World music in the elementary and junior high general music curriculum : an analysis from an ethnomusicological perspective

Abstract

Time and emphasis are not the only determinants of whether the teaching of world music makes its potential contribution to the goals of music education and the education process in general. It must be used and taught effectively. At present the music teacher's primary source of information concerning world music and how to use it is found in music textbooks. Thus a satisfactory presentation of world music depends primarily upon the quality of the textbooks and secondarily upon the quality of supplemental resources. This is both with regards to their content, and with regards to the assistance they give the teacher in using that content. Besides improvements in the quality of textbooks a broadening of the music teacher's training would obviously be helpful. Exposure to ethnomusicology, and training in the use and teaching of world music could make a significant impact on the quality of music education by making teachers less dependent on the texts as a source of didactic help, and more independent in structuring their teaching to meet various situations. The aims of this paper are to evaluate the present method of teaching world music in the elementary and junior high general music classes, to examine the historical development of world music as a component of general music curriculum, to see how teaching world music fulfills the objectives and philosophy of music education, to ascertain its present status, and to look at the direction it is following or may need to follow