The "Heart and Soul" of Music Education: Towards Sonic Egalitarianism in Classroom Practice

As public high school teachers, we have independently come to the realization that we are both searching for ways that our music rooms can be spaces where everyone has a chance to sound (speak, sing, play an instrument), and students and teachers have the opportunity to hear others in the room. At the center of this realization stands the classroom piano: it could be an instrument of communal sonic enjoyment but, in our experiences, tends to be dominated by a few. What we are here calling sonic egalitarianism is about creating conditions whereby students have equal opportunities to sound out, be loud, and perform in an environment without the expectation or demand of occupying such space sonically. In the tradition of co-writing (Richardson & St. Pierre, 2017), we share our individual critical narratives, adopting critical listening positionality (Robinson, 2020). Next, we respond to one another’s narratives, drawing out commonalities for exploration through relevant literature and delve into analysis. We conclude with describing implications for classroom practices and making suggestions for a sonic constitution. By applying critical listening positionality through a reflective and critical practitioner approach we hope to move beyond defaults within our practices.