Representations of cultural diversity in music education textbooks: a critical and comparative analysis

Spain is one of the European countries that attracts the most immigration, and the Valencian and Murcian regions have a large immigrant population. To our knowledge, no studies have analysed the representation of cultural diversity in visual representations of the body and musical practices in their music textbooks. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to describe the representation of cultural diversity in Spanish music textbooks from a critical and comparative perspective that analyses visual representations of the body and its interactions with the main musical processes. The results show a greater presence of students with white European features, as well as certain cultural stereotypes perpetuated by visual representation with musical instruments. Thus, although a greater variety of human types can be observed in the graphic representations of music textbooks, these take a reductionist and simplistic view of cultural diversity.