Outcomes of a pilot music education initiative to enhance social justice engagement among university students

Abstract

Civic engagement and social justice have received heightened attention in music education in the decade since Jorgensen posed the question ‘Why should music educators not be interested in justice?’ To this end, a social-justice focused initiative was piloted with choral ensembles at two public universities in the Midwestern US using human trafficking as the focal issue. A pre-experimental design was used in two paired studies to address research questions: (1) What is the impact of participation in the initiative on students’ knowledge, engagement, actions, and attitudes? (2) What are students’ recommendations for initiative refinement? Results indicated statistically significant increases across all eight outcomes for student participants in both studies. Recommendations highlighted students’ desire for consistent knowledge-building throughout the year and instructor-provided informational resources. Overall, pilot findings suggest this is a promising approach for music educators desiring to incorporate social justice engagement initiatives within already content heavy music courses.

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