Exploring the Intersections Between Economic Marginality, Social Justice, and Music Education: Documenting Music Educators' Beliefs and Values

Matthew Jonathan Lieberman

doi:10.7273/000008368

Music reflects and responds to societal and cultural change, offering a powerful lens through which to examine issues of equity and inclusion. Despite unprecedented access to diverse musical traditions and performers, music education remains largely aligned with a majoritarian aesthetic that fails to represent the cultural plurality of today’s student populations (Bates, 2017; Bates, 2018). This qualitative study explores how music educators perceive and respond to poverty within educational settings, with particular attention to social equity and justice. Through in-depth interviews with eight music educators working across diverse school contexts, the research investigates three guiding questions: (a) What are the guiding philosophies for how music educators understand social equity and inequity within schools? (b) In what ways does personal experience (both before becoming an educator and during their time in the classroom) shape and/or change one’s perception of economic marginality and its effects on children? (c) How does a music educator’s perception of economic marginality and its impact shape practices within the classroom, the curriculum, and outside support for students experiencing societal inequities? Five key themes emerged from the data. First, participants consistently framed equity as both a moral and professional imperative, describing it as central to their teaching identity. Second, lived experience served as a catalyst for awareness, with personal encounters with poverty and marginalization shaping educators’ equity consciousness. Third, participants demonstrated pedagogical responsiveness and adapting curriculum and classroom culture to honor students’ lived realities. Fourth, participants expressed persistent tensions between belief and constraint, identifying institutional barriers that hindered their equity work despite professional development efforts. Finally, the findings reveal a deep sense of hope, agency, and belief in music’s transformative capacity. Teachers view music as a space for healing, joy, and connection. This research fills a critical gap in the music education scholarship by illuminating how educators conceptualize and enact equity amid economic and systemic inequality. Findings inform both current instructional practice and the design of music teacher preparation programs, emphasizing the need to equip future educators for increasingly diverse educational contexts. More broadly, this study contributes to music education and social justice pedagogy by highlighting the transformative potential of reflective, equity-driven teaching and calling for greater institutional support, culturally responsive preparation, and theoretical models that center the ethical and emotional dimensions of teaching in marginalized settings.

Exploring the Intersections Between Economic Marginality, Social Justice, and Music Education: Documenting Music Educators' Beliefs and Values

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