Part of the Indiana University Practicing Philosophy Collaboration Series: Paul and Joey discuss two aspects of neoliberalism in current music education practices. First, using Sean Powell’s 2021 article titled “Competition, Ideology, and the One-Dimensional Music Program” they investigate how competition can limit possibilities for music education programs, especially programs that lack the resources of high performing, suburban schools. Joey and Paul then discuss how neoliberalism strips supports away from schools, using Lauren Kapalka Richerme’s 2022 article titled “The Hidden Neoliberalism of CASEL’s Social Emotional Learning Framework: Concerns for Equity.” They point out how individualized resources are used to replace neglected societal structures; in this case how SEL can be used to place responsibility on individual students for issues of racism, sexism, or poverty.
