Cultural Diversity in Music Education: An Agenda for the Second Quarter of the 21st Century

In the late 1990s, there was much speculation on what music and music education would look like at the beginning of the 21st century. Few predicted the level of change that we have witnessed since then. In fact, developments in technologies, demographics, societies and global relations that have taken place in the world over the past 100 years would have been neigh unimaginable decade by decade, and keep coming with ever-increasing intensity. Travel, trade and technology have connected people and cultures in myriad and often wonderful ways. But inequities, divisions, and conflicts also reached new heights, with the first half of the 2020s subject to a seemingly endless stream of natural and manmade disasters and conflicts. Inevitably, all of these developments impacted on the world of music in general, and also on music education. In this essay, I try to summarise some key experiences and observations of my own first fifty years of living musical diversity (a world that started to open before me when I began learning Indian sitar in Amsterdam in 1975), and efforts across five continents that I have been involved in or researched. Juxtaposing this with key literature on the topic this provides a broad basis for presenting ideas and views on progress towards giving musical practices from across the globe an appropriate place in music education at all levels: in community settings, schools, and institutions for professional training of performers and educators. In that process, I identify three critical junctures which can simultaneously present obstacles and opportunities for positive change: (1) terminologies, social inclusion, and the politics of diversity; (2) musical dynamics, technology, and institutional change; and (3) evolutions and revolutions in music learning and teaching. These inform a challenging but clear agenda for scholars, policy makers, institutional leaders, practising musicians and music educators worldwide who strive for more inclusive, diverse, equitable and relevant practices.