Multicultural Music Represented in Current Elementary Music Textbooks: A Comparative Study of Two Published Music Series

Abstract

Research investigating music textbook series is limited and has primarily focused on series no longer in publication, on two grade levels, and/or on limited cultures. The purpose of this study is to examine what countries are and have been represented in current music textbook series. Additional questions in the study pertain to frequency and distribution of songs across grade levels. Two different elementary music textbook publishers were used for kindergarten through fifth grade: Music Connection (1995) and Making Music (2002, 2005) by Silver Burdett Ginn and Share the Music (1995, 2003) and Spotlight on Music (2006) by Macmillan McGraw-Hill. The total number of songs appearing in the Macmillan McGraw-Hill series was 3,665, with 100 countries represented across the curriculum. The Silver Burdett Ginn textbook series contained a total of 4,000 songs from 107 countries. Further results and discussions are included.