The Socially Stratified Reception of a Music Education Program

This paper explores how the perceptions of various stakeholders contribute to the negative impact of a music education program on academic outcomes, even though it was designed to prevent academic failure. The program provides three violin lessons per week, integrated into the regular school schedule, over a four-year period for young disadvantaged students. It is grounded in the widely held — though inconsistently supported by the scientific literature — belief that learning a musical instrument enhances general cognitive abilities.

Drawing on 40 interviews with philanthropists, violin teachers, school teachers, and families, alongside in-depth observations from a four-year quasi-experimental impact evaluation, I first examine how different stakeholders interpret and engage with the program, before analyzing how these various appropriations shape its program.

Firstly, there is a clear gap between most families and the highbrow music represented by the program. However, I do not observe the "cultural unworthiness" that Bourdieu discusses in the Distinction (1979). Instead of rejection, embarrassment, or envy, these disadvantaged families display a general indifference toward both highbrow music and the program. This distance, combined with immediate material concerns, limits parental investment in the program, which in turn may hinder its potential academic benefits.

Secondly, many violin teachers face challenges reconciling their professional identities as musicians with the program’s instrumental view of music. As a result, most focus on developing musical technique, independent of the academic objectives the program aims to support. While this approach fosters greater musical progress, it weakens the intended cognitive and academic transfers.

Finally, for school teachers, the program enters a space where their own cultural goodwill and, at times, a sense of musical illegitimacy allow them to accept that time normally spent on academic learning is allocated to violin lessons, which is the main explanation between the observed negative impact of the program.