Music Education, Social Justice, and the “Student Voice”

Abstract

Abstract This chapter considers issues around “student voice,” social justice, and the alienation and disengagement of young people from school music education. It begins by arguing that the subtle and problematized accounts of student voice found in much of the literature has generally failed to influence the implementation of student voice initiatives in school. Rather, “student voice” has come to be a tool for the furtherance of performative and managerial agendas. Moving on, the argument will be made that despite a disposition toward inclusion and participation, music education in England has often failed to “hear” the student voice in the discourse of curriculum, pedagogy, and musical value, resulting in the disengagement of many young people from formal music education in school. In the final section a dialogical approach to music education is posited as one way in which the voice of the student might be heard within music education discourses.