“You Can Only Choose From the Things You Know”: Engaging With Students’ Dark and Politicized Funds of Knowledge in the Music Classroom

Abstract

This article uses the lens of border crossing to consider the ways in which middle school music students and their teachers engaged with dark and politicized funds of knowledge. Through the development of music composition projects, students and educators shared, challenged, and problematized issues of race, immigration, and urban identity as they grappled with the complexities inherent in their knowledges and experiences. This article explores how these projects served as catalysts for dialogue that challenged unidirectional understandings of knowledge, encouraged dispositional reflection, and amplified the need for dynamic pedagogical practices that seek to connect learning practice with in-the-world experiences.