What the Silence Says: Advocating for Disability Studies in Ghanaian Music Education

Abstract

This article examines how disability studies might contribute to Ghanaian music education scholarship, a field that has received limited attention to disability. Although existing studies address disability through inclusive education, teacher preparation, and music learning, disability studies has not emerged as a sustained critical perspective within the field. This theoretical essay draws on Simi Linton’s Claiming Disability (1998), disability studies scholarship, and literature in music education and Ghanaian music education. Through theoretical and literature-based analysis, it explores how disability studies might extend existing discussions in the field. The analysis suggests that disability in Ghanaian music education has been approached primarily through inclusion and intervention-oriented frameworks. Disability studies offer additional tools for examining assumptions about musical ability, embodiment, participation, knowledge, and value. It encourages critical reflection on how music education constructs competence, normalcy, and musical worth. The article argues that disability studies can serve as an additional lens for examining culture, curriculum, identity, and educational practice in Ghanaian music education. Future research should investigate disability in music curricula, assessment practices, teacher education, musical participation, and Ghanaian understandings of ability and difference.