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I wonder if you could focus on CA and WA for your purposes in Oregon?

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social identity

ecological - Bronfenbrenner

social development - Vygotsky

attachment theory - Bowlby

LatCrit theory? - testimonio (stories) - tied to your methods

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RQ: How is whiteness as credential permeating 9-12 band ensembles to exclude Latinx student musicians?

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RQ: How is whiteness as credential permeating 9-12 band ensembles to exclude Latinx student musicians?

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More theories related to whiteness as credentials

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More theories related to whiteness as credentials

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1. Racial Formation Theory:

Developed by Michael Omi and Howard Winant, racial formation theory examines how race is not a fixed, inherent characteristic but is socially constructed and shaped by historical, political, and economic forces. Whiteness as credential fits into this framework by illustrating how social perceptions of race influence individuals' opportunities and privileges.

2. Symbolic Interactionism:

Symbolic interactionism is a sociological perspective that focuses on the ways in which individuals construct meaning through interactions with symbols (maybe music here?), including language and gestures. Whiteness as credential can be seen as a symbolic representation that influences how individuals are perceived and treated in various social contexts.

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"Ewell, grounding his presentation in the work of sociologists and race scholars, argued that the field of music theory operates under a “white racial frame.”"

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When Philip Ewell, a Black professor of music theory, presented a keynote talk at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Music Theory (SMT), he asked why the field of music theory1remained so white despite the group's two decades of diversity efforts to increase the number of people of color in the group (having moved from less than 2% African American or Hispanic to 2.9% over that period). Ewell, grounding his presentation in the work of sociologists and race scholars, argued that the field of music theory operates under a " white racial frame." Under this Euro-centric framework, white composers and theorists are given priority in curricula, and the music of white people is held superior to the music of other peoples and cultures. Ewell cited, in particular, the music theorist Heinrich Schenker (1868-1935), "an ardent racist and German nationalist" whose work dominates the field of music theory. Ewell called for a "deframing and reframing" of this white structure. His proposed solutions were quite simple in theory, if not practice: to diversify music curricula, allowing more space for other genres of music alongside European classical music, and to acknowledge the "pro-white" tendencies of white composers and theorists. The talk was generally well received2 and led to important discussions in SMT conferences and in university music departments around the country. And yet, Ewell's discussion of structural racism and diversity in music soon landed our small academic field (I'm a graduate student in music theory) at the center of a national debate over academic freedom and cancel culture.

There are important lessons the left can learn from this saga. First, it is an opportunity for us to examine structural racism within arts and humanities education and to envision a programme of social and racial justice for arts education generally and music theory specifically. Additionally, we must recognize that buzzwords like free speech and cancel culture are often used as red herrings by those who are simply not interested in serious discussions that pose a challenge to the supremacy of whiteness in institutions and cultural practices. The mainstream media is, of course, all too willing to go along with these hot-take stories at the expense of a more difficult conversation around race. By identifying bad and bad faith arguments in the public discussion, we can focus on what is most important to us on the left: racial and social justice.

What Structural Racism Looks Like in Music Theory Education

Ewell's 2019 talk was later revised and published as " Music Theory and the White Racial Frame," which is a serious work of scholarship. (Also see Ewell's six-part blog series "Confronting Racism and Sexism in American Music Theory.") The substance of Ewell's analysis of music theory education is built on the work of sociologist Joe Feagin, who conceptualized the "white racial frame," as quoted in Ewell's piece:

An overarching white worldview that encompasses a broad and persisting set of racial stereotypes, prejudices, ideologies, images, interpretations and narratives, emotions, and reactions to language accents, as well as racialized inclinations to discriminate. ... For centuries now, it has been a dominant and foundational frame from which a substantial majority of white Americans-as well as many others accepting or seeking to conform to white norms and perspectives-view our still highly racialized society.

It is easy to see the white racial frame at work when considering curricula. In music theory education-as with history, literature, or any of the arts-decisions about which topics are given space and attention, and which are excluded, are political and deliberate. Curricula reflect the priorities and values of those in power. When something is taught, a message is sent to students: these are the topics that matter and are worthy of your time ( not those that are unmentioned).

The field of music theory has long treated, and continues to treat, classical music as the norm, the gold standard by which all music is judged. In fact, music education in American universities is dominated by one type of music: Western classical music. To be more specific, the music is predominantly European, Austro-Germanic, from 1700-1950, written by men, and written to service wealthy elites.

Coming out of the Enlightenment, European music theorists set out to discover universal, scientific principles they could apply to all music. For example, the principles of acoustics have been used to justify the logic of features of classical music (such as the major scale and tonal harmony), and these principles were used to thereby justify the aesthetic superiority of classical music. These theories, however, in practice, often demonstrated inconsistencies and were not able to explain even the wide variety of European classical music, the reason for this being that music is not universal but highly culturally particular. In other words, there is not one logic that underlies all music, but many logics that apply to each individual style and genre of music. Of course, there are similarities, parallels, and principles that are useful in multiple styles, but attempts at universality break down quickly. This critique of Enlightenment-style universalist thinking was made by structuralist and postmodern philosophers (for example, Michel Foucault), who focused their attention on the ways the Enlightenment framed certain cultural elements of society as "normal," "rational," and "scientific," thus (in a sense) hiding them from scrutiny.

The question of curriculum content is closely linked to larger ideas about the purpose of the university and of education in general, for which there are competing visions on the right and left. One idea is that education is about the protection and maintenance of "high culture," or what might be thought of as the "classics" in literature, philosophy, and the arts (for example, Shakespeare, Plato, and Beethoven, respectively). This sort of thinking can generally be found in conservative, right-wing commentaries on universities, even when those same commentators decry universities as hotbeds of liberalism and societal decay. Some notable theorizers include philosopher Allan Bloom, who argued against the "relativism" of modernism and emphasized the need to learn "great books" of the white, Western canon; Dinesh D'Souza, who has argued for the defunding of higher education due to overly diverse and intrusive "socialist" curricula; and Ben Shapiro, author of Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youth.

What's often at work in conservative visions of education is, frankly, a white racial frame of Euro-centrism. Take Shapiro. He likes to mention his "music theorist" father in discussions of music in particular. He has gone as far as arguing that rap and hip-hop, for example, aren't " real music," while at the same time elevating Mozart and Western music in general. As he put it:

In my view, and in the view of my music theorist father who went to music school, there are three elements to music," Shapiro says. ... "There is harmony, there is melody and there is rhythm. Rap only fulfills one of these, the rhythm section. There's not a lot of melody and there's not a lot of harmony. And thus, effectively, it is basically spoken rhythm. It's not actually a form of music. It's a form of rhythmic speaking. Thus, beyond the objectivity of me just not enjoying rap all that much, what I've said before is that rap is not music. 3

An opposing vision sees education as an opportunity to explore the variety and depth of the human experience across time and the globe, and is often seen in left-wing pushes to diversify curricula to provide children an experience that is enriching, not just one that will enable them to perform certain skills for a job. " What is education for? It's for becoming a person, not a worker." Note that despite what members of the right argue, this vision does not seek to eliminate the classics from education, but to reduce their prominence in favor of opening space for other works and traditions.

The Supremacy of Heinrich Schenker

Perhaps nobody embodies the belief in universalist thinking and the inherent superiority of European classical music more than Heinrich Schenker, the Austrian music theorist who was the main target of Ewell's criticism and the source of the controversy that followed.

In short, Schenker believed that acoustic principles justified the superiority of the music that he liked: predominantly Austro-German composers who wrote "masterworks" using traditional methods (he was not fond of those who, like Wagner or Schoenberg, experimented with new harmonic methods). He was an ardent German nationalist whose hierarchical, anti-democratic political views intensified after World War I, when the Treaty of Versailles placed blame and debilitating reparations on Germany. He believed not only in the superiority of German music, but in German culture and society, and, as Ewell noted, also believed in the supremacy of whites. It must also be noted that Schenker was Jewish, though he believed in "German-ness" as a nationality that anybody could assimilate to rather than a fixed ethnicity. (This is not, of course, to absolve him of any of his other hierarchical, racist, and nationalist views, but only to show how his Jewishness figured into that worldview.) He died in 1935 before the Nazi annexation of Austria, though his wife would later die in the Theresienstadt camp in 1945.

Schenker remains a relatively unknown figure to most classical music audiences, and indeed, to most classical performers. In music theory, however, he has a more elevated place than any other figure. As Ewell writes, "If Beethoven is our exemplar of a music composer, Schenker is our exemplar of a music theorist. After all, his is the only named music theory routinely required in music theory graduate programs." As a student in master's and PhD music theory programs, I can attest to Schenker's importance: I had to take two seminars solely on Schenker's theories, and one of my qualifying exam topics was exclusively on him. Furthermore, scholarship on Schenker's ideas has dominated the field for decades, and to participate in scholarly discourse (a requirement for eventually obtaining a secure professorship), one must be fluent in Schenkerian theory and methods. To be fair, Schenker's theories offer some of the best insight into the harmony and structural organization of European classical music from approximately 1700-1900. His theories do not, however, offer much when applied to other repertoires.

When Schenker is taught, the less savory aspects of his political ideology are either glossed over or omitted entirely, usually with the justification that his ideology has no impact on the music theory (an adapted form of the "separate the art from the artist" argument). As Ewell points out, not only is that not true, but it is a form of colorblind racism that impedes our ability to analyze the ways in which Schenker's ideology still influences our assessment of music today. (For examples of Schenker's racism and the whitewashing of Schenker, see Ewell's paper.)

The dominance of Schenker's ideology in the field of music theory is not only a problem for a niche area of higher education, but has broader effects on all levels of music education and how music is perceived. Almost all music teachers once earned a music degree and were taught by those of us in academic music studies. For example, a glance at the music teacher content certification test for Massachusetts, the state in which I reside, shows a heavy bias toward European classical music theory and history. Music teachers' textbooks are also written by those of us in the academic world. And professors do (occasionally) interface with the broader public in books, articles, and presentations. This cultural capital then bleeds into larger society, and the sometimes-explicit/sometimes-implicit message from music theory is that classical music is worthy of your attention and other music is less deserving.

Furthermore, if someone with a background in non-Western music (or even non-classical Western music like jazz, folk, or rock) wants to find success in music theory, they must still become fluent in classical music and Schenkerian theory. On the other hand, in the reverse scenario it is entirely possible for someone to only study classical music and obtain success. Thus the meritocracy of music theory is defined strictly within a set of norms and parameters that are structurally racist, classist, and elitist. In other words, the people who tend to study the favored white-Euro classical music that dominates the field and who are looking to advance themselves in the field, or those who are already established in the field, tend to be white or otherwise privileged themselves. Thus, the whiteness of the field becomes a self-perpetuating feature.4

Decolonizing Arts and Music Theory Education

For many American children, public school constitutes the only opportunity for formal arts education. Arts education in the U.S., unfortunately, reflects the overall concerning state of public education, particularly for poor children and children of color. "Public education remains deeply flawed and profoundly unequal"5 and has been under attack for decades.6 In a society with significant wealth and income inequality, access to high school music electives and ensembles, for example, is also unequal, with "privileged groups" " overrepresented in terms of race, socioeconomic status, English fluency, and parents' education level." Disparities in arts funding and programs remain a big problem, with Black and Latinx children receiving far less arts education than white children.7

In the U.S., arts are almost entirely privately funded, with per capita public arts funding being one of the lowest of all developed countries. Even some conservatives got behind saving the National Endowment for the Arts when President Trump considered abolishing it in 2017.

Deborah Bradley writes about racial disparities in music education in her chapter in The Oxford Handbook of Social Justice in Music Education (emphases Bradley's):

Particularly within the traditional paradigms of choir, band, and orchestra, repertoire heavily focused on European classical and the Euro-American canon represents the curriculum, with little if any allowance for exploration of other musical practices. The choice of what music in such settings may be understood clearly as a choice of whose music, with the implication that only the music of some people is worthy of inclusion in the curriculum; the rest is unworthy of being taught in schools.

She labels this paradigm within music education a form of colonization, and goes on to note that students of color often choose not to participate in these programs as they feel that the programs aren't "for them." Notably, this is the exact same trend that plays out in higher music education, and is unsurprising considering that most music teachers attend university music programs. On this issue, Bradley writes:

Having never experienced music outside the Western canon, or only superficially so, teachers may react defensively at the very suggestion of including music from another culture or musical tradition. This is particularly noticeable among preservice teacher candidates. They complain that they do not know anything about other musics; in the extreme, some argue that the movement to teach from a multicultural perspective is an attempt to erase the Western canon from the curriculum, a defensive position that suggests unacknowledged racism. While many teachers embrace multicultural music education wholeheartedly, without exoticizing or tokenizing, there are also those who refuse to venture beyond what they already know.

The state of higher music education is thus inexorably linked to the state of primary and secondary music education. These are all pieces of a large puzzle that need to be addressed together.

Fixing these problems requires a broad commitment to equal and just funding of public schools.8Public schools also need improvement of curricula to reflect the diversity of children in school. In general, U.S. public education suffers from Euro-centricity. The problem can be seen in textbook selection and in right-wing legal backlash to proposed inclusion of ethnic studies in curricula, as well as the current right-wing outcry over critical race theory.

Besides a renewed commitment to public education, one critical thing to do is to increase the racial diversity of people in all levels of music education. This necessitates looking at the overall system of music education, including the pipeline leading to academic music studies. One of the biggest structural barriers for people pursuing the study of music at the higher level is that at many universities, one must already have a basic level of proficiency in classical music (performance ability, historical knowledge, etc.) to be able to participate. Thus, graduate music theory programs are often flush with those who took violin and piano lessons from young ages (who are, statistically speaking, more likely to come from white and/or otherwise privileged backgrounds), but not those who are jazz guitarists, DJs, or folk singers.

As one way of addressing this pipeline problem, Harvard's undergraduate music department reconfigured its curriculum in 2017 to allow more flexibility in coursework. As one faculty music theorist put it: "The other goal is to increase diversity. We know that there are many students at Harvard who don't have a traditional musical background but who are very musical, and it's those people that felt the music curriculum wasn't for them. And that was something that we wanted to address." According to the department website:

A jazz musician who wants to learn to play South Indian music, an orchestral musician who wants to learn jazz improvisation, a musical theater performer who wants to develop her interests in West African music-all these students and more can choose courses that reflect their interests and expand their horizons. Our goal was to build flexibility into the curriculum, making it possible for students with diverse backgrounds and interests to flourish in the music concentration.

As Ewell pointed out in his paper, this kind of curricular adjustment "constitutes a reframing of music theory's white racial frame."9

We also must diversify the repertoires that we cover in all levels of music education. There is such a broad variety of worthy and incredible music from within the U.S. and around the world that it makes little sense to restrict our education to one narrow, culturally elite practice. Just to list some examples, we could teach Anglo-American popular music (jazz, rock, funk, soul, hip-hop, country, electronic music), American folk music (bluegrass, blues, zydeco, salsa, gospel), global popular music (K-pop, Tishoumaren, Reggae), or classical traditions from around the world (Hindustani music, European Medieval and Renaissance music, Indonesian gamelan, Sufi music). And there are already examples to draw from, from George Lewis' guidelines for composition and performance, to the work of the Chicago Children's Choir, to orchestras reconsidering the role of canonical composers like Beethoven.

But beware the straw man of "cancelling" classical music; nobody is arguing for its elimination, but rather to make space for other music alongside Mozart. Nobody is canceling Schenker, either. Ewell writes, "If Schenkerian theory is to survive in the twenty-first century, as I hope it does, we must confront the uncomfortable realities not just of Schenker himself but, more important, of the legacy of how we have engaged with his ideas and what that means with respect to race in American music theory." The point is to teach Schenker's ideas honestly-even his unsavory racism.

Higher education has been slow to adapt to changes, and the nature of the academic pipeline means it will take a long time to implement changes and to see the effects of these changes. The most important thing we can do right now is to commit to studying repertoires of music on their terms, learning from the people who make and practice those traditions themselves rather than applying a false, universal set of standards that actually represent the values of European classical music. As historian Walter Rodney poses in How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, "Who in this world is competent to judge whether an Austrian waltz is better than a Makonde Ngoma?" He was speaking in the context of European colonization of Africa, but the point holds true.

Also important is for leaders in music theory, regardless of racial or ethnic background, to commit to understanding and challenging the white racial frame. Ewell implicates himself in the white racial frame, too. "For my entire career as a music theorist, I have been firmly ensconced in the white racial frame of music theory, a figurative 'white music theorist.' ... I teach music theory from the very same textbooks that I critique, and have done so, for the most part, willingly and joyously. But I am now conflicted. For to feed, sustain, and promulgate a system based on racialized structures and institutions is unacceptable in 2020." As he argues, there is still much work to be done to educate people on the white racial frame and for people to accept the implications that arise from challenging the supremacy of white European music.10 And as we will see in the responses to Ewell from media and academics, his ideas certainly hit a nerve.

Academic Speech and the Response to Ewell

In June 2020, the Journal of Schenkerian Studies (yes, that's how seriously the field takes Schenker) published a "special edition" responding to Ewell that was not only highly critical, but contained numerous racially inflammatory statements and violated standards of academic publication practice. One of the journal's editors, Timothy Jackson, wrote a response to Ewell that was, by generous accounts, highly defensive. Scholars around the country responded by condemning the content of many of the articles, while also calling for an investigation into the journal's operating practices. The backlash to Jackson's piece specifically led to an article in the National Review citing Jackson's critics as a "mob" seeking to cancel the journal and the editor. A New York Times articlethat followed framed the issue as a question of drawing a line about academic freedom. Thus, what began as a discussion around social justice in music morphed into a cancel culture debate.

Volume 12, the "special edition" of the Journal of Schenkerian Studies, produced at the University of North Texas (UNT) music department, contained two separate problems: inflammatory content and clear violations of academic publishing practices. To begin with the content, many of the articles appeared to be responses to Ewell's ideas about Schenker but instead merely nitpicked details and ignored Ewell's main thesis. Generally, the articles proved Ewell's point about the white racial frame. The whole volume is available online here, though worst of the bunch was written by Timothy Jackson, who is white. For example, he writes:

Why, then, are there so few Black professors of music theory in American universities? Is it because of a conspiracy by racist Schenkerians practicing their inherently racist analytical methodology, as Ewell would have us believe? Of course, I understand full well that Ewell only attacks Schenker as a pretext to introduce his main argument: that liberalism is a racist conspiracy to deny rights to "people of color." He is uninterested in bringing Blacks up to "standard" so they can compete. On the contrary, he is claiming that those very standards are in themselves racist. African Americans have the right to embrace their own culture as precious-i.e. rap music, hip hop, etc.-and study and teach it in universities, so that the products of the "defective," "racist" White culture-i.e., classical music-can be shunted aside.

He continues:

Success in classical music is a matter of setting priorities, and summoning inner resources to succeed, no matter what it takes: first and foremost, young African Americans must want to be classical musicians, and their families must be supportive. But admittedly that is not enough. If we are to achieve true social justice in music theory, then we will be compelled to engage with the real issues. We must address African American students' lack of foundation, especially music-theoretical, by facilitating their early training with appropriate resources, and by demolishing institutionalized racist barriers.

For Jackson, the superiority of (white) classical music and the current racial status quo are baseline assumptions, and everything else follows from there. Later in his article Jackson goes a step further, accusing Ewell of anti-Semitism and linking Ewell to the "much larger context of Black-on-Jew attacks in the United States." Note the real issue: Jackson's particular vision of social justice is not to give equal space to the cultural creations of non-white people-in fact, he goes out of his way to denigrate those-but rather to make sure that disadvantaged, African American children have proper access to violins and classical training ("appropriate resources"). Jackson's response proves Ewell's point: white European music is considered the standard, and other racial groups and their cultural creations don't matter (at least not to anyone but themselves, as Jackson says that Black people can enjoy "their own" cultural creations, which to him seem to amount to rap and hip hop, as if there weren't other Black musical traditions (jazz, rock, blues, gospel, soul, and funk spring to mind).

Beyond the content of the articles, the way in which the edition was published violated basic academic standards (a fact that was called out by the SMT):

Although other editions of the JSS were peer-reviewed (a process in which experts in the field critically evaluate articles for publication), this edition clearly was not.

Many of the responses to Ewell were either non substantive in length or anonymous: some were comically short and resembled blog or social media posts11 rather than serious academic work.

Ewell was not given the opportunity to respond to criticism in the same issue.

Moreover, it turns out that JSS was not being produced by graduate students, as was claimed, but was run primarily by Jackson and another professor.12 In addition to the statement from the SMT board, many of us signed an open letter calling for all of us to examine our actions in regards to our field, and for the censuring of and an investigation into the editorial practices of the JSS. Note the two separate issues here: the critique of the content of the journal edition, and the critique of the editorial and publication practices. When the story was picked up by national media, these two issues were deliberately conflated to make this seem like an issue of academic free speech.

Those of us on the left can expect a disingenuous response from the National Review, which though it pretends to be a bastion of serious, well-argued conservative thought, often falls far short. The author of the article is affiliated with FIRE, an organization that campaigns in the name of "free speech" on campuses. Multiple pieces of the account I gave above were misrepresented. According to them, Jackson "offered a serious critique of [Ewell's] work" (decide for yourself how serious it was). Also, we were evidently "calling for Jackson's head," and wanted the university to "launch a witch hunt to see what else they can dig up on him" (we weren't calling for his head, but an investigation into the journal). And Jackson now "has a legitimate fear that he may lose his job and be rendered persona non grata at any other institution." This is common conflation in conservative arguments of free speech and cancel culture: freedom from retaliation is not the same as freedom from criticism and consequences; write poorly argued racist drivel and you might risk losing the respect of your field. And in case you were wondering, Jackson still holds his job as "Distinguished University Research Professor of Music Theory" at the University of North Texas.

More disappointing, however, was the way the story was portrayed by the nominally liberal New York Times. While that story gave a much more honest account of events, it made two crucial mistakes. The first was the conflation discussed earlier, mistaking the investigation into the journal's practices for censuring Jackson specifically over the content he wrote. The second is an issue with framing: rather than make the story about social justice in music education and the arts, it is a story about the limits of academic free speech. The details of Ewell's talk and the backlash are just the basic facts, but this is the framing the author uses:

This controversy raises intertwined questions. What is the role of universities in policing intellectual debate? Academic duels can be metaphorically bloody affairs. Marxists slash and parry with monetarists; postmodernists trade punches with modernists. Tenure and tradition traditionally shield sharp-tongued academics from censure.

And later:

That said, race is an electric wire in American society and a traditional defense of untrammeled speech on campus competes with a newer view that speech itself can constitute violence. Professors who denounced the journal stressed that they opposed censorship but noted pointedly that cultural attitudes are shifting.

The differences in quality between Ewell and Jackson's work have been flattened into a "both sides" quandary that the author can't take a side on. The main issue is, of course, free speech. This perhaps happened because the Times may have had a preconceived narrative it wanted to fit this story into, and allowed for shoddy reporting and the misrepresentation of multiple critical elements. Also worth noting is the author, per the Times, is a "national reporter covering issues around free speech and expression, and stories capturing intellectual and campus debate," and judging from his previous stories, had been covering sports prior to this assignment and not music, the arts, or education.

The center of debate shifted completely between Philip Ewell's original talk and the story gaining national media attention. This is a common conservative tactical use of " cancel culture ": misrepresent the story, deflect from the actual serious issues at hand, reframe the debate around free speech, and portray those who raised the original issue as unreasonable totalitarians. The response from the left must be to call out these tactics and demand focus be kept on the main debate at hand, which in this case, was racial and social justice in music.

In the two years since Philip Ewell's talk there have been some important, though slow, developments. The field of music theory has finally begun grappling with its structural issues, and more attention is being given to publishing and hiring scholars who work on more diverse repertoires. Sessions at the previous two SMT national conferences show the attention being given to discussing these issues. For his part, Jackson has been embroiled in a defamation lawsuit against 17 faculty and one graduate student. As I wrote earlier, however, changing the focus of the entire field will likely take a generation of new scholars to become professors to lead the charge. The most important change, though, has been the change in mindset. From Ewell making the implicit explicit-by clearly outlining the structural inequities of the field and the ways that classical music is held up as superior-people have been willing to discuss and implement real change. This was the main failing of the media and national attention given to our little field: they allowed the implicit to remain implicit and reframed the story to obscure the core issue. Our job is to speak out and cut through the media's twists, point out the inherent assumption, and fight for the change we wish to see. The first step to implementing change is to win the battle of argument, and despite the media attention that followed, Ewell achieved a major success.

Correction 5/23/2022: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the New York Times had interviewed Philip Ewell for their story on the controversy. However, Ewell in fact declined an interview with the paper. The article has been updated to delete the mention of the interview with Ewell.

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Can Music Theory Education Overcome its Whiteness Problem? ❧ Current Affairs

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White European classical music dominates music education in the U.S. at all levels. Achieving racial justice in the field means diversifying personnel, curricula, and repertoires. Only then will students be able to enjoy and create the rich array of music created by the world's people.

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"This study is cast within a theoretical framework that connects critical race theory and critical pedagogy in order to address the ways in which music teachers make meaning of gatekeeping practices mediated within hidden structures of White supremacy."

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Marxism is a complex and multifaceted socio-political and economic theory developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The theory encompasses various aspects of society, including economics, politics, and social relations. While it is challenging to condense the entirety of Marxist theory into a few points, here are some key tenets:

1. Historical Materialism:

Historical materialism is the foundational concept of Marxism. It posits that the development of society is driven by changes in the material conditions of production. Economic structures and relationships, such as modes of production, shape the social and political structures of a given historical period.

2. Dialectical Materialism:

Dialectical materialism is a method of understanding change and development. It combines dialectics, the study of how contradictions drive change, with materialism, emphasizing the importance of material conditions. This approach is applied to historical, social, and economic analysis.

3. Class Struggle:

Marxism sees society as fundamentally divided into classes based on the ownership or non-ownership of the means of production. The primary dynamic driving historical change is the ongoing struggle between these classes, particularly the bourgeoisie (capitalist class) and the proletariat (working class).

4. Means of Production:

The means of production, including tools, machinery, and resources, play a crucial role in shaping social relations. Marxist theory asserts that control over the means of production determines one's position in the social hierarchy.

5. Surplus Value and Exploitation:

Marx argues that in a capitalist system, the value created by labor (surplus value) is appropriated by the capitalist class. This process is seen as a form of exploitation, where workers produce more value than they receive in wages.

6. Commodity Fetishism:

Marx introduced the concept of commodity fetishism, suggesting that in a capitalist society, commodities (goods and services) become fetishized, and their social relationships are obscured. People attribute almost magical qualities to commodities, ignoring the social relations of production behind them.

7. Alienation:

Marx identified various forms of alienation in capitalist societies, including alienation from the product of labor, the labor process, other workers, and human potential. Alienation arises from the commodification of labor and the separation of workers from the fruits of their labor.

8. Revolution and Dictatorship of the Proletariat:

Marx and Engels envisioned a revolutionary transformation of society in which the proletariat would seize political power and establish a dictatorship of the proletariat. This transitional phase was seen as a necessary step toward the creation of a classless, communist society.

9. Communism:

The ultimate goal of Marxism is the establishment of communism, a classless and stateless society where the means of production are collectively owned, and wealth is distributed based on need. In this communist society, social relations would be based on cooperation rather than exploitation.

10. Critique of Capitalism:

Marxism provides a comprehensive critique of capitalism, analyzing its inherent contradictions, tendencies toward economic crises, and the impact on social inequality. Marxists argue for the overthrow of capitalism in favor of a more equitable and just social order.

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Notes for Shaw--KLW

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Focault, Gramsci, Bourdieu

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Lara: This looks like an interesting article for hidden curriculum with some resources in the citations that might be helpful.

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Educational Administration and Planning (Curriculum Studies), University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya

This article sought to determine the role played by the invisible curriculum on young people's view of self-including their self-identity and self-esteem. This comes against a backdrop of accusations and counter accusations regarding, on whose doorstep should the blame on young people's vulnerability to risk behavior should be placed on, yet limited research, especially in Kenya, has given due consideration to the invisible curriculum. The invisible curriculum accounts for more than 90% of all Students' learning experiences including their self-conception or self-identity formation and people tend to behave in ways coherent with the view they have about themselves (self-identity). To fill this gap, a sequential explanatory research design was employed to answer one main questions: what role does accidental lessons arising from learning institutions' social atmosphere play in young peoples' self-identity and self-esteem development? The target population was 1,246 and Yamane's sample size calculation formular was used to determine the sample size which was 486. Stratified random sampling was used in selecting the respondents. A self-report questionnaire with 60-closed ended questions and an interview guide with 14 open-ended questions were used in data collection. The results confirmed that accidental lessons arising from invisible curriculum elements shape young people's self-concept or self-identity and self-esteem.

Introduction

Since young people are the future masters of our societies, nurturing a positive self-identity and healthy self-esteem promises their holistic development and better societies. As self-identities are nurtured, dynamic, complex, and numerous social influences are unavoidable, but relatively limited attention has been focused on the role played by subtle lessons arising from the invisible curriculum, which accounts for close to 90% of all young people's learning experiences ( Jerald, 2006; Alsubaie, 2015, p. 125; Killick, 2016, p. 1; Crossman, 2020), in this critical developmental process. The main role of the invisible curriculum is social education ( Al.qomoul and Al.roud, 2017), preparing young people to be self-reliant, have a health self-identity and high self-esteem. Erikson proposed self-identity formation theory for only up to late adolescence stage, but Schwartz et al. (2005), cited by Zhou and Kam (2018), suggested that self-identity development process extends into early adulthood including college students. According to Shaw et al. (1995), the developmental process continues throughout one's life cycle.

The term identity is a general word used to describe one's comprehension about self as a separate entity. The "development of positive identity/identities involves developing a healthy self-esteem, reducing self-discrepancies, and fostering role formation and achievement" ( Tsang et al., 2012, p. 1). "It promotes an individual's awareness of his or her strengths and weaknesses and thus facilitates personal functioning and wellbeing" ( Erikson, 1968 cited by Zhou and Kam, 2018). While one's personal identity or self-identity is how one perceives self, one's social identity is how other people perceive him or her ( Studios, 2020). Self-esteem refers to a person's feelings of self-worth or the value that people place on himself or herself. While self-esteem is a more particularly an evaluation of the self-how one feels about self, self-identity is a comprehensive description of self. The two terms, self-esteem and self-identity are rooted in how one views self and even though they are separate, they overlap and more often than not feed-off of each other in diverse ways ( Niebergal, 2010). Self-identity (self-image) influences ones' self-esteem which has a significant role in one's success. Berzonsky (1981) claimed that "the element of 'Me' can be simply broken down into; a physical self, a social self, a moral self, and a psychological self."

Largely people's self-identity and/or self-esteem predicts one's relationships, job performance, educational attainment, and whether one feels good or bad about himself or herself on a day-to-day basis ( Orth and Robins, 2013; Pic Editor Review, 2021). Those with a positive self-identity (positive self-image) have strong character, are confident, have healthy self-esteem, are more resilient, reflective, and autonomous ( Kroger et al., 2010; Abbassi, 2016). "A series of debacles such as blurred decision-making and vulnerability to despair in life-an illness that involves the body, mood, and thoughts and affects the way one eats and sleeps, the way he or she feels about himself or herself, the way he or she thinks about things as well as his or her view about his or her daily functioning" ( Klein et al., 2011), however often follow those with poor self-identity and low self-esteem. Erol and Orth (2011) posited that low self-esteem is not only related to unhappiness and hopelessness among young people, but also to learning disorders among students, antisocial behavior, increased possibility of anxiety, oversensitivity, stress, and depression. In essence, poor self-identity and low-self-esteem makes ups and downs of life harder to endure. According to Pic Editor Review (2021), those who suffer from poor self-image "have a fickle motivation and find it difficult to set long-term goals because they do not find meaning in what they do." On the contrary, a healthy self-identity can help young people remain grounded in upright moral standards like honesty, integrity, compassion, and responsibility against social pressures that often affect young people's moral base negatively and lead some to psychological problems like worry and sometimes suicidal tendencies ( Neumark-Sztainer et al., 2007). Even though researchers like Arshad et al. (2015, p. 156) were of a contrary opinion when they claimed that "high self-esteem does not prevent young people from smoking, drinking, taking drugs, or engaging in early sex. If anything, high self-esteem fosters experimentation, which may increase early sexual activity or drinking." In general, a healthy self-identity and high self-esteem predicts a more happy and successful life because they enable one to approach life in a more productive and positive way.

One's identity (self-esteem and self-image) is shaped from early years ( Pic Editor Review, 2021) by factors like genetics, and the image one has of his or her parents/guardians, given the amount of time young people spent in learning environments-close to 900 h per year, learning institutions' invisible curriculum play a significant role in not only shaping young people's cognition, psychology, behavioral traits, but also in shaping their identity ( Watson, 2019). According to Beane (1982) and Durand-Delvigne and Duru-Bellat (1998), self-conceptions are related to various aspects of schooling. Dombrovskis (2016) echoed the same sentiments when he claimed that it is commonly understood that identities emerge under the influence of one's surrounding environment and how one perceives other people as viewing him or her. The socialization process assists young people to be self-aware as they look at themselves from the perspective of other people. Kentli (2009) and Ray (2019) observed that learning institutions' invisible curriculum serve to transmit silent messages to young people about attitudes, values, and principles which heavily influences their view of self. The subtle lessons are more influential than the official curriculum in shaping young people's beliefs about self and their social behavioral patterns ( Kentli, 2009, p. 83; Leask, 2009; Haggar, 2013; Abbassi, 2016). These sentiments were echoed by Çubukçu (2012) and Hafferty and O'Donnell (2015) when they suggested that much of the knowledge leaners acquire in their learning contexts is through casual interactions and communications and compared to the formal curriculum, the unintentional learnings have greater impact on young people's social personality formation. According to Ryan (2008), some of the invisible curriculum lessons reinforce suppressed identities and their importance for organizing social life and make some young people feel uncomfortable about their self.

This research does not in any way suggest learning environments should be entirely blamed for young people's poor self-identity and/or low self-esteem, but as highlighted earlier learning institutions are the most important social contexts within which young people's identity formation unfolds ( Abbassi, 2016), because young people spend a great part of their formative years in learning institutions. This means no learning institution can afford to nurture young people's intellectual aptitude without commensurate positive self-identity and healthy self-worthy because doing so would "make as much sense as putting a high-powered sports car in the hands of a teenager who is high on drugs" (Mahatma Magadhi).

Related Literature

The link between self-identity and learning is not a recent concept because learning has always been a lifelong process of learning to be. As young people take on different roles in their lives, and become part of diverse communities, the surrounding environments, and the people around them influences their learning and the kind of people they become. The school curriculum in its initial Latin roots means "to run a course" and if we think of it as a marathon race with direction markers, signboards, officials as well as coaches along the way and water stations ( Wilson, 2021), it means the official curriculum takes place in a context that encroaches on every teaching-learning process, which constitutes to what this article refers to as the invisible curriculum. learning institutions teach young people a great deal of lessons through how they react or respond to their actions. Shaw et al. (1995) claimed that social interactions can complicate or facilitate young people's personal identity formation. The unexpected lessons extend beyond formal educational objectives because every action performed or omitted, every silence or every joke, teach young people certain values and beliefs that have a potential of shaping their self-identity and self-esteem ( Mahood, 2011). They leave their effects on Students' perception about themselves ( Yüksel, 2006; Chandratilake and de Silva, 2009). As noted by Ahsun and Khan (2018) girls and boys can have different experiences even when they "sit in the same classroom, read the same books and listen to the same teachers at the same time" (p. 2810). Shaw et al. (1995) citing Eder and Parker (1987) claimed that certain social activities reinforce characteristics like aggressiveness, toughness, and competitiveness in male students, and emotional control and appearance management for female students. The social activities function as gendered instances that reinforce femininity and masculinity perspectives.

"The concept of an invisible curriculum has been defined differently including the secret, unstudied, underlying, tacit, non-academic outcomes of schooling, unseen curriculum, by products of schooling or scum of teaching-learning processes and/or elements of socialization that take place in school, but are not part of the formal curricular content" ( Martin, 1976; Margolis and Romero, 2001, p. 6). According to Portelli (1993, p. 345), the term invisible curriculum implies four meanings: "the hidden curriculum or the unofficial or implicit expectations, values, norms and messages conveyed by learning institution actors; the hidden curriculum as unintended learning outcomes; the hidden curriculum as implicit messages emanating from the structure of learning institutioning and the invisible curriculum as created by the students who infer and anticipate what they need to do to be rewarded." Snyder, 1973 described the hidden curriculum as what happens in classrooms rather than what policymakers say they want to happen. "In this article the term invisible curriculum is understood in line with Crossman (2019) who referred to it as the unwritten, and often accidental values, and perspectives students pick simply by setting their foot in a learning institution through the socialization as opposed to the official curriculum which consists of predetermine teaching-learning activities." McCoy (1990) citing Klaus Hurrelmann's (1988) description of socialization mirror this researcher's view of the term as "the process of the emergence, formation, and development of the human personality in dependence on and in interaction with the human organism, on one hand, and the social and ecological living conditions ( majorly the invisible curriculum) that exist at a given time within the historical development of a society on the other" (P. 2). Eisner (2002) posited that "if we are concerned with the consequences of school programs and the role of curriculum in shaping those consequences, then it seems to me that we are well advised to consider not only the explicit and implicit curricula of schools but also what schools do not teach."

Every learning activity is a foundational instance in Students' self-identity and/or self-esteem formation because unplanned lessons arising from the teaching-learning activities provides non-identity or identity "through symbolic formations of a real culture which young people internalize and exercise in their gender roles" "in designing the sense of living of the individuals" (Hernández et al., 2013, p. 89). According to Valance (1993) much of the knowledge young people acquire arise from non-verbal communications. Killick (2016) echoed the same sentiments when he claimed that the messages the invisible curriculum carries are powerful. The accidental lessons socially create Students' self-identity and/or self-esteem dependent upon the socialization process. We do not even need scientific surveys to convince us about what our eyes are revealing concerning consequences of poor self-identity and low self-esteem among young people-drug abuse, uncontrolled moral behavior, and suicide attempt, to mention but a few.

This is because choices young people make during their formative years are affirmative of their self-identities ( Lannegrand-Willems and Bosma, 2006) and can either ease their holistic development and commitment which is the first indication of self-identity achievement, or they can make it impossible. In Kenya comparatively little attention has been directed toward the curriculum that is characterized by lack of mindful preparation and informality and its influences on young people's self-identity and self-esteem formation, yet its lessons are indeed power-laden. Its lessons are usually accepted as the status quo-not necessarily needing any change-even when they contribute to undesirable results like low self-esteem and poor self-identity among young people ( Killick, 2016). This means a sizeable part of curricula has not been taken into consideration, especially when designing new curricular even though the lessons it conveys are indeed power-laden ( Kentli, 2009, p. 83).

The implication here is that there is a dire need for thorough investigation on influences of the invisible curriculum on young people's self-identity and self-esteem formation, especially now than ever before, because current social atmospheres more often than not are offering inconsistent messages regarding oneself, which leads to deep disappointments among young people. Disappointments in life, according to Erikson (1968, 1974; cited in Angela, 2019) are unavoidable because they are linked to developmental stages but being cognizant of the invisible curriculum and its effects on young people's self-identity and self-esteem formation can facilitate holistic nurture of young people to effectively reconcile their developmental crises/disappointments and have positive self-identity and healthy self-esteem. Marcia (1993) emphasized that one's "identity formation involves complex interplay of intrapsychic processes and interpersonal experiences" and intensifies during schooling years, hence the reason why this research emphasizes creating favorable learning environments to effectively nurture positive self-identity and healthy self-esteem. Jerald (2006) argued that social environments characterized by love, trust, and caring support in exploration of identity alternatives are key in developing positive self-identity.

Learning environments remains places where young people are expected to be enabled to look deep into their lives and find out who they really are, but many college students still go through identity difficulties ( Kohlhof, 2018). In both public and Christian universities young people often begin their education at about 18 years old, isolated from mostly positive peer pressure they enjoyed from like-minded children and parents at home and exposed to unhealthy forces which threatens establishment of a positive self-identity and healthy self-esteem which informs their behavior for the rest of their lives. Christian learning institutions major aim is to provide academic environments where a wholistic view about self and God is nurtured and integrated in every area of Students' life, but many of them rarely think about the invisible curriculum which subtly teach young people "how to behave, walk, speak, clothe, interact, and so on" ( Drew, 2021). This threatens Christian learning institutions' mission of ennobling every young person's personality (unique self-identity) so that he or she may again reflect the image of God ( White, 2020). The question then begs: how best can we ensure that every social learning context enhances positive self-identity and healthy self-esteem development among young people? The need therefore to investigate how subtle lessons arising from Christian learning institutions affect young peoples' self-identity and self-esteem, cannot be overemphasized. The following specific research questions guided the research:

1. Are there significant relationships between accidental lessons arising from social learning contexts (class organization and teaching styles) and Students' (young people's) view of self?

2. Are there significant differences between how male and female students perceive accidental lessons arising from class organization as affecting their self-identity and self-esteem?

3. Are there significant differences between how female and male students perceive accidental lessons arising from teachers' teaching strategies as affecting their self-identity and self-esteem?

Methodology

The design employed in this research was sequential explanatory because it is correspondent with the procedures and nature of the present study. According to Creswell (2009), a mixed methods approach is a rigorous inquiry that combines both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection to answer research questions. The British Food Journal (found online) summarizes the advantages of combining both quantitative and qualitative research methods in one research..."we particularly like papers that combine the two approaches-the sum of the two parts is bigger than the whole. The quantitative approach gives numerical data, while the qualitative approach gives underlying reasons." Based on this quote no single research approach is sufficient by itself to capture the breadth and depth of complex phenomenon like the invisible curriculum. Current researcher therefore assumed mixing data sets would give a better understanding as well as reduce limitations of either the qualitative or the quantitative. The researchers began with quantitative data collection and analysis phase, then informed by the quantitative findings she developed an interview guide with 14 open-ended items for the qualitative phase to enrich the quantitative data. The research was conducted in Nairobi City County, Kenya and the target population consisted of 1,246 undergraduate students in Christian universities because some young people in Christian universities struggle with doubt about self, fear, and hopelessness.

Instrument of the Study

The instruments used to measure respondents' perceptions on influences of the invisible curriculum were a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire with 64-closed items. Each statement required students to indicate their levels of agreement: strongly agree, agree, not sure, agree and strongly agree, with the statement in terms of invisible curriculum's influences on their self-identity. The questionnaire and the interview guide were designed by the researcher with critical assistance from experts in curriculum design and instruction. The interview guide comprised 14-open-ended items to gather in-depth information regarding why some hidden curriculum elements were perceived as more influential than other did.

The Sample

The research sample was determined using Taro Yamane's sample size calculation formula, which is given by n = N/(one + Ne^ ²): where n = corrected sample size, N = population size, and e = Margin of error (MoE), e = 0.05 based on the research condition, was employed. The target population of regular undergraduate students, ages 17-30 years, at Africa International University was 680, at the beginning of July 2020 when data was collected. Hence, at 5% MoE., the sample size was 680 (1 + 680 (0.05^ ²) = 680/2.7 = 251.85∼252. Regular undergraduate students at Kenya Methodist University were 566, ages 17-30 years. Hence, at 5% MoE., the sample size was 566/(1 + 566 (0.05^ ²) = 566/2.42 = 233.884∼234-a total of 486, male and female students, whom the researcher selected through stratified random sampling. She divided students into two strata according to their gender, arranged them chronologically according to their admission numbers and proportionately selected samples from each stratum (gender): 389/680 × 252 = 132; 291/389 × 252 = 120; 302/566 × 234 = 125; 164/566 × 234 = 109. In the qualitative phase the researcher purposively selected 10 key informants (5 young men and 5 young women) who were perceived as having rich information (having been in their learning institutions the longest-at least 4 years by the time the research was conducted.

Research Instrument Validation

The researcher presented the questionnaire to two experts in curricula design and instruction for its face value validation. The questionnaire items were edited according to comments from the curriculum experts. The researcher also conducted a pilot study among 30 undergraduate students from a different Christian university in Nairobi City County. The Cronbach Alpha was used to assess internal consistency of the questionnaire items and a reliability coefficient of 0.87 was indicated showing strong consistency between items which means the results of the research can be depended upon. In ensuring trustworthiness of the interview guide items, the researcher conducted a pilot-test among 3 undergraduate students who were not part of the research sample. They each confirmed that each of the 14 interview guide items were easily understood.

Data Collection and Analysis

The researcher administered the questionnaire to selected students in classrooms for effective feedback. The questionnaires were filled within 40 min and returned to the researcher. Out of the 486 administered questionnaires, 417 were correctly filled and handed back to the researcher. Of the 417 participants who filled and returned the questionnaire, 221 (53%) were male while 196 (47%) were female. The researcher also interviewed 10 key informants. Each face-to-face interview took about 30 min and the research audio tapped participants' responses and transcribed them verbatim. The inferential and descriptive statistics were utilized in analyzing the quantitative data. The researcher compressed the 5-Likert scales to three for easy analysis: agree, not sure, and disagree and used descriptive statistics to determine the frequency of participants' responses. The inferential statistics applied were Pearson correlation coefficient to determine intercorrelations between accidental messages arising from class organization and teaching strategies and respondents' self-identity and a chi-square (χ ²) of association (independence) also known as Pearson's Chi-Square at a significance level of to determine whether Students' gender is related to their perceptions regarding how accidental lessons arising from learning institutions' social learning contexts was influencing their view of self.

The grounded theory analysis approach was utilized in analyzing the qualitative data because it offers researchers a more neutral view of understanding human behavior within their normal social contexts. The researcher red the textual data several times, identified repeating themes, carefully coded emerging themes with phrases and keywords, hierarchically grouped the codes into major ideas, and then developed themes through relationship identification.

Discussion of the Research Findings

The findings, both quantitative and qualitative, majorly concurred with other research findings like those of Shaw et al. (1995), Durand-Delvigne and Duru-Bellat (1998), and Meškauskienė (2017, p. 1), among other researchers who claimed that conducive learning environments in their entirety are the most important factors influencing formation of young people's self-identity, self-esteem, and creative autonomy.

Students' Perceptions About Self and Accidental Lessons

The Pearson correlation coefficient conducted to test hypothesis 1: there is so significant relationships between Students' perceptions about self and accidental lessons arising from their social learning contexts. The results summarized in Table 1 indicated a significant and positive relationship between Students' perceptions about self: their self-identity ( r = 0.36, p < 0.01) and self-esteem ( r = 0.45, p < 0.01) and accidental lessons arising from classroom organization as well as a significant and positive relationship between accidental lessons arising from teaching strategies and Students' perceptions about self: self-identity ( r = 0.43, p < 0.01) and their self-esteem ( r = 0.36, p < 0.01). The results, however, differ with Ward et al. (1988) who suggested that caring environments are important in self-identity formation but are more central to identity formation of female students than male students.

Table 1. Interrelationships between accidental lessons and Students' self-identity and self-esteem.

Students' Gender and Perceptions on Accidental Lessons From Organizational Structure

The descriptive results conquered with the Pearson correlation coefficient findings in that, accidental lessons arising from class organization, how instructors say what they say and do what they do as well casual interactions in learning institutions shape Students' view of self. The findings also echo other research findings like those of Sharp (2012) which revealed that invisible curriculum elements "reinforces cultural messages about gender, including the idea that gender is an essential characteristic for organizing social life." In this research male and female students who correctly filled and returned the questionnaire equally perceived accidental lessons arising from class organization as shaping their self-identity and self-esteem. Over 80% of both male and female students agreed that class organizations that emphasize on empowering female students were perceived as ways of ignoring male students which negatively affected some of the female Students' self-identity and self-esteem negatively. Close to 79.8% of both male and female students agreed that accidental lessons arising from how some teachers label students and the biases they carry to class especially when only male students are requested to help in certain tasks portray male students as better than girls and emphasize the fact that female students are not equal to male students which affects female Students' self-identity and self-esteem negatively. Over 75% of both male and female students agreed that gendering experiences within some classes significantly influence how male and female students construct their self-concepts and/or develop their self-esteem. Over 70% of both male and female students disagreed that when they sit in the same classroom arranged in rows, listen to the same teacher positioned in front of the lecturer and/or read the same textbooks their self-identity/or self-esteem is affected differently. Over 60% of both male and female students agreed that their learning institutions' organized way of managing complaints in class lowers male and female Students' self-identity and self-esteem. About 54% of both male and female students disagreed that emphasis on exam grades as the only means for determining Students' success make both made male and female students think cheating in exams was wise because when one fails in exam it makes him or her feel lesser than those who pass. Close to 52% of both male and female students disagreed that emphasis in some classes for every student to follow what their lecturers teach makes them both male and female students lose confidence in self in equal measure. Close to fifty-one percent (50.6%) of both male and female students agreed learning institutions' assessment strategies make both male and female students perceive themselves as inferior (low self-esteem) compared to those who perform better than them in exams.

Null Hypothesis Results

Null hypothesis one (H ₂): there are no significant relationships between Students' gender and their perceptions regarding how accidental lessons arising from class organization shapes their self-identity and self-esteem. Table 2 provides a summary of the chi-square statistic value (χ ²).

Table 2. Chi-square statistic for class organization and Students' self-identity and self-esteem.

The chi-square test of independence the researcher performed to examine the relation between Students' gender and their perceptions regarding how accidental lessons arising from class organization shape their' self-identity and/or self-esteem did not indicate a significant relationship. The chi-square test statistic as indicated in Table 2 is (6.96) was greater than (5.99), DF = 2 and P-value = 0.308, which is less than 0.05, hence, hence, null hypothesis 2: there are no significant relationships between Students' gender and their perceptions regarding how accidental lessons arising from class organization shapes their self-identity and self-esteem, was not rejected, and concluded that Students' gender do not influence how they perceive the invisible curriculum as shaping their self-identity and self-esteem.

Students' Gender and Perceptions on Accidental Lessons From Teaching Strategies

The descriptive results on research hypothesis two: there is no significant differences between how female and female students perceive accidental lessons arising from teachers' teaching strategies as affecting their self-identity and self-esteem, conquered with the Pearson correlation coefficient findings. Close to 75% of both male and female students agreed that impromptu remarks of teachers and fellow classmates was a key contributor to confidence in self (wholesome self-identity) and their creativity in to seeking alternative ways where other young people give up. About 70% of both male and female students agreed that their becoming happiness level and desire to become somebody important (high self-esteem) was to a great extent determined by the accidental lessons they unconsciously pick from behavioral expectations and values cherished in their learning environments. Close to 60% of both male and female students agreed that multi-sensory appeal in on-ground classrooms where students physically interact with instructors, participate in face-to-face discussions, and ask personal questions, as opposed to on-line classes, boosts their self-identity and self-esteem. About 53% of both male and female students who participated in the research disagreed that limited implicit expectations from their lecturers and inadvertent comments in some on-line classrooms distorts their self-conception and affected some female Students' lives in the future. Close to 51% of both male and female students agreed that a lack of cultural responsiveness in some on-line classes more often than not compromises female Students' self-identity and their ability to complete their academic tasks. Fifty percent (50%) of both male and female Students' who participated in the research disagreed that some on-line learning exchanges suggest hiding one's identity and any distressing feelings from other people was the most important thing if one wanted to survive in online learning platforms. The findings that reveal insignificant differences between how male and female students perceive the invisible curriculum as shaping their self-identity and/or self-esteem are significant because social interactions are simply collaborating face-to-face or through technology and responding in relation to other people, but they contradict Shaw et al. (1995) and Hossaini (2002), who suggested that identity development was "more complex for females than for males and females, on average, have a lower sense of self-esteem than males."

Null Hypothesis Results

Null hypothesis two (H ₃): there are significant differences between Students' gender and their perceptions regarding how accidental lessons arising from teaching strategies teachers employ shape their' self-identity and self-esteem. Table 3 provides the chi-square statistic (χ ²) result.

Table 3. Chi-square statistic for teaching strategies and Students' self-identity and self-esteem.

The chi-square test of independence the researcher performed to examine the relation between Students' gender and their perceptions regarding how accidental lessons arising from teaching strategies teachers employ shape their' self-identity and self-esteem did not indicate a significant relationship. The chi-square test statistic as indicated in Table 3 is (6.46) was greater than (5.99), DF = 2 and P-value = 0.0396, which is less than 0.05, hence, hypothesis 3: there are no significant differences between Students' gender and their perceptions regarding how accidental lessons arising from teaching strategies teachers employ shape their' self-identity and self-esteem, was not rejected concluded that Students' gender does not influence how they perceive the invisible curriculum as shaping their self-identity and self-esteem.

The Textual Data

The research employed grounded theory approach in analyzing the textual data and the findings generally concurred with the quantitative data in that invisible curriculum is everything young people learn within their learning institutions without their teachers' intention or realization and a major contributor of the accidental lessons is teachers' beliefs, values and attitude, class organization and teachers teaching strategies. The participants concurred in that accidental lessons arising from the way classes are organized in their learning in institutions shape their self-identity and self-esteem either negatively or positively. The 10 interviewed participants concurred in that the way their learning institutions are organized, and casual interactions sometimes convey undesirable messages that negatively affect their view of self. For example, participant 04 asserted "the unwritten lessons young people pick up in their learning institutions through reading non-verbal social cues including things like, 'it might be OK for students to curse their colleagues, but make sure that there is no adult within earshot,' negatively affect victims' self-identity and self-esteem." According to participants 03 and 08, the high status of instructors stressed by a huge table and a chair in front of the class make some students feel insignificant and lower their self-worthy. Participant 04's argument echo Workman (2012) who claimed that self-identity development is strongly shaped by social interactions and needs concerted effort by parents, learning institutions, media, and the society to effectively nurture a strong sense of self in all young people. The following paragraph below is an excerpt from the field notes having undergone through initial meaning reconstruction:

Researcher: according to your understanding how do your day-to-day experiences in your learning context relate with how you perceive yourself: your self-identity and/or self-concept?

Interviewee: mmmmmm...the terms at first sight appear abstract but I think they describe oneself comprehensively-in all its facets including all features which defines an individual and according to my opinion some experiences we as students go through in learning contexts make it difficult for some of us to describe our feelings about who we think we are (self-identity) and correctly express our worthy (self-esteem) in wards.

Researcher: what would you say majorly contributes to such feeling?

Interviewee: there may be many factors that contribute to it, but one's experiences, especially Students' interactions with teachers and fellow students especially teachers' attitude toward students in classrooms and the approaches they employ in teaching momentously shape the picture young people have of themselves.

Researcher: would you say social learning environments affects girls' and boys' view of self: self-identity and self-esteem differently?

Interviewee: aaaaa, I'm not sure but what when young people go to college, they mostly have a certain level of self-confidence-a degree of an awareness of who they are and have an attitude toward self but I doubt whether all learning institutions, particularly in Kenya, can say they have reached a point where they can truthfully claim to have created equal opportunities for all students, both young men and women, and thus say they are equally nurturing their view of self. I think some learning institutions' experiences affects young women's self-worth negatively even when learning institutions do not mean it. The accidental lessons arising from some interactions in learning contexts, class organizations and the attitudes some instructors, particularly in public instructions, cherish negatively shapes female Students' view of self.

These findings echo Hansen (2018) fining which revealed that learning institutions tend to reproduce status quo -including inequalities. Participant 06 claimed that unless learning institutions are organized in a manner that facilitate mapping positive values on the official curriculum to nurture positive self-identity and healthy self-esteem among young people, some of the challenges young people face are likely to continue affecting their identity negatively. When the researcher probed participants to explain why face-to-face learning settings were perceived as more effective in inculcating a holistic view of self in young people, participants 05 and 01 suggested that most instructors in face-to-face classes enact their values and beliefs during class interactions with students which help students to foster more in-depth relationships with their God and self which in turn boost their self-identity/or self-esteem. Participant 09 asserted, "I have learnt self-respect and consideration for other people from observing how my university administration treat students." Participant 07 added that based on how his university administrative staff interact with students his confidence in himself had been boosted. Participant 03 asserted:

The need to have confidence in myself during hard times was great in one of my instructors at a time I did not seem to grasp anything in class because I was going through a lot of life challenges. She made me not to get disappointed and demoralized. My lecturer was busy encouraging me even when I felt like giving up. I applied the same encouragement when one of my colleagues was disappointed. I suggested to him that it was important have faith in himself it worked for him.

Interestingly, in most of the investigated universities' strengths, is also where some of the participants pinpointed certain weaknesses. For example, participant 03 explained that "within diverse teaching-learning activities that encourage passivity in female students or do not actively discourage male Students' domination feminize female students into demeaning self-perception." Participant 10 added that "when some teaching-learning activities treat student the same way in the name of 'fairness,' such teacing0-learning activities can negatively impact some Students' self-identity and self-esteem because even identical twins are quite different" Participant 09 asserted "unconscious biases some educators carry with them into class sometimes downplay women's achievements and often make them lose confidence in self and become dependent on their counter parts (boys) and their lecturers."

According to participant 01 learning interactions that lack respectful relationships between instructors and students negatively affect young people's view of self. When the researcher probed participant 01 to explain what she meant, she asserted "online learning is great, especially now during COVID-19 pandemic, but with more complex competencies like view of self and critical thinking skills development, there needs respectful interactions between educators and students." Participant 04 explained that e-learning can be made more interactive through use of webinars, video conferences and chats but it can never be the same as sitting in a real face-to-face classroom-in other words it can never be a real replacement of intermingling with fellow human beings in classroom.

Conclusion

The major finding in current research was that when we create learning environments, we are not just facilitating young people to only learn facts because such environments are part of what forms their self-identity and/or self-esteem. The accidental lessons arising from the values instructors carry to class, the ways in which they say what they say and do what they, the teaching strategies they employ as well as messages conveyed through casual interactions have a more profound impact on Students' self-identity and self-esteem formation than what is officially taught through the official curriculum. For instance, negative criticism and biases some instructors unconsciously carry to carry to class can fill students with self-doubt when they believe what is implicitly conveyed to them. The none-verbal lessons can lead to poor self-identity and low self-esteem formation which can easily become a destructive downward cycle, hard to stop. This research findings seem to suggest face-to-face class interactions are more effective compared to online interactions in shaping positive self-identity and/or high elf-esteem among students. The enacting of positive values and beliefs by lecturers and fellow students was perceived as important in fostering wholistic views about God and oneself which in turn boosts both male and female Students' self-identity/or self-esteem. This finding is in line with researchers like Rogers (2014) who claimed that self-identity development is a lifelong process influenced by the agents of socialization including learning institutions and family. The accidental lessons influence who young people become within the learning context and in the society. This research findings also concur with Henderson and Gornik's (2007) and Verhoeven et al. (2018), who claimed that learning institutions are places where young people spend a lot of time which make then important contexts of self-identity formation which means what is not officially taught is as educationally important as what is officially taught. Current research therefore concludes that the invisible curriculum students instinctively imbibe plays a central role in the tacit transfer of values and attitudes which affects their self-identity and/or self-esteem either positively or negatively.

These findings are beneficial in helping educators and parents/guardians to deal with self-identity and/or self-esteem issues among students in higher education. They call attention to aspects of teaching-learning processes that are only infrequently acknowledged but remains largely unexamined. The researcher recommends more attention to the influences of the invisible curriculum than is usually the case. Workshops could be provided to educators who wish to positively nurture male and female Students' self-identity and self-esteem to raise their awareness about both positive and negative effects of the invisible curriculum. All invisible curriculum dimensions need to be actioned deliberately and with robustness to ensure learning institutions thrives with positive attitudes and positively shape young people's self-identity and self-esteem. Educators need to identify positive invisible curriculum elements and effectively map them into the official curriculum to socialize students into people with positive self-identity and high self-esteem. Even though theorists have taken diverse points of view about the invisible curriculum, they principally emphasize the significant role it plays young people's socialization.

Strengths and Limitations

Like any other mixed methods research, current research was time consuming, but combining both qualitative and quantitative methods produced a more comprehensive understanding of the research phenomenon, and the finding can confidently be generalized to other populations. Even though the research sample was large ( n = 617), it did not investigate socio-demographic aspects that also shape young people's view of self which means more extensive and may be comparative research needs to be conducted within rural and urban learning institutions, including public learning institutions to broadly determine influences of the invisible curriculum on young people's self-identity. Chi-Square value calculation is extremely sensitive to sample size and since the sample size in current research was over 400, close to 500, the given maximum, another research can be conducted, and the data analyzed using a different statistic.

Data Availability Statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author/s.

Ethics Statement

Ethical review and approval was not required for the study on human participants in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. Written informed consent to participate in this study was provided by the participants' legal guardian/next of kin.

Author Contributions

The author confirms being the sole contributor of this work and has approved it for publication.

Conflict of Interest

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

References

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The Invisible Curriculum's Influence on Youth's Self-Identity and Self-Esteem Development

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This article sought to determine the role played by the invisible curriculum on young people's view of self-including their self-identity and self-esteem. This comes against a backdrop of accusations and counter accusations regarding, on whose doorstep should the blame on young people's vulnerability to risk behavior should be placed on, yet limited research, especially in Kenya, has given due consideration to the invisible curriculum.

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I'm getting this book from the library soon. When I do, I'll let you know if it's worth reading and/or send you any chapter I think may be relevant to your research.

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Can you imagine future learning environments devoid of the systemic inequities that stifle student learning opportunities and teacher decision-making in most classrooms today? This volume offers the necessary steps―playful, participatory, historically informed―that are required to forge a pathway from the present U.S. educational landscape to a freer tomorrow. The authors use speculative approaches to teacher education and student learning to intentionally design beyond the boundaries of traditional research and practitioner resources that seek to "fix" current schooling conditions. Building from visionary organizing and artistic traditions that have captured the popular imagination, this volume suggests new forms of engagement for diverse learners. It pragmatically explores how to work toward radical new spaces of possibility for learning and teaching. Chapters include a range of learning contexts, from problem solving in complex video game settings to innovative world-building alongside young people in schools and communities. Readers will be inspired to completely rethink what is possible when it comes to justice-oriented, culturally responsive education.

Book Features:

Over 40 contributors explore speculative education across a range of research settings.

Examples of digital learning that include videogames and online collaboration.

Multiple chapters that feature coauthored research and innovation with students and teachers.

Innovative design and pedagogical strategies, including a chapter rewriting policy documents based on speculative imagination.

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Speculative Pedagogies: Designing Equitable Educational Futures (Multicultural Education Series)

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Speculative Pedagogies: Designing Equitable Educational Futures (Multicultural Education Series) [Garcia, Antero, Mirra, Nicole, Banks, James A.] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Speculative Pedagogies: Designing Equitable Educational Futures (Multicultural Education Series)

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Developed by Urie Bronfenbrenner, the ecological systems theory emphasizes the influence of various environmental systems on human development. This includes microsystems (immediate environments like family and school) and mesosystems (interactions between different microsystems).

The quality of relationships with peers and teachers is influenced by the broader ecological context, and positive connections contribute to a supportive learning environment.

I wonder if you want to focus on the physicalness of school and how it terrorizes bodies? As opposed to what is seen in the curriculum, etc?

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Philosophical Mentoring in Qualitative Research

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Philosophical Mentoring in Qualitative Research

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Link: https://www-taylorfrancis-com.library.lcproxy.org/books/edit/10.4324/9781003022558/philosophical-mentoring-qualitative-research-kelly-guyotte-jennifer-wolgemuth