Postmodernism, Music Literacies, and the Function-oriented Music Curriculum

In our postmodern world, music educators deal with questions and problems that need in-depth exploration. As the old certainties are collapsing, today, more than ever, the challenges they face prompt them to reassess students\u27 music knowledge and skills and their connection to real life. This paper argues that many of these challenges can be related to the functions of music, in the context of the new means of communication and postmodernism determinants. Furthermore, it argues that the functions of music are a guiding framework for a music functionbased curriculum. Finally, this paper provides examples of how professors may apply such a curriculum in undergraduate music classes at a university context for pre-service general teachers. Music educators can be creative in putting ideas into practice, by taking the functions of music as a theoretical-philosophical base, allowing the functions of music to constitute a space for thinking about music teaching-learnin