I hope that my thesis can support your needs and help your admin recognize the necessary school structure, climate and supports to successfully implement PBL. As a band instructor, I am sure you know that every second of rehearsal time matters and to have to spend time during band to engage in research and projects can be daunting particularly when you have concerts and performances, etc. Without that built in time and interdisciplinary teaching and learning environment, it can be difficult to truly engage students in a relevant and rigorous PBL experience. Best of luck and please stay in touch. I’d really like to hear how it all turns out for you!

The going glocal post is definitely part one. It was my attempt to establish a framework of thinking that would help me to find an ethical approach to teaching different musical traditions in school (from jazz – to gamelan). So part one was all about looking at the past . . . what did the market do to shape our thinking and how do we move beyond that conditioning to a more honest place. Part two needs to be about the way education can specifically move on this.

In regards to education, the essence of what I still need to articulate is that through the process of learning music from a variety of cultures (including euro/american) there is an opportunity to transcend the “us and them” thing through a translocal approach to learning music. In that process we (students and teachers) can see ourselves as participant-producers of the above mentioned cross cultural lineage of music rather than just consumers.

But there is one more essential step: while learning and playing “world music” students need to engage in some critical thinking about the history of musical appropriation and what that means to them – regardless of where they come from, be it kids in Oklahoma playing jazz, kids in urban Chicago playing Sousa, kids in Vermont playing Javanese Gamelan or kids in Indonesia making hip-hop (or some remix of all of the above). This kind of meta-cognitive learning process presents an opportunity to understand one’s self in the historical context of the world musical exchange while jumping through the World 2.0 portal. There is no changing the past – Stuart Copeland still chased giraffes in Africa, Deep Forest still made (makes?) millions off of Rorogwela – but Wayne Marshall’s World 2.0 provides a window for music education to jump through and nurture global musicians. Perhaps this means that a translocal approach to music ed. can teach us how to be a local and global citizen all at once without sacrificing one for the other.

I am a middle school band director and I think the arrangement of Galang was a really cool idea. Wouldn’t it be great if a publisher put out a whole book of charts like that. Is there any way I could get a copy of the arrangement? I would love to at least try it with my Jazz Band.

Matthew Hake

big thanks to all.