Social Justice and Equity: Doing the Right Thing in the Music Teacher Education Program.

Abstract

Striking banners hang from the façade of an urban environment public high school in my neighborhood displaying an assemblage of laudable goals for its graduates. Each banner is dedicated to specific personal attributes that would more than likely be deemed appropriate by most passers-by who took the time to read the inscriptions. One in particular piqued my interest because it bore the words “socially just. ” Interested in learning more about the school’s vision for its students, I searched online for its web site and found the Jones College Prep Mission Statement and “Profile of the Ideal Graduate. ” These documents describe the type of individual the school aspires to develop, a graduate who would manifest or be on the way to actualizing the following list of attributes: socially-skilled and mature, compassionate, well-rounded and holistic, intellectually competent, and of particular relevance to this discussion, socially just and responsible. Intrigued to learn how the terms were being translated at the secondary school level and in this local setting, and in particular, what might be included among “socially just and responsible ” attributes, I dug deeper into the web site. There I discovered a distillation of eighteen characteristics that collectively define a “socially just and responsible ” individual as