Sustainable music education: Teaching practices for lifelong musical and social development

Shujing Tang, Fengda Wu, Chenhao Zhu

Article ID: 8333
Vol 3, Issue 4, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54517/ssd8333

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Abstract

The effective engagement with arts should also be maintained, and educational strategies must be developed not only on the short-term basis aimed at the skills acquisition but also on the long-term basis oriented on the personal, cultural, and social benefits. The paper will look at the opportunities of the modern music-education practice to attain not only the long-term engagement of the arts but also the preferable social outcomes taking special consideration to the diverse Asia-Pacific settings. The study presents the propositions that lead to continuity, inclusion, and adaptability through the lifespan on the basis of qualitative integrative review and studies based on exemplary cases on school, community, and informal learning environments. The results show that learner-centered, culturally responsive and community-based pedagogies are definitive determinants to the emergence and development of ongoing engagements and social connectedness. In addition to that, the findings indicate that purposeful incorporation of collaborative learning, reflective practice, and ethical application of digital technologies may help learners to gain transferable skills i.e. resilience, intercultural awareness, and civic accountability. Such effects are supported in those instances whereby the teachers focus on access, equity and exchange across generations as a result of facilitating participation irrespective of the disparity in socioeconomic status and capabilities. This study employs a qualitative integrative review design, synthesizing evidence from 68 peer-reviewed journal articles published between 2020 and 2024. Data were drawn from international academic databases and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis to identify pedagogical patterns, social outcomes, and sustainability-oriented practices across formal, non-formal, and informal music education contexts. The findings demonstrate that systemic support and professional development have an acute role to play so as to establish music education as an active contributor to individual and social development in the long run.


Keywords

cultural knowledge interdependence; participatory music contexts; fair educational practices; psychosocial understanding; cross-cultural understanding


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