he is not endowed with the power to remake the law. His responsibility is to eradicate the contemptuous treatment of blacks and to get at the truth, as well as he can, of the socially wounded child's life.

(Maxine Greene, 1973, p. 196)

How might we, as educators, begin to confront the realities of ‘the socially wounded child's life’ in our classrooms? In this article, the author documents a class collaborative project exploring music instruction as catalyst for social consciousness and transformation. Within a multicultural music education model, participants attempt to take theory into practice by authoring music curricula fostering principles of equity and social justice.