Visible, legitimate, and beautiful justice: A case study of music education formalization within a Haitian NGO

Abstract

When music education is formalized within schools and non-governmental organizations, it often becomes aligned with justice-oriented aims of providing universal access to music education. This qualitative case study examines the formation of a marching band within a Haitian school in northeastern Haiti. Data sources collected and analyzed included participant-observation experience, participant interviews, non-governmental organization Facebook posts, and newsletters. Findings indicate the marching band became a form of justice, solidarity, organizational legitimacy, and community leadership. The marching band was related to justice because it made the honorable humanity of participants visible and satisfied a moral calling for talent development. A case study of the cholera epidemic in Haiti reveals how the marching band afforded the school a forum for legitimate community leadership. Students, teachers, parents, and administrators had differing views about the purpose of formalized music education. Students saw music education as important because it cultivated the beautiful.

Influences of community engagement and health system strengthening for cholera control in cholera reporting countries

“…Culturally appropriate music and dance involving community representatives could foster community enthusiasm and interest in hygiene promotion events 50 and bring a sense of community pride and cohesion to particular communities. 51 …”

“…Culturally appropriate music and dance involving community representatives could foster community enthusiasm and interest in hygiene promotion events 50 and bring a sense of community pride and cohesion to particular communities. 51 Barrier: cholera stigma blocks individual and collective participation When collective stigma is systematised, through legislation or policies that appear to target certain groups, stigmatised communities may be disenfranchised. This can lead to stigmatised communities being unable to participate in a collective society, as occurred through legislation around migration documentation of Haitians in the Dominican Republic in 2012.…”

The Development of Soft Skills through Music in Educational Contexts: A Systematic Review

“…In terms of participants, one study, with a large sample, with a total of 1001 participants, stands out in the results [23], and 8 other studies contained a sample of between 600 and 685 participants [15][16][17][24][25][26][27][28]. The majority of analyzed articles had a sample containing participants who were <40 years old, representing 47.7% of the total.…”

“…In 31 of the studies (70.4%), the interventions were carried out in a lay group. This group consisted of people who had no musical training and used music for a playful purpose [12,16,17,23,27,28,, and only 1 study (2.3%) took place in a semiprofessional setting in which professional and amateur musicians participated in the same intervention [62]. Regarding the methodological approach, 6 studies used a quantitative methodology (13.6%), 34 were qualitative (77.3%) and 4 were mixed (9.1%).…”