Music Pathways
A Smithsonian Folkways Music Pathway is an integrated, thematic, and fully customizable journey of discovery that places music from the Smithsonian Folkways collection and other Smithsonian Institution primary resources at the center of the educational experience.
One Music Pathway, in its entirety, contains between 12–18 hours of rich, thematic, multidisciplinary content that is fully customizable based on the needs of individual teachers and students in a variety of learning contexts.
The Pathways address systemic inequities by providing targeted, high-quality, multidisciplinary educational materials at no cost to teachers in any discipline--bringing cultural background into the music classroom, and integrating music into social studies, history, language, art, and other subjects. This project responds to rapidly changing educational realities by providing customizable, technologically integrative experiences that enable engagement on multiple levels of the traditional-to-online classroom continuum, future-proofing the role of music in rapidly changing educational environments.
Courses for Teachers
-
June 9th–11th, 2025 (online)World Music Pedagogy: Teaching Music/Teaching Culture
Join ethnomusicologists, educators, traditional artists, and culture-bearers in a webinar course on World Music Pedagogy: Teaching Music/Teaching Culture
-
June 29th–July 3rd, 2025 (onsite)University of St. Thomas
A diverse range of media and repertoire are explored in this week-long in-person intensive with the goal of building confidence and skills in diversifying music teaching and learning experiences.
Lesson Plans
-
Lesson PlansEgypt: The Bedouin Culture
-
Lesson PlanA Day in the Life of a Kurdish Kid
Interactives
Interactive Features
Resources
Additional Resources
- Smithsonian Learning Lab
Users can create and share personalized collections of more than 2 million Smithsonian assets for education purposes.
- Smithsonian Educators
The Smithsonian’s central portal for education programs across the institution.
- Folklife Education Resources
Hands-on activities to stimulate research and discussion about folklore, cultural heritage, and oral history.
- Smithsonian Libraries
Education resources and events for teachers, schools, teens, and adults.
Subscribe
The Smithsonian Institution has collaborated with Alexander Street Press to create a version of Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries. Academic and public library patrons everywhere can search the database by country, culture group, artist, instrument, genre, record label, and other thesaurus-controlled fields-then click and listen to the music over the Internet, through speakers or headsets.
Users can search and listen in the library or from their homes or dormitories; create personal playlists; listen to themed playlists; and more. Instructors can create course folders and put tracks on digital course reserve. Research into history, geography, literature, cultural diversity, and other subject areas will be expanded with the addition of the music. Public libraries serving diverse populations can offer music from more than 160 countries around the world.
Prices and packages are scaled to make the music affordable for every library type and size. For more information, visit Smithsonian Global Sound® for Libraries