Teaching Music/Teaching Culture: From the Rhetorical to the Realities

As music educators embrace the possibilities for a more inclusive education that is culturally connected to the wider world, there are productive avenues for reshaping curricular content and method. In this article, we propose world music pedagogy (WMP) as a means of growing intercultural understanding alongside musical skills and knowledge, and chronicle the ways in which Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, the Smithsonian Institution’s record label and music archive, is at the forefront of turning postulations to practice through its development of a new curricular initiative titled Smithsonian Folkways Music Pathways (SFMPs). Taken together, WMP and SFMPs contribute significantly to diversifying and expanding the music curriculum in an era of societal transformation. In the interest of cultivating a deeper understanding of the wide world of music and musicians for their students, music educators will gain greatly from engaging with these recommended resources and pedagogical dimensions.