Date of Completion

Spring 4-28-2023

Thesis Advisor(s)

Cara Bernard

Honors Major

Music Education

Disciplines

Art Education | Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education | Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education | Social Justice

Abstract

The language used in an organization’s mission statement implies the values held by that organization. Common music education values have been top-tier education, musical excellence, and the cultivation of high-achieving, well-rounded individuals. However, during the post-2020 rise in attention to social justice, organizations have either extended or reworded their mission statements to reflect a greater pursuit of equity, inclusion, and accessibility. In recent literature there have been discussions of a conflict between the values of arts organizations, as standards of elite musical excellence is inherently in conflict with community accessibility due to the socioeconomic factors that determine a student’s access to the education, training, and resources that are required for a “high achieving” student. This study examined the mission statements of several well-known children’s choruses, as well as the same choruses’ Facebook pages, to analyze how certain values are projected in the mission statements, and how those values are made manifest in other aspects of online presence.

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