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GRIME Research Agenda
 

Until the 1990s the majority of gender research in music education was based on scientific inquiry. From this paradigm facts and statistics about sex-stereotyping were collected and reported. With the introduction of feminist theory in the 1990s, research questions expanded from sex-based differences to the construction of gender roles and identity, in part to explain sex-based differences. Gender refers to culturally defined, or constructed notions of maleness and femaleness as opposed to biologically defined sex. Because social interactions continually produce gender (often in multiple and contradictory ways), the usefulness of the scientific method for gender-based research questions seems questionable. To apply only scientific method would mean making the following assumptions about the social world: that it is knowable in the same way as the natural world; that there is a clear separation between research subject and research object; and that order exists in the social world in a cause and effect form (Nielson 1990, p4-5). These assumptions are associated with an approach that emphasizes rationality, impersonal interactions, and predications and control over events studied. It does not allow us to explain or suggest solutions for social problems, the realm in which gender production exists.

Gender research encourages unique methodological issues because it requires models that focus on understanding social interactions. There are three traditions from which borrowing would be productive:
hermeneutics, critical theory, and standpoint theory.
The interpretive or hermeneutic tradition is a theory or method of interpreting meaningful human interaction. Specifically, (interpretive researchers) are concerned with the importance of meaning in social interaction and argue that limiting research to observable human action misses the most important part of the story. To explain and understand any human social behavior...we need to know the meaning attached to it by the participants themselves (Nielson 1990, p. 7). Interpretive research stresses participant observation which negates the impersonality of naturalistic research. However, it does not escape the subject-object binary because it assumes that an objective position from which to interpret data exists. As a research model it provides a legitimate alternative to those who want to stay within the scientific tradition, but incorporate subjectivity into their research.

Critical theorists have argued against the exclusive use of the scientific model for social inquiry. Criticism in this tradition means more than a negative judgment; it refers to the more positive act of detecting and unmasking, or exposing, existing forms of beliefs that restrict or limit human freedom...the positivists' goal is to predict and control, the hermeneutics' is to understand, and the critical theorists' approach is to emancipate--that is, to uncover aspects of society, especially ideologies, that maintain the status quo by restricting or limiting different groups' access to the means of gaining knowledge (Nielson 1990, p. 9). Because critical theory emphasizes ideology as organizing factors for the world, it rejects the idea that "objective" knowledge can ever exist. Proponents argue that there is never a neutral or disinterested position because everyone and every group is located socially and historically. Furthermore, this context inevitably influences the interpretation of interactions and the production of knowledge. To critical theorist, all knowledge is socially constructed. Research based on critical theory can produce multiple and contradictory versions of the world, which is sometimes dismissed as relativism. Especially in light of the power relations surrounding gender constructions, struggling with multiple interpretations of the world may create a way of escaping dominant (gender oppressive) ideologies in music education research.

Briefly described, standpoint epistemology begins with the notion that less powerful members of society have the potential for a fuller view of social reality because of their disempowered status (Nielson 1990, p. 10). For example, a female band director, because she is a minority, may know how the band profession works on a quotidian basis as well as how it treats or discourages women, issues men will not know about in the same way because such issues do not affect their career development or mobility. However, this does not mean that all women band directors will share this awareness. Consequently, in terms of gender research in music education, women have the potential to know about various forms of patriarchal constructions of identity which limit their participation in music, an experience denied to men. Further, men concerned with and actively working on this same issue will have the potential for more understanding than men with no awareness whatsoever. According to Nielson (1990) the point of standpoint epistemology "--which has the main premise that one's everyday life has epistemological consequences and implications--the disadvantaged have the potential to be more knowledgeable, in a way, than the dominant group." If gender research requires the participation of the researcher and the inclusion of and reflection on one's values, then standpoint epistemology suggests that the disenfranchised, such as female and queer musicians, have unique contributions to make both as researchers and research participants and that their experiences will influence research designs.

In summary, researching gender issues presents unique methodological issues because gender is produced from social interactions that, in our case, affects music teaching-learning processes. It requires researchers to study interactions and therefore, negotiate simultaneously with contextual, historical and culturally bound truths, a paradigm shift that makes anomalies disregarded by ratio-scientific research a central concern. While other areas of music education research may claim similar methodological concerns, gender research, because it is grounded in a concept that is socially and historically produced and reproduced, has the potential to become an innovator of these unique research methods.

The production and construction of gender in music education is a critically under-researched area. The following list identifies several key areas which would provide rich and professionally significant research.

Philosophical/theoretical research

Critical theories of gender in music education
Poststructural and postmodern theories of gender in music education
Feminist criticism of philosophical music education research
Critique and philosophies based on queer theory (adding to and drawing on the body of literature that exists in musicology)

Historical research

The role of women in the development of the profession
The role of women in ensembles as participants and conductors
The role of women in developing classroom materials
The role of women in professional organizations
The role of gender expectations in all of the above

Classroom materials

Band, choral and orchestral repertoire by women composers
General music materials for teaching about women in music to elementary and middle school children
Pedagogical models that promote gender equity and awareness
K-12 materials focused on critiquing and remedying gender inequities
Undergraduate materials on gender equity issues for music teacher education programs
Graduate materials to encourage a fuller understanding of the issues and to encourage gender research

Identity issues

How the profession of music education constructions gender expectations for males and females
What it means to be female in a discipline that greatly favors males
What it means to be male in a discipline that greatly privileges them
What it means to be male in a feminine discipline
What it means to be queer and in music education, both as instructors and participants

Sex equity issues

A continued monitoring of sex-stereotyping of instruments
The gender expectations surrounding technology
The treatment of women in academe
Sex equity issues concerning repertoire in classroom materials and in ensembles
Sex equity issues concerning ensemble practices and policies
The preparation of students for careers in music education
How schools support hierarchical gender systems

Works Cited

Nielson, J. M. (Ed.) (1990). Feminist research methods. Exemplary readings in the social sciences. Boulder: Westview Press.

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