Is it the technology? Challenging technological determinism in music education

This chapter explains the nature and strategies of critical ethnography as these apply to intersections between theory, fieldwork methods, performance, critical practice, and social justice. Critical ethnography examines the interdependence between theory and practice and how, when united with an ethical stance, it creates spaces for ethical praxis. It also explains the implications that this type of research holds for music education by focusing on teaching and learning in music-listening classes. In locales, urban secondary school students have a very wide range of musical interests and involvements, including traditional school ensembles, community music programs, and homemade music making. The chapter offers one suggestion in the form of a research praxis that allows us to get inside and under the skin of the problems and potentials of schools as sites of personal and musical empowerment and transformation.