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Abstract

Countless scholars have utilized Critical Pedagogy as a philosophical frame to reorient teaching and learning as, among other things, a conversation between teacher and student. As an educator and theorist, Frank Abrahams has championed a Critical Pedagogy for Music Education that aims for the “acquisition of a critical consciousness, the ability to create meaningful teaching and learning experiences, and the attainment of agency” (Abrahams, 2017, p. 25). For nearly 25 years, I have been in conversation with Frank. He has been my teacher, my colleague, and a dear friend. In these roles, he has lived the pedagogy he teaches, embracing and enacting an approach to music education that is liberating for the many students he has worked with, myself included. In this article, I offer a personal reflection on the profound and lasting impact of Frank Abraham’s teaching on my professional life. Embracing a narrative ethic, I draw conceptually on the film, Dead Poets Society, as a metaphorical touchstone and political text for transformational teaching. In this celebration of the scholarship and teaching of Frank Abrahams, I illuminate the role of Critical Pedagogy, the Critical Pedagogue, Place- Based Pedagogies, Student Agency, and the Self-Actualization of educators, a set of powerful approaches that Frank employed to great effect.

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