Music Education and Cultural Heritage: Creative Practices Integrating Music and Identity

Abstract

This article examines the multifaceted role of music education as a medium for transmitting intangible cultural heritage and cultivating students’ cultural identities. Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship from ethnomusicology, sociocultural learning theory, culturally responsive pedagogy, and heritage studies, it explores how traditional music, regional repertoires, and heritage-oriented educational practices can be meaningfully integrated into formal schooling.
Particular emphasis is placed on the Greek educational context, including the institutional role of Music Schools, school-based cultural programs, and commemorative musical practices, while also considering the broader relevance of these approaches for culturally diverse educational settings. Adopting a conceptual and literature-based analytical approach, the article examines how creative, experiential, and community-engaged music practices may foster cultural participation, identity formation, and critical musical awareness.
The discussion argues that music education, when grounded in reflective and culturally responsive pedagogy, can contribute not only to the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage but also to the development of learners as active interpreters and co-constructors of cultural meaning. At the same time, the article highlights important practical and conceptual challenges, including teacher preparation, curriculum design, resource inequality, and the risk of presenting heritage through static or exclusionary cultural narratives. It concludes that heritage-based music education is most educationally meaningful when it supports inclusive, dialogic, and critically engaged forms of participation in culturally plural and changing societies.