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Since the early part of the 1800s many aspects of music education have remained "very traditional" with little changes in underpinning rationales (Jorgensen, 2003, p. 3). Due to this lack of change, a divide exists "between musical ideology and education practice" (p. 4). The primary purpose of this thesis is to suggest that changing the music education profession begins with reconceptualizing music education. The secondary purpose is to propose one solution, the Timeline Integration Model. Reconceptualization is the process of challenging the atheoretical and ahistorical perspectives of traditional curricula (Pinar, 1975). Rethinking curriculum research starts at the intersections of social structure, history, and biography (Popkewitz, 1988). This philosophical qualitative research thesis presents an analysis of the social structure of School of Music programs. It uses the symbolic interaction theory to investigate how language and music-for-music's-sake ideology influence the music education profession. It briefly examines the history of music education and provides a review of literature of symbolic interaction theory and reconceptualization in relation to music education. The symbolic interaction theory is also applied to an autobiography to further investigate the social structure of School of Music programs and the music education profession. The autobiography demonstrates how social structure, history, and biography are interconnected. This thesis introduces the Timeline Integration Model. The Timeline Integration Model is an interdisciplinary approach developed by the author that uses socio-historical contexts to rethink musical learning. The Timeline Integration Model also provides teachers with tools to design meaningful and integrative lessons in K-12 general music classrooms.