Why Creativity?: Historicizing the Construction of Creativity and Otherness in Music Education

• In Event: Critiquing Histories and Imagining New Futures for Music Education

Abstract

Creativity is often treated as inherently good, a quality that any good music teacher should foster in their students. From concert bands to Orff-Schulwerk and popular music education, creativity is often positioned as vitally important. This paper asks: How did creativity become so central to music education? In response, I enact a historical epistemology that traces the modes of thought through which creativity became understood as central to music education. Utilizing Music Educators Journal as an archive, I demonstrate how national imaginaries of the good citizen, their Other, and techniques for governing these Others positioned creativity as essential to music education in the post-WWII era. I conclude by demonstrating how these epistemologies continue to impact music classrooms.

Author

• Noah Karvelis, Northern Arizona University