Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education (ACT) Call for Papers
Special Issue – MayDay Group Colloquium 36 (Policy)
On June 4-7, 2025, the MayDay Group met in Bloomington, Indiana for their 36th colloquium, at which they shared ideas centered on the Policy Action Ideal. Participants are invited to submit extended papers based on their colloquium presentations to ACT for a special issue commemorating the knowledge shared at this colloquium. Scholars who presented policy-focused papers at the International Society for Philosophy of Music Education symposium, which took place concurrently, may also submit for this issue.
Authors should explicitly demonstrate how their submission aligns with ACT’s mandate to publish rigorous scholarship on critical, analytical, theoretical, and policy development themes of international interest that—in this issue—illuminate, extend, or challenge the MayDay Group Policy Action Ideal. Presenters who focused primarily on practical applications should instead submit to the other MayDay Group journal, TOPICS.
Policy
We investigate systemic decisions, contributions, and policies of institutions to determine the extent and directions of their influence on music learning and teaching.
Teaching and learning are inherently political endeavors, as are decisions and mandates by various arts, educational, and governmental organizations. The current climate of privatization, competition, and profit undermines a vision of education that fosters an ethic of care and social wellbeing. Through corporate lobbying, policymakers have inserted neoliberal frameworks into educational spaces that often induce harm and alienate participants. Such frameworks hold individual stakeholders accountable while providing corporations latitude to shirk responsibility. In order to improve existing structures and influence institutional change, we actualize a frame of mind oriented toward policy, with inquiry that leads to action, adaptation, and implementation made manifest through practice.
Authors might consider (but are not limited to) the following questions:
- In what imaginative ways can music educators and students engage with and create policy at the classroom, local, national, and international levels?
- What values currently guide music education policymaking? What values should guide music education policymaking?
- How are students and music-making understood within policies and policymaking? How should they be?
- What are the limitations, challenges, and advantages of how music education scholars currently conceptualize policy and policymaking?
- How is policymaking within music education informed by other systems, including social and economic ones?
Submissions are due September 1, 2025. Prior to submission, please ensure that you have followed all ACT Submission Guidelines found here: https://act.maydaygroup.org/submissions/, including specific formatting guidelines for this journal. Please submit your papers to ACT Editor Lauren Kapalka Richerme at lkricher@iu.edu.