MUSIC AND
LANGUAGE
BRIDGING
THE GAP
BETWEEN
SCHOOL
AND
COMMUNITY
professional communities in their schools and the broader community
interest in ways that improve learning” (Driscoll and Goldring, p. 9, 2003)?
How can we bridge the gap between the needs and responsibilities/values
established by mainstream, academic society (educators) with the needs and
values of an often disparate community? I would suggest that music is one
way to recognize the importance of preexisting knowledge and to make
connections for understanding new learning. Driscoll and Goldring suggest
a “new science of learning” that focuses on the central belief that new
knowledge is “scaffolded onto pre-existing knowledge” (2003). Music readily
connects pre-existing knowledge to new learning while simultaneously
bridging the gaps of diversity within a community.
The gaps of diversity within a community become more evident as school
BY EDWARD VARNER
realities move away from the traditional understanding of the word
The relationship between schools and community is a complicated
imply homogeneity, self-containment, and commonality of
subject that can incorporate a myriad of voices in an often
interests” (McInerney, 2002). This view often denies the complexity and
inharmonious discourse about culture, knowledge, and standards.
diversity of the people residing in a given community. The reality is that
While all of the primary stakeholders of education generally
people live in many different conceptual ideals of community. McInerney
support the widespread belief that school improvement and
cautions that the use of a conventional understanding of community often
student learning should include parent and community
infers “insiders and outsiders, inclusion and exclusion, us and them, centres
involvement, it is quite difficult to find consensus on the
and margins” (McInerney, 2002). Music again acts as a natural bridge
appropriate definition of community involvement. In their paper
between isolationist conceptions of community and a broader view of
Schools and Communities as Contexts for Student Learning: New
community in search of global understanding. Music finds the common
Directions for Research in Educational Leadership, Driscoll and
thread that connects human beings in a diverse world.
community. Traditional conceptions and “understandings of community
Goldring ask, “How do leaders create bridges between the
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