Gender and Sexual Diversity Challenges (for Socially Just) Music Education

This chapter explores music education’s relationship to social justice for sexual-diverse and gender-diverse persons and communities. It focuses on music education in the context of public schooling as both a critical site for social justice and social justice education, particularly as related to gender and sexual diversity, and a robustly heteronormative enterprise that receives and sustains oppressive ideologies with regard to gender-sexual diversity. To bring together ideas, Kumashiro’s work in social justice education is drawn upon, specifically his four-part activist theory of anti-oppressive education, as well as recent, emerging research in music education regarding gender-sexual diversity and discussion of music education students and practice. Whether acknowledged or not, social justice intentions and actions with regard to gender and sexual minorities are precast and limited by our awareness of and readiness to identify and act against the multiplicity of ways we benefit from the gender and sexual status quo.