A study of the "music, society, and culture" course for undergraduate students in Hong Kong

This chapter will examine a study on the teaching and learning approaches used in my first delivery of the general education course entitled "Music, Society, and Culture." Two sessions of this course were offered in the second semester of 2013-2014 by the Department of Music at Hong Kong Baptist University. The central concern of the course was the interaction of people, societies, music cultures, and environments. This chapter will also examine the ways in which general education can be realized in two aspects: (1) the extent of Chinese university students' learning of music and society in the course; and (2) the possible challenges to realizing cultural and social awareness in contemporary education practices. The findings were based on two questionnaires administered to the classes, along with semi-structured interviews conducted on a one-on-one basis with 40 students from those involved in the survey questionnaires. In addition to these surveys and interviews, my classroom observation analysis was used to evaluate the students' understanding of the varied and complex nature of learning about the relationship between music and society. On the importance of cultural diversity through general education, there is a question of how to cultivate citizenship and foster teamwork and mutual respect with regard to graduate attributes in higher education.