Complicating, Considering, and Connecting Music Education

In Complicating, Considering, and Connecting Music Education, Lauren Kapalka Richerme argues that poststructuralist philosophy offers a counter to the detrimental aspects of standardization and the career-centric rationale that permeate contemporary music education policy and practice. Drawing on the writings of poststructuralist philosophers, particularly Gilles Deleuze and F lix Guattari, Richerme posits a philosophy of music education based on three integrated processes: complicating, considering, and connecting. She uses narrative as both a philosophical technique and position that, when synthesized with Deleuze and Guattari's ideas, mitigates the abstract, disembodied nature of their writing. Ultimately, Richerme argues that the purpose of music education is to assist students in reimagining their narratives by forming differing musical and educative connections with their multifaceted selves and local, global, and glocal places. Richerme illustrates that by complicating themselves, their students, and their places, music educators can better facilitate continually evolving connections between these three entities and more clearly consider the ethical implications of emphasizing specific connections over others.

In Complicating, Considering, and Connecting Music Education, Lauren Kapalka Richerme proposes a poststructuralist-inspired philosophy of music education. Complicating current conceptions of self, other, and place, Richerme emphasizes the embodied, emotional, and social aspects of humanity. She also examines intersections between local and global music making. Next, Richerme explores the ethical implications of considering multiple viewpoints and imagining who music makers might become. Ultimately, she offers that music education is good for facilitating differing connections with one's self and multiple environments. Throughout the text, she also integrates the writings of Gilles Deleuze and F lix Guattari with narrative philosophy and personal narratives. By highlighting the processes of complicating, considering, and connecting, Richerme challenges the standardization and career-centric rationales that ground contemporary music education policy and practice to better welcome diversity.