Towards Anticolonial Praxis: Utilizing the Funds of Knowledge Strategy for the Case Study of a Toronto Music School, or The Really Long Explanation of Why It Took So Long For Beyonce to Win Grammy Album of the Year

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to show possibilities for developing anticolonial praxis. Colonizers set up racist systems, including but not limited to education, with institutional power that reproduces neocolonial White supremacy despite anticolonial resistance. Using music education as an example of a neocolonial institution with a global reach, traditional music education offered by the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) and Suzuki School of Music (SSM) is critiqued to demonstrate how Eurocentric values are reflected with predominantly White male composers used in music texts, curricula, pedagogies and assessments. Despite decolonial efforts that seek to disrupt systemic neocolonialism through racially inclusive texts and diverse hiring practices, institutional practices continue to perpetuate Anglo-American dominance due to outdated assumptions about racialized women fabricated during European colonization. Spurious science manufactured in tandem with misogyny and racism sought to justify White male hegemony and subalternize Women of Colour. Postcolonialism challenged Eurocentrism and later intersectional and Afrofeminist thought further critiqued and advocated for Women of Colour to gain respect and rights in public participation in communities and institutions. Using the funds of knowledge (FKN) strategy as a form of anticolonial resistance, the findings showed the importance of institutional leadership in developing anticolonial praxis in education. With generous funding from The Helen Carswell Chair in Community Engaged Research in the Arts, I worked as the principal investigator on research titled “Sankofa Beatzz: Testing the Efficacy of the FKN Theory for Music Education.” I conducted research for eight months with three music teachers and eleven students in a Toronto neighborhood music school to explore how racially diverse community knowledge can be incorporated into the classroom. The research questions for the eleven music students developed in collaboration with the three music teachers were: 1) Do you see yourself reflected in the music? 2) What kind of music do you listen to at home with your parents? and 3) Do you want to learn music that you listen to at home? Findings revealed that FKN is useful for inclusion of home pedagogies and that systemic support is vital in helping educators pivot away from Eurocentrism to develop anticolonial praxis. Key words: anti/de/neo/post/colonialism, funds of knowledge (FKN), intersectionality, conscientização, subaltern