Music Education, Diversity, and Social Justice

We believe strongly in equitable access to music education and the importance of sensitivity to the needs of diverse learners across many contexts. Current projects in this area include: music composition with detainees of the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (AMPED); an ethnographic study of NU’s Academy of Music and Art for Special Education (AMASE), a student-run organization that provides free music instruction to local children with disabilities; an intrinsic case study of the impact of community engaged service in special education classrooms on the attitudes and pedagogical content knowledge of pre-service music educators; an ethnographic exploration of a transgender and ally choir; and ongoing, collaborative narrative studies with music educators from historically marginalized groups.

Related publications

Bartolome, S.J. (in press) Comparing fieldwork experiences: A longitudinal examination of pre-service and first-year teacher perspectives. Journal of Research in Music Education.

Bartolome, S.J. & Stanford, M.E. (in press). “Can’t I sing with the girls?”: A transgender music educator’s journey. In Talbot, B.C. (Ed.), Marginalized Voices in Music Education. New York: Routledge.

Berglin, J. (2017, Feb 27).  Don’t reduce transgender rights to bathroom access. Education Week.  

Bartolome, S.J. (2016). Melanie’s story: A narrative account of a transgender music educator’s journey. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 207-208, 25-47.

Hickey, M.  (2015, Dec 2).  Music to their ears: How music can reach incarcerated teens and offer hope.  Huffington Post.

Thompson, J. D. (2013). Toward cultural responsiveness in music instruction with Black detained youth: An analytic autoethnography. Music Education Research.

Hickey, M., & Cohen, M (2012).  Function-based music education: A framework for facilitating musical learning and developing human relationships through analyses of two prison case studies.  In L.K. Thompson & M.R. Campbell (Eds.), Situating inquiry: Expanded venues for music education research. Advances in music education book series (pp. 99-118). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.