A scoping review of international mindedness and related concepts in music education, 2000–2020

Abstract

AbstractInternational mindedness (IM) is a term often used by the International Baccalaureate (IB), international schools and researchers in the field of international education. However, within the discipline of music education, this concept remains relatively unexplored. Conducted as a scoping review, using Arksey and O’Malley's (2005) framework, this study charts the research literature that explores IM and its related concepts within music education settings. A broad definition of music education was adopted, incorporating both formal and informal learning environments. Related concepts to IM, used as search terms, were taken from two IB commissioned reports (that is, Castro, Lundgren and Woodin, 2013; Singh and Qi, 2013). Only primary studies, with a publication date between 2000 and 2020, were included. In total, 218 studies satisfied the inclusion criteria, the majority of which addressed the concepts of multicultural education, intercultural competence, cultural awareness and social inclusion. No primary studies were included for the concepts of common humanity, human rights education, language rights, omniculturalism, transcultural competence and world mindedness/citizenship. Only four primary studies were found that address IM, conducted by the same two researchers, leading the author to question whether future research exploring IM in music education settings is a worthwhile endeavour. In sum, although a significant amount of literature was found through this scoping review, several concepts remain underdeveloped, or completely unexplored, within the field of music education.