The School of Music welcomes guest scholar Sean Powell, professor of music at the University of North Texas, whose talk, "The Ideology of Competition in School Music," is delivered as part of the 2024-25 THEME Lecture Series.
Abstract
Competition is seen by many music teachers, students, and supporters as natural and inevitable—a taken-for-granted aspect of music education or an irresistible force, rather than a choice. This talk uncovers this ideological nature of competition, examining its effect on student learning, teacher agency, and equity within music education and considers ways in which music educators might reconsider the role of competition in their teaching practice.
Series Background
THEME, an annual colloquium of UW faculty and students of Theory, History, Ethnomusicology, and Music Education, is held on select Friday afternoons throughout the academic year. Talks are at 4 p.m in the School of Music Fishbowl unless otherwise noted. Admission is free.
Biography
Sean Robert Powell
Sean Robert Powell is Professor and Chair of Music Education at the University of North Texas where he teaches graduate courses in sociology, philosophy, qualitative research, and music teacher education.
Dr. Powell serves as the Chair of the Society for Music Teacher Education. He is a member of the Editorial Review Boards of the Journal of Research in Music Education and Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, and is a former board member of the Journal of Music Teacher Education and Music Educators Journal.
An active scholar, Dr. Powell’s research interests include competition, agency and structure, identity, post-qualitative inquiry, neoliberal education policy, music teacher education, social theory, and the sociology of music education. His work has been published in the Journal of Research in Music Education; Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education; Philosophy of Music Education Review; Research Studies in Music Education; Journal of Music Teacher Education; Arts Education Policy Review; Music Education Research; Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education; and the Journal of Band Research, and he has presented research, workshops, and guest lectures at national and international venues. Dr. Powell has contributed chapters to the Oxford Handbook of Music Teacher Education in the United States, Narratives and Reflections in Music Education: Listening to Voices Seldom Heard, and the upcoming SAGE Handbook of School Music Education. He is author of The Ideology of Competition in School Music and co-editor of Sociological Thinking in Music Education: International Intersections (both books published by Oxford University Press).