Freedom's Song: Cultivating Creativity and Releasing Imagination Through Music — Speculative Memoir

• In Event: Creative Insubordination Research: Pushing Methodological Boundaries — Performing Dissertation Research — Liberating Academic Writing

Abstract

The researcher illustrates a speculative memoir where the researcher composes and speculates (Schubert, 1991) her memoir (Barrington, 1997/2002; Ledoux, 2006; Zinsser, 1998). The researcher questions educational climates in public schools where music is often devalued or eliminated. As a musician and music educator, the researcher explores the machines of power and control (Au, 2009, 2015; Callahan, 1962; Foucault, 1995; Freire, 2011; Garrison, 2009; Kohn, 2004/2012; Kozol, 1991; Ladson-Billings, 2006; Nussbaum, 2010; Pinar et al., 1995/2000; Ravitch, 2013; Rodriguez, 2011; Saltman & Means, 2015; Watkins, 2012) that sabotage creativity and imprison body and mind (Foucault, 1995). She seeks to empower the arts, specifically music education, through imagination and social emotional learning (Baker, 2008; Broudy, 1972; Daspit & Weaver, 2001; Dewey, 1934/2005; Eisner, 1979, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2006; Gershon, 2018, 2019; Greene, 1988, 1995, 2001; Ibrahim, 2019; Lake, 2010, 2013; Love, 2012; Rose, 2010; Rugg, 1963; Schubert, 1975, 2005, 2009, 2009b, 2010). She pushes the boundaries of traditional dissertation research not only in forms of inquiry (speculative memoir) but also in modes of expression and representation by including songs she has composed and an artwork co-created with her family. Six meanings have emerged from this dissertation inquiry. Standardization, cult of efficiency (Callahan, 1962), and high-stakes testing (Au, 2009, 2013 & 2015) perpetuate machines of power and control (Au 2009; Freire, 1970/2008), produce docile bodies (Foucault, 1995), and subtract schooling (Valenzuela, 1999; Schubert, 2009). Arts and music shackle test-centric curriculum (Eisner, 1979, 2002; Greene, 1995, 2001), liberate from the chains of machines of power and control (West, 2008; Kohn, 2004/2012; Horton, Kohl, & Kohl, 1998), release imagination (Greene, 1995; Rugg, 1963), cultivate creativity (Greene, 1995 & 2001), and inspire potentiality (Eisner, 1994, 2002 & 2003). Building courage to fight against machines of power and control to sustain freedom and agency, teachers need to dismantle dominant narratives (what is tested is valued, and what is not tested is devalued), resist teacher bashing and teacher deskilling (Nunez, 2015), thrive in living in-between tensions, and voluntarily exile (He, 2010) to teach towards freedom (Ayers, 2004) with students’ best interest and wellbeing at heart. To thrive as an arts teacher in the contested public-school space, one needs to cultivate inner self and inspire “optimism over despair” (Chomsky, 2017), love over hatred (Darder, 2017), and possibilities over impossibilities (Ayers, 2016; He 2021). Transgressing traditional research by composing a speculative memoir integrated with music and arts is an act of creative resistance against the machines of power and control (Schubert, 1991; Ledoux, 2006; Schalk, 2018; Angelou, 1969/2015). There is an increasing need to create inspiring learning environments (He, Schultz & Schubert, 2015) where students, teachers, parents, administrators, and policy makers work together to develop a curriculum of imagination where all students have equal opportunities to dive into their immensurable creativity and reach their highest potential (Siddle-Walker, 1996).

Author

• Amanda Gonzales, Georgia Southern University
  Presenting Author