Written by Carmen Rueda Lindemann
In this article, I argue against the normative academic framework shaped by neoliberal reforms and advocate for the meaningful integration of music education into academic curricula. This analysis draws on neoliberal, postcolonial, and utopian pedagogical paradigms to illuminate the limitations of an education system narrowly focused on economic outcomes. By examining the ideological underpinnings and consequences of neoliberal policies, I demonstrate how music education can serve as a powerful tool to counteract cultural erasure, promote social equity, and foster a more inclusive vision of education—one that values human expression and community as much as economic utility.
Over the past forty years, many nations, including Chile and South Africa, have adopted neoliberal reforms to address persistent political and economic instability. Despite being sidelined in academic curricula as supposedly incompatible with neoliberal values, music education has played a significant role in addressing these social challenges.
Since the 1980s, Chile has become the pinnacle of neoliberal values. Neoliberalism, a policy model that emphasizes free-market capitalism, deregulation, and a reduced role for government, gained momentum under Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship. The country saw immense economic transformation and increasing wealth inequality as a result of drastic changes to societal infrastructure: labor unions were abolished, markets were entirely deregulated, healthcare became privatized, and STEM subjects dominated academic curricula. Today, less than 1% of Chilean school budgets is allocated to music education, the structured teaching and learning of music as part of a school curriculum, as it is deemed irrelevant to the development of “human capital” – the economic value of a worker’s skills, knowledge, and experiences. Similarly, South Africa embraced neoliberalism in the 1990s as a path to overcoming wealth inequality and systemic discrimination. Instead, it led to the erosion of many cultural traditions, including music, as economic efficiency took precedence over cultural expression. Neoliberal policies ultimately failed to address the social issues they aimed to solve, revealing the gap between promised progress and lived reality.
Angel-Alvarado and colleagues highlight three defining traits of how neoliberal policies have shaped music education in Chile. First, music education has been increasingly delegitimized and defunded, largely due to its perceived incompatibility with the economic goals central to neoliberal policies. Second, music education is challenging to standardize, making it difficult to fit into models that prioritize data-driven assessment and accountability. This perceived lack of “economic utility” renders music education vulnerable to budget cuts, as funding is redirected to subjects like STEM, which are believed to yield more direct benefits to national economic growth and competitiveness. As a result, music teachers often attempt to match the academic rigor of STEM subjects, which stifles creative development. Finally, music education in Chile has become increasingly individualistic as a result of shifting responsibility from the public to the private sector, with access now largely dependent on for-profit institutions. In a neoliberal model, public funding and support for arts education are deprioritized in favor of privatization, under the belief that the private sector can offer more cost-effective services. Consequently, music education is accessible mainly to those who can afford private lessons or tuition at specialized institutions, rather than being universally available in public schools. This shift limits music education to those with financial means, reducing its inclusivity and communal impact. By turning music education into an individual pursuit rather than a shared social experience, its role in fostering collective cultural identity and social cohesion is diminished, weakening its broader value as a public good.
In response to these three traits, we could try to find a solution using a neoliberal paradigm, which might argue for music education by highlighting research that links it to improved math ability, problem-solving skills, reasoning, and overall academic performance, thus legitimizing it as a tool for economic productivity. With recent advancements in AI and automation, proponents could argue that music and arts education align with the neoliberal value of employability, fostering uniquely human traits like creativity, which are expected to become more valuable in a tech-driven workforce.
However, critical thinkers like Paulo Freire challenge this approach, suggesting it misses the broader purpose of education. Freire argues that true education should empower students to critically engage with their world—a process he calls “conscientization.” In contrast, the neoliberal model reduces the role of educators to preparing students to maximize standardized test results and future economic productivity within a “knowledge society,” which overlooks the transformative, liberating potential of learning.
According to Freire, the role of educators is not just to impart knowledge but to foster creativity and critical thinking in students, enabling them to recognize the many forms of oppression they face and actively engage in their own liberation. He warns against reducing education to a “mere technique,” which strips it of its political purpose and its potential to challenge the status quo. For Freire, education must empower students to express their “dreams”—their aspirations for a more just world—and music serves as a powerful medium for this expression. In Chile, this vision comes alive in the social protest movements of the 1950s and 60s, where music became a tool of resistance and solidarity. Songs like “El pueblo unido jamás será vencido” (the united village will never be defeated) by Quilapayún, which calls for unity in the face of oppression, and “Adiós general” by Sol y Lluvia, rejecting authoritarianism and rallying people to empower themselves, show how music can inspire both social cohesion and political action. These songs were not simply artistic expressions; they were instruments of resistance, shaping collective identity and fueling movements against injustice. Freire’s concept of “conscientization”—developing a critical consciousness—mirrors the role music plays in awakening social awareness, challenging oppressive systems, and empowering marginalized voices. Music education, then, is far more than just a subject in the curriculum; it is a means of nurturing the creative and political imagination needed to envision and work toward a more equitable society. The resistance embodied in Chilean protest songs demonstrates the transformative potential of music education as a force for social change—one that transcends neoliberal views of economic utility to address the deeper political and cultural needs of the people.
In South Africa, adopting neoliberalism for rapid economic growth imposed a “deficit narrative,” framing post-apartheid inequalities as issues of “development.” This narrative blamed a lack of education and skills for political underrepresentation, ignoring the role of systemic racism and political discrimination. Consequently, traditional Bantu skills-based vocational learning, which includes music, was removed from the curriculum in order to meet the academic standards established by the global North – exacerbating racial segregation within the society instead of ending it. This shift in education policy, driven by neoliberalism, reflects the larger postcolonial dynamic in which Western ideals of development are imposed on post-apartheid societies, erasing indigenous cultural practices and vocational skills.
A postcolonial analysis would focus on the role of standardization in erasing long-standing cultural traditions on a global scale, and criticize the focus on the Western ideal of ‘development’ in an international context. This approach highlights the importance of incorporating local cultural traditions and vocational skills training into academic curricula and rejects the dominance of Western ideology in the practice of education. Teaching traditions in South Africa take an active postcolonial approach, in which students identify and critique racist narratives.
Moreover, music education curricula worldwide prioritize the study of Western classical music over local musical traditions. Rabello de Castro refers to the Western dominance in academia as being dismissive of the perspectives and practices that had emerged throughout the majority world independently from the intervention of the global North. She asserts that any non-European nation has been condemned to a permanent status of inferiority because they are non-European. By centering Western ideals, education not only excludes rich local traditions but also reinforces the political and cultural hierarchy that positions Western knowledge and practices as superior. This exclusion perpetuates the marginalization of indigenous voices and knowledge systems, undermining the potential of music education to foster critical thinking and cultural empowerment. As such, a more inclusive approach that incorporates local music practices directly challenges the Eurocentric framework, aligning with postcolonial and liberatory pedagogies that seek to empower students and communities through the preservation and celebration of their cultural heritage.
To this effect, Langdon argues in favor of critically assessing one’s positionality in the realm of academia. Integrating indigenous knowledge into curricula is not just a matter of representation—it is a powerful means of reclaiming cultural identity and fostering critical consciousness, which can empower students to challenge both the educational system and broader societal inequalities. By shifting the focus from a singular, Western-centric view of education to one that values diverse perspectives, we can reframe music education as a tool for social transformation—one that nurtures both cultural heritage and the critical, creative thinking needed to challenge oppressive systems.
While I am not arguing in favor of a neoliberal paradigm, if we must operate within its framework, there are still ways to leverage its principles to create meaningful and socially impactful solutions for music education that extend beyond academic and economic outcomes. In practice, the ‘Field Band Foundation’ in South Africa uses music education to address the socioeconomic inequalities exacerbated by neoliberalism, not by rejecting neoliberal values like individual responsibility and employability, but by harnessing them to develop skills that benefit the community. By focusing on equipping individuals with market-relevant skills, the initiative works to reduce racial segregation and tackle local socioeconomic disparities. This approach strategically aligns music education with the needs of the community, fostering both personal and collective empowerment in a way that addresses structural inequality without entirely discarding neoliberal principles. NGOs, particularly those focused on social development, may offer a neoliberal-compatible solution for the role of music education, demonstrating its value not just for academic achievement, but for fostering skills that address broader community needs.
In conclusion, music education holds the potential to evoke social change when understood as a means of cultural expression, critical awareness, and collective empowerment. The experiences of Chile and South Africa highlight how, despite the limitations imposed by neoliberal policies, music education has been leveraged to resist oppression, safeguard cultural identities, and confront systemic inequalities. By pushing back against the economic reductionism that has sidelined the arts, we can begin to recognize music education’s broader social value. We must move beyond economic utility and focus on fostering generations capable of creating a just and compassionate world.
When we integrate local traditions, encourage creativity, and foster critical thinking, music education becomes a vital resource for building more inclusive, just societies.
Edited by Age Steenbreker, llustrated by Evie H.