Enabling young people to see representation of their own identities contributes profoundly towards positive wellbeing. It reduces prejudice, bullying, stereotyping and micro-aggressions that are often fed by misinformation and colonial perspectives within the curriculums that permeate schools. US educator Beatriz Ilari observes that ‘an important aspect of social identity that has received little attention from music education research is ethnic identity’. Conversations within pedagogy are not only important for those young people whose identities are underrepresented or misrepresented; they are also important for those of a majority ethnicity, as ‘experiences with different cultures … are directly linked to … the ways we make sense of, and position ourselves, in relationship to others, based on both our similarities and differences’. The General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) policy for registered teachers in Scotland holds ‘social justice’ at the heart of its standards. Social justice includes a commitment to ‘fair, transparent, inclusive, and sustainable policies and practices in relation to protected characteristics’. It is evident, however, that the resources for teachers to commit to this are not obviously supported within the national curriculum.
A decolonised curriculum challenges the divisive ‘western culture’ and ‘other cultures’ narrative by revising the way in which we present cultures that have been oppressed as a result of colonialism. Within the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) curriculum, ‘Styles’ have been exclusively presented as ‘Indian Music’, ‘Latin American’ and ‘African’, all taught under the umbrella term ‘World Music’. For two marks out of a 40-mark paper, pupils must identify the style from multiple choice options (one mark) and state a written reason for the answer (one mark). Marks are obtained for writing ‘tabla’ or ‘sitar’ for Indian music, rhythmic devices (syncopation/cross-rhythms) or ‘samba/salsa’ for Latin American, and ‘untuned percussion’ or ‘chanting vocals’ for African. A generic understanding, which has no depth or subtlety, is all that is required (and therefore taught) for pupils to gain marks. Pupils do not need to experience different cultures or to make sense and position themselves in relation to others.
Similarly, we teach, by implication, that jazz grew out of the slave trade without detailing the people and cultures that were established before the empire. This results in experiences like Benjamin Zephaniah’s, the writer and actor who said that ‘British education led me to believe that the history of black people started with slavery and that we were born slaves’. Historical and geographical context are significant in redefining a decolonised curriculum. For example, teaching geographical context by pinpointing styles and origins of music on a map would demonstrate that distribution of styles as a result of cultures across a continent like Africa or South America cannot be simply categorised into one.
So, what is it that we are teaching young people in our classrooms when we present ‘world music’ to them? If anything, we continue to present a portrayed subordination and oppression of ethnic minorities by using the term ‘world music’. The words can be used to discourage organisations from being western-centric by supposedly giving ‘other’ music a platform. Yet in doing so it dismisses the fact that non-western musics have vastly different characteristics from each other. The term tells us nothing about the origins of a style or a piece of music. Nate Holder criticises the term claiming that ‘“World Music” [and “African Drumming”] are terms which not only segregate “The West” from the world, they also diminish the people and cultures who make those musics’.
While focusing on the young people in our classrooms, it is important that we remain committed to providing them with alternative perspectives on the music curriculum. In order to promote curriculum change, we must openly criticise such details as the ‘Styles’ question, and rather use the opportunity to focus on context and styles of our own choosing. In this way, together we can position ourselves in relation to others based on both our similarities and differences.
References and further reading
- Ilari, B. (2017) ‘Children’s Ethnic Identities, Cultural Diversity, and Music Education’, in Raymond, R. et al., Handbook of Musical Identities. Oxford.
- Holder, N. (2020) ‘“African” drumming, the homogenisation of a continent’, Nate Holder Music, tinyurl.com/yeyx5j3f
- GTCS (2021) The Standard for Full Registration, tinyurl.com/yc56cemm; The Standard for Provisional Registration, tinyurl.com/2j4kzhyp
- McKinney, S. and Booth, L. (2022) ‘Decolonising the Curriculum in Scotland’, London Review of Education, 20(1), tinyurl.com/2pznm5tv
- Zephaniah, B. (2003) ‘Me? I thought, OBE me? Up yours, I thought’, The Guardian, tinyurl.com/5buftf8m
