A Study of Multicultural Music Education in the United States

— Focusing on the Teaching Plan of Multicultural Music Education Since 1967 —

Abstract

It's one of the aims of multicultural education to eliminate prejudice and discrimination against minorities. One of the aims of multicultural music education, therefore, is to reduce prejudice and discrimination through learning the music and culture of other ethnic groups. The purpose of this study is to get to the root of the discrepancy between the ideal and practice of multicultural music education in the United States through its development since 1967. The following two factors are considered the cause of the discrepancy. One factor is that "multicultural music" has been used synonymously with "World Music", whose causes are 1) intention of achieving the aim of multicultural music education within a range of music education, 2) the change of the concept of music with the learning development of ethnic music and World Music. The other is that learning of multicultural music education can't completely separate learning of musical elements. According to the above understanding, multicultural music education in the United States shows a hybrid in multicultural education and music education.