Multiculturalism in International Music Education

Abstract The topic of multiculturalism has become one of worldwide concern, and many countries have addressed this issue both in education and in music education. Sometimes it is focused on the need to reestablish indigenous musics in the music education curriculum. Many countries (Zambia, Malaysia, and Nigeria among them) had their own musics supplanted by the study of Western art music during colonization and since independence have been trying to find ways to incorporate their own various music traditions in the schools. Some places (the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada) are dealing with incorporating the music cultures of immigrant populations, much as in the United States. Still others, like Germany, are just beginning to incorporate a perspective that includes world musics in their curriculum. The development of multicultural music education in some cases runs parallel to that of the United States; in other cases, it provides contrasts.