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Vocal Music Education in Queer Asian America

image of Vocal Music Education in Queer Asian America
  • By Taylor Masamitsu1
  • 1 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Source: If Colors Could Be Heard , pp 228-237
  • Publication Date: November 2025
  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1386/9781835951675_28
  • Language: English
  • Accessibility Summary:  EPUB 3 and pdf file included; compatible with devices and software which can read these formats. Alternative text for images. Tagged with a logical reading order to assist screen readers. Navigation between in-text citations and reference list, and endnotes and endnote markers. Font size, spacing, contrast, text justification, number of columns are not adjustable.

In this chapter, I situate my experiences in vocal music education within the enduring stereotypes that powerful players have ascribed to Asian Americans for centuries. While scholars have explored some of these topics at length, I pay particular attention to how these experiences occurred in K-12 and higher education environments and on opposite sides of the United States. Ultimately, I hope these recollections remind or reveal to educators that pervasive dislocating practices still dominate educational settings and are not bound by geography, political assumptions, or subject matter.

Keywords: Asian American Education ; Autoethnography ; Curriculum and Instruction ; Intersectionality ; LGBTQIA+ Education ; Performing Arts Education ; Queer Asian America ; Queer Education ; Teaching and Learning ; Vocal Music Education

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References

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References

  1. Bradley, D. (2006). Music education, multiculturalism, and anti-racism—Can we talk? Action, Criticism & Theory for Music Education, 5(2), 1–30.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. California Department of Education. (2020). Demographics of California's children. https://www.kidsdata.org/topic/2157/sexual-orientation-grade/table#fmt=2658&loc=2,364&tf=93&ch=305,306,431,1320,1322&sortColumnId=0&sortType=asc
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Chen, S. A. (1994, October 3). Who killed Vincent Chin? A case study of media ethno-violence. International Conference on Violence in the Media: Prospects for Change, New York City. https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/who-killed-vincent-chin-case-study-media-ethno-violence
  4. Coffey, A. (2018). Doing ethnography (2nd ed.). Sage.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Daniel, R., & Parkes, K. (2017). Music instrument teachers in higher education: An Investigation of the key influences on how they teach in the studio. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 29(1), 33–46.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Education at Illinois (Director). (2017a). Chronology of public schooling in the US [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/YRjkUTsoo6Q?si
  7. Education at Illinois (Director). (2017b, April 11). Framing Asian Americans [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/4ZNRm5m-U40?si
  8. Gong Lum v. Rice, 275 U.S. 78 (1927). https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/275/78/
  9. Hahn, J. H. (2010). Proposition 8 and education: Teaching our children to be gay? Southern California Review of Law and Social Justice, 19(1), 149–185.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Hill Collins, P. (2019). Intersectionality as critical social theory. Duke University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Kerith, C. J. (2020). LGBT youth population in the United States (pp. 1–6). University of California, Williams Institute.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Kennell, R. (1992). Toward a theory of applied music instruction. The Quarterly Journal of Music Education and Learning, 3(2), 5–16.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. LAAUNCH Foundation. (2023). STAATUS index report 2022 (pp. 1–51). LAAUNCHFoundation.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Loewen, J. W. (2021). Teaching what really happened: History as a weapon. In J. A. Banks (Ed.). Transforming multicultural education policy & practice: Expanding educational opportunity (p. 408). Teachers College Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Masamitsu, T. (2023). Florida's house bill 1557: How we got here. American Educational History Journal, 50(1–2), 47–61.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Omi, M., & Winant, H. (1994). Racial formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s (2nd ed.). Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Slawsky, M. M. (2011). Transitioning from student to teacher in the master-apprentice model of piano pedagogy: An exploratory study of challenges, solutions, resources, reflections, and suggestions for the future [Dissertation, University of South Florida]. https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/3352
  18. Truong, N. L., Zongrone, A. D., & Kosciw, J. G. (2020). Erasure and resilience: The experiences of LGBTQ students of color: Asian American and Pacific Islander LGBTQ youth in U.S. schools (p. 104). GLSEN, National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance. https://www.glsen.org/sites/default/files/2020-06/Erasure-and-Resilience-AAPI-2020.pdf237
  19. Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College. (2020). Harvard Law review, 134, 2630–2637.
  20. U.S. Census Bureau. (2020). 2020 census redistricting data: Race [Decennial Census, Survey]. U.S. Census Bureau.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Wall, S. S. (2016). Toward a moderate autoethnography. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 15(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406916674966
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Zhou, M., & Ocampo, A. C. (Eds.). (2016). INDEX. In contemporary Asian America (third edition): A multidisciplinary reader. NYU Press.
     [Google Scholar]

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