•  22
    Abstract:For decades, education has been inundated with neoliberal policies described as enabling its structures to adjust to a global knowledge economy. Located at the intersection of such "reform" language and classical liberal economic theory is a troubling paradox–the idea that knowledge should be centrally concentrated in order to "liberalize" education along free market lines. This essay considers implications of centralized knowledge for music education in light of this contradiction and …Read more
  •  16
    The Role of Critical Formalism in Music Education
    Philosophy of Music Education Review 20 (2): 117-134. 2012.
    This article discusses the emancipatory potential of critical formalism, a mode of critique that may be helpful in revealing to music students the taken-for-granted nature of some common musical and educational notions whose socially constructed nature may not always appear evident. The work is presented in two parts: “theory” and “praxis.” The theoretical component briefly outlines the notion of critical formalism as loosely derived from Adorno’s aesthetic theory, and the practical component il…Read more
  •  5
    A Reflection on Musical Experience as Existential Experience: An Ontological Turn
    with Estelle R. Jorgensen, Frederik Pio, Øivind Varkøy, Peter Dale, and Deborah L. Pierce
    Philosophy of Music Education Review 20 (2): 99. 2012.
    In the current world of education, politics and public opinion, musical experience is increasingly threatened. It is designated ever more as an expendable luxury. This kind of general trend has hardly left the thinking in the field of music and music education untouched. Inspiration comes from the technical rationality of our time. This rationality affects an oblivion of ontology. In this article we discuss this trend related to Martin Heidegger’s thinking concerning the human existence in the w…Read more
  •  4
    Music for All or Partisan Advocacy? Exploring Socialized Epistemologies
    with Lauren Kapalka Richerme
    Philosophy of Music Education Review 31 (2): 136-154. 2023.
    When novice music educators abandon their expressed dedication to forward-looking ideas like equity, epistemological distinctions between belief and knowledge, or lack of such distinctions, may influence such action. Political philosopher Russell Hardin argued that it makes sense for people to hold false, conflicting, and even extreme beliefs. Drawing on his work, we consider how social influences may encourage music educators to adopt a view of knowledge as the acquisition of information that i…Read more