Tractate on Critical Theory and Praxis: Implications for Professionalizing Music Education

Abstract

The Tractate was written following the first meeting of leading music education scholars in Buffalo. It was not, however intended as a scholarly essay. Rather, it was a declaration of assorted, numerous issues the next few meetings of founding MayDay Group members could engage with in organizing efforts at creating an organization predicated on critical communication about changing the status quo of the time. It is thus a historical document that, at the time of its writing, was an unpolished voice of one young (50ish) thinker. It has since slept largely unremarked in the MayDay Group website pages until noticed by Vince Bates. Its references to Critical Theory were posed as bases for the MayDay Group’s critical agenda. Some readers might detect its spirit in the subsequent MDG ethos of “action for change,” with “action” translated as “praxis.” Others might prefer to note a straying from the path implored by this document. Leaders attending to the present and future directions of the Group might take new resolve from it. The document was written with a critique in mind of mid-1990s music education. Sadly, much remains to be done. Perhaps a new foundational document (or several) for the next 30 years is in order to help organize future MayDay efforts of “action for change.” Until its recent reemergence I hadn’t known how much the Tractate foretold of my forthcoming new book on curriculum philosophy and theory, which takes up foundational issues first raised in this Tractate. I hope its current and future relevance are clear, even when it wanders more than a little.