"Like horses to water": Reconsidering Gender and Technology within Music Education Discourses

"Like horses to water":

Reconsidering Gender and Technology within Music Education Discourses

The music programs many of us remember from our childhoods simply no longer exist: some have been cut back beyond recognition, while others have been reshaped by new technologies, including musical instrument digital interface (midi), computers, sequencers, and drum machines. Implementing technology in music classrooms to the exclusion of all other musical interactions—including bands and choirs—is problematic for a plethora of reasons, and not all students are pleased with this trajectory. One voice of discontent comes from 
an unlikely source: young girls who excel at 
using the technology but are reluctant to embrace it wholeheartedly. If these girls understand how to use the equipment and engage with it so that it expedites their compositional process and allows them quick access to sophisticated musical expressions, why are they so unhappy with it? And why are the girls—rather than 
the boys—so highly suspect around digital technologies?


Through two case studies of technology-driven Ontario intermediate schools outside Toronto I would like to explore further reasons for this gender-technology split within music education classrooms. I was part of two research teams from the York University Centre for the Study of Computers in Education that studied two technology-driven schools from 1991 to 1993. The first school, which I will call "School A," was first to be designated a center for innovation by the educational foundation of a major computer company. The children who attended this school largely were from upper-middle-class families and predominantly of Anglo-Saxon lineage. Although these demographics were representative of this southern Ontario town, this was not a "typical" suburban school: in 1988 the classrooms were restructured into technology-driven configurations, and an influx of computers initially brought the schoolwide student per computer ratio to approximately 12 to 1. The "computer room" (an area in which all students spent time every four out of six days) cited an impressive 1 to 1 ratio. The music room became the base for a new Technology in Music Programme (timp) and was furnished with microcomputers, sequencers, drum machines, and midi technologies in addition to a sound-editing and production facility. The choir and the instrumental music programs were abolished. The music room itself was reconfigured with keyboards, recording equipment, midi wind instruments, and computers. 


The second research study conducted in 1992 and 1993 was in a school geographically close to School A. There was approximately one 
microcomputer for every three students in "School B." Seventh-grade students were observed as their abilities on and attitudes to the technologies were assessed. Here we were particularly interested in how computers can help facilitate the creative arts.


While these studies were conducted over a decade ago, it is useful to go back and look at the justification, predictions, and challenges surrounding this technology. It was a unique opportunity because it was a fully funded project with high expectations: a model for the rest of Canada. 


By returning to these data I will explore 
specific reasons for these girls' concerns, concerns that were articulated more than a decade ago and sadly are just as relevant today. Rather than interpret their responses as stereotypically gendered anxieties around technology (females simply aren't as capable in this sphere as males), I will explain their critiques as less related to what might be gained through the use of technology but, more important, to what might be left behind. 


What the Girls Are up Against: 
Enthusiastic Attitudes toward Technology


The sometimes naive belief that computers equal progress and are inevitable in the classroom is now commonplace. What is striking is the extent to which these assumptions resemble narratives surrounding earlier technologies. Take the role of film in the classroom: as early as 1922 Thomas Edison predicted that the motion picture was destined to revolutionize schools and that within a few...