KNOWLEDGE FROM AN INTERCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE: A STUDY IN MUSIC HIGHER EDUCATION

Abstract

The paper reports part of a doctoral research already finished, conducted in the Education Graduate Program of the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar). Based on the qualitative paradigm, this study is an intervention research that falls within the practitioner research movement. Data were built through semi structured observations in the Language and Musical Structure subject, which is mandatory for the Music Education program of the Federal University of São Carlos. The main theoretical principles of this paper are based on studies by Candau (2012a), as well as by other authors such as McLaren (2000), Pérez Gómez (1994), Hall (1997) and Santos (2002; 2014), among others. In this article, we report how knowledge was understood in this subject. The traditional teaching of this knowledge, which is Music Theory, is often seen as devoid of power relations and treated as a set of absolute truths, taken off the social and historical context in which it was built and meaningless for students. Contrary to this understanding and based on the theoretical framework adopted in this paper, we try to demonstrate how the knowledge worked in the subject was considered, based on the ideas of universalism and relativism; historical and social context of scientific knowledge; and the need for the acknowledgement of social and everyday knowledge.