Inclusive musical environments in educational contexts: a conceptual framework for equity, participation, and student wellbeing

This review develops a framework for examining the conditions under which musical environments may support equity, participation, and situated student wellbeing in educational contexts. To this end, it brings together literature from music education, educational psychology, inclusive education, music therapy, and critical studies of gender, disability, and intersectionality. Recent research has linked music education with self-esteem, belonging, social–emotional learning, emergent literacy, movement, and inclusion; however, there is extensive heterogeneity in designs, populations, measures, and contexts. Accordingly, the article does not begin from the premise that music is inclusive, but from the need to identify the pedagogical and relational conditions that make equitable musical participation possible. Peer-reviewed studies published between 2018 and 2026 were analyzed by distinguishing three evidence domains: studies and reviews with direct implications for school contexts; broader educational scholarship from higher education, ensembles, and music clubs; and complementary therapeutic evidence. In light of this body of research, musical inclusion can be organized around three mechanisms of preventive equity: multimodal pedagogical access and situated representation; recognized participation and voice; and expressive safety, belonging, and situated wellbeing. The article argues that music may support equity when its pedagogical design broadens the legitimate ways of learning, participating, and contributing within a shared practice. By doing so, the article shifts the discussion from the general benefits of music toward the conditions that make a musical experience inclusive, at a time when recent research is increasingly examining musical participation in relation to wellbeing, belonging, identity, agency, assessment, and institutional conditions.