Progressive methods in popular music education
Interrupting Democracy: Mean Girls, Leftover Boys, and Power Struggles in the Popular Music Classroom
ABSTRACT
This paper originates from a study investigating issues of gender and popular music learning in 3 Grade 7/8 classrooms in Southern Ontario, Canada. The majority of research on gender, popular music, and informal learning suggests that musicking in this genre is gendered and favours males (Abramo, 2011; Björk, 2011a, 2011b, 2013; Clawson, 1999; Green, 2002; Tobias, 2014). Observations and interviews during the course of regular weekly music lessons helped us interrogate questions of inclusivity and gender roles within this context. While both mixed- and single-gender groups participated in the study, in this paper we discuss our findings about roles within single-gender groups. We use Radinsky’s (2008) framework of role development in group-work within the middle-years classroom, applying his roles of Answer Man, Competitive Challenger and Quiet Bystander, and proposing additional roles that emerged from our data. We also discuss how the development of these roles contributes to issues of power, control, and the claiming of space within a group (Björk, 2011a, 2011b, 2013), and the implications of gendered characteristics within the roles, especially male traits in the positions involving power. We infer that within these single-gendered groups, students articulated these roles regardless of gender, with both males and females claiming spaces of power and control. Our data suggest that, whilst single-gender groupings can offer a musical space for girls to claim as their own, they are still sites of power struggle, with girls replicating similar roles and relationships seen in mixed-gender groupings.
ABSTRACT
This paper originates from a study investigating issues of gender and popular music learning in 3 Grade 7/8 classrooms in Southern Ontario, Canada. The majority of research on gender, popular music, and informal learning suggests that musicking in this genre is gendered and favours males (Abramo, 2011; Björk, 2011a, 2011b, 2013; Clawson, 1999; Green, 2002; Tobias, 2014). Observations and interviews during the course of regular weekly music lessons helped us interrogate questions of inclusivity and gender roles within this context. While both mixed- and single-gender groups participated in the study, in this paper we discuss our findings about roles within single-gender groups. We use Radinsky’s (2008) framework of role development in group-work within the middle-years classroom, applying his roles of Answer Man, Competitive Challenger and Quiet Bystander, and proposing additional roles that emerged from our data. We also discuss how the development of these roles contributes to issues of power, control, and the claiming of space within a group (Björk, 2011a, 2011b, 2013), and the implications of gendered characteristics within the roles, especially male traits in the positions involving power. We infer that within these single-gendered groups, students articulated these roles regardless of gender, with both males and females claiming spaces of power and control. Our data suggest that, whilst single-gender groupings can offer a musical space for girls to claim as their own, they are still sites of power struggle, with girls replicating similar roles and relationships seen in mixed-gender groupings.