At the nexus of ethnomusicology and music education: pathways to diversity, equity, and inclusion

The unique and shared visions of dynamic activist-musicians in Ethnomusicology and Music Education have resulted in changes to curricular content and instructional processes in schools and on university campuses. Teachers in a wide variety of venues, including university professors, who seek a multicultural-intercultural-global array of songs, instrumental pieces, dance, and listening selections are locating them online, where they are finding the results of fieldwork by ethnomusicologists that apply to their curricular practices and programs. The significant overlap of ethnomusicology and education historically and in continuing the diversity movement in education at all levels and venues, however, conceals the fact that the fields are uniquely focused on goals particular to their specializations of “pure” and “applied” scholarship. Ethnomusicology continues its earnest interest in interdisciplinary questions of music and cultural anthropology, folklore, performance studies, politics, religion and ritual, gender studies, race or ethnic studies, while music educators remain focused on honing the multiple dimensions of excellence in music teaching and learning. Attention to the two coinciding yet distinctive fields, along with a glance at the emerging studies in Community Music and Applied Ethnomusicology, provide insights leading to policies on pathways to diversity, equity, and inclusion in and through music.