Digital emancipation: Black musicians’ use of technology to disrupt socioeconomic barriers and epistemological bias within public school instrumental music programs
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Abstract
This research study explicates the underrepresentation of Black students in public school instrumental music programs through a critical race perspective, focusing on socioeconomic and epistemological barriers perpetuated by public policy and school music curricula. Such barriers have encouraged some Black musicians to seek agency and satisfy their musical interests in spaces outside of the classroom, particularly in the church and community. Considering that the theory of disruptive innovation purports the potential to increase access and disrupt both socioeconomic and epistemological barriers through the use of technology, this exploratory research study sought to investigate whether Black instrumental musicians use technology in order to disrupt the socioeconomic and epistemological barriers unveiled by a critical race perspective. By employing qualitative research methods, participants’ personal experiences were synthesized into a thematic analysis which ultimately support the potential of technology to increase access, revealing that participants successfully disrupted socioeconomic and epistemological barriers through the use of asynchronous online lessons.