Praxial Music Education and the Ontological Perspective: An Enactivist Response to Music Matters 2

Journal article

Elliott and Silverman’s core ethical arguments for praxial music education are developed through the lens of critical ontology. I begin by adopting a Heideggerian perspective, examining the ‘technological’ understanding of being that dominates modern life, as well as the problematic conceptions of cognition, music, and education it commits us to. I then discuss how an ontological approach to praxis reintroduces conceptions of being and knowing that have become obscured in the modern world; and how such insights afford richer understandings of what human being-in-the-world entails. Following this, I consider how the ontological perspective may help us better align the idea of praxis with the ‘enactive' approach to cognition discussed by Elliott and Silverman. To conclude the broad implications of this ontological-enactive perspective are explored for musical development and education.

Authors: van der Schyff, D

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: MayDay Group
• Journal: Action, Criticism and Theory for Music Education
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 75-105
• Publication date: 2015-11-01
• EISSN: 1545-4517
• ISSN: 1545-4517
• Keywords: Educational Philosophy; Music Education; Teaching Methods; Schemata (Cognition); Music; Ethics; SBTMR