ABSTRACT
Divergence, diversity and minority interests are three issues that are relevant to the promotion of pluralism in formal education contexts in Western societies. In Britain, attention has been focused particularly on such areas as race, culture, and equal opportunities. During the last quarter of the twentieth century, politicians and teachers, among others, made efforts to address the difficult and sensitive areas of religion, special educational needs and gender issues within mainstream education. In the music curriculum the inclusion of popular music, music technology and ‘world musics’ have been some of the most significant developments of the period. Nevertheless, as I have argued elsewhere (Kwami, 1998a), the dominant or prevailing paradigm for musical transactions is still that of the Western classical music tradition. For this reason alone, the musical and cultural ‘voices’ located on the periphery may feel stifled. Indeed, it could be argued that it is unrealistic to ‘listen’ to every ‘voice’ in the curriculum and that some musics are best dealt with outside of the formal educational system.
