Relevant Music Education Articles and Theses Discussing Environmental Issues
Updated: 4/4/2018
Picking Up the Pieces, and Gluing Them Together:
A Literature Review for Eco-Literate Music Pedagogy
Music educators searching for a music education pedagogy aligned with ecological consciousness would do well to read the work of Satis Coleman (e.g., "Creative Music for Children," 1922, and "Your Child's Music," 1939) and Murray Schafer (e.g., "The Soundscape," 1977). A handful of music education scholars have considered environmental issues in recent years (alphabetical by last name and "*" if in a peer-reviewed music education-specific journal; when a chapter in a book, it is linked to amazon).
Many of these scholars seem to be binned--that is, they have been institutionally affected by the modern university (in the last 200 years, increase of unrelated disciplines has been prominent)--and are not meaningfully in conversation with one another; at least if their reference lists are markers. For instance, I have yet to see ecomusicologists working on pedagogical concerns draw from ecologically conscious music education scholarship (e.g., Vince Bates body of work on sustainability and rurality, or Koza and Morton's papers). Much draws on more general educational theory instead; theory that doesn't necessarily align with ecological concerns (e.g., Paulo Freire was famously late to eco-justice, even when these types of concerns were central at CIDOC through the 70s and 80s). Many scholars, whichever bin, draw from composer R. Murray Schafer's work, but miss out on newer, BioMusic scholarship. My own work (beginning in 2015 with "The Possibility of Eco-Literate Music Pedagogy") aims, in part, to allay that disconnect and to point toward the best theoretical options for the linking of ecomusic and educational concerns.
Special thanks to people who have pointed out additional articles, papers, and chapters to add to this list on Facebook: Roberta Lamb, Adam Harry, Vincent Bates, Dylan van der Schyff, and Estelle Jorgensen.
Clemente K. Abrokwaa
1999, Indigenous Music Education in Africa. In What Is Indigenous Knowledge: Voice From the Academy
Dylan Adams & Gary Beauchamp
*2018, Portals Between Worlds: A Study of the Experiences of Children Aged 7-11 Years From Primary Schools in Wales Making Music Outdoors. In Research Studies in Music Education
Ehsan Akbari
2016, Soundscape Compositions for Art Classrooms. In Art Education
Aaron S. Allen
2017, Greening the Curriculum: Beyond a Short Music History in Ecomusicology. In Journal of Music History Pedagogy
Melody Baker
2017, Finding Meaning in the Music of David Maslanka. DMA Thesis, The Ohio State University
Vincent C. Bates
*2011, Sustainable School Music for Poor, White, Rural Students. In Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education
*2013, Music Education Unplugged. In Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education
*2013, Drawing from Rural Ideals for Sustainable School Music. In Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education
*2016, "Big City Turn Me Loose, and Set Me Free": A Critique of Music Education as Urbanormative. In Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education
2017, Critical Social Class Theory for Music Education. In International Journal of Education & The Arts
Amanda M. Black & Andrea F. Bohlman
2017, Resounding the Campus: Pedagogy, Race, and the Environment. In Journal of Music History Pedagogy
June Boyce-Tillman
*2004, Towards an Ecology of Music Education. In Philosophy of Music Education Review
*2013, Another Perspective: And Still I Wander ... A Look at Western Music Education through Greek Mythology. In Music Educators Journal
Justin Adams Burton
2017, Welcome to the Dirty South: Listening to the Politics of Southern Hip-hop in an Ecomusicological Framework. In Journal of Music History Pedagogy
Sarah Carrier, Patricia Gray, Eric N. Wiebe & David Teachout
2011, BioMusic in the Classroom: Interdisciplinary Elementary Science and Music Curriculum Development. In School Science and Mathematics
Michael J. Cermak
2012, Hip-Hop, Social Justice, and Environmental Education: Toward a Critical Ecological Literacy. In The Journal of Environmental Education
Roger Cross
2013, Multicultural Perspectives Through Music & Sustainability Education. In Multicultural Education
Doug Friesen
*2012, Starting with Soundscape. In The Canadian Music Educator
Kate Galloway
2017, Making and Learning with Environmental Sound: Maker Culture, Ecomusicology, and the Digital Humanities in Music History Pedagogy. In Journal of Music History Pedagogy
Robin Giebelhausen
*2015, The Paperless Music Classroom. In General Music Today
Tomie Hahn
2017, Layered Listenings: Lesson of the Land, Air and Sea. In Journal of Music History Pedagogy
Sandie Heckel
*2017, Soundscapes: Using Informal Learning Pedagogy to Create a Canadian Strand of Musical Futures. In Candian Music Educator
Donald A. Hodges
*2009, Brains and Music, Whales and Apes, Hearing and Learning ... and More. In Update: Applications of Research in Music Education
Erkki Huovinen & Vesa-Pekka Kuusinen
*2006, Soundscapes and Verbal Images as Referents for Music Students' Free Improvisations. In The Finnish Journal of Music Education
Tadahiko Imada
2019, Soundscape, Sound Education, and the Grain of the Music: Experiencing the Luminousness of Music Being What It Is. In Creativity in Music Education
Julia Eklund Koza
*2006, "Save the Music"? Toward Culturally Relevant, Joyful, and Sustainable School Music. In Philosophy of Music Education Review
Attilio Lafontant Di Niscia
*2017, Sobre el Proceso de Adquisición de instrumentos musicales de El Sistema: Hacia una epistemología ecológica en la educación musical. In Revista International de Educatión Musical
Michelle H. Martin
2004, Eco-edu-tainment: The Construction of the Child in Contemporary Environmental Children's Music. In Wild Things: Children's Culture and Ecocriticism
Freya Mathews
2008, Thinking from Within the Calyx of Nature. In Environmental Values
Koji Matsunobu
2007, Japanese Spirituality and Music Practice: Art as Self-Cultivation. In International Handbook of Research in Arts Education, Part 1
2009, Artful Encounters With Nature: Ecological and Spiritual Dimensions of Music Learning. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
*2011, Spirituality as a Universal Experience of Music: A Case Study of North Americans' Approaches to Japanese Music. In Journal of Research in Music Education
2012, Instrument Making as Music Making: A Slow Food Approach. In Sound Musicianship: Understanding the Crafts of Music
*2012, The Role of Spirituality in Learning Music: A Case of North American Adult Students of Japanese Music. In British Journal of Music Education
2013, Performing, Creating, and Listening to Nature through Music: The Art of Self-Integration. In The Journal of Aesthetic Education
*2018, Music Making as Place Making: A Case Study of Community Music in Japan. In Music Education Research
Charikleia Minotou, Andreas Mniestris, Ionnis Pantis, Ioanna Etmektsoglou & Stefanos Paraskevopoulos
2011, Listening to the Ecosystem of the Turtle: Enabling the disabled to cross the listening paths of acoustic ecology and environmental education. In Soundscape: The Journal of Acoustic Ecology
Sephen Meyer & Rachel Mundy
2017, Listening to Nature, Listening to Difference: Preface to the Special Issue. In Journal of Music History Pedagogy
Charlene A. Morton
2012, Music Education for "All My Relations." In The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy in Music Education
Mark Pedelty
2017, "We Live in the Lake": Ecomusicology as Community Pedagogy. In Journal of Music History Pedagogy
Anita Prest
*2019, Cross-Cultural Understanding: The Role of Rural School-Community Music Education Partnerships. In Research Studies in Music Education
Doug Ramsey
2002, The Role of Music in Environmental Education: Lessons From the Cod Fishery Crisis and the Dust Bowl Days. In Canadian Journal of Environmental Education
Thomas A. Regelski
*1986, A Sound Approach to Sound Composition. In Music Educators Journal
Joyce Johnson Rouse
2013, Both Sides Now: Music for Teaching and Learning is Powerful, Useful, and Effective. In Schooling for Sustainable Development in Canada and the United States
R. Murray Schafer
*1980, Bricolage: There's a Twang in Your Trash. In Music Educators Journal
Dylan van der Schyff
2015, Music as a Manifestation of Life: Exploring Enactivism and the "Eastern Perspective" for Music Education. In Frontiers in Psychology
Daniel J. Shevock
*2015, The Possibility of Eco-Literate Music Pedagogy. In TOPICS for Music Education Praxis
*2015, Satis Coleman--A Spiritual Philosophy for Music Education. In Music Educators Journal
2017, Eco-Literate Music Pedagogy. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN-10: 0415792576.
Kate L. Sutton
2014, Davld Maslanka and the Natural World: Three Studies of Music for Wind Ensemble. Master's Thesis, Florida State University
Μαρία Τσαλίκη
*2016, Διερεύνηση του Νέου Προγράμματος Σπουδών Μουσικής ως προς την ανάπτυξη της περιβαλλοντικής συνείδησης των μαθητών. In Μουσικοπαιδαγωγικά
Kate Turner and Bill Freedman
2004, Music and Environmental Studies. In The Journal of Environmental Education
Kim Soleski Ward
*2009, Musical Soundscape: Teaching the Concepts of R. Murray Schafer to Elementary Students. In Canadian Music Educator
Betty Anne Younker & Jillian Bracken
*2015, Inquiry-Based Learning Through Birdsong: An Interdisciplinary Project-Based Experience. In Journal of Music Teacher Education
Picking Up the Pieces, and Gluing Them Together:
A Literature Review for Eco-Literate Music Pedagogy
Music educators searching for a music education pedagogy aligned with ecological consciousness would do well to read the work of Satis Coleman (e.g., "Creative Music for Children," 1922, and "Your Child's Music," 1939) and Murray Schafer (e.g., "The Soundscape," 1977). A handful of music education scholars have considered environmental issues in recent years (alphabetical by last name and "*" if in a peer-reviewed music education-specific journal; when a chapter in a book, it is linked to amazon).
Many of these scholars seem to be binned--that is, they have been institutionally affected by the modern university (in the last 200 years, increase of unrelated disciplines has been prominent)--and are not meaningfully in conversation with one another; at least if their reference lists are markers. For instance, I have yet to see ecomusicologists working on pedagogical concerns draw from ecologically conscious music education scholarship (e.g., Vince Bates body of work on sustainability and rurality, or Koza and Morton's papers). Much draws on more general educational theory instead; theory that doesn't necessarily align with ecological concerns (e.g., Paulo Freire was famously late to eco-justice, even when these types of concerns were central at CIDOC through the 70s and 80s). Many scholars, whichever bin, draw from composer R. Murray Schafer's work, but miss out on newer, BioMusic scholarship. My own work (beginning in 2015 with "The Possibility of Eco-Literate Music Pedagogy") aims, in part, to allay that disconnect and to point toward the best theoretical options for the linking of ecomusic and educational concerns.
Special thanks to people who have pointed out additional articles, papers, and chapters to add to this list on Facebook: Roberta Lamb, Adam Harry, Vincent Bates, Dylan van der Schyff, and Estelle Jorgensen.
Clemente K. Abrokwaa
1999, Indigenous Music Education in Africa. In What Is Indigenous Knowledge: Voice From the Academy
Dylan Adams & Gary Beauchamp
*2018, Portals Between Worlds: A Study of the Experiences of Children Aged 7-11 Years From Primary Schools in Wales Making Music Outdoors. In Research Studies in Music Education
Ehsan Akbari
2016, Soundscape Compositions for Art Classrooms. In Art Education
Aaron S. Allen
2017, Greening the Curriculum: Beyond a Short Music History in Ecomusicology. In Journal of Music History Pedagogy
Melody Baker
2017, Finding Meaning in the Music of David Maslanka. DMA Thesis, The Ohio State University
Vincent C. Bates
*2011, Sustainable School Music for Poor, White, Rural Students. In Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education
*2013, Music Education Unplugged. In Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education
*2013, Drawing from Rural Ideals for Sustainable School Music. In Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education
*2016, "Big City Turn Me Loose, and Set Me Free": A Critique of Music Education as Urbanormative. In Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education
2017, Critical Social Class Theory for Music Education. In International Journal of Education & The Arts
Amanda M. Black & Andrea F. Bohlman
2017, Resounding the Campus: Pedagogy, Race, and the Environment. In Journal of Music History Pedagogy
June Boyce-Tillman
*2004, Towards an Ecology of Music Education. In Philosophy of Music Education Review
*2013, Another Perspective: And Still I Wander ... A Look at Western Music Education through Greek Mythology. In Music Educators Journal
Justin Adams Burton
2017, Welcome to the Dirty South: Listening to the Politics of Southern Hip-hop in an Ecomusicological Framework. In Journal of Music History Pedagogy
Sarah Carrier, Patricia Gray, Eric N. Wiebe & David Teachout
2011, BioMusic in the Classroom: Interdisciplinary Elementary Science and Music Curriculum Development. In School Science and Mathematics
Michael J. Cermak
2012, Hip-Hop, Social Justice, and Environmental Education: Toward a Critical Ecological Literacy. In The Journal of Environmental Education
Roger Cross
2013, Multicultural Perspectives Through Music & Sustainability Education. In Multicultural Education
Doug Friesen
*2012, Starting with Soundscape. In The Canadian Music Educator
Kate Galloway
2017, Making and Learning with Environmental Sound: Maker Culture, Ecomusicology, and the Digital Humanities in Music History Pedagogy. In Journal of Music History Pedagogy
Robin Giebelhausen
*2015, The Paperless Music Classroom. In General Music Today
Tomie Hahn
2017, Layered Listenings: Lesson of the Land, Air and Sea. In Journal of Music History Pedagogy
Sandie Heckel
*2017, Soundscapes: Using Informal Learning Pedagogy to Create a Canadian Strand of Musical Futures. In Candian Music Educator
Donald A. Hodges
*2009, Brains and Music, Whales and Apes, Hearing and Learning ... and More. In Update: Applications of Research in Music Education
Erkki Huovinen & Vesa-Pekka Kuusinen
*2006, Soundscapes and Verbal Images as Referents for Music Students' Free Improvisations. In The Finnish Journal of Music Education
Tadahiko Imada
2019, Soundscape, Sound Education, and the Grain of the Music: Experiencing the Luminousness of Music Being What It Is. In Creativity in Music Education
Julia Eklund Koza
*2006, "Save the Music"? Toward Culturally Relevant, Joyful, and Sustainable School Music. In Philosophy of Music Education Review
Attilio Lafontant Di Niscia
*2017, Sobre el Proceso de Adquisición de instrumentos musicales de El Sistema: Hacia una epistemología ecológica en la educación musical. In Revista International de Educatión Musical
Michelle H. Martin
2004, Eco-edu-tainment: The Construction of the Child in Contemporary Environmental Children's Music. In Wild Things: Children's Culture and Ecocriticism
Freya Mathews
2008, Thinking from Within the Calyx of Nature. In Environmental Values
Koji Matsunobu
2007, Japanese Spirituality and Music Practice: Art as Self-Cultivation. In International Handbook of Research in Arts Education, Part 1
2009, Artful Encounters With Nature: Ecological and Spiritual Dimensions of Music Learning. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
*2011, Spirituality as a Universal Experience of Music: A Case Study of North Americans' Approaches to Japanese Music. In Journal of Research in Music Education
2012, Instrument Making as Music Making: A Slow Food Approach. In Sound Musicianship: Understanding the Crafts of Music
*2012, The Role of Spirituality in Learning Music: A Case of North American Adult Students of Japanese Music. In British Journal of Music Education
2013, Performing, Creating, and Listening to Nature through Music: The Art of Self-Integration. In The Journal of Aesthetic Education
*2018, Music Making as Place Making: A Case Study of Community Music in Japan. In Music Education Research
Charikleia Minotou, Andreas Mniestris, Ionnis Pantis, Ioanna Etmektsoglou & Stefanos Paraskevopoulos
2011, Listening to the Ecosystem of the Turtle: Enabling the disabled to cross the listening paths of acoustic ecology and environmental education. In Soundscape: The Journal of Acoustic Ecology
Sephen Meyer & Rachel Mundy
2017, Listening to Nature, Listening to Difference: Preface to the Special Issue. In Journal of Music History Pedagogy
Charlene A. Morton
2012, Music Education for "All My Relations." In The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy in Music Education
Mark Pedelty
2017, "We Live in the Lake": Ecomusicology as Community Pedagogy. In Journal of Music History Pedagogy
Anita Prest
*2019, Cross-Cultural Understanding: The Role of Rural School-Community Music Education Partnerships. In Research Studies in Music Education
Doug Ramsey
2002, The Role of Music in Environmental Education: Lessons From the Cod Fishery Crisis and the Dust Bowl Days. In Canadian Journal of Environmental Education
Thomas A. Regelski
*1986, A Sound Approach to Sound Composition. In Music Educators Journal
Joyce Johnson Rouse
2013, Both Sides Now: Music for Teaching and Learning is Powerful, Useful, and Effective. In Schooling for Sustainable Development in Canada and the United States
R. Murray Schafer
*1980, Bricolage: There's a Twang in Your Trash. In Music Educators Journal
Dylan van der Schyff
2015, Music as a Manifestation of Life: Exploring Enactivism and the "Eastern Perspective" for Music Education. In Frontiers in Psychology
Daniel J. Shevock
*2015, The Possibility of Eco-Literate Music Pedagogy. In TOPICS for Music Education Praxis
*2015, Satis Coleman--A Spiritual Philosophy for Music Education. In Music Educators Journal
2017, Eco-Literate Music Pedagogy. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN-10: 0415792576.
Kate L. Sutton
2014, Davld Maslanka and the Natural World: Three Studies of Music for Wind Ensemble. Master's Thesis, Florida State University
Μαρία Τσαλίκη
*2016, Διερεύνηση του Νέου Προγράμματος Σπουδών Μουσικής ως προς την ανάπτυξη της περιβαλλοντικής συνείδησης των μαθητών. In Μουσικοπαιδαγωγικά
Kate Turner and Bill Freedman
2004, Music and Environmental Studies. In The Journal of Environmental Education
Kim Soleski Ward
*2009, Musical Soundscape: Teaching the Concepts of R. Murray Schafer to Elementary Students. In Canadian Music Educator
Betty Anne Younker & Jillian Bracken
*2015, Inquiry-Based Learning Through Birdsong: An Interdisciplinary Project-Based Experience. In Journal of Music Teacher Education
