Abstract
Social justice education has focused on empathic engagement (Broome, 1991; Meier, 1996; Nagda, 2006) and critical dialogue to counter the human tendency to “other” out-group members. Choral singing has great potential to foster empathy (Kreutz, 2014) and fast-bonding social relationships (Pearce, Launay, & Dunbar, 2015). The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate student perceptions of a choral-dialoguing social justice course. Semistructured student interviews revealed that students experienced increased intrinsic motivation in the rehearsal process, a desire to be in dialogue during choir rehearsals in order to enhance critical thinking, personal paradigm shifts regarding social justice topics, and skepticism about the priorities of their undergraduate music curriculum. Conclusions from this study suggest that empathic and critical modes of learning may foster transformative social justice education and may broaden the goals of music education.
