What types of learning can result from multicultural music education?
Can music help pupils to understand each other’s cultures as well as contributing to their own cultural development? This U.S. study analysed children’s views of learning after participating in a multicultural music unit taught in two different ways. One of these emphasised music knowledge, the other explicitly focused on sociocultural factors such as social identity and cultural similarities and differences. The study explored pupils’ descriptions of their learning after experiencing the two different teaching approaches. The study findings suggest that studying multicultural music can both broaden pupils’ musical knowledge and skills (such as African drumming, and Polish and Chinese songs and dance etc) and help to contribute to racial harmony by promoting an understanding of other cultures. Teachers involved in developing the curriculum to ensure that children’s entitlement to cultural activities will be interested in the potential of music to contribute to a range of cultural benef
