Participatory and digital cultures in practice: Perspectives and possibilities in a graduate music course

Music educators seeking to address contemporary society might look to existing and emerging ways that people engage with music. Participatory culture(s) as discussed primarily in media studies and related fields offers a fruitful context for expanding music education. This study addresses graduate music students’ perspectives on integrating expressions and circulations related to participatory culture in music education settings. Participants described musical expressions such as appropriating or transforming existing music as having creative and learning potential. Participants also expressed how students’ creative expressions in the form of appropriating music could be meaningful and empowering. Participants experienced challenges ranging from difficulty envisioning concrete applications of participatory culture in existing curricular structures such as large ensembles, to unresolved perspectives of related ethical, legal, philosophical and pedagogical issues. Findings suggest that media and musical skills specific to participatory culture along with related understanding and dispositions are important for its realization in music education.