Knowledge and social justice in English school music education: reflections on the report ‘Questioning the gap in music literacy’ (McQueen 2020)

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores some of the intersections and relationships between ‘knowledge' and ‘social justice' particularly as manifest in the context of English school music education. It takes as its starting point the tensions resulting from different understandings of these terms as revealed in the Society for Music Analysis's (SMA) report ‘Questioning the gap in music literacy’ (McQueen 2020). Drawing on neo-traditionalist, social realist and constructivist perspectives, different conceptions of musical knowledge and its relationship to social justice are briefly examined. Drawing on the work of John Rawls and Nancy Fraser, the argument is made that socially just approaches to music education are enhanced by going beyond distributive and redistributive paradigms to embrace issues around respect, recognition, and participatory parity. Inter alia, the article examines the challenges resulting from an identity politics approach to social justice, particularly its tendency towards reifying cultural identity and knowledge. The article concludes by suggesting that the tensions around musical knowledge and social justice revealed in the SMA Report might be ameliorated through dialogical approaches to pedagogy that recognise the centrality---but not exclusivity---of the learner's world in endowing meaning on musical knowledge and understanding.