Integrating Philosophies and History

From the historical growth charted throughout the timeline of music education philosophy, coupled with an understanding of both aesthetic and praxial philosophical belief, one can begin to discover how music curricula can be enriched through the inclusion of both philosophies. While the limited discovery as outlined in this paper has incited deeper understanding of personal music education philosophy, strong implications of additional study and analysis can be reasonably affirmed. Therefore, further suggestions to developing a stronger music education philosophical foundation may include studying historical philosophical texts, such as Broudy et al’s Democracy and Excellence in American Secondary Education, examining the music education teachings of non-Western cultures, and analysis of personal classroom curricula and routine for qualitative examples of philosophical bents.
It is through such self-discovery and action-oriented beliefs the one can analyze new ideas and proposed thoughts for the music educator to consider when creating, and re-creating, music education curriculum. By truly knowing your teaching philosophy, one supports self in understanding the values and beliefs that will be presented to students through the act of teaching and learning - thereby, under-girding how one’s curriculum will be formulated and executed. From an actively engaged music education philosophy, one can begin to provide teaching and learning examples for music students that can have a positive affect on teaching and learning for the classroom of life.