Call for Papers: Ecological Keywords in Music and Music Education
Guest Editor: Daniel J. Shevock, dshevock@kcsd.k12.pa.us
The MayDay Group—and Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education journal in particular—functions to identify, critique, and change taken-for granted patterns of discourse in music education theory and philosophy. The MayDay Group’s ecological action ideal promises: “We commit to a Land-conscious, environmentally sustainable, and regenerative music education.” This action ideal affirms ecology that materializes as:
- Human relationships with the land
- Environmental sustainability
- Regenerative music education
- Cultural and physical commons
- The inherent value of non-human beings
- Environmental activism
This ecological commitment also challenges the impacts of colonization, mass production, excessive travel, and resists our ongoing environmental crises—e.g., e-waste, potable water, species collapse, air pollution, heatwaves, environmental racism, and the environmental refugee crisis.
Music education scholarly writing is increasingly attending to the ecological crises and our responsibility of addressing them. Within ACT, Bates (2013) drew upon an agrarian land ethic to re-direct our field’s attention to the natural world; Shevock (2020) drew on the writings of Satis Coleman to cultivate an environmental philosophy for our field; and Smith (2022) critiqued how music education interrupted her connections to nature, instilling a sense of isolation and dissociation. There has also been an increase, especially in the most recent ten years, of music education monographs, edited books, and research articles in non-MayDay journals that are relevant to our field’s discourse on ecology.
With this increase in published writings, our field has also experienced a diversity of keywords used to describe the movement, including ecology, eco-literacy, eco-musicality, ecodiversity, and ecosocial music education. A keyword can be defined as an important word or phrase that embodies the main idea of a topic—in this case ecology and music education. Authors might consider (but are not limited to) the following questions:
- How is this keyword used in music education scholarship improving or deteriorating our relationship with the land?
- In what ways are sustainability keywords enacted in music teaching and learning praxis?
- How does a particular keyword limit or increase possibilities for sustainable policy?
- In what ways does a keyword expand or contract what it means to be human?
- Where does a particular keyword improve our care for the inherent value of non-human beings?
- To what extent does a keyword help us preserve and regenerate physical and cultural commons?
Please submit directly to Daniel J. Shevock, dshevock@kcsd.k12.pa.us . Submissions will be accepted until October 1, 2026. 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.