Recognizing Forms of Marginalization

The experience of marginalization is unique to each marginalized group and individual within that group. When children encounter negative messages about themselves or the absence of any message at all, they can develop feelings of shame and self-loathing that can lead to the dismantling of their self-identity (Umana-Taylor & Rivas-Drake, 2021). In society, and by extension in schools, marginalization can be social, economic, political, psychological, and/or educational in nature.

Marginalization can also be found in music studies when composition is ignored while all manner of performance-based instruction is presented. As examination of the full array of complex variables that enable and sustain marginalization are beyond the scope of this chapter, this section provides an overview, painted in broad strokes, of the difficulties that children may carry to school or that they may experience within schools as part of their education. Understanding how marginalization finds root and takes shape can help teachers avoid furthering such practices in music curriculum design and implementation.

Social Marginalization. Anyone who appears to deviate from the norms of the population they inhabit may be subjected to exclusionary practices and relegated to the fringes of society. The problem of social marginalization is sharply experienced by the most vulnerable members of society—the young. Children’s social exclusion in school settings can take many forms and is a serious threat to social sustainability. The outcomes of experiencing social alienation can include addiction, criminal behavior, mental health issues, and suicide. Most recently, alienation has been tied to an increase in peer-on-peer violence including school-related homicides (Baird, Roellke, & Zeifman, 2017; Raitanen, Sandberg, & Oksanen, 2019).

Social marginalization in music may be an extension of any of the previous descriptors, but also may evidence itself in musical preferences. Adolescents compare their social standing, whether they belong to or are excluded from groups, along the lines of musical preference (North, Hargreaves, & O’Neill, 2000). This may included preference for different types of musical engagement. The outcome of comparisons can contribute to the maintenance of a positive social identity when children see themselves as belonging to a particular group or through preferred exclusion from other groups (Tarrant, North, & Hargreaves, 2001). Applied differently, absence of group affiliation or peer assignment to groups deemed socially or personally undesirable can have negative effects on self-esteem. Whether group association is positive or negative, preference constitutes a prominent dimension of social identity as well as grounds for acceptance or exclusion in peer groups. When young songwriters do not find their preferred form of engagement in their music classes or see a group of students who are like themselves, they can feel isolated and disconnected.

Students’ musical preferences are shaped and influenced by the models and activities that teachers present. If the cultural heritages of all of the students participating in the class are presented to the class, student feel valued. Conversely, exclusion of some musics and music making activities in favor of others can constitute a threat to student identity and suggest a hidden curriculum (McPhail, Rata, & Siteine, 2018; Pratt, 2019; Wasiak, 2017) of perceptions and values. Composing offers teachers an entry point for learning with students as different musical heritages and interests can become focal points in learning about the tools and techniques of composers across a variety of cultures and practices.

Economic Marginalization. People who do not have the same opportunities as others to contribute to or benefit from participation in the trade of goods and services may be described as economically marginalized. Such marginalization is often viewed in terms of poverty. At present, more than 11% of the population of the United States lives in some form of poverty (Shrider, Kollar, Chen, & Semega, 2021) while 9.2% of world’s population lives in extreme poverty (Peer, 2021). Despite a wide range of interventions designed to target poverty and its root causes, children experiencing poverty are known to enter adulthood with different levels of confidence, expectations, knowledge, and future opportunities than their more advantaged peers.

Four types of economic marginalization impact how young people view themselves and others.

- Generational poverty. Families experiencing generational poverty have likely not experienced home ownership. They may not know of anyone who has benefited from education or seen job promotion as part of their work experience. These families tend to be highly mobile and may have high rates of illiteracy. Their focus is often on day-to-day survival, and they may not value education (Desmond & Western, 2018).

- Immigrant poverty. Immigrant families often have few resources or experience barriers in accessing the resources that may be available to them. They frequently encounter language and cultural barriers as they settle into and continue to reside in communities where they are in the minority. The adult members of immigrant families may have a strong sense of self, likely developed in their country of origin, but children are caught in a cultural divide between family traditions and their daily experiences beyond the home. Shen (2013) notes that these families view poverty as a problem caused and maintained by systems that they cannot participate in, change, or overcome.

- Working-class poverty. Many working-class families do not own property and live paycheck-to-paycheck without the means to absorb additional expenses. They often have limited access to health care and fear the financial devastation that illness or injury might bring to their family. Kendall (2011) observes that children raised in these circumstances tend to internalize poverty as a personal deficiency that becomes part of their lifelong identity.

- Situational poverty. Families with educated parents who work stable jobs and have access to health care sometimes experience temporary financial crises. These families often view their experience of poverty as temporary and not tied to a personal failing or flaw. Given time, these families often regain middle-class status. It has also been found that people who experience temporary financial upheaval may have little sympathy for those experiencing other types of poverty (Ng & Rury, 2006).

Students experiencing poverty may face an additional set of challenges if they seek to participate in school music programs. If, is a key concern. If families do not value education, then music as a part of education does not rank high in survival-focused priorities. Many school music programs feature offerings that require fees. Whether students are asked to purchase a $5 recorder, an $100 ukulele, a $200 keyboard, or a $800 trumpet, families may not be able to absorb the cost. For the student interested in composition, the desire to use smart devices and apps also presents economic challenges. Even when students join vocal groups where the instrument is free, they are often asked to purchase special clothing or uniforms which places an additional burden on family budgets. There are, of course, schools and programs that offer financial support to assist students in addressing concerns raised by participation fees, but students still must make requests and perhaps submit paperwork that may add to the student’s or their parents’/guardians’ sense of personal failure or inadequacy.

Teachers can learn about their students through composition activities that invite students to tell their personal, cultural, and musical stories. Many such projects can be undertaken using school-owned instruments, using voices, or using found sounds. Projects based on children’s literature, art representative of a particular culture, or student experiences are strong entry points for helping children feel seen and valued. As students engage with musical models and create their compositions, teachers can ask open-ended questions and encourage students to share their views using statements like “In my opinion . . .,” “What I sense . . .,” or other forms that center the student’s voice. This practice validates and empowers students (Gay, 2010). Similarly, when students share their musical products, they can be invited to describe their artistic intentions and what they value about their work. These practices help students internalize the idea that what they compose, say, and do is important.

Political Marginalization. Political marginalization involves the withholding of economic, social, and other rights as an outgrowth and extension of oppression. Examples of political marginalization include voting prohibitions and more subtle disenfranchisements that steer people to avoid participation in democratic decision-making resulting in a denial of their right to the social, economic, and political benefits experienced by a majority.

Throughout the world, women, ethnic minorities, migrants, persons with mental health or physical disabilities, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, children, the elderly, and others lack political empowerment. While women are minimized throughout much of the world of politics, men hold power through elected offices, party leadership, and appointments. This is particularly true in the Third World where male- oriented social cultures and religions are dominant. These situations are not lost on the young as their books, music, cartoons, and television shows portray a mix of “commercialism, globalization, [and] privatization" (Lemish, 2015, p. 6) that steers them toward “independence rather than interdependence” (Wells, 2014, p. 21).

For young children, political marginalization is evident from the very first day of school when they discover that what they want can be easily overridden by the teacher— the primary source of in-school power experienced by children. As children grow older, they bear witness to the results of law and policy that provide services for some, but not all. They see who is helped and who is ignored. They also come to understand the relationship that their parents or guardians have with teachers and other school officials. These and other observations allow children to ascertain how their social and cultural identities are positioned in relation to the main curricular narrative and can result in a sense of separation.

These in-school experiences are echoed in music offerings. Students may find that their music—the music they experience with their families and within their communities—is absent from their classes (Doyle, 2014). They may never sing a song in their familial language. The instruments central to their cultural experience may be completely absent. From these observations, students infer that their music—and the things they find familiar and enjoyable—are not of value. By extension, they feel unvalued and unwelcome in these settings. Music education often becomes just one more setting for political marginalization. Likewise, if emphasis is placed on products and rules of music that are, at best, unfamiliar to the students, composition can easily be one more place where different voices are not welcome. As the data analyzed by Elpus and Abril (2011) suggests, it is hard for young people to choose to participate in elective music classes and ensembles when their present and prior experiences suggest that their absence is expected.

Psychological Marginalization. The experience of marginalization carries the risk of ideological threats, particularly in reference to identity formation. While globalization and multiculturalization (Cooper & Seginer, 2018) have brought forth some celebration of diversity, youth from nondominant backgrounds may experience prejudice and other forms of injustice. In work underpinning much of the modern understanding of identity formation, Erikson (1968) posits that most people build identities with a balance of positive and negative aspects. However, members of marginalized groups are often judged more harshly than their societally privileged counterparts. Children regularly witness indications of their casting in socially negative roles (Way & Rogers, 2015). Barraged by these messages, some children may find it easier to adopt the perceptions forced upon them by others than to embrace their positive attributes. This places them at risk of forming negative identities as their primary or dominant identity.

The ability to recognize and honor diversity in group settings requires individuals to have a positive self-identity and a positive group identity. Building this positive view of self begins with children seeing others with similar identities and backgrounds being appreciated, valued, and treated with respect. Ideally, this happens at home, but it also needs to be experienced in school. In the context of the United States, approximately 80% of teachers are white despite a more diversified student demographic (Schaeffer, 2021). Music teacher-educators are working to change the demographics of the workforce but recognize that the process will take time and may require significant shifts in the policies and practices of higher education (Kallio & Westerlund, 2020).

In settings where students compose music, teachers can update their materials to include the music of composers representing diverse backgrounds and communities.

It is important that students not only hear the music but that they see pictures of the composer. Students will find it hard to imagine themselves in the role of composer when the examples they are given are depersonalized or do not feature composers who “look like me.”

Educational Marginalization. The right to education should be universal and not limited by any form of exclusion or discrimination, yet children around the world struggle to gain access to formal education. National education policies often set the tone for local practices. In some countries, such policies deny some children the right to education based on factors beyond their control. These children often reside at the intersection of multiple types of marginalization and thus experience layers of discrimination as those in power regulate education with prejudice (Freire, 1996) to retain their power and maintain the status quo.

Beyond the challenge of access, students from marginalized populations are often absent from, tokenized in, or mischaracterized through educational materials. The curriculum they experience is a construction advanced by the majority, sometimes blindly and too often intentionally devised to ignore, or erase their presence. These practices, characterized as curriculum violence, involve the presentation of academic programming in a manner that “ignores or compromises the intellectual and psychological well-being of learners” (Ighodaro & Wiggan, 2011, p. 2). This definition does not limit violence to brutality; rather, it considers violence relative to the whole child and highlights how normalized educational practices can constitute violent pedagogy. While curriculum violence is often considered in relation to students whose identities position them within marginalized groups, violence is also committed against students of the majority as they internalize images, messages, and beliefs that position discriminatory practices as socially and morally acceptable. Through these experiences, some children are diminished while others are emboldened to continue abuse and oppression.

It is easy to view the global picture of education to see that some children are denied access to education while at the same time perpetuating acts within music education that also bar students from entry. Schools that offer beginning instrumental instruction in upper elementary grades but not thereafter have established an exclusionary gate. Programs that offer music ensembles but not studies focused on other areas of music-making or participation fail to meet the needs of those who prefer engagements other than taking the stage to perform (Williams, 2019). The right to education, and by extension music education, should be considered absolute rather than conditioned on historic institutional practices or programmatic convenience (Kratus, 2007).