ABSTRACT
The five dimensions of World Music Pedagogy (Attentive Listening, Enactive Listening, Engaged Listening, Creating World Music, and Integrating World Music) can serve as a framework for building children’s understanding of the benefits of diversity by opening their ears and minds to the sounds, functions, processes, and practices of musical cultures within the context of elementary (primary) schools in the United States and other countries where diversity-oriented education is valued. World Music Pedagogy is unique among other methods for teaching world music in that there is a strong focus on listening, as well as on the ways that musicians of particular cultures teach and learn music. This chapter defines terms used throughout the text, provides some historical context for multicultural and world music education in American public education, offers a rationale for implementing World Music Pedagogy in elementary school music classrooms, addresses developmental characteristics of children ages six through twelve, suggests ways to choose world music for elementary-aged children, and provides ideas and resources to help teachers get started with World Music Pedagogy in elementary music classrooms. The chapter ends with an interview with an elementary school music teacher who sees himself as an African American “culture-bearer.”
