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Math and Music: not for profit

Boekbijdrage - Boekhoofdstuk Conferentiebijdrage

When Derek de Solla Price published his Little Science, Big Science in 1965, little did he realize what the consequences would be. What was meant as a tool to understand the structure of the scientific enterprise, generated not only scientometrics in the hands of Eugene Garfield but also turned into a policy tool in the hands of science foundations world-wide. Science’s attempt at ‘self-understanding’ curiously enough turned into a set of control mechanisms, either generating ‘closure’ – the scientists’ non-involvement in society – or ‘economisation’, producing patents and other lucrative economic benefits. As descriptions of the ‘good scientist’ become more and more detailed, see, e.g., the explicit rulings about scientific integrity, educational programmes become themselves equally detailed. ‘Ill-fitting’ profiles are thus less likely to gain access and hence an internal critique of the scientific enterprise becomes equally unlikely.

Countermovements such as ‘Slow science’ remain marginal, especially in the exact sciences but also affecting the humanities. Nevertheless in the latter a larger ‘free space’ seems to be available as the cases of mathematical and musical education will show.
Substantial parts of research in the field of mathematics education is explicitly committed to promoting equality and inclusion. Equality, and later on social justice, are central concerns within the research fields of ethnomathematics, critical mathematics education, and gender studies in mathematics education. Intensive research on the parameters of gender, ethnicity, language and socioeconomic level has resulted in comprehensive knowledge about inequalities in mathematics learning and literacy. This research is furthermore characterized by the awareness of the cultural and global contexts of research questions. From this perspective of contextualisation, international comparative research rankings such as TIMSS and PISA are criticised and analysed in terms of ethical and social justice constraints. The ethical challenges of the conduct of these fields in mathematics education research is clear: Social Justice in mathematics education where the concept of social justice is used as inclusive concept of equality.

The domain of music questions the notions of scientometrics, fast profit and equality from its perspective in paradoxical ways. Music education forces us to revisit the notion of slow science. An artistic trajectory needs time, takes time and questions time. Music is in se a temporal art; its education and expertise develop slowly by way of experience and exchange. However, music is also threatened by efficiency, by societal speed and productivity. The benefits of music and other arts are difficult to quantify, both on the economic and social level. It follows from this that subsidies and cuts in cultural programs, in music ensembles, are rarely based on solid ground and do not take into account the complexity of the interwovenness of art and society. Moreover, controlling mechanisms of society are normalising the specific pedagogic aspects of the unique master-student relations, leading to new rules for the good musician. Finally, the unravelling of music practice's multiple implicit knowledges has led to the development of an emerging discipline of artistic research that again becomes subject of quantification by way of indicators and categories (ECOOM), similar to the scientometrics in other disciplines. While Europe is both cutting in its cultural budget and developing a system of measuring artistic research output, other societies still engage into the experience of music-making as a way to equality – like the Bahia Orchestra project in Brazil or the Venezuelan El Systema program.
Boek: Philosophy and history of the discipline of education: Purposes, projects and practices of educational research
Volume: 2015
Pagina's: 119-131
Trefwoorden:Mathematics Education, music, scientometry, Social Justice, ethics, Ouroboros
  • ORCID: /0000-0001-8270-800X/work/74396530
  • ORCID: /0000-0002-5405-4229/work/74306528