Given the contemporary polarized political landscape and the elective nature of much music teaching and learning, it is important that music educators understand how they reinforce or undermine stakeholders’ political beliefs. The purpose of this inquiry is to investigate alignment between Lakoff’s moral-political metaphors and Allsup’s main ideas and to consider the value of certain moral-political discourses for music education. I demonstrate that Allsup favors concepts that align with Lakoff’s liberal nurturant-parent metaphor, while his ideas work in tension with the conservative strict-parent metaphor. When conservative moral discourse goes unacknowledged, discussions about what kind of ethics should inform music education get misrecognized as arguments about whether ethical concerns should inform music education. I also examine the potential implications of practices aligning with music educators’ individual moral-political beliefs, a community’s moral-political preferences, or a balanced approach to the two metaphors. Yet, nurturant-parent values and associated practices often remain unarticulated and peripheral in music teacher education. I propose that music educators might name the role that conservative ethics play within the profession, provide increased attention to practices aligning with the nurturant-parent moral-political metaphor, and experiment with discourse and actions not directly invoking either moral-political metaphor.
AdlerP. S. (2001). Market, hierarchy, and trust: The knowledge economy and the future of capitalism. Organization Science, 12, 215–234. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.12.2.215.10117
2.
AigenK. (1995). Philosophical inquiry. In WheelerB. L. (Ed.), Music therapy research: Quantitative and qualitative perspectives (pp. 447–484). Barcelona.
3.
AllsupR. E. (2015). The eclipse of higher education or problems preparing artists in a mercantile world. Music Education Research, 17(3), 251–261. https://doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2015.1057996
4.
AllsupR. E. (2016). Remixing the classroom: Toward and open philosophy of music education. Indiana University Press.
5.
AllsupR. E.BenedictC. (2008). The problems of band: An inquiry into the future of instrumental music education. Philosophy of Music Education Review, 16(2), 156–173.
6.
ArósteguiJ. L. (2020). Implications of neoliberalism and knowledge economy for music education. Music Education Research, 22(1), 42–53. https://doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2019.1703923
7.
BatesV. (2004). Where should we start? Indications of a nurturant ethic for music education. Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, 3(3), 1–16. http://act.maydaygroup.org/articles/Bates3_3.pdf
8.
BatesV. (2005). Moral concepts in the philosophy of music education (Publication No. 3182608) [Doctoral dissertation, University of Arizona]. ProQuest Dissertations.
BradleyD. (2017). Agoraphobia and music education: Fear of the closed, fear of the open. Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, 16(1), 38–52. https://doi.org/10.22176/act16.1.38
11.
BowmanW. (2017). “Open philosophy” or down the rabbit hole?Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, 16(1), 10–37. https://doi.org/10.22176/act16.1.10
12.
BowmanW.FregaA. (2012). Introduction. In BowmanW.FregaA. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of philosophy in music education (pp. 3–14). Oxford University Press.
13.
CampbellP. S.MyersD.SarathE. (2016). Transforming music study from its foundations: A manifesto for progressive change in the undergraduate preparation of music majors. College Music Society. https://www.music.org/pdf/pubs/tfumm/TFUMM.pdf
ElliottD. J. (1995). Music matters: A new philosophy of music education. Oxford University Press.
18.
ElliottD.SilvermanM. (2017). On the “truthiness” ofRemixing the Classroom. Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, 16(1), 124–67. https://doi.org/10.22176/act16.1.124
19.
FautleyM. (2019, April23–26). What is music education in schools? Research into conceptualisations in England [Conference presentation]. Research in Music Education Conference, Bath, United Kingdom.
FischmanG. E.HaasE. (2012). Beyond idealized citizenship education: Embodied cognition, metaphors, and democracy. Review of Research in Education, 36, 169–196. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X11420927
22.
FungC. V. (2018). A way of music education: Classic Chinese wisdoms. Oxford University Press.
23.
HessJ. (2017). Equity and music education: Euphemisms, terminal naivety, and whiteness. Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, 16(3), 15–47. http://act.maydaygroup.org/articles/Hess16_3.pdf
JorgensenE. R. (1992). On philosophical method. In ColwellR. (Ed.), Handbook of research on music teaching and learning (pp. 91–114). Schirmer Books.
26.
JorgensenE. R. (1997). In search of music education. University of Illinois Press.
27.
LakoffG. (2004). Don’t think of an elephant! Know your values and frame the debate. Chelsea Green.
28.
LakoffG. (2016). Moral politics: How liberals and conservatives think (3rd ed.). University of Chicago Press.
29.
LakoffG.JohnsonM. (1999). Philosophy in the flesh: The embodied mind and its challenge to Western thought. Basic Books.
30.
MarshB.RodriguezA.LewisA.Thomas-DurrellL.HessJ. (2017). Seizing the “both/and” moment. Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, 16(1), 101–123. https://doi.org/10.22176/act16.1.101
31.
MehtaJ.FineS. (2019). In search of deeper learning: The quest to remake the American high school. Harvard University Press.
