Arab students’ perceptions of university music education in the United Arab Emirates: A discussion of music education and cultural relevance

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore with five Arab young adults their perceptions of Western and Arabic musical cultures as well as their perceptions of the Western classical vocal teaching they experienced at an American-modeled university in the United Arab Emirates. Of interest were issues of cultural relevance and the role of music and music education in Arab society. Data collection methods for this study included individual, semi-structured interviews with each participant and three focus group discussions. This paper will explore the following four themes from the interviews: Theme 1: Western classical university music teaching was incongruent with Arabic classical music teaching. Theme 2: Despite the incongruencies, participants found the university music experience to be transformative. Theme 3: Participants have a strong personal connection to Arabic music. Theme 4: Lack of music education has cultural ramifications; however, it is a complex issue. Using Paris’ conception of culturally sustaining pedagogy as a theoretical lens through which to view participants’ perceptions of music and music education in the United Arab Emirates as well as the juxtaposition of heritage and emergent musical traditions within a globalized traditional society, issues of cultural relevance, personal transformation, and musical identity will be further discussed.

Keywords

Arabic singing cultural relevance music education UAE

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Creswell

J. W.

(2013). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Deleuze

Guattari

(1987). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia. ( Massumi

, Trans.). Minneapolis, MN and London, UK: University of Minnesota Press.

Domínguez

(2017). “Se hace puentes al andar”: Decolonial teacher education as a needed bridge to culturally sustaining and revitalizing pedagogies. In Paris

Alim

H. S.

(Eds.), Culturally sustaining pedagogies: Teaching and learning for justice in a changing world (pp. 225–245). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Fox

J. W.

Mourtada-Sabbah

Al Mutawa

(Eds.). (2006). Globalization and the Gulf. London, UK: Routledge.

Frishkopf

M. A.

(Ed.). (2010). Music and media in the Arab world (No. 4108–4109). Cairo, Egypt: American University in Cairo Press.

Gay

(2002). Preparing for culturally responsive teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(2), 106–116.

Greene

(1995). Releasing the imagination: Essays on education, the arts, and social change. The Jossey-Bass Education Series. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, Inc.

Ladson-Billings

(1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, 32(3), 465–491.

Lee

C. D.

(2017). An ecological framework for enacting culturally sustaining pedagogy. In Paris

Alim

H. S.

(Eds.), Culturally sustaining pedagogies: Teaching and learning for justice in a changing world (pp. 261–273). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

10.

MacDonald

R. A.

Hargreaves

D. J.

Miell

(Eds.). (2002). Musical identities (Vol. 13). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

11.

Paris

(2012). Culturally sustaining pedagogy: A needed change in stance, terminology, and practice. Educational Researcher, 41(3), 93–97.

12.

Paris

Alim

H. S.

(Eds.). (2017). Culturally sustaining pedagogies: Teaching and learning for justice in a changing world. New York, NY: Teachers College Press

13.

Rosa

Flores

(2017). Do you hear what I hear? Raciolinguistic ideologies and culturally sustaining pedagogies. In Paris

Alim

H. S.

(Eds.), Culturally sustaining pedagogies: Teaching and learning for justice in a changing world (pp. 175–190). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.