Juliet Hess began to rethink how she taught music the day a fifth-grader used the term “visible minority” in a classroom discussion. She stopped for a moment. She put the term on the board. After analyzing the phrase with students that afternoon, Hess began to construct a music education framework rooted in anti-racism and anti-oppression.

Ever since her K-12 teaching days in Canada, the assistant professor of music education in the MSU College of Music has focused on the ability of music education to effect social change and justice. That focus got the attention of Agrigento—a nonprofit that advances social action through music—and a partnership was born.

Much of Hess’ work is informed by her study of activist-musicians, many with teaching experience. Her 2019 book, Music Education for Social Change: Constructing an Activist Music Education, recognizes the power of music and its long tradition of responding to social issues, events and oppression.

“Music gives us an opportunity to help students understand the humanity of groups that they might not normally encounter,” she said. “Music shows us that everybody has a right to be here, that we’re all human and have a shared humanity. As music teachers, it’s our job to validate that through how and what we teach. Given the polarization of this country currently, recognizing the humanity of others is crucial.”

Recently, Hess began exploring how to make her book more actionable to teachers by offering tools to K-12 educators. She’s presently working on anti-racist, anti-oppressive music education curriculum, and plans to conduct three teacher workshops based on the tri-faceted pedagogy in the book: a pedagogy of community, a pedagogy of expression and a pedagogy of noticing. Her hope is to develop comprehensive tools for the growing number of teachers concerned with channeling music education toward social change and awareness.

“I’m excited to be doing work for teachers, because that’s my profession,” she said. “In music education, we talk to teachers a lot about what they’re doing, but we don’t necessarily go outside the educational realm to think about what activist-musicians do and how they do it. That’s the crux of my book, and the workshops.”

Hess’s work will be supported through a grant from Agrigento—an emergent organization dedicated to advancing the field of music through social action. Based in Scotland, Agrigento strengthens connections between practice and research, and creates more spaces for reflection, dialog and sharing of knowledge.

Coordinator Louise Godwin said that Hess’s construction of anti-oppressive, critical pedagogies to guide and underpin the work of teachers and practitioners intersects with the Agrigento mission. She added that Hess’s contributions, as represented through her project “Naming the World: Constructing an Activist Music Education,” places her at the forefront of critical scholars in applying music pedagogy to social change.

“We were looking for people who were committed to using music as a tool to work toward positive social outcomes and also willing to think critically and reflexively about the ambiguities, complexities and uncertainties involved,” said Godwin. “Juliet was definitely on this list.”

Hess plans to have the curriculum completed in summer 2021 and with Agrigento’s support, communicate the curriculum to teachers in 2021. Her workshops will start in 2021 and will take place in different venues both nationally and internationally. For more information visit the Agrigento projects page.