245 2 7MB
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Advancing Music Education in Northern Europe
Advancing Music Education in Northern Europe tells the story of a unique organization that has contributed in profound ways to the professional development of music teachers in the Nordic and Baltic nations. At the same time, the book offers reflections on how music education and approaches to the training of music teachers have changed across recent decades, a period of significant innovations. In a time where international partnerships appear to be threatened by a recent resurgence in protectionism and nationalism, this book also more generally demonstrates the value of formalized international cooperation in the sphere of higher education. The setting for the discussion, Northern Europe, is a region arguably of great importance to music education for a number of reasons, seen, for instance, in Norway’s ranking as the “happiest nation on earth”, the well-known success of Finland’s schools in international-comparative measures of student achievement, how Sweden has grappled with its recent experience as “Europe’s top recipient of asylum seekers per capita”, and Estonia’s national identity as a country born from a “Singing Revolution”, to name but a few examples. The contributors chronicle how the Nordic Network for Music Education (NNME) was founded and developed, document its impact, and demonstrate how the eight nations involved in this network – Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – are making unique contributions of global significance to the field of music education. David G. Hebert is a professor of music with Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, and in 2018 he became the manager of NNME. He is also a professor II in Sweden in the Malmo Academy of Music (Lund University), and a Hanban Visiting Scholar in the Central Conservatory, Beijing, China. A widely published and cited researcher, he has also held positions with universities in the USA, Finland, Japan, China, Russia, Brazil, and New Zealand, and has directed research projects on six continents. Dr. Hebert is a frequent keynote speaker for conferences, and an editorial board member with such scholarly journals as Arts Education Policy Review and Music E ducation Research. His writings appear in over 30 different professional journals, and his books – as author, editor, or co-editor – include
Wind Bands and Cultural Identity in Japanese Schools, Theory and Method in Historical Ethnomusicology, Patriotism in Nationalism in Music Education, International Perspectives on Translation, Education and Innovation in Japanese and Korean Societies, and Music Glocalization: Heritage and Innovation in a Digital Age. He has also published chapters in Oxford Handbook of Music Education, Routledge Research Companion to Popular Music Education, Sociology and Music Education, and Multicultural Perspectives in Music Education (vols. 1 and 2), and with William Coppola he is now co- authoring World Music Pedagogy: Music in Higher Education (forthcoming, Routledge). Torunn Bakken Hauge is a professor of music education with Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, where she has taught for more than four decades. She is a founder and managing coordinator of the NNME, which has government funding for cooperative projects across all Nordic and Baltic countries, and celebrated its 20-year history in 2017. Since 1990, she has also managed the Nordplus-funded Teacher Education Network, which supports interdisciplinary arts projects in teacher education. A Nordic pioneer in the field of rhythmic music pedagogy, she is a producer of the video Rytmisk musikkpedagogikk i grundskolen (1999), first author of the book Rytmisk musikkpedagogikk i grundskolen (2000), and executive producer of the pedagogical CD Kotokaka rytmisk musikkpedagogikk (2002). She has also published research articles in English in such journals as Signum Temporis, International Journal of Education and the Arts, and a chapter in the book Musikk – Mulighetenes fag (2007). Additionally, she is a singer in a professional early music vocal quartet.
Advancing Music Education in Northern Europe
Edited by David G. Hebert and Torunn Bakken Hauge
First published 2019 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2019 selection and editorial matter, David G. Hebert and Torunn Bakken Hauge; individual chapters, the contributors The right of David G. Hebert and Torunn Bakken Hauge to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Hebert, David G. | Hauge, Torunn Bakken. Title: Advancing music education in Northern Europe / edited by David G. Hebert and Torunn Bakken Hauge. Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018038091 | ISBN 9781138486263 (hardback) | ISBN 9781351045995 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Music—Instruction and study—Europe, Northern. Classification: LCC MT3.E93 A38 2019 | DDC 780.7/048—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018038091 ISBN: 978-1-138-48626-3 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-351-04599-5 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by codeMantra
Contents
List of contributors Acknowledgments 1 Introduction: advancing music education in Northern Europe
vii x 1
T orunn Ba k k en H auge and David G. H ebert
2 Master’s seminars in music education across 18 years: inclusion, equality and democracy as lived experience
38
C ecilia F erm A lmqvist
3 Reflections on research collaborations: a call for Nordic research on music education, sustainability, and democracy
50
E va Sæ ther and A driana Di L orenzo T illborg
4 Musical performance and tacit self-censorship
64
T iri Bergesen S chei
5 Music, universality and globalization: some challenges for music education in the decades to come
81
Geir Johansen
6 An Icelandic perspective on the Nordic music education community
92
H elga Rut Gudmundsdottir
7 Musician and teacher: higher popular music education in a Danish perspective
107
L ars Brinc k
8 Advancing music education via Nordic cooperation: equity and equality as central concepts in Finland M arja H eimonen and David G. H ebert
119
vi Contents 9 Bridging the past, present and future in Estonian music education
141
A nu Sepp, U rve L ä ä nemets and Kristi Kiilu
10 A paradigm shift in Latvian music teacher education: a selection of research experience in the period, 2008–2017
155
M ā ra M arnauza and Sanita M adal ā ne
11 Music teacher education challenges: national and international perspectives in Lithuania
175
Jolanta L asausk ien ė
12 Emotional imitation method in the context of Lithuanian music education
192
L olita Navic k iene , A sta R auduvaite , Giedr ė Gabnyte and David G. H ebert
13 Integrated learning of music and science: reception of Björk’s Biophilia Project in the Nordic countries
222
Bå rd Vågsholm H usby and David G. H ebert
14 Conclusion: learning from two decades of music education leadership
247
David G. H ebert and T orunn Ba k k en H auge
Index
277
Contributors
Cecilia Ferm Almqvist (PhD) is a full professor of music education at Luleå University of Technology, and associate professor in education at Södertörn University College. She graduated in 2004. Her research focuses upon democracy and inclusion in diverse music educational settings. She has presented her work internationally at (music) educational conferences and in well-known scientific journals. Lars Brinck (PhD) is an associate professor and the Head of Research and Development at Rhythmic Music Conservatory, Copenhagen, and the Danish academy of pop, jazz, and electronica. Research interests include jamming, learning, and educational management, preferably from a situated learning analytic perspective. Brinck also holds extensive experience as a composer and recording pop/jazz pianist. Giedrė Gabnyte is a pianist, and winner of international competitions, who graduated from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (LAMT). In 2014, she received a Doctor degree in Music Education from Šiauliai University. Since 2011, she has been associate professor in the Department of Pedagogy at LAMT. She is an active figure in the Lithuanian concert life as well as in music research activities. Her research interests include general music education and the training of young pianists. Helga Rut Gudmundsdottir is an associate professor of music education at the University of Iceland, School of Education. She teaches courses in early childhood music methods as well as music pedagogy for elementary and middle school. Her research focuses on young children’s musical perception and development. Marja Heimonen has lectured for several years at Sibelius Academy- University of the Arts, Helsinki, Finland, where she has coordinated doctoral and postdoctoral seminars, and served as the NNME Institutional Coordinator. She is widely published in the field of music education philosophy, particularly concerning the issue of legal rights to music and music education.
viii Contributors Bård Vågsholm Husby holds a master’s degree in music education from Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen. He has recently been working as a Waldorf School teacher in Bergen, Norway. Bård actively plays the saxophone, guitars, and electronic instruments across several genres. Geir Johansen (PhD) is a professor emeritus in music education at the Norwegian Academy of Music. His research interests include all sides of the relationship between music education and society, of which he publishes and presents regularly. His work experience includes teaching on all levels from PhD to elementary music education. Kristi Kiilu (PhD) is a professor and the Head of the Music Education Institute in the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. She received her PhD degree (Doctor of Philosophy) from the University of Helsinki, Faculty of Behavioural Sciences. Her fields of research are culture and society, and education. In 2011, she was awarded the Heino Liimets award for the best-published doctoral thesis in the National Competition of Educational Sciences. Urve Läänemets is an assistant professor at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, teaching English and German language, and an author of 15 school textbooks and around 180 articles. Research fields include linguo- didactics, educational policy, and curriculum theory and practice. Currently she is also working as an advisor for the Estonian Ministry of Education. Jolanta Lasauskienė is a doctor of social sciences (PhD) and professor of music education at the Department of Music, Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences. Her research interests include music teacher education, activity and competences of a music teacher, project management of music education innovations as well as strategies of developing intercultural identity through music activity. Sanita Madalāne (PhD) has more than ten years of experience as a lecturer in higher education institutions, and has worked as the Head of Research Department, coordinating editor, and reviewer for Riga Teacher Training and Educational Management Academy. Currently she is the Principal at Sala Secondary School and assistant professor at Turība University in Latvia. Māra Marnauza is a professor at Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music, and holds a PhD in music pedagogy. She is the founder, conductor, and artistic director of the winners of international choir competitions – chamber choir FORTIUS (1985) and female choir BALTA (1999). She has published many scientific articles and a monograph Conducting Methodology. Lolita Navickiene (PhD in social sciences, education) is an associate professor at the LAMT, Department of Education, and an author of the “Method of Emotional Imitation”, working on the subject of early and
Contributors ix secondary music education. She is also the founder of Sveikutis, a musical/educational health promotion school for pregnant women, children, and adults. Asta Rauduvaite (doctor of social sciences, educational science) is a professor and the Head of the Department of Music at the Faculty of Education, Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences. Her research interests include music teacher education and integration of popular music in the process of education. Rauduvaite has published numerous articles in reviewed periodical, continuous, or occasional scientific publications, in the reviewed publications referred in the international databases included into the list approved by the Lithuanian Research Council, as well as in the publications included into the list approved by the Department of Research and Studies. She is a member of the editorial board of the collection of reviewed research articles “Problems in Music Pedagogy” (Latvia). Eva Sæther is a professor of music education at Malmö Academy of Music (MAM), Lund University and Docent at University of the Arts, Helsinki. She has developed a research profile that focuses on intercultural perspectives on musical learning and creativity(ies) and is currently heading the music education research department at MAM. Tiri Bergesen Schei is a full professor of music education at the Centre for Arts, Culture and Communication, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. Her research focuses on identity formation and vocal expressions in the life span from early childhood to adulthood, with a particular interest in how to prevent performers from self-censorship and voice shame. Anu Sepp is an associate professor of music pedagogy at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, and a researcher at University of Helsinki. She holds a PhD (educational science, University of Helsinki) and MA (music education, choir conducting, Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre). Her research interests include teacher education and music education didactics; she is the author of numerous articles and music books. Adriana Di Lorenzo Tillborg, a music educator with more than ten years of experience, is currently a PhD candidate in music education at MAM, Lund University. Her research interests include democratic music education, inclusion, individual abilities, migration, policy processes, and discourses, especially regarding Art and Music Schools.
Acknowledgments
We would especially like to thank: • • • • •
The Nordic Council of Ministers, for providing us with the Nordplus program and its financial funding for more than 20 years. Kristina Savikurki, Nordplus program coordinator at CIMO (Centre for International Mobility) in Finland for the past decade. Kenneth Lundin, Nordplus program manager at CIMO Finland for the past decade. Frank Krohn, senior adviser for Nordplus at SIU (Senter for Internasjonalisering av Utdanning) in Bergen, Norway. All of our partner institutions and their local Institutional Coordinators involved in NNME during the 20 years, particularly those for the past decade: Norwegian Academy of Music, Oslo, Norway Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences Royal Academy of Music, Stockholm, Sweden Luleå University of Technology, Sweden Malmo Academy of Music, Lund University, Sweden Örebro University, Sweden Aarhus University, Danish School of Education, Copenhagen, Denmark Rhythmic Music Conservatory, Copenhagen, Denmark University of Iceland, School of Education, Iceland Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts, Helsinki, Finland EAMT Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, Tallinn, Estonia RTTEMA Riga Teacher Training and Educational Management Academy, Riga, Latvia Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music, Riga, Latvia LUES Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences, Vilnius, Lithuania LAMT Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Vilnius, Lithuania
Acknowledgments xi •
• •
• •
•
All the teachers who have participated in, and worked for, the network, by chairing sessions, giving keynotes, facilitating group discussions, commenting on student papers, giving workshops and concerts, or more informal musicking and social company. All the music students who have participated in the network – its main target group – for giving us such inspiration and positive feedback across the years. The leaders and colleagues at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences for giving us working conditions and support for leading the NNME network through more than 20 years, and also supporting the idea of writing this book. Eiliv Olsen, former associate professor at Bergen University College who encouraged and supported Torunn’s idea of creating the NNME network in 1997. All who helped with gathering statistical data for the Conclusion chapter, which in addition to the contributing authors included research assistant Niclas Nørby Hundahl at Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen and Prof. Juha Ojala at University of Oulu in Finland. Heidi Bishop and Annie Vaughan at Routledge, Jeanine Furino with Codemantra, as well as the anonymous reviewers who offered very helpful suggestions for improvement of this book.
1 Introduction Advancing music education in Northern Europe Torunn Bakken Hauge and David G. Hebert
Across any 20-year period, much changes while much remains the same in human life, but what of value can be gained from considering the collective experience of university lecturers across two decades of their work cultivating the next generation of master music teachers in Northern Europe? This book, Advancing Music Education in Northern Europe: Twenty Years of the Nordic Network for Music Education, tells the story of a unique organization that has contributed in profound ways to the professional development of music teachers in the Nordic and Baltic nations. At the same time, it offers reflections on how both music education and approaches to the training of music teachers have changed across recent decades, a period of significant innovations. In this uncertain time, in which international partnerships appear to be threatened by a recent resurgence in protectionism and nationalism, this book also more generally demonstrates the value of formalized international cooperation in the sphere of higher education. The setting for our discussion, Northern Europe, is a region arguably of great importance to music education for a number of reasons, seen for instance in Norway’s recent ranking as “happiest nation on earth” (Helliwell, Layard, & Sachs, 2017), the well-known success of Finland’s schools in international- comparative measures of student achievement (Heim, 2016), how Sweden has grappled with its recent experience as “Europe’s top recipient of asylum seekers per capita” (Sorensen, 2017), and even Estonia’s national identity as a country produced by a “Singing Revolution” (Schwab, 2015), to name but a few examples. We chronicle how the Nordic Network for Music Education (NNME) was founded and developed, document its impact, and demonstrate from a global perspective how the eight nations involved in this network – Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – are making unique contributions of global significance to the field of music education. Music education has across recent decades become a fully developed and research-based field, with reference works that attempt to offer international comparisons and summaries of research findings (Bowman & Frega, 2012; Cox & Stevens, 2016; Hebert & Kertz-Welzel, 2016; McPherson & Welch, 2012), as well regional comparisons (Leong & Leung, 2013; Takizawa, 1992; Torres-Santos, 2017). However, our thorough
2 Torunn Bakken Hauge and David G. Hebert search has revealed no previous books on major academic presses that offer an overview of music education across Northern Europe, and only one notable book on any music education organization (McCarthy, 2004). Northern Europe is comprised of three components. Scandinavia, consisting of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, is unified by linguistic, political, economic, and cultural similarities, and rather than divided into three nations, Scandinavia was actually united at various points in earlier centuries and has much shared history. Scandinavia is at the center of the Nordic nations, which also include Iceland to the far West, and Finland to the far East. Iceland shares important similarities with Norway and Denmark, but Finland has even more of an identity of its own, and might be accurately understood as situated between Eastern and Western Europe, despite its strong historical ties to Sweden and its significant minority of Swedish-speaking Finns. This interpretation is supported by the fact that Finnish language is completely unlike Germanic and Scandinavian languages, yet is rather close to the Estonian language. Finland maintained its independence through the stonia, Latvia, latter half of the 20th century, while the Baltics, including E and Lithuania, were until 1991 part of the Soviet Union. Over the past quarter-century, Baltic nations have been rapidly modernizing and integrating with the rest of Europe at the same time that a rediscovery of their unique national identities is occurring, largely independent of Russian influence. However, despite complex histories, each of the eight countries in the network has preserved its unique cultural identity, of which music is an essential component. Together, the Nordic and Baltic nations represent a significant part of the world, with major Nordic cities such as Copenhagen, Stockholm, H elsinki, and Oslo, as well as other cities of great historical and cultural significance, such as Bergen, Tallinn, Reykjavik, Vilnius, and Riga. As of 2017, the Nordic countries have a combined population of around 27 million and an estimated total GDP of nearly $1.5 trillion. The Baltic countries, on the other hand, have a combined population of slightly more than 6 million, and an estimated total GDP of $100 billion. In terms of musical contributions, the Nordic and Baltic countries have produced many outstanding performers and composers, leading music ensembles, unique folk music genres, and popular music styles, and overall the entire region is especially rich in choral music traditions. The social role of music, as a way of uniting people and developing social cohesion, is very much emphasized in traditional cultural life, and its importance is maintained even in modernized lifestyles of the 21st century. Music education research of all kinds comes from this part of the world, but there is a prevalence of qualitative interview-based studies bolstered by reference to philosophical theories. Unusual relative to other parts of the world is the fact that across recent decades, popular music pedagogy – often with amplified rock band instruments – has become a common mode of school music education in the Nordic countries. However, local folk
Advancing music education in Northern Europe 3 music heritage and “world music” genres are also present in schools, while classical art music traditions are primarily maintained via the public “culture school” system that is available in most communities outside general comprehensive schools, especially through choirs. The Baltic countries have been especially successful at maintaining strong art music and folk music traditions, and creative approaches to jazz and improvised music can be found across nearly all of Northern Europe. One especially notable phenomenon is the song and dance festivals of the Baltic countries, which are acknowledged by UNESCO as globally significant cultural heritage events. The Nordic countries are known worldwide for being rated as among the most advanced in the world in terms of the egalitarian democracy, quality of life, and social services characteristic of the “Nordic welfare state” model of governance. However, there are signs of rapid changes that bring new challenges. One development across recent decades is the rising popularity of English as the dominant language for international projects, which comes with both advantages and disadvantages. Additionally, the unexpected departure of the UK from the European Union, or “Brexit”, might in time change the relative importance of English language while it also threatens to encourage other nations to contemplate departure from this historic partnership widely credited with increasing pan-European cooperation and stability (including in the higher education sector). Moreover, recent populist movements in other European states as well as in the USA (under President Donald Trump) are calling for increasingly protectionist policies, with less support for international partnerships in various fields of research and development, so there appears to be a greater need than ever before to effectively demonstrate the value of these kinds of international networks in not only music education but other academic fields as well. Finally, another major development of relevance is the “migrant crisis”, which has entailed a massive exodus of refugees into Europe – exceeding one million in 2015 alone – from war-torn parts of Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia. This situation brings new challenges as music educators consider how to most judiciously serve students from increasingly diverse backgrounds. In this book, as we reflect on what can be learned from the past 20 years of our history in Northern Europe, both within and beyond this international network, we will also consider present challenges and prospects for the future.
Background of the book The idea of developing a book based on the two decades of experience in this network first came up in a planning meeting in Iceland in 2015. We realized at that time that the network would soon be reaching the 20-year mark in its history, and interest in the book grew with greater urgency as we later became concerned that some of the network funding to which we
4 Torunn Bakken Hauge and David G. Hebert had applied was denied. We realized that production of a book of this kind would compellingly demonstrate the importance of the network and its impact, while at the same time inspiring others and offering a more general contribution to global knowledge in the field of music education. We solicited contributing authors from across the entire network, and around 20 writers expressed an interest in developing chapters. Their book chapters were revised through a series of network book-writing workshops held in Bergen, Tallinn, and Vilnius in 2016–2017. Discussions in this book are framed by three overarching themes that shed light on how the field of music education has been advancing across Northern Europe: (1) current practices and background, (2) higher education reforms, and (3) professional networks. For the first of these themes, we endeavored to document current practices and developments across the past 20 years of music education (including music teacher education and research) in Northern Europe, both within individual nation states and across the entire Nordic and Baltic regions. Within theme two, we aimed to explore how policy developments are affecting music education, particularly in terms of standardization, internationalization, and neoliberal approaches to public sector management. Finally, theme three concerns not only the role and impact of the NNME network in particular, but also the broader significance of professional networks of this kind for music education, the teaching profession, and higher education in general. For each of the three overarching themes, we collaboratively developed three or four model questions for contributing authors’ consideration, but we also encouraged all authors to freely decide both what to emphasize and how best to structure their individual chapters. Current practices and background As mentioned previously, the present book appears to be the first published volume on music education in Northern Europe, although an array of articles and book chapters have been published over the years on individual countries in this region. The rationale for this book should be clear, since a notable gap in knowledge is evident. Moreover, in terms of educational networks in Northern Europe, our thorough review yielded only one previously published research study of a Nordplus educational network. In that study, which examined a Nordic network for action research among school teachers, Rönnerman et al. observed that Through the different activities being developed in the Nordic network, together with discourses in the Nordic countries emphasizing teacher collaborative learning and the need for teachers to research their own classrooms, new arenas might open up for further dialogues and activities nationally and globally. (Rönnerman, Salo, Furu, Lund, Olin, & Jakhelln, 2016, p. 60)
Advancing music education in Northern Europe 5 The authors of that study also briefly noted some “challenges of neo-liberal policies for education” (p. 59) and determined that the network developed a “community of supervisory practice” which they identified as “compatible with all Nordic universities’ emphasis on internationalization” (p. 55). We have anecdotally made similar observations within NNME, and through development of the present book we were able to explore such issues more deeply than is possible in a single journal article, but have aimed to “take some cues” from this one previous study regarding such topics that evidently call for deeper examination. Higher education reforms As will be explained in detail within the Conclusion chapter, care must be taken in scholarly investigations of institutional change to avoid the pitfalls associated with an excessively deterministic orientation, and there may be advantages to using what has been called a “kosmos-oriented approach” that takes into account the uniqueness of institutions as malleable human social constructions (Moroni, 2010, p. 284). Previous studies have suggested that higher education restructuring and institutional mergers are an increasingly common challenge for professors in the Nordic countries (Pinheiro, Geschwind, & Aarrevaara, 2016), and our experience in producing this book suggests that universities in the Baltic countries – and even Russia (NUFFIC News, 2016) – are experiencing much the same concerns. In fact, an array of publications indicates that higher education restructuring and mergers are part of a worldwide issue, but their implications for music studies appear to thus far be very little discussed. Education authorities and “think tanks” have issued recommendations for university mergers in the USA (Education Advisory Board, 2013) and the UK (Higher Education Funding Council for England, 2012), and a Chinese approach has even been presented as a model for other countries (Cai & Yang, 2015). Moreover, specialized books have recently been published in this field (Eastman & Lang, 2001; Martin & Samels, 2016; Pinheiro, Geschwind, & Aarrevaara, 2016), and an array of studies in higher education journals has addressed related issues (Boling, Mayo, & isenberg, Helms, 2017; Cai, Pinheiro, Greschwind, & Aarrevaara, 2016; E 2016; Harman, 2002; Harman & Meek, 2002; Lang, 2002a, 2002b, 2003; Skodvin, 1999; Thomas & Chabotar, 2015). Through our discussions in this book, we were able to explore how higher education mergers affect the field of music education. Professional networks In addition to the intensive courses, one of the most important activities of the NNME is sponsorship of mobility, which enables international exchange in the field of higher music education. While NNME may be the largest state-funded network of this kind in the field of music education, there
6 Torunn Bakken Hauge and David G. Hebert are certainly precedents in higher education more generally that should be taken into account. The Fullbright exchange program in the USA is one of the earliest and most well-known models of international academic exchange, but its emphasis is on relatively long-term international exchange of professors rather than short-term student mobility. Recently, the European Union’s ERASMUS program has become the continent’s most high-profile exchange program for university students and professors, as profiled in published studies (Bracht, Engel, Janson, Over, Schomburg, & Teichler, 2006; Derzsi, Derzsy, Káptalana, & Néda, 2011; González, Bustillo Mesanza, & Mariel, 2011; Parey & Waldinger, 2011; Souto-Otero, Huisman, Beerkens, de Wit, & Vujić, 2013; Van Mol & Timmerman, 2014). Interestingly, one study of the ERASMUS program concluded that female students are disproportionately well represented as participants in this form of exchange (Böttcher, Araújo, Nagler, Mendes, Helbing, & Herrmann, 2016), a finding that fits with some more general trends in higher education (Vincent-Lancrin, 2008). This book offers a unique opportunity to explore how a state-funded network that sponsors international exchange can impact the field of music education, and in that way it offers new knowledge that may have applications in other regions. For instance, there are notable professional organizations in our field with a regional orientation, such as the Pan African Society for Music Arts Education and the European Association for Music in Schools, as well as regional conferences associated with the International Society for Music Education (ISME), such as the Asia Pacific Symposium for Music Education Research. It follows that such organizations and conferences might benefit from an understanding of what has been learned from the NNME experience. Individual chapters and network projects Our discussions across the entire book are also framed by the four multi year projects launched within the NNME network, which were on the themes of: (1) professionalization (1997–2007), (2) democracy (2008–2010), (3) sustainability (2011–2014), and (4) universality of music (2015–2018). It follows that in this book’s Introduction and Conclusion chapters we offer some reflection on how individual contributed chapters may be understood in relation to both the three overarching themes and the four network projects. The network’s very first multiyear project (1997–2007) was entitled “Music Pedagogy in a Nordic Perspective”, and emphasized ways that research can help more firmly establish and professionalize the field. In retrospect, the term “professionalization” most accurately encapsulates the essence of our objectives during the period of this project, which were to strengthen the music education profession by defining how basic concepts and practices, as well as research, might best be understood in our unique region. We also note that professor Eva Georgii-Hemming of Örebro University, who was
Advancing music education in Northern Europe 7 active in NNME for several years, later attained funding for a major project on the theme of “professionalism” in music education which ultimately led to production of a book on this topic along with Pamela Burnard and SvenErik Holgersen (Georgii-Hemming, Burnard, & Holgersen, 2013). The “Democracy” project, which came next, is loosely connected with an array of articles and book chapters that examined, and even promoted, popular music ensembles as a form of music learning that tends to be less autocratic than more traditional approaches featuring a conductor as teacher (Christophersen & Gullberg, 2017; Ferm Thorgersen & Georgii-Hemming, 2012; Väkevä & Westerlund, 2007). The “Sustainability” project was to some extent influenced by a series of unsuccessful Nordic grant applications that sought to align with the unprecedentedly large “Sustainable Futures” project of Huib Schippers, which examined an array of threatened traditional music cultures worldwide (Schippers, 2010; Schippers & Grant, 2016). The “Universality” project was inspired by both the tendencies of globalization and the conditions arising from new technologies that make all kinds of music instantly accessible and a seemingly omnipresent accompaniment to modern life. This theme was also compatible with several r esearch projects coming from the Nordic countries (Hebert & Kertz-Welzel, 2016; Hebert & Rykowski, 2018; Partti, 2014; Väkevä, 2013). Across time, the NNME projects have inspired network members to develop research grant applications and an array of publications that ultimately produced new knowledge in the field of music education.
Reflections on the NNME Across the history of an international network of this kind, one encounters a vast array of surprises and successes, and there are simply too many memories to describe. Inevitably, events of all kinds occur, from plans interrupted by natural disasters (such as the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland) and national tragedies (the 2011 massacre in Utøya, Oslo), to brilliant keynote speeches that ultimately led to seminal publications – such as those by Goran Folkestad on informal learning, Øivind Varkøy on orality and literacy, and Even Ruud on inclusive music education – and even joyful events such as birthdays. One network member, Cecilia Ferm-A lmqvist (now a professor at Luleå University of Technology, Sweden) – a great scholar and central participant across the history of this network – seemed to always have a birthday during the network’s annual intensive seminars, from the time she was one of its bright master’s students all the way until she was promoted to full professor, and even her 50th birthday. In some ways, the story of her birthdays is an essential piece of the story of this network. Cecilia even met a life partner through this network, another music teacher educator who had graduated from the program in Bergen, and now teaches at Stockholm University.
8 Torunn Bakken Hauge and David G. Hebert Another memorable story comes from 2004 at the music school in Malmö, Sweden, which offered a NNME course in collaboration with the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen. For more than six months, the hosts had carefully planned to use what at the time was new videoconferencing technology. This would enable us to have a Swedish PhD student researching hip-hop in New York City – Johan Söderman, who had already been a master student in our network for two years (now an associate professor at Malmö University, Sweden) – to give a live lecture directly from the USA. The event was very well promoted, and we had assembled a large audience. Many of us were quite eager for the presentation. However, there were technical problems that could not be resolved. Torunn, the network manager, recalls with great frustration how the hosts tried repeatedly to get the technology to function properly and did not seem to have a “Plan B” in case it failed to work. She remembers several people hunching over a computer and frantically pressing various buttons, plugging and unplugging cords, all while dozens of students tried to patiently wait in the hall. Suddenly, Torunn was asked to fill time with talking about the network while they continued attempting to get the technology to work. It was a very tense and awkward moment, since, as all NNME representatives know, Torunn is used to planning everything very carefully. In the spirit of Nordplus (the network’s funders), we had tried to integrate technology into our work, something they greatly value, but of course, it comes with certain risks. New technologies have frequently served as an invaluable way of keeping the network together, but even in the 21st century, we have found that faceto-face meetings, despite their expense, are essential to our work. There are indeed many stories, but to fully understand this network, we must start at the very beginning. A brief history of the NNME The roots of the NNME can now be traced back for nearly a quarter-c entury. Initial collaboration began in 1992 with a study tour by Torunn Bakken Hauge with students and colleagues from Bergen University College (now Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen, Norway) to visit docent (later professor) Frede Nielsen and his colleagues and students at the Danish School of Education in Copenhagen, which was the start of a long institutional cooperation. The activities started at that time included mainly exchange of teachers and students, but we also organized a course with the title: Musikkpedagogikk som vitenskapsområde (Music pedagogy as a scientific area). We should briefly note here that in the Nordic countries, music education is often replaced by the concept “music pedagogy”. Bergen University College was one of the first two Norwegian institutions to implement a hovedfag degree (advanced professional specialist training) in music pedagogy in the 1970s. According to Noralf Mork, the degree was launched in 1975 (Mork, 2008, p. 83). Dr. Mork was one of the first students to take
Advancing music education in Northern Europe 9 the final examinations for this new degree in 1978, and wrote his thesis in Norwegian on the ideas of influential US music educator James Mursell. Mork later became a lecturer in music psychology for the same program, and Torunn was one of his students at that time. Torunn was aware of the Nordplus program, a funding body for educational collaboration supported by the Nordic governments, and during this study tour she got the idea of creating a Nordplus-funded network with more institutions: Nordic Network for Music Education, NNME. Torunn had in addition to taking a licentiate in music pedagogy at Bergen University College also benefitted from studying music performance abroad in the USA, at University of Texas, Dallas (1982–1983). From that experience, Torunn recognized the great value of obtaining a broader perspective on the field of music education and wanted more students to benefit from such experiences. Frede Nielsen, of Danish School of Education, had been working since the 1980s as a professor II (visiting professor) in Bergen, and he was invited to join with Eiliv Olsen, a lecturer for Bergen’s licentiate degree in music pedagogy, to recommend some other colleagues and institutions across the Nordic countries that had similar studies in music education. T orunn invited these colleagues to come to our campus at Bergen University College (now, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences). In November 1997, eight representatives from seven institutions in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Norway came together and had their first planning meeting. The participants at the founding NNME network meeting were: Harald Jørgensen (Norwegian Academy of Music), Bengt Olsson (Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm), Kai Karma (Sibelius Academy), Sture Brännström (Luleåa Technical University), Gunnar Heiling (Lund University), and Frede Nielsen (Danish School of Education in Copenhagen), as well as Eiliv Olsen and Torunn Bakken Hauge, representing Bergen University College. At that first meeting we decided to organize four intensive courses with the overall title Musikkpedagogikk i Nordisk perspektiv (Music pedagogy in a Nordic perspective) having four host institutions in four different countries. The target group would be master’s students in music pedagogy, and we would apply for grants from the Nordplus program. These initial four years were regarded as quite groundbreaking and successful, so we continued with the same pattern for four more years, with eight courses in all on the very general theme of Nordic music pedagogy, organized over the years 1999–2007, one for each year, each of which received financial support from Nordplus. From 2008 onward, we began to have three-year projects that served as the foundation for the annual course themes, an approach that has continued through three projects, which were on the themes of (1) democracy, (2) sustainable development, and (3) universality of music. All the institutions included in 1997 are still active partner institutions of NNME, as of 2017. However, several institutions have since that time been added, including colleges and conservatories from the Baltic countries in 2008. There have also been many replacements of responsible partner
10 Torunn Bakken Hauge and David G. Hebert representative persons. Since 1997, all the original “founders” of the network have retired, or been replaced, except for Torunn Bakken Hauge, who has managed the network throughout its existence. Emphases of the network and its activities A major theme of NNME projects is democracy, with an emphasis on student voices in envisioning new directions for the field of music education. The NNME has placed great value on open discussion and nonhierarchical, rather than authoritarian, decision-making. Within formal education, student-centered learning is common both in practice and, as a theoretical point of departure, in much of Northern Europe. A strong emphasis is placed on empowering students to be involved in their own musical development. It follows that the music learners’ perspective was studied in depth at the NNME intensive courses held both at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm in 2003 and at the Norwegian Academy of Music in 2005. A main goal for NNME is that students are encouraged to critically reflect upon their own practices, which enables them to take part and contribute to the current debates of music education in an international context. The network thus enables Nordic and Baltic institutions to continue developing a strong Nordic-Baltic identity, and make even stronger international contributions in this field. NNME is a so-called “Nordplus” network in the sense that it benefits financially from the Nordplus program, a joint venture sponsored by each of the Nordic national governments (Nordic Council of Ministers) and led by program managers and coordinators Kristina Savikurki and Kenneth Lundin. This provides financial support for cooperation between educational institutions in the Nordic and Baltic countries, based on overarching objectives defined by Nordplus. The main objectives relevant to our network are the following: • strengthen and develop Nordic co-operation on education, including early childhood and care, and help to create a Nordic–Baltic educational area; • support, build on, reap the benefits of and promote innovative products and processes in education through the systematic exchange of experiences and good practice; • contribute to the development of quality and innovation in the educational systems for lifelong learning in the participating Nordplus countries through co-operation in education and training, as well as co-operation with the labour market on development projects, exchange programmes and networking; • promote Nordic language and culture and mutual Nordic-Baltic l inguistic and cultural understanding. (Nordplus Handbook, 2018, p. 18)
Advancing music education in Northern Europe 11 Nordplus consists of five subprograms of which NNME belongs to the category of Nordplus Higher Education. This subprogram has the following as its special objectives: • The goal is to enhance the collaboration between the actors within higher education and with working life. The dissemination of good praxis and innovative results is important. The programme supports also academic mobility and work placements of high quality. • The cooperation can revolve around mobility for individual students and academic staff between the partner institutions, intensive courses, development projects, joint study programmes or networking activities. It can include all subject areas and deal with themes that the actors find relevant. Usually the themes are subject-related but the cooperation can also address overarching themes such as education and the working life, entrepreneurship, digitalisation, sustainable development, democracy or e.g. integration. (Nordplus Handbook, 2018, p. 28) On the homepage of the network (NNME homepage), one can read about its profile and mission: The partners in the network are among the leading institutions in the Nordic and the Baltic countries within the academic field of music education (in the Nordic countries called music pedagogy). The network comprises 15 institutions, carefully selected, and representing all the five Nordic and the three Baltic countries. The overall aim of the network has across all these years been: to strengthen the reflection and the discussion of music education, and through this contribute to its development. The criteria for membership in the NNME are partly defined by Nordplus Guidelines and partly by the network itself. Qualifying institutions must be a Nordic or Baltic institution of higher education offering music pedagogy at a master’s level, including development of research competence as one of their primarily goals. Each institution must be willing to finance at least 50% of the costs related to the networks activities, including traveling costs and working hours. All institutions in the network must sign a Letter of Intent, and the Institutional Coordinator (IC) must be appointed to take the responsibility for completing the required practical work connected to coordinating the activities of their own students and teachers at their own institution with other institutions in the network. The IC and his or her institution must also be willing to host network members for an intensive course.
12 Torunn Bakken Hauge and David G. Hebert As of 2018, at total of 15 institutions are active members of the network:In Finland, the nation’s one major music institution, Sibelius Academy (University of the Arts), is a network member. The same goes for Iceland’s one major higher education institution, University of Iceland. Denmark has two institutions in the network: one of which is the only specialized institution for popular music and jazz, Rhythmic Music Conservatory (Copenhagen), while the other is the primary institution for educational research, Danish School of Education in Copenhagen, Århus University. A total of four Swedish institutions belong to the network: Royal Academy of Music (Stockholm), Örebro University (Örebro), Luleå University of Technology (Piteå), and Lund University’s Malmö Academy of Music (Malmö). Estonia and Latvia each have one institution in the network: Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (Tallinn) and Riga Teacher Training and Educational Management Academy (RTTEMA) (Riga). Here we will note that the Music Department of RTTEMA merged into Jazeps Vitols Latvian Academy of Music on October 1, 2017. Lithuania has two Vilnius-based institutions in the ithuanian network: Lithuanian University for Educational Sciences and L Academy for Music and Theatre. There are also three Norwegian institutions in the network: Norwegian Academy of Music (Oslo), Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (mostly located in Hamar), and the coordinating institution, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (mostly located in Bergen).
Broader significance of the Nordic network Although Northern Europe has long been significant in the field of music, music education as a scholarly field is relatively young in the Nordic and Baltic countries, with the earliest postgraduate programs developed from the 1970s through the 1990s. Among the earliest of Nordic music education professors were the Swede Bertil Sundin (1982), and later the Norwegian Jon-Roar Bjørkvold (1985), who introduced new research methods for studying music in early childhood, specifically musical creativity and the use of songs and musical elements in the natural environments of infants. Both Sundin and Bjørkvold argued that music, and singing in general, could be seen as a universal tool for communication, a sort of language that is of enormous value in child development. In 1985, Harald Jørgensen (2009) was appointed a professor of music education at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. Bjørkvold had already been appointed as a professor in Oslo a few years earlier (in 1982), but in the field of musicology rather than music education. As mentioned earlier, Harald Jørgensen was one of the original founders who attended the very first meeting of the NNME. The aforementioned Swedish researcher, Bertil Sundin, was the first Professor of Music Education in Sweden, working at Malmö Academy of Music, Lund University. After Bertil Sundin, it was Goran Folkestad’s turn to make made a great contribution to music education research through
Advancing music education in Northern Europe 13 development of the strong PhD program at Malmö Academy of Music ( Folkestad, 2007a). In addition to Goran Folkestad, another very important scholar who helped put Scandinavia “on the map” globally in field of music education during this period was Bengt Olsson (professor at the University of Gothenberg, Sweden), also one of the original founders of NNME (Olsson, 2002, 2007). Even Ruud, who for many years worked as a professor in Oslo with Harald Jørgensen, also made a profound impact on several music-related fields in Norway and across the Nordic countries, including not only music education, but also music therapy and musicology. Ruud was the main author of the 1987 national school music curriculum in Norway and worked in Oslo, with responsibilities shared between the university and the academy of music. In the Nordic countries, the elite national music academies in Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Oslo are well known as centers for training in music performance and composition, but when it comes to PhD studies in m usic education, arguably the most well-established programs – with a consistent record across decades of development – are those with the Malmö Academy of Music (Lund University), Sweden, and the Sibelius Academy (University of the Arts Helsinki), Finland. Several prominent music education researchers from abroad frequently visited the Nordic countries from the 1990s onward, contributing greatly to the development of music education research, particularly in Malmö and Helsinki. The most active of these has been Liora Bresler (professor, University of Illinois), who frequently visited the Nordic countries as a visiting professor and doctoral examiner for nearly a quarter-century since the early 1990s. Bresler has especially been affiliated with the university college of Stord/Haugesund (now part of Western Norway University of Applied Sciences), and the Malmö Academy of Music, Lund University, Sweden. Other notable researchers who collaborated with development of the programs in Malmö include Gary McPherson (visiting professor at Malmö, 2000–2001) and David Hargreaves (a prolific music psychologist who was one of Goran Folkestad’s doctoral mentors). At the Sibelius Academy, Thomas Regelski, Randall Allsup, and Marissa Silverman have held residencies as Fulbright scholars, while other visiting scholars in music education have included Sidsel Karlsen and Robert Lamb. David Hebert also left his position at Boston University to work for two years as a professor at Sibelius Academy before moving to Norway. Regelski ultimately retired early from his music education position with the State University of New York, and settled in Helsinki, where he became widely known as a stimulating philosophical gadfly and leader of the MayDay Group. Later, from London, both Lucy Green and Pamela Burnard were often invited to the Nordic countries for conferences, and mentored both doctoral and postdoctoral researchers from various Nordic institutions. Liora Bresler has especially helped to internationally promote the work of several Scandinavian scholars, particularly through her massive project
14 Torunn Bakken Hauge and David G. Hebert for Springer press, the International Handbook of Research in Arts Education. Magne Espeland, the main author of the 1997 national school music curriculum in Norway, coedited one section of this International Handbook, and wrote brief commentaries offering a Scandinavian (or Norwegian) response to the chapter on music curriculum by Janet Barrett (pp. 175–178) and on musical creativity by Pamela Burnard (pp. 1215–1218). Espeland had become quite active in the ISME, and was one of the hosts of the ISME 2002 world conference in Bergen during the time that Einar Solbu, another Norwegian, served as president of the organization. In the International Handbook, Goran Folkestad (2007b) also offered a reply to Peter Webster’s chapter on music education technology. Øivind Varkøy (2015), a frequent participant in NNME, contributed a valuable chapter to a more recent arts research handbook for which Liora Bresler is also an editor, The Routledge International Handbook of the Arts and Education. Through systematic work with undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students, as well as with academic cooperation between institutions, the Nordic-Baltic community has developed the field, working in local languages and, increasingly, in English. There is a growing interest among Nordic and Baltic music educators toward taking part in the international community, and an increasing number of joint research projects across national borders, as well as sharing and dissemination of practical experiences, best practices, and innovative results across these two decades of the network’s history. The particular strengths and specialties of each country, institution, and staff have made distinctive contributions to various forms of cooperation in the network. It has been possible to carry out in-depth studies through projects and intensive courses with perspectives and breadth exceeding the capacity of individual institutions. We should note here that music education is a highly interdisciplinary field, drawing upon numerous other disciplines (e.g. philosophy, general education, anthropology, cultural studies, sociology, psychology, natural science, linguistics, ethnology, and history). Through NNME and its activities, the participants get access to different kinds of theories and methodologies and develop an interdisciplinary understanding of the field. Through its projects and annual intensive courses, the network not only contributes to enhancing the education of music teachers but also inspires some to continue further into research studies, and even toward a doctoral (PhD) degree. Thus, the activities of NNME also enhance music education as an academic and research-based discipline. For development of any young field, sharing of existent expertise is crucial. Cooperation beyond borders not only strengthens music education across the Nordic and Baltic community, but also makes our work more visible internationally. Nordic and Baltic approaches to music education entail distinct characteristics that are increasingly recognized by colleagues from other parts of the world. For more than a decade, rhythmic music and rhythmic
Advancing music education in Northern Europe 15 co-performance have been identified as key areas in contemporary Nordic music education (Hauge, 2014). Indeed, writing in 2012, Karlsen and Väkevä observed that “popular music has been part of Nordic compulsory school music curricula for at least 30 years” (Karlsen & Väkevä, 2012, pp. vii–viii). The Nordic and Baltic countries have also been in the forefront of research about music learning in informal contexts (Jørgensen, 2004), and through new social media (Salavuo, 2006). Nordic music educators are also at the forefront of developments in pragmatist music education philosophy (e.g. Väkevä, 2012; Westerlund, 2002), existentialist music education philosophy (e.g. Pio & Varkøy, 2015), legal foundations of music education (Heimonen, 2006), “didactology” and Bildung applications (Nielsen, 2007), phenomenology (Ferm, 2006; Holgersen, 2010), discourse analysis (Schei, 2013), historical foundations of preschool music (Kiilu, 2010), popular music pedagogy (Brinck, 2014; Christophersen, 2013; Georgii-Hemming & Westvall, 2010; Hauge, 2014; Hebert, Abramo, & Smith, 2017; Kallio, 2015), multicultural music education (Hebert & Karlsen, 2010; Hebert & Saether, 2014; Saether, 2010), conducting methods (Marnauza & Bass, 2012), and international-comparative studies (Hebert & Heimonen, 2013; Sepp, Ruokonen, & Ruismaki, 2015). Already at Lund University in 2004, the topic of our annual intensive course was informal learning in music, which from a global perspective was understood as a “cutting-edge” theme. Göran Folkestad (2006) gave a keynote speech, later published in the British Journal of Music Education, where it has since been cited by nearly 400 scholars worldwide. Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (Bergen University College until, 2017) has for all the 20 years been the coordinating institution, and Torunn Bakken Hauge has been the manager/leader of the network and its activities. The network activities include teacher and student exchange, network development and projects with intensive seminars for master students. With NNME being a network between institutions, success has depended on the individual partner representatives in the network. The NNME ICs are co-responsible for the cooperation and the development of the network activities, including the involvement not only of the teachers and students at their own institutions but also of teachers and students at the partner institutions. The network activities are mainly evaluated and developed through strategy discussions at the network meetings where the partner representatives have key functions in discussing, defining, describing, and implementing the different challenges. NNME has for the most part been blessed with responsible partner representatives and teachers, and their efforts are the core and the premises of the network activities. Some ICs and teachers in the network have started as master’s students in the network, later becoming a teacher or even an NNME partner representative. The aforementioned Cecilia Ferm Almqvist is one example, having started as a master’s student at the intensive courses in Oslo and Bergen in 1999 and 2000, later becoming a doctoral student and a teacher ending up as partner representative
16 Torunn Bakken Hauge and David G. Hebert and teacher for three of the Swedish institutions, depending on where she worked during various phases of her ambitious career. There has also been a profound change in gender representation in terms of both participation and leadership of the NNME. When the network started in 1997, all network partner representatives were male and only the manager of the network was female. In the beginning, there were seven men, among them five professors – all representing the very first full professors of music education in the Nordic countries. This gradually changed to the situation today, where women are in the majority. Today, NNME consists of fifteen partner institutions, ten of which have female ICs, five of whom are full professors. Recollections of network graduates While the above points give a general sense of the significance of this network and the story of its development, perhaps the richest accounts of its importance come directly from comments offered by the students themselves who participated in both its intensive courses and mobility exchange program. The following are comments from just a few examples of the many students who completed their master’s degrees and later went on to successful careers in the field of music education: Kristín Valsdóttir (Dean of Arts Education, Iceland Academy of the Arts) wrote: it was of great importance to me as a master student here in Iceland to have the opportunity to share my thoughts and research with other[s] in similar position[s,] as there are always very few students here due to small population. More important, but for the same reasons, it is of great value to get the feedback and conversation with others which deepens your understanding of topics at hand . . . I got information and suggestions on research . . . crucial for my analysis in my thesis. In my opinion this work is of great value for all to share knowledge and gain insight into what is going on in research in this field within the Nordic countries. Bård Husby (music teacher, Rudolf Steiner School, Norway) wrote: Participating in a one week NNME intensive course was probably the most memorable part of my music teacher education. For one, working with other music teachers from other Nordic countries and their respective cultures gave valuable experiences that has definitely shaped my music teaching later on. Furthermore, being introduced to this network made it possible for me to exchange to Iceland on several occasions, something that has had an even bigger impact on my teaching and academic ventures. In this way, the NNME is one of the things that really helped make my education an invaluable experience.
Advancing music education in Northern Europe 17 Synnøve Kvile (lecturer, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Stord campus) wrote: NNME meant a great deal for my understanding of music education as an international field of research and education. I attended two seminars as a master student and I found it motivating and inspiring to hear keynotes and presentations from both senior researchers and students, as well as presenting my own master thesis. I also appreciated to get to know students and professors from other institutions and to feel included and welcomed in this professional fellowship. I still benefit from the experiences I had with NNME as a master student and would highly recommend it to all my students. Felicity Burbridge Rinde (lecturer, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen campus) wrote: As a first year master student at HiB (now HVL, Bergen) I was lucky enough to attend an NNME intensive course in Riga together with three of my fellow students. This was my first experience of an academic conference, and it really opened my eyes to how the academic community works together to generate new knowledge – sharing work before it is completed, receiving feedback and critical questions that push the process forward. Recollections of external keynote speakers For several of the NNME intensive courses we were able to invite internationally known scholars from countries outside of Northern Europe, including the USA, Canada, and the UK, to give keynote speeches. One of our keynote speakers in 2009 was Randall Allsup, who is now an associate professor in New York City at Teachers College, Columbia University. Allsup has recently published his first monograph, which offers a unique philosophical view of the field of music education, based on arguments he was still developing at the time he came to NNME (Allsup, 2016). Allsup had traveled to Finland for one year on a Fullbright grant, where he was observing school music teaching and music teacher education. Allsup reported that he was impressed by aspects of the Finnish model of music teacher education, which he described as “designed around the development of flexible or distributive modes of music teacher expertise” (Allsup, 2011, p. 51). He noticed how through the practice of “band rotation”, music education students would learn diverse instrumental parts. Allsup later wrote regarding Nordic rhythmic music pedagogy, which he observed in Finland, that “Each class would be dedicated to one particular song in one particular style, and after 90 minutes, they knew each part on each instrument, as well as all the vocal lines” (Allsup, 2011, p. 50). However, in his keynote speech for our
18 Torunn Bakken Hauge and David G. Hebert network course, which was later published, Allsup also reflected on some challenges for multiculturalism in Finland, which he illustrated through critique of school music textbooks. I feel pain for the child for whom this curriculum has produced confusion and isolation. I feel pain for the good-hearted textbook publisher who made this failed attempt at inclusivity. But I cannot find a better example of the difficulties that attend the making of musical citizenship; and the reason we need more conversations, not less. (Allsup, 2010, p. 23) Another of our keynote speakers was Patrick Schmidt, who spoke at the 2011 course, and is now an associate professor and Head of Music Education at Western University, Ontario, Canada. Schmidt is a specialist in music education policy who is associated with several notable recent publications (Benedict, Schmidt, Spruce, & Woodford, 2015; Schmidt & Colwell, 2017). Five years later, Schmidt described the students at our intensive course in Orebro as mindful, critical, and highly participative. The network and its organizer clearly had a sense of the overall aims for the network and consequently one felt a sense of cohesive, and collaborative interaction, both in the manner in which dialogue was promoted as well as in the overall structure of the conference. (Personal communication, 2016, December 14) Schmidt also noted “a balance between topics, frameworks, research paradigms – albeit with a clear preference to critical and qualitative work. I was impressed by the inclusion of what were then ‘new’ members to the network, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia”. Schmidt was particularly impressed by what he experienced as widely-read students whose emerging scholarship tends to be well conceived and thought out. Students’ command of English was, unsurprisingly, strong and one felt able to engage in rather complex discussion in English as easily as one would amongst native English speakers. Regarding research methods, Schmidt noticed little to no presentations were reporting on large scale, quantitative, or long-term projects. Case-based and conceptual work was by far the majority and that could be perceived as a weakness. I must admit that – at the time – coming from the US, the manner in which theoretical concepts were positively received seemed refreshing to me. At the
Advancing music education in Northern Europe 19 same time, the apparent over-valuation of notions such as didactic or Bildung, without in-depth and wide-range exploration of their practical implications and consequences. Indeed, similar observations have been made by other outside visitors to conferences in Scandinavia, and support the views also expressed in Iceland and the Baltic nations. Careful, empathetic reflection on such external perceptions is essential toward the strengthening of any academic field. Other notable external keynote speakers have included Lucy Green (University of London) and Sandra Trehub (University of Toronto), who are discussed in later chapters of this book.
Intensive courses in the network The joint intensive courses, which are organized as an international research conference but with a lot more structure and support for master’s students, have been the activity given most priority in the NNME. One of the main objectives of the intensive courses has been to strengthen pedagogical reflections on various music education topics through lectures, workshops, panels, and different kinds of group discussions. Another objective is to give students an opportunity to present their ongoing master thesis projects and receive responses to their work from researchers who they would not otherwise have the opportunity to meet. For each course, we collected anonymous evaluations from the students, some of which will be quoted in this section to give a richer sense of how NNME students have viewed their intensive course experience. The topics and focus of network projects and intensive courses have varied according to the hosting institutions and their specialties and preferences, or the perceived needs across the network. Keynote speeches have played an important role in establishing the major themes of our courses. Many have regarded the keynote speeches as especially insightful and even inspirational for their work. For instance, two participants – one in Iceland 2015 and one in Orebro, Sweden – described what they see as the most valuable parts of our courses in this way: Meeting experienced researchers who were very friendly and willing to share their experience in discussions with us [who are] less experienced. Excellent! Good amount of keynote presentations and high quality. Through the keynote lectures, students get access to more experienced scholars presenting their particular topics of expertise in a unique and effective way not possible at their home institution unless this researcher comes as a guest to their institution. Most institutions are not able to cover the vast array of topics in music education alone, so it is beneficial for all to have keynotes from different institutions.
20 Torunn Bakken Hauge and David G. Hebert To construct a Baltic-Nordic identity of the music education community, the lecturers are mainly chosen from the network institutions. Efforts have been made to include as many different lecturers from these institutions as possible, in order to allow for a multitude of voices to be heard. However, across the last eight years, one or two keynote speakers from outside the Nordic-Baltic context have typically been invited to offer additional views. This allows us to relate more strongly to the international discussion on each issue and negotiate our views and practices within the wider international field. Each main keynote lecture is followed by various kinds of group discussions and processing, facilitated by the teachers in chaired response sessions. The intension of these procedures is to awaken ideas and thoughts which intend to initiate discussions and make possible tensions and nuanced understandings more visible to the students. A student group from Bergen reported as follows on the Iceland course: [T]he keynote speakers presented some questions that could be discussed. In addition, sufficient time for discussion and summary was given. The group report afterwards challenged us to talk in front of the others and rehearse making and presenting a summary. The students’ own presentations, based on their master thesis in progress, is an important part of the program. The main idea is to introduce the students to the academic seminar tradition and prepare and motivate them for eventually attending international conferences. These presentations are commented upon by teachers or doctoral students from another institution, usually also from another country in the network. The role of the teacher in this case is to be a “critical friend”, not a confrontational judge, and to help the student in their progress, an approach first advocated to the network by Cecilia Ferm Almqvist (see chapters 2 and 4). An abstract followed by the presentation paper is sent to the commentator well in advance of the intensive course week so they can prepare comments. Several students have described this opportunity to present their ongoing project to an external audience as one of the most valuable learning experiences of the intensive course week. A student at the Orebro course in 2011 wrote that the most important experience was the comments and the recommendations for my thesis- writing from my commentator and the other participants. A participant in Iceland 2015 described course highlight in our questionnaire as follows: Presenting my master thesis and get constructive and helpful feedback and cheers from different people.
Advancing music education in Northern Europe 21 Another course participant in Iceland 2015 wrote: I think it is difficult to say what the highlight was. But if I have to mention one thing I think the most interesting for me as a 1st year student was to listen to the students presenting their master thesis. This was a nice way for me to start thinking about what I want to write about in my thesis. Another participant at the Iceland course wrote the following in her report: One of the things I found most stimulating at the course was the possibility to present my own master project. The preparation, presentation and feedback together meant a huge step forward in the work with my project, in a short time period. It forced me to think things through in new ways, to be able to communicate and present my project to new people, in a new setting. I found that this helped me see new perspectives, both due to the presenting in itself, and the constructive feedback that followed. Getting feedback was both assuring and opening, to the extent that I developed my project further, both during and after my stay in Iceland. It also adds a dimension to the supervision that I have in my institution, and means seeing the project from different angles. And of course, it is good to experience that all attendees are there to contribute in a positive way. It also makes the project more real, when sharing and getting feedback. In this respect it works as a highly valuable quality check of the project. Herein lies benefits in the long-term, as this experience contributes to the development of my project specifically, but also generally to presenting in future academic contexts. So in that respect it also contributed to my development as a scholar and music educator. But with regard to this I would add that the course experience as a whole is contributive. I very quickly got the feeling of being in a community, which I think is due to the dynamic arrangement of the course and different ways of participation: listening to the keynotes, discussing in different groups, taking rounds in presenting the outcome of discussions, using different methods when working in pairs and groups, and – in addition to the presentations – social events. The way of the activities made me stay alert and thus make the most of it. So this has been a valuable experience for me, both in my development as a scholar and a music educator. The courses have also represented great opportunities for students and teachers of the network institutions to obtain insights into formal music education at all levels across the Nordic and Baltic countries. Although the main target group for all network activities has been master’s students in music (or a similar level), doctoral students and researchers who have functioned as keynote speakers or teachers in the courses also report great learning outcomes and valuable insights from the experience.
22 Torunn Bakken Hauge and David G. Hebert One teacher in Iceland described the highlight of the intensive course week with these words: The academic discussions among both teachers and master students. Some of the keynotes were especially interesting, and it was nice to see the helpful feedback students were receiving from teachers. The NNME courses have covered an array of themes, which will be introduced below and discussed in greater detail in other parts of this book.
Network projects and intensive courses Project for 1997–2007: Music pedagogy in a Nordic perspective Under the project title Musikkpedagogikk i Nordisk perspektiv (Music pedagogy in a Nordic perspective), the first four courses were organized at four different institutions in Norway, Sweden, and Finland. Music pedagogy was at that time still a relatively new academic field in the Nordic countries and there were few specialist teachers at each institution. The strategy at that time was to leverage the expertise and special research interests of each hosting institution in development of each course. In Oslo at the Norwegian Academy of Music in 1999, for instance, there was research on vocal and instrumental teaching, and all keynotes were thus by teachers and researchers from Oslo. Keynote speakers from institutions other than the host institution were the exception rather than the rule. These courses were very successful, and we decided to continue our cooperating in this way. Every year we initiated a new course with different topics, still having the interests and competence at each institution as the primary basis for selecting a topic for each course (Table 1.1). Before the Nordplus application deadline, each year we had to mobilize a host institution and work to keep the interest of the other partner institutions alive. Project for 2008–2010: Democracy in music education from a Nordic perspective In 2007, at the network meeting we decided to change strategies due to concern regarding an application that had been unsuccessful. Instead of planning one course for each year as had been the practice from 2003, we returned to the approach from 1997, which featured long-term planning around a single important topic, which is then developed from different angles, leading to the three intensive courses in 2008, 2009, and 2010. We also decided to look more carefully at the Nordplus Handbook and call for proposals. They asked for institutional cooperation in the application process and for more clearly defining the roles of the visiting teachers. They also asked for inclusion of the Baltic countries. It was thus decided to
Advancing music education in Northern Europe 23 Table 1.1 N NME courses, 1997–2007 Year
Country
Host institution
Course title
1999
Norway
2000
Norway
2001
Finland
2002
Sweden
2003
Sweden
2004
Sweden/ Denmark
2005
Norway
2006
Norway
Norwegian Forskning om instrumental – og Academy of vokalundervisning (Research on Music instrumental – and vocal teaching) Bergen University Avhandlingen og vitenskapsteorien – College musikkundervisning og det postmoderne (The thesis and the theory of science – music teaching and the postmodern) Sibelius Academy Kvantitativ forskning og hjerneforskning I musikkpedagogikk. (Quantitative research and brain research in music pedagogy) Luleåa University Kunnskapssyn og kunnskapsutveikling of Technology innen kunst, media og teknikk (Knowledge exchange and development within art, media and technique) Royal Academy Studier av undervisningsprocesser of Music, och musikaliskt lärande – Stockholm Forskningsperspektiv och undersökningsmetoder (Studies of the processes with teaching and learning in music) Malmö Academy, Open and informal learning of music with Rhythmic inside and outside the institution Music Conservatory Musikkutdanning fra den lærendes Norwegian perspektiv (Music education from the Academy of perspective of the learner) Music Bergen University Musikk og kropp i tilknytning College til musikkutdanning (Music and the body in relation to music education)
make an effort to include keynote speakers from other institutions, and to give the visiting teachers roles as session chairs with keynotes and student presentations, as commentators for student presentations, facilitators of group discussions, and so on. In 2008, we also managed to include both Estonian Academy for Music and Theatre and Riga Teacher Training and Management Academy, and in 2009 we included Lithuanian University for Educational Sciences. Having now institutions from five countries where they neither understood nor spoke “Scandinavian”, the course language changed entirely to English. Heidi Westerlund (Sibelius Academy), Øivind Varkøy (Norwegian Academy of Music), and Sidsel Karlsen (Hedmark University College) were challenged to write a proposal together with Torunn, including a rationale for
24 Torunn Bakken Hauge and David G. Hebert Table 1.2 N NME courses, 2008–2010 Year
Country
Host institution
Course title
2008
Finland
Sibelius Academy
2009
Norway
2010
Denmark
Hedmark University College Danish School of Education
Globalization and identity in music education Social justice and inclusion in music education Power relations in music education
and background to the course. They sought to describe the current situation, previous or preparatory work, and the results of needs analysis undertaken, aims and objectives, working methods, evaluation and dissemination methods. In accordance with the Nordplus Handbook, we decided to focus on the theme of democracy. The Nordic identity of music education had for a while rested on a strong, joint notion of democracy that emphasizes openness, inclusion, and welfare – for all, among others, instead of concentrating only on professional music studies or so-called “highbrow” culture. The questions in our proposal were: what does democracy in music education mean in our contexts and how is the “Nordic model” of democracy manifested in practices of music education in our societies? What kind of hindrances are there in the field of music, in particular, that prevent democratic practices to take place? How may democratic processes change in the future? The three courses together could cover several aspects of the big topic – among them globalization, identity, social justice, inclusion, and power relations. Three courses were described, got financial support, and were implemented. Sven Erik Holgersen at Danish School of Education was the local course leader of the third course (Table 1.2). Project for 2011–2014: Sustainable development in music education Yes, it is constructive to be in this ‘research bubble’, it is inspiring and provoking and challenging and gives you lots of ideas. (participant in Ørebro, 2011) Since the strategy of having three-year projects (each with three annual intensive courses) was successful, we continued with this strategy for the following years, focusing on other topics important for Nordic-Baltic music education that were in accordance with some expressed ideas in Nordplus Guidelines for making a three-year plan. The concepts of “sustainability”, “lifelong learning”, and “quality” were some concepts underlined in the calls and handbooks from Nordplus (Nordplus Handbooks, 1997–2011). In order to involve more institutions and representatives in the cooperation and the network building process and in the writing of a good project application, it was decided at a network meeting to include even more
Advancing music education in Northern Europe 25 people than before in the writing process. Cecilia Ferm Almqvist (at that time Ferm Thorgersen), Lauri Väkevä, and Maria Westvall representing three different institutions were challenged to describe a three-year project with a new big topic referring to the Nordplus concepts and Nordplus criteria together with Torunn. The concept of “sustainability” was included in the title of the three-year project. This concept had most strongly been associated with environmental education, moral education, and teaching subjects related to social studies. According to Bamford, however, it had in the last decades also been a central factor in art education (Bamford, 2006). Art education has a potential of promoting ‘international education’ that targets ‘issues which have application beyond national borders and to which the competencies of intercultural understanding, critical thinking and collaboration are applied in order to shape attitudes which will be conducive to mutual respect and global sustainable development for the future of the human race’. (Hill, 2007, p. 255) Along with other art subjects, music can be conceived as a field of international and cross-cultural education, have a role in promoting attitudes, skills, and knowledge to make informed decisions that help them to deal with problems such as poverty, equality, human rights, education for all, health, security, and interculturality (UNESCO, 2010). Dimensions of plurality and change that concern music education today are related to cultural diversity, values, and opinions, as well as to the variety of forms of musical expression. All these dimensions are more dynamic, transient, and context dependent than ever. This condition challenges music educators, music teacher educators, and researchers. Whether a music educator works in general music education, music institutions, or community music education, today he/she must possess open-mindedness and tolerance toward different kinds of musical culture and values. Music education can along with other forms of art education be considered as part of “lifelong learning”, also a concept underlined in the Nordplus Handbook. While lifelong learning can be defined as a continuing effort to relate to changes in society and culture, it is also connected to ideas of social inclusion, active citizenship, and personal development. Recognition of different needs and styles of learning is important to maintain lifelong learning. Music education is one field in which there is a need to develop new approaches that support the democratic ideas of music for all and music for sustained development. In Baltic and Nordic music education, with its strong ties to European music school systems and conservatory tradition, lifelong learning constitutes a specific challenge, encouraging music educators to expand their professional vision to extracurricular learning environments and alternative teaching strategies.
26 Torunn Bakken Hauge and David G. Hebert Table 1.3 N NME courses, 2011–2014 Year
Country
Host institution
2011
Sweden
Orebro University
2013
Latvia
2014
Estonia
Riga Teacher Training and Educational Management Academy Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre
Course title Challenges and possibilities of plurality and change in music education Music education for lifelong learning: perspectives on professional competence in the 21st century Quality of music teaching, learning and knowledge – perspectives on assessment and evaluation
“Quality” was the third concept highlighted in the Nordplus Handbook. Quality assessment and dynamic evaluation are important themes within the area of sustainable development. Questions raised in our application were: what does “sustainable” mean in different times and contexts? How do we know if music and human beings are developing in a progressive way? What should be the goals for music teaching and learning in schools and for higher education in relation to the development of a democratic society? What kinds of musical knowledge are, and can be, assessed? What is the role of research in this area? For the last two courses Mara Marnauza at Riga Teacher Training and Management Academy and Kristi Kiilu from Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre were challenged to be hosts and local course leaders. It was the first time we organized intensive courses outside the Nordic area, in the Baltic countries (Table 1.3). Project for 2015–2018: Universality of music – pushing the borders of music education, Nordic-Baltic perspectives Finally, we developed our most recent project The universality of music – pushing the borders of music education: Nordic-Baltic perspectives, which has also consisted of three courses (Table 1.4). The group discussions were very fruitful and educating as well as inspiring. Of course, this also means that the Keynotes were good, that the questions for the discussion were well thought through, and that the topic engaged many. (participant in Iceland 2015) Music has often been oversimplistically referred to as a “universal language” because it has been part of all cultures at all times. Research findings also consistently demonstrate that music plays a uniquely valuable role in bridging gaps and developing identity, global empathy, and intercultural understanding. Every human being has a potential for developing their musical
Advancing music education in Northern Europe 27 Table 1.4 N NME courses, 2015–2018 Year
Country
Host institution
Course title
2015
Iceland
University of Iceland
2017
Norway
2018
Finland
Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen University of the Arts, Helsinki
Music, language and communication: building bridges and intercultural connections in a lifespan perspective Music education: identity, citizenship and community Beyond traditional venues of music education
abilities, and music education can happen everywhere at any time, not only in educational institutions. Geir Johansen, in his keynote at the intensive course at University of Iceland, 2015, as well as within his chapter in this book, is critical toward this notion of music as a universal language, which he thinks it is a romantic idea with no reference to reality. Music is connected to context, and in that sense it represents different cultures and languages. History has shown that music also can contribute to the enlarging of gaps and borders between peoples. Additionally, e-learning is a specific area of interest in current music education responding to the new demands developed outside of formal music education. Across cultural borders, digital technology can have a critical role in the shaping of musical practices, and much music learning now takes place online.
Organization of the book In this chapter, we have introduced the higher education network that serves as a platform for this book, as well as some broad themes to be addressed across the entire book, and we now proceed to providing an overview of each of the individual chapters as well as a preview of topics to be more fully addressed in the Conclusion chapter. We begin with the chapters from Sweden, by Cecilia Ferm Almqvist and Eva Saether with Adriana Di Lorenzo Tillborg. Sweden Cecilia Ferm Almqvist is a professor at Luleå University of Technology in Sweden, and has participated in NNME since 1999, first as a master’s student, then as a teacher, a keynote speaker, and an IC. She has also contributed to the network’s project planning for the development of future seminars. In chapter 2, her contribution to this book, the ideas and working strategies for the master’s projects in NNME are considered with reference to philosopher Hannah Arendt’s writings on pluralism, inclusion, and community building. Ferm Almqvist focuses on some important challenges related to informal learning strategies and gender issues that have been revealed in research across recent years.
28 Torunn Bakken Hauge and David G. Hebert Eva Saether is a professor at the Malmö Academy of Music, Lund University, and Adriana Di Lorenzo Tillborg is one of her current PhD students, who has lived in Sweden for several years but originally hails from Brazil. Saether and her colleagues at the Malmö Academy have long participated in the network, and it has served as an important platform for many other collaborations that arose from NNME’s interactions. Sæther and Tillborg’s chapter 3 focuses on democracy and sustainability, and is organized around the following themes: (1) music education and social sustainability, (2) inclusion and policy issues, and (3) democracy. As the authors show, a considerable number of Art and Music schools in Sweden have implemented their adaptation of the music learning strategies of El Sistema, the renowned Venezuelan music education approach that aims for inclusion of even the most disadvantaged children. Sæther’s research on a Swedish approach to El Sistema is presented and discussed in detail. Social inclusion is a key concept in democratic societies, but Tillborg’s research on the Art and Music Schools in Sweden reveals the notable absence of a national policy statement for including vulnerable groups of children and adolescents. Sæther and Tillborg suggest that despite the important developments in terms of democratic approaches to music education in Sweden, further research is needed on actual practices in schools as well as new innovations in this field. Next, we move to the chapters by Norwegian contributors, including Tiri Bergesen Schei and Geir Johansen. Norway Tiri Bergesen Schei is a professor at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences in Bergen, and has been participating in NNME since 2003, with many keynotes on various singing and performance-related topics. One of her main topics is tacit self-censorship among musicians, which has a major impact on music performance. How musical performance, self-censorship, and culture are entangled, and how the doing of music is inseparable from the identity of the doer are of great importance for newcomers on the musical stage, and thus for the research field of music education. In chapter 4, Schei uses a Foucauldian perspective to study how, and why, performers strive to live up to taken-for-granted expectations of what qualifies as a good performance, and how emotional and relational mechanisms govern performers’ self-censorship and professional identity development. Geir Johansen is a professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, and has joined the network activities for a long time, as an IC, teacher, and keynote speaker. He is the author of an important textbook in didactics used by music education students across Norway. In chapter 5, Johansen criticizes some persistent prevailing notions about music being a “universal language” that is supposedly independent of context, including society, culture, history, and geography. He considers such ideas both romantic and pedagogically problematic. As an alternative, Johansen advocates a descriptive-analytic approach, applying some of the theoretical,
Advancing music education in Northern Europe 29 philosophical, and empirical studies that serve as a foundation for justificatory arguments. He concludes with discussing some challenges for future music education. Next, we offer chapters by notable scholars from Iceland, Denmark, and Finland. Iceland Helga Rut Gudmundsdottir is an associate professor at University of Iceland in Reykjavik, where she has been NNME’s founding IC since 2002. She has had several keynotes across the years. In chapter 6, Gudmundsdottir gives her own perspective on the network, as the only associate professor of music education in the small country of Iceland, situated between Norway and North America. She describes the entrance of her Icelandic institution into NNME, offers an overview of music in Icelandic schools, and highlights both the benefits of such a network for a small community like Iceland and some challenges concerning cultural differences. Gudmundsdottir compares of her own research methodology with that of other scholars in the network, concluding that – with the exception of some Baltic scholars – she is almost alone in using quantitative research methods instead of qualitative methods or philosophical inquiry. She points out the need to carry out more research based on quantitative methods in NNME’s intensive courses in the years to come. Denmark Lars Brinck is Head of Research and Development at the Rhythmic M usic Conservatory in Copenhagen, Denmark. He has been an NNME IC for many years and has given several keynote speeches. Brinck’s chapter 7 describes the background for, and philosophy behind, Copenhagen’s Rhythmic Music Conservatory, which exclusively offers programs emphasizing popular music and jazz (in the Nordic countries called “rhythmic music”). Popular music education has a relatively long history and a strong position in Denmark. It can be seen as a way of democratization since popular music is more accessible to larger groups of people, while the collective improvisational working methods – mainly ear-based – also are more inclusive, not demanding competence in traditional musical literacy. In addition to giving a short historical survey of the development of popular music programs in Denmark, Brinck engages in two interrelated discussion themes that have come to surface recently: (1) individual versus collective perspectives on popular music practice and research, and (2) the false dichotomy of musicianship versus “teachership”. Finland Marja Heimonen is a university lecturer at Sibelius Academy-University of Arts, Helsinki, Finland, and a widely published scholar on the legal
30 Torunn Bakken Hauge and David G. Hebert foundations of music education. She has participated in the network for several years, and since 2016 she has been Finland’s IC. A prolific and original researcher in her own right, chapter 8 of this book is also Heimonen’s fourth publication coauthored with editor David G. Hebert. This chapter describes important changes in music education in Finland across recent decades, focusing especially on research production at the universities. Internationalization has resulted in a considerable number of visiting professors at the Sibelius Academy; researchers and students have contributed a more global perspective toward the researched topics. Equity and equality, basic concepts in a democratic society, have across recent decades developed to become central concepts in Finnish arts education in general, and the authors discuss the principle of “music for all” in relation to the actual policies and practices experienced in Finland. We conclude with chapters by our Baltic colleagues, who have greatly enriched the network during the recent years that they have been included, offering new perspectives and opportunities beyond what is typically encountered in Nordic organizations. Estonia Anu Sepp, Urve Läänemets, and Kristi Kiilu are professors at Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre in Tallinn, an institution that has joined the network’s activities since 2008. Professor Kristi Kiilu has for several years been the head of the Music Education department, and also an IC in the network. Chapter 9 describes music education in Estonia, both the historical development and the situation today. Visionary educators are credited for the relatively strong position currently enjoyed by music education in Estonia – a holistic, coherent system from kindergarten through higher education. The national curriculum after 1991, when Estonia became independent, is given special attention, and the authors discuss the principles for selecting content in music education. They address some key questions: how to respond to the rapid changes in the world, including globalization, the technical revolution, and the music industry? How to choose content in music education that at the same time meets these challenges, while being “in tune” with ideas from the modern “free” world, and sustaining the Estonian music traditions that have been so important for the nation’s identity, for instance choral traditions and the famous Song Festivals. Latvia Mara Marnauza and Sanita Madalane, professors representing RTTEMA, arnauza, Riga, offer their coauthored chapter 10 on Latvia. Professor Mara M in addition to being a renowned conductor for two of Latvia’s most acclaimed choirs, has been the founding IC for Latvia since it joined NNME in 2009. Music teacher education in Latvia has seen a paradigm shift across recent decades, now having more emphasis on development of teachers’
Advancing music education in Northern Europe 31 competences and abilities to reflect critically on their own practices. Master students are also now expected to become familiar with research. To illustrate this paradigm shift, the authors present some doctoral dissertations by music colleagues at RTTEMA across the nine years that this institution was a partner institution in NNME. The authors also discuss general school music education and some issues in restructuring of higher education. We note here that the personnel of that department continue in partnership with the network, but on October 1, 2017 the music programs of RTTEMA merged with the Jazeps Vitols Latvian Academy of Music, while the rest of the educational programs were brought into the University of Latvia. Lithuania Jolanta Lasauskiene is an associate professor at the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences in Vilnius, and has been an IC of NNME since 2009. The topic of her chapter 11 is music teacher education in Lithuania, specifically as it has developed during the last two decades after Lithuania’s independence in 1990, in comparison with other countries in Northern Europe. What are the most important changes? Lasauskiene analyzes and evaluates the current situation and identifies the most important changes and problems. She argues that in Lithuania there is a lack of a systematic approach to the content and structure of music teacher competencies regarded as essential for music teachers, which can be effectively applied to ensure high standards of music teacher education at higher education institutions. She presents a model to illustrate the new roles and competencies for music teachers, stating that these competencies are some of the most important factors for improving the music learning outcomes in schools. The book includes two chapters on Lithuania, the reason being that relative to the Nordic countries, as well as both Estonia and Latvia, there has hitherto been very little research in English on music education in Lithuania, despite its unique musical traditions. Authors of these two chapters coordinated so as to ensure that very different material is covered in a complimentary way. The second Lithuania chapter (chapter 12) is coauthored between Lolita Navickiene, Asta Rauduvaite, Giedre Gabnyte, and David G. Hebert. It concerns a unique approach to music teaching developed in Lithuania called emotional imitation method (EIM). The development and distinctive characteristics of EIM are described, including philosophical foundations, and detailed examples of how this method can be used for various objectives in the field of school music education. The authors also provide a general overview of the historical development of music education in Lithuania. Nordic master study Immediately prior to our Conclusion, we also include chapter 13 by Bård Husby (in collaboration with David Hebert), which is a study of an innovative
32 Torunn Bakken Hauge and David G. Hebert music education technology program developed in Iceland and later popularized in schools within other Nordic countries. Mr. Husby completed the research for this chapter as part of his master project under the guidance of Professor Hebert in Bergen, Norway in 2016, and the travel for his study was funded through the NNME via Nordplus mobility grants. The focus of this chapter is a critical investigation of the Biophilia Project, a technologically innovative educational concept and related program created by the famous Icelandic rock musician Björk, a project supported by the Icelandic government as well as by the Nordic Council of Ministers, thus also distributed to the other Nordic countries. The authors document and describe the development of this project, from the initial idea to the Björk: Biophilia iPad “app album” with its working strategies. The authors see this project as a landmark achievement, yet suggest that future technology-based music education projects of this kind promise to be even more effective. Conclusion chapter In our coauthored conclusion, chapter 14, we summarize the main points from the entire book and reflect once again on the three overarching themes and four network projects described here in the Introduction. Additionally, we consider other themes that appear in various chapters contributed to this book, and reflect on similarities and differences seen between the various nations discussed, as well as between Nordic and Baltic regions. Our concluding discussion includes such topics as “artistic research” (arts-based research in the fields of music performance and composition), use of new technologies in music programs, perceived effects of the public “Culture School” model, and the changing role of research in Nordic higher education institutions. Later, we discuss the challenges and responsibilities of leadership within an international network of this kind, and conclude with discussion of lessons learned and actual recommendations for educators who would consider developing similar networks in other parts of the world.
Concluding remarks Readers from outside Northern Europe may recall stories of our ancient ancestors, the Vikings, who played on trumpets called lurs as they departed on magnificent ships to distant lands, down the Volga River as far as Baku, or across the arctic to North America, centuries before Columbus. In some ways we may still to some extent be under-recognized pioneers, perhaps even in the field of music education. Certainly much has changed across c enturies, but songs are still equally important, and other things have also remained the same. In the winter, Northern Europeans still ski through snowy meadows nestled in quiet forests, and in summer we euphorically splash in isolated mountain lakes under the midnight sun, often with a joyful song on our lips.
Advancing music education in Northern Europe 33 Will you join us through our survey of music across these clean, cool Northern lands, where equality, transparency, and innovation are sacred ideals? We are hopeful that this book offers a unique perspective on music education from a dynamic part of the world, while also documenting changes across a particular period of recent history and vividly demonstrating the unique value of international partnerships.
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36 Torunn Bakken Hauge and David G. Hebert Nielsen, F. V. (2007). Music (and arts) education from the point of view of D idaktik and Bildung. In L. Bresler (Ed.), International Handbook of Research in Arts Education (pp. 265–285). Dordrecht: Springer. Nordplus Handbook. (2018). Nordic Council of Ministers, Nordplus Programs. NUFFIC News. (2016). Wave of mergers continues in Russian higher education. NUFFIC News, April 28, 2016. Retrieved July 24, 2017 from www.nuffic.nl/en/ news/nuffic-news/wave-of-mergers-continues-in-russian-higher-education Olsson, B. (2002). Research as a Strategy for Professionalisation. In I. M. Hanken, S. G. Nielsen & M. Nerland (Eds.), Research in and for Higher Music Education: A Festschrift for Harald Jørgensen (Vol. 2, pp. 187–198). Oslo: Norwegian Academy of Music. Olsson, B. (2007). Social Issues. In L. Bresler (Ed.), International Handbook of Research in Arts Education (pp. 989–1002). New York: Springer. Parey, M. & Waldinger, F. (2011). Studying Abroad and the effect on international labour market mobility: Evidence from the introduction of ERASMUS. Economics Journal, 121(551), 194–222. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0297.2010.02369.x Partti, H. (2014). Cosmopolitan musicianship under construction: Digital musicians illuminating emerging values in music education. International Journal of Music Education, 32(1), 3–18. ducation: Pinheiro, R., Geschwind, L. & Aarrevaara, T. (2016). Mergers in Higher E The Experience from Northern Europe. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. Pio, F. & Varkøy, Ø. (Eds.). (2015). Philosophy of Music Education Challenged: Heideggerian Inspirations. New York: Springer. Rönnerman, K., Salo, P., Furu, E. M., Lund, T., Olin, A. & Jakhelln, R. (2016). Bringing ideals into dialogue with practices: On the principles and practices of the Nordic Network for Action Research. Educational Action Research, 24(1), 46–64. doi:10.1080/09650792.2015.1069751 Saether, E. (2010). Music education and the other. Finnish Journal of Music Education 13(1): 45–60. Salavuo, M. (2006). Open and informal online communities as forums of collaborative musical activities and learning. British Journal of Music Education, 23(3), 253–271. Schei, T. B. (2013). Everyday life discourses in Kindergarten. Cultural-Historical Psychology, 2, 31–37. Schippers, H. (2010). Facing the Music: Shaping Music Education from a Global Perspective. New York: Oxford University Press. Schippers, H. & Grant, C. (Eds.). (2016). Sustainable Futures for Music Cultures: An Ecological Perspective. New York: Oxford University Press. Schmidt, P. & Colwell, R. (Eds.). (2017). Policy and the Political Life of Music Education. New York: Oxford University Press. Schwab, K. (2015, November 12). A country created through music. The Atlantic. Retrieved from www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/11/estonia-musicsinging-revolution/415464/ Sepp, A., Ruokonen, I. & Ruismaki, H. (2015). Musical practices and methods in music lessons: a comparative study of Estonian and Finnish general music education. Music Education Research, 17(3), 340–358. Skodvin, O.-J. (1999). Mergers in higher education – Success or failure? Tertiary Education and Management, 5, 65–80.
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2 Master’s seminars in music education across 18 years Inclusion, equality and democracy as lived experience Cecilia Ferm Almqvist Introduction As a newly enrolled master’s student in music education, my supervisor sent me to Oslo and my first Nordic Network for Music Education (NNME) seminar, my first real academic experience. Then, as well as now, the NNME network plays a very important role for students and scholars in a rather small and Northerly situated institution. I was totally overwhelmed by interesting research presentations, an atmosphere of skill and curiosity, as well as generosity and openness, when it came to both academic communication and social activities. I think the feelings that permeated that first seminar in 1999 have for me influenced all following NNME seminars and steering group meetings, as well my expectations all through academic life. Highlights from that experience can be seen as expressions of inclusion, equality and democracy, concepts that I will come back to all through this text. I will reflect upon how I have been included, how my voice has been heard and listened to and how I have experienced democracy as a participant in NNME activities. I will also explore how, together with others, I have contributed likewise within different roles in NNME settings, and how the different content, themes and methods of the seminars have developed intertwined with the inclusive, equal and democratic atmosphere. This chapter will start with a picture of my journey from a master’s student, through the role of PhD student, teacher, keynote speaker, member of the steering group and application writer, which also will function as a red thread through the chapter. Next comes a theoretical introduction where the mentioned concepts will be philosophically based, and thereafter follows a section where inclusive, equal, democratic music education in practice will be questioned and discussed. Finally I will share some thoughts about the future. Thus I will illuminate the different angles of inclusion, equality and democracy that have characterized my participation and experiences while taking part in NNME seminars across 18 years.
From master’s student to keynote speaker After the overwhelming experience in Oslo, I visited one more seminar as a master’s student during the following year, 2001 in Bergen, and it really felt
Master’s seminars in music education 39 the same as the first time. The open, but also very skilled approach among the teachers, as well as the interesting topics, and social events made me socialize as an academic, a happy and curious one. One year later, I participated as a PhD student, and presented my developing work, which was both exciting and inspiring. The setting was a residence outside Helsinki (which I happily returned to several times in connection to NNME the following years) where about 25 master’s students and some first-year PhD students spent a week together with one professor. As the topic, statistics, was very new for almost all of us, and the teaching days were rather long, the social events became even more important. I actually met one of the men in my life there, and we also offered some critical comments about the difference in educational organization, compared with the previous seminars. The peak of the work, cheered on by the professor, was a visit by brain researchers, which was supplemented by musical competitions, collective song making and group sauna sessions. Still, the inclusive atmosphere influenced the seminar. Inspired by what by that point had become mixed NNME experiences, I organized the following seminar in Piteå, Sweden, in 2002, with the support of the steering group. The theme was music education and technology, which seemed suitable for a university of technology as such as the Luleaa University of Technology, where I was employed. The mission was to really include all participants in a cooperative learning process, which the NNME atmosphere supported. Different perspectives on music education and technology were offered by invited keynote speakers with mixed backgrounds and interests, who were also asked to give comments on students’ presentations along with participating teachers. Group discussions connected to each keynote presentation were organized, led by teachers, and all participants were encouraged to make their voices heard. Social events were also organized each evening, including student concerts with dancing, a salsa dance course, and jam sessions. Again I was overwhelmed by the cooperative, curious and inclusive spirit that permeated the whole seminar week. Across the following years, while I participated, as a teacher, member of the steering group, and in cooperative application writing for Nordplus (the network’s funder), our cooperative methods and educational approaches were developed in the spirit of openness among colleagues, institutional partners and participating students. A great variety of group discussion presentations with clear directions to all kinds of members, promoting the sharing of experiences, were outlined. Discussions in the form of vernissages, walk and talk in pairs, collective poster creations, role plays and panel discussion are some common NNME strategies worth mentioning. My contribution as a keynote speaker also featured the themes of inclusion (Ferm Thorgersen, 2010) and critical friendship (Ferm Thorgersen, 2014b). A common consciousness regarding inclusion and equality in music education in general, and in master’s education in particular, has continually developed. Again, skill, openness and curiosity shape NNME courses as a
40 Cecilia Ferm Almqvist lived experience of inclusion, equality and democracy. In the following text, I share Hanna Arendt’s philosophical thinking to shed some theoretical light on the scenes described above. Although Arendt’s philosophical views of Vita Contemplativa and Vita Activa are not directly related to educational contexts (Yarbrough & Stern, 2009), I see them as highly relevant for use as a philosophical lens directed towards the NNME seminars.
Theories of inclusion, equality and democracy In the following discussion, I will use Hannah Arendt’s thinking to view the NNME seminars as a common place, influenced by inclusion, equality and democracy. A crucial premise in Hannah Arendt’s philosophy was the balance between Vita Activa (the life of action), consisting of labour, work and action, and Vita Contemplativa (the life of philosophical contemplation), consisting of different ways of thinking. Arendt sought to see and make connections between these two domains possible. She meant that Vita Activa takes place in the world wherein we are born, through speech and action, where actors and audiences depend on each other. To reach common sense, we also need to step back, Arendt says, and think, imagine, value and reflect – activities that constitute Vita Contemplativa (Arendt, 1958). The NNME seminar weeks are a unique place where master’s students and senior researchers in music education from the Nordic and Baltic countries develop academic skills, common growth and functional research, through sharing each other’s ideas and projects. I will shed light on how structures for participation within different roles help create a space for the kinds of personal expressions, mutual listening and common sense-making essential to formation of a healthy professional community. Vita Activa consists of labour (animal laborans), which focuses on human beings’ survival activities (this could be connected to quality criteria in academia, to produce functional master’s theses, publish scientific work, examine students, etc.); work (homo faber), which contains the creation of necessary things that can give profit, which provides safety but is also mandatory, and is not in harmony with nature, which could be said to concern creating investigations, texts, articles and publications that are accepted by examiners and publishers for example; and action (the political life), where human beings are seen as political beings. Actions at this level do not have any goals in themselves, they concern economics, politics and art, and they contribute to something lasting. This can be compared to the seminar weeks as such, where master’s students and academics are growing, become themselves and develop academic competences, through community, in interaction with each other. According to Arendt, the political life is ideally characterized by equality and pluralism. Human beings are born into the political life, and theoretically require no other qualifications to participate in the good life. Together, people create political and economic institutions in society, which in turn
Master’s seminars in music education 41 become carriers of history. Norms are created in cooperation by active human beings where language functions as a precondition. In the political life, human beings meet as equals in a public space where they speak and act, and freely express their opinions. Through human actions and appearance in public, things get “real”, and through conversations and actions with each other the who appears in relation to a common and meaningful world – a world where people are related as well as separated. These are crucial aspects of well-functioning seminar weeks. How then do the NNME seminar weeks seem to be driven and organized in the spirit of equality, where mutual recognition and respect of each other’s rights, not only each other’s existence, are evident? What can Arendt’s thoughts contribute, when it comes to understanding the NNME processes? In being with others in the common, given world, individual existence becomes possible, Arendt underlines, but there is also a need to critically reflect upon activities, something she labels Vita Contemplativa, and which also has been built into the design of the seminar weeks, aiming for common growth through careful evaluation. According to Arendt, contemplation is all about dealing with objects that are absent, removed from direct sense perception. Hence, an object of thought is always a re-presentation, something or somebody that is absent, just present in the form of an image, familiar for us interested in philosophy. Arendt underlines that philosophers, who primarily cope with thinking, have separated themselves from the communalism that she stresses as man’s most human condition. She further expresses that as the philosopher turns away from most of the perishable world of illusions to enter the world of eternal truths, he turns away from one or the other, and withdraws into himself. This is a crucial phase, seen in carefully commenting upon each others’ writings, to imagine possibilities, and then formulating responses. The responsibility to respond to the appearance of something or someone is what Arendt calls “thinking”. This kind of thinking cannot be acquired in conventional ways; it is not a capacity for reflexive problem solving, or a skill or a strategy: rather it is a search for meaning. Time and tools for such thinking are also crucial when it comes to commenting on each others’ work in seminars. Through the meeting of the Vita Activa and Vita Contemplativa, common sense is constituted, and this condition is something human beings strive towards – in other words intersubjective validity. To reach common sense, we need to take into account different backgrounds and experiences. Otherwise, individuals can be excluded from traditions, lose their power of initiative and feel rootless. Common sense also includes several senses in interplay in experiencing of the world. We need contact with other people’s sense-connected common sense, which in turn presupposes curiosity and respect, the ability to imagine and engaged partaking in creative processes, whereby we also enter into each other’s worlds of imagination. To be able to come close to that in a seminar culture, participants must have the chance to really enter into
42 Cecilia Ferm Almqvist each other’s work, and have time to think, imagine, value and reflect. Then the shared vision of NNME seminars is to deeply communicate, towards becoming themselves as academics, in interaction with each other. Hence, an important starting point is an affirmation of the right to make oneself heard and be listened to. Holistic being in this setting is a way of being where Vita Activa and Vita Contemplativa are balanced, which in turn can be seen as a prerequisite for holistic learning, where “all” have the possibility to experience and embody the language and become able to handle the world. Through this sharing of ideas, projects have sufficient time for discussion, via formulation of comments on presentations and texts, with the sharing of ideas as a way of creating space for common sense in the public space that becomes a professional community. This view of democracy requires of human beings the courage to give up the position they hold and to be engaged in an uncomfortable position that is not theirs, for example by taking and changing roles. This act of “disposition” is freedom, and it cannot exist without the other, Arendt stresses. The impossibility of relying on and trusting oneself totally is the price that has to be paid for freedom. It is in this way that we have to understand democracy based on Arendt’s thoughts, as the possibility of transforming the self, of putting the self in question, which is crucial when others’ ideas, projects, texts and work are to be commented. To make this possible, in places that are steered by traditions and strongly established norms, requires new structures, as well as courage, engaged participation and trust. The structure of the NNME seminar model, based upon prepared open keynote speakers and student presentations, engaged teachers and shared experiences, which have been developed and investigated in the Nordic and later also Baltic music educational seminar weeks, build upon common goals and a view that everyone can learn. Through such a model, the culture and atmosphere at the NNME seminars has continually developed towards an actual cooperative learning setting. The goals and structures for the seminars are common, and at the same time continually reflected upon and openly critiqued. There has been time for building an atmosphere for common trust, which is needed for all participators to share their thoughts, and by that have the possibility to see and become themselves, to contribute and to grow. There have been possibilities for the presenters, as well as for the students and teachers, to separate themselves from their presentations and projects, through comments and discussions, to see them from some distance as something other than a part of themselves, and thereby have possibilities to take the perspective of the other. This in turn has been encouraged by differences when it comes to backgrounds, academic cultures, interests and, for example, theoretical perspectives among the participants. As Arendt underlines, the importance of “contact with other people’s sense-connected common sense, which in turn presuppose curiosity and respect, ability to imagine and engaged partaking in creating processes, where we also go into
Master’s seminars in music education 43 each other’s worlds of imagination”. The separation is also needed to be able to take response and to develop. Taking the perspective of the other is also necessary to be able to give constructive, motivated and possibility-making responses, which is about both confirmation and challenges, at the right level. Also here the structures of the model help, to let the participants be in and develop common sense, where action and reflection are interrelated. When it comes to the use of language, which Arendt stresses in the political life, clarity is crucial: in the text itself, in the presentations (independent of which level or in which phase the presentations or projects have been), in the discussions and formulation of responses, and in how we have chosen to design specific seminar activities. All of these dimensions of clarity in language set the preconditions for how further presentations, discussions and response-giving and -receiving can be formulated. Here the different mother tongues among the participants in the NNME seminars sometimes has proven to be a challenge, which is also connected to different academic cultures. English has evolved to become the agreed upon NNME language, but with new countries included, there have been phases of frustrating communication, which was nevertheless handled well. To share ideas and projects in progress, to separate oneself from a study or text, an act of “disposition” demands courage. As mentioned earlier, Arendt implies that the impossibility of relying on and trusting oneself completely is the price that must be paid for freedom. When one gives the rest of the participants a chance to go into one’s scholarly work, to imagine possibilities and share them, various unknown responses are prompted. According to Arendt, that is a way to understand democracy, as the possibility of transforming the self, of putting the self in question. This is a precondition for development of the ability to take a stand, to grow as a unique intellectual. The sharing of thoughts, a meeting between individuals as equals in a public space, already begins before the actual seminar, where the participants speak and act, and (freely) express their opinions. At the same time, as they have had to step back and imagine, the possibility to share thoughts as well as give and take responses is anticipated and practised. The challenge for the seminar organizers and leaders is to step back – to be in the public place in the spirit of common sense. It is to change roles, and to be curious about the others’ growth and sharing of experiences towards becoming themselves, to be free and to encourage freedom within the pluralistic common place where music educational issues are treated and investigated, surrounded by rather strict frames. How to be a critical friend (Ferm Thorgersen, 2014b; Ferm Thorgersen & Wennergren, 2010, 2015; Ferm Almqvist & Wennergren, 2016), and learn to give and take responses in a fruitful way was developed and elaborated upon in a workshop at the NNME seminar in 2014 (Ferm Thorgersen, 2014b). Also, the different instructions and clear frames for the seminar activities seem to encourage taking steps back, enabling all voices to be heard.
44 Cecilia Ferm Almqvist
Inclusive, equal, democratic music education in practice – ensemble playing courses as a case? Democracy in music education is a major theme that has influenced the NNME seminars from different angles, as should now be clear. For instance, in 2007, a three-year project description “Democracy and Music Education from a Nordic Perspective” was initiated and developed by a group that included Heidi Westerlund, Sidsel Karlsen and others in cooperation with network manager Torunn Bakken Hauge. Funding was obtained for 2008–2010, and several interesting and well-grounded keynote speeches and presentations related to this theme by, for example, Sidsel Karlsen, David Hebert, Øivind Varkøy, Petter Dyndahl, Lauri Väkevä, Lucy Green, Lars Brinck, Cecilia Björck and Live Weider Ellefsen, and inspired discussions followed. My keynote regarding inclusion was one of them (Ferm Thorgersen, 2010), which was followed up by further philosophical and practice-based studies, partly as cooperative research as a result of collegial meetings within the frames of NNME (Ferm Thorgersen, 2014a; Ferm Almqvist & Christophersen, 2016). What has become clear in these studies is the importance of five dimensions of inclusion; namely: providing arts/music education for all, being connected to something larger, allowing access to different forms of expression and communication, establishing preconditions for holistic inclusion and developing special arts education. The results of these studies indicate that there are schools and music educational activities that offer inclusive arts/music learning environments. Results also suggest that a holistic, inclusive view of education encourages a functional and vivid arts/ music education for “all”, both inside and outside the classroom. This does not seem to be the usual case, however, not least when it comes to equality between sexes (Onsrud, 2013; Borgström Källen, 2014), an issue to which I will return. Informal learning and popular music have also constituted important themes for the NNME seminars, where concepts have been reflected upon, explored and discussed, for example in Malmö 2004 by Folkestad and in Helsinki 2008 by Väkevä and Karlsen, when Lucy Green visited the seminar. Popular music has been used in music classrooms for a long time in the Nordic countries (Smith et al., 2017), and the theme is discussed in the Baltic countries as well (Rauduvaite, 2013). When it comes to upper secondary education in Sweden, it has been stated, for example by Borgström-Källén (2014), that ensemble courses, which partly include popular music and can be characterized as non-formal, still entail many challenges to equality. In a few recent case studies, I have examined the stories of female electric guitarists (Ferm Almqvist, 2017a, 2017b). Upon analysing their stories, it became clear to me how great the risk is that unequal gender roles can be conserved in informal settings, such as popular music ensemble education, within the school frame. Earlier research shows non-formal music education as a field of tension. On the one hand, the possibilities of informal settings for musical learning are highlighted (Green, 2001, 2008; Gullberg, 2002; Stålhammar,
Master’s seminars in music education 45 2006), and on the other hand, the risks and responsibilities of the teachers are stressed (Väkevä & Westerlund, 2007; Allsup, 2008; Abramo, 2009; Bergman, 2009; Ericsson & Lindgren, 2010; Georgii-Hemming & Westvall, 2010; Zandén, 2010; Onsrud, 2013; Borgström-Källén, 2014; Kvarnhall, 2015). One example of such risks is stated by Björck (2011) who asserts that a great deal of responsibility is put on young females when it comes to claiming space, both as agency and privacy, in informally organized courses in popular music playing. The aim of my project, which so far has resulted in two small investigations (Ferm Almqvist, 2017a, 2017b), is to contribute to a deepened understanding of the preconditions for, and consequences of, students’ and teachers’ actions in non-formal ensemble music education settings in schools. The music orientation within the National Arts programme in Sweden contains courses in music and music theory (Swedish National Agency for Education, 2011). The ensemble course, characterized by co-playing, is scheduled a couple of times per week, and expects all students to be musically active, both as musicians and leaders (Swedish National Agency for Education, 2013; Borgström-Källén, 2014). Often the class is divided into groups of five to ten students that make music in different ensemble rooms (Borgström-Källén, 2014), which requires the teacher to walk in between. Autonomous learning processes are highly valued among Nordic popular music ensemble teachers, which influence the role of the teacher as well (Zandén, 2010). To address girls’ “hidden” actions in what appear on the surface to be well-functioning learning processes, I used de Beauvoir’s (1949) classic theory of situation, first published in the 1940s. Based on psychological, anthropological and historical studies of material from the 17th century and onwards, they can, according to my reading, still be used to understand human conditions of the 21st century. The phenomenological philosophy of de Beauvoir subscribes to the subjective founding of situated experiences in which empirical life is constituted. In this way, de Beauvoir refers to the inevitable paradoxes of the human condition, that is, the condition of having nite to exist as both singular and universal, as concrete and spiritual, as fi and infinite, and as separate from and bound to other human beings, all at the same time. According to de Beauvoir’s “poetics of subjectivity”, the expressive possibilities of a situated autobiography can make it possible to reveal such fundamental ambiguities of human existence (Björk, 2008). A majority of gender studies in the field of music education are based on the performative theory of Butler (1990), another non-essentialist, but constructionist philosopher. The view of the body in relation to sex differentiates the thought of Butler from de Beauvoir. De Beauvoir states that repetitions and habits are stratified in the body as experiences, yet human beings maintain free will. Butler, on the other hand, sees the body as an effect of a discursive process of materialization (Onsrud, 2013). The approach taken in my studies could make an interesting contribution to the discussion concerning the tensions inherent in non-formal
46 Cecilia Ferm Almqvist education highlighted by the research thus far. Ultimately, the mission is to make educators and researchers reflect upon, and become aware of, the importance of the teacher’s role, as well as common rules in these settings, when it comes to encouraging equality in music education. The results of the investigations show important aspects of the phenomenon becoming a guitar-playing woman that emerged specifically in terms of musical values, “nerdy” boys, hidden “all-round” girls, organization of education, teacher roles and learning outcomes. Becoming the musical “other”, or the second musical sex in the setting of ensemble education, often entails becoming the one who organizes the arrangement, who has to play the less important guitar part and who gets no credit for her work. De Beauvoir’s study shows historical explanations for why female teachers and students adapt to such patriarchal agreements and the male gaze, and thus it becomes understandable why non-formal popular music education may constitute the kind of situations that Lucy’s story describes. What (hopefully) comes out of the analysis is an understanding of why we, as educators, and the young people themselves, continue to reproduce traditional gender roles in non-formal music educational settings (cf. Borgström Källén, 2014). Illuminating the mechanisms of this situation, and thereby enabling meaningful discussion and reflection, ultimately promises to engender change that increases equality, and in the short term poses a robust challenge to the view of “informal learning” and “non-formal education” as inherently “good” in themselves. These studies also include some thoughts about how ensemble playing and other “informal” activities could be better organized in these respects, suggesting ways that educators may more successfully offer equal, inclusive music education, by which human beings become themselves as musical beings, independent of sex. So, how might we transfer the inclusive, equal, democratic atmosphere of NNME courses to general Nordic-Baltic music education of today?
Some thoughts about the future The NNME seminar weeks can be seen as good examples of cooperative learning, where all participants make their voices heard and are listened to, independent of preconditions and backgrounds, where plurality is taken care of and where common goals set the creative atmosphere. Still, there are lingering issues related to inequality that call for further attention. Questions that I would like to see treated in the spirit of NNME are, for instance, the following: 1 What is the responsibility of the music teacher when it comes to avoiding reproduction of traditional gender roles in music education? 2 What rules are needed when music education is organized in informal ways in schools, to still offer all pupils possibilities to achieve curricular goals?
Master’s seminars in music education 47 3 How can female students be inspired to be “nerdier” (serious and dedicated) and male students more “all-round” (holistic and passionate) in their approach to music? 4 How can preconceptions, when it comes to music preferences and role taking in music education, be illuminated and productively reflected upon? 5 How can Nordic-Baltic countries cooperatively develop even more inclusive and democratic music education? Collegial work within the frames of NNME activities has shown how it is possible to develop a professional attitude when it comes to research and education at several levels in music education. We have made great strides, so let’s continue doing that!
References Abramo, J. M. (2011). Gender differences of popular music production in secondary schools. Journal of Research in Music Education, 59(1), 21–43. Allsup, R. E. (2008). Creating an educational framework for popular music in public schools: Anticipating the second-wave. Visions of Research in Music Education, 12, 1–12. Arendt, H. (1958). The human condition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Bergman, Å. (2009). Växa upp med musik: ungdomars musikanvändande i skolan och på fritiden. [To grow up with music: Young people’s use of music in their spare time]. Diss. Göteborg: Göteborgs universitet. Björck, C. (2011). Claiming space: Discourses on gender, popular music, and social change. Diss. Gothenburg: Art Monitor University of Gothenburg. Björk, U. (2008). Poetics of subjectivity existence and expressivity in Simone de Beauvoir’s philosophy. Diss. Helsinki: University of Helsinki Press. Borgström-Källén, C. (2014). När musik gör skillnad. [When music makes change]. Diss. Göteborg: University College for arts and design. Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. New York: Routledge. de Beauvoir, S. (1949). Det Andra Könet. [The second sex]. Gothenburg: Daidalos. Ericsson, C., & Lindgren, M. (2010). Musikklassrummet i blickfånget: vardagskultur, identitet, styrning och kunskapsbildning. [The music classroom as eye appeal: Every ektionen day culture, identity, steering and knowledge constitution]. Halmstad: S för lärarutbildning, Högskolan i Halmstad. Ferm Almqvist, C. (2017a). The risk of unequal gender role conservation: Informal ensemble playing from the perspective of an upper secondary female guitarist. In R. Wright, B. A. Younker, & C. Beynon (Eds.), 21st century music education: Informal learning and non-formal teaching approaches in school and community contexts. London, ON: Canadian Music Educators’ Association. Ferm Almqvist, C. (2017b). How to become a guitar playing human being in the situation of ensemble courses – independent of sex: An episode of the radio podcast Music and Equality. Paper to be presented at ISPME conference in Volos, Greece, 7–10th of June, 2017.
48 Cecilia Ferm Almqvist Ferm Almqvist, C., & Christophersen, C. (2016). Inclusive arts education in two Scandinavian primary schools: A phenomenological case study. International Perspectives on Inclusive Education. doi:10.1080/13603116.2016.1218954 Ferm Almqvist, C., & Wennergren, A.-C. (2016). Utveckling av responskompetens; Seminariet som träningsarena. [Development of response competence: The seminar as a training Arena]. In M. Cronqvist, & A. Maurits (Eds.), Det goda seminariet. Forskarseminariet som lärandemiljö och kollegialt rum. [The good seminar: The research seminar as learning environment and collegial space] (pp. 133–156). Lund: Makadam Förlag. Ferm Thorgersen, C. (2010). Inclusion and involvement: Special needs in music education from a life-world-phenomenological approach. In C. Ferm Thorgersen & S. Karlsen (Eds.), Music, education and innovation: Festschrift for Sture Brändström (pp. 33–52). Luleå: Luleå tekniska universitet. Ferm Thorgersen, C. (2014a). Learning among critical friends in the instrumental setting. Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, 32(2), 60–67. doi:10.1177/8755123314521032 Ferm Thorgersen, C. (2014b). Peer assessment and critical friends on a master’s/doctoral level in theory and practice. Keynote workshop, NNME-seminar in Riga, October, 2014. Ferm Thorgersen, C., & Wennergren, A. C. (2010). How to challenge seminar traditions in an academic community. In C. Ferm Thorgersen & S. Karlsen (Eds.), Music, education and innovation: Festschrift for sture brändström (pp. 145–164). Luleå: Luleå Tekniska Universitet. Ferm Thorgersen, C., & Wennergren, A.-C. (2015). Skriftlig respons i fokus inför deltagarorienterade seminarier. [Written response in focus for participant oriented seminars]. In L. Jons (Ed.), Seminariet i högre utbildning: Erfarenheter och reflektioner. [The seminar in higher education: Experiences and reflections] (pp. 155–173). Lund: Studentlitteratur. Georgii-Hemming, E., & Westvall, M. (2010). Music education – A personal matter? Examining the current discourses of music education in Sweden. British Journal of Music Education, 27(1), 21–33. Green, L. (2001). How popular musicians learn: A way ahead for music education. Aldershot: Ashgate. Green, L. (2008). Music, informal learning and the school: A new classroom pedagogy. Aldershot: Ashgate. Gullberg, A.-K. (2002). Skolvägen eller garagevägen: studier av musikalisk socialisation. [The school way or the Garage way: Studies of musical socialisation]. Diss. Luleå: Department of Music and Media Luleå University of Technology. Kvarnhall, V. (2015). Pojkars musik, reproduktionens tystnad: En explanatorisk studie av pojkars reproducerande förhållningssätt till populärmusik och populärmuciserande. [Boys’ music, the silence of reproduction. An explanatory study of boys’ reproducing approach to popular music and popular musicking]. Diss. Örebro: Örebro Studies in Musicology. Onsrud, S. V. (2013). Kjønn på spill – kjønn i spill. En studie av ungdomsskoleelevers musisering. [Gender at stake. A study of lower secondary students’ musicking]. Bergen: Universitas Bergensis. Rauduvaite, A. (2013). Certain philosophical approaches of education towards cultivation of school student’s value-based attitudes employing popular music.
Master’s seminars in music education 49 In G.-B. von Carlsburg (Ed.), Educational sciences in search of global identity. Algirdas Gaižutis und Airi Liimets. 26, Frankfurt: Peter Lang. Smith, G. D., et al. (Eds.). (2017). Routledge research companion to popular music education. New York: Routledge. Stålhammar, B. (2006). Music and human beings: Music and identity. Örebro: Örebro universitetsbibliotek. Swedish National Agency for Education. (2011). Structure of the arts program. Stockholm: Fritzes. Swedish National Agency for Education. (2013). Curriculum for the upper secondary school. Stockholm: Fritzes. Väkevä, L., & Westerlund, H. (2007). The ‘Method’ of democracy in music education. Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, 6(4), 96–108. Yarbrough, J., & Stern, P. (2009). Vita activa and vita contemplativa: Reflections on Hannah Arendt’s political thought in the life of the mind. The Review of Politics, 43(3), 323–354. Zandén, O. (2010). Samtal om samspel: kvalitetsuppfattningar i musiklärares dialoger om ensemblespel på gymnasiet. [Conversations concerning playing together: Teachers’ concepts of quality in dialogues about ensemble playing in upper secondary schools. Diss. Göteborg: Göteborgs universitet.
3 Reflections on research collaborations A call for Nordic research on music education, sustainability, and democracy Eva Sæther and Adriana Di Lorenzo Tillborg A scientific field only begins to move forward when researchers and users of the research come to accept research findings whether or not they support their previous beliefs.1
The title of our chapter refers to the collaborative dimensions of the Nordic Network for Music Education (NNME) in professional development and knowledge development within our research field. This includes networking between senior and junior researchers, supervisors from different institutions, master’s students, Ph.D. students, and the many discussions that challenge previous beliefs and ultimately shape the development of a scholarly field. The field of music education has responded to the rapid changes in society caused by migration across recent decades that called for adjustments, reconceptualizations, and extensive ethical considerations. As Chapter 1 shows, the content of the courses within the NNME network has undergone thematic shifts. While the first courses (1997–2007) naturally focused on the characteristics of the emerging field of music education research within the Nordic countries, the latter phase from 2008 reflects globalization with such themes as assessment (the impact of international evaluations), identity, social justice, power relations, sustainable development, and citizenship, thereby intensifying the need for cross- and intercultural collaborations. In education in general, and music education in particular, there is a growing body of research on intercultural issues. Earlier visions of multicultural music education, emphasizing a variety of genres and ethnic representation, have been replaced by strategies to prevent ethnocentric attitudes (Campbell & Wiggins, 2013). Built on results from the ongoing project Global Visions (Uniarts Helsinki, 2017) and from the experience of codeveloping intercultural music teacher education in Finland, Israel, and Nepal, Westerlund and Karlsen (2017, p. 95) state that “…understanding the complexity of intercultural negotiation should be an explicit goal for music teacher education…”. The nature of intercultural pedagogic competence
Reflections on Nordic research collaborations 51 and the need for it to be developed in praxis are discussed by Sæther (2016, forthcoming) in her research on the glocal music education phenomena El Sistema. The backbone of our chapter is a collaboration of supervisory Professor Eva Sæther and Ph.D. student Adriana Di Lorenzo Tillborg, working in the spirit of the NNME network. The burning themes from the network resonate with the EU declaration Promoting citizenship and the common values of freedom, tolerance and non-discrimination through education (2016), which point to schools as the most crucial places for the societal change needed in order to eschew fundamentalism and strengthen democracy. The emerging results from our respective research projects are organized within the following themes: (i) music education and social sustainability, (ii) inclusion and policy issues, and (iii) democracy. In the concluding parts, we discuss what we see as the most challenging issues for the future development of music education and the role of NNME in handling these challenges. The first section on music education and social sustainability rests on Eva Sæther’s ongoing research on the intervention of the music education concept El Sistema (originally from Venezuela) in the Swedish educational landscape. The latter section on inclusion and policy issues rests on Adriana Di Lorenzo Tillborg’s ongoing Ph.D. study on Sweden’s Art and Music Schools. In the section on democracy, we join forces, combining reflections from our respective research projects. To contextualize our three themes we briefly map the current situation for music education, and music education research, in Sweden – a mapping that shows the diversity on an organizational level in addition to the more content-related issues that are discussed in the following sections.
The music education landscape in Sweden In Sweden, music is a subject in years 1 to 9 of compulsory school, including even in schools for students with learning disabilities.2 In 2016 there were 4,847 compulsory schools and 591 schools for students with learning disabilities in Sweden. In total, there were over one million pupils attending compulsory schools, and almost 10,000 pupils at compulsory schools for those with learning disabilities (Skolverket, 2017). Music is also the largest subject in Sweden’s public-funded Art and Music Schools.3 In 2016 there were Art and Music School activities in 283 of Sweden’s 290 municipalities. These institutions have a variety of subjects and activities, such as instrument lessons, dance, drama, and visual arts. About 230,000 pupils attend such schools in Sweden in addition to their school education in academic subjects (Kulturskolerådet, 2017). El Sistema is a Venezuelan system that has been spreading across Sweden and now exists in 35 Swedish municipalities. It involves 18 professional orchestras and choirs and about 9,000 children. In almost all cases in Sweden, El Sistema is organized by Art and Music Schools in the municipalities, as a
52 Eva Sæther and Adriana Di Lorenzo Tillborg kind of extracurricular instrumental and ensemble lesson. In Malmö, as in many of the other municipalities, these lessons take place in the compulsory school buildings, right after the school day ends (El Sistema, 2017). Regarding music instruction in years 1 to 9 of the Swedish school system (compulsory schools), there are a total of 230 hours of music lessons per year in compulsory school, which corresponds to almost one hour of music lessons every school week, and 395 hours in special needs schools, amounts to almost twice as much time. Compulsory schools for pupils with severe disabilities (training schools)4 do not have music as a separate subject, but music studies may be included within the broader category of “aesthetic subjects”. Pupils who attend a compulsory school that offers El Sistema can get around 76 additional hours of music lessons for each year with El Sistema, as in the case of Malmö and Gothenburg, considering that they, according to Lindgren, Bergman, and Sæther (2016), get approximately three extra hours of music lessons per week. Music is not a subject in every high school5 program, but can be chosen as an extra subject in many programs. There are specific high school programs with specialization in music (in Swedish Estetiska programmet). In such programs, there are subjects such as instrument, ensemble, choir, music production, composition, and music for professional dancers (Skolverket, 2017). There are seven institutions with music teacher education programs in Sweden: Malmö Academy of Music (Lund University), Gothenburg University, Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, Ingesund A cademy of Music, Piteå Academy of Music (Luleå University), Örebro U niversity, and Linnæus University. Around 165 students in total are accepted to these music teacher education programs in Sweden every year. At the Malmö Academy of Music, the music teacher program qualifies for applying to Ph.D. studies, since it leads to a master’s degree in music education. The specific requirements for admission to Ph.D. studies are determined by each university and therefore vary. Four of the mentioned institutions, Malmö niversity, Stockholm Academy of Music (Lund University), Gothenburg U niversity), Royal Academy of Music, and Piteå Academy of Music (Luleå U have Ph.D. programs in music education, and across these Swedish i nstitutions there are currently ten Ph.D. students in music e ducation. In addition to Ph.D. students in music education, there are ten other Ph.D. usic education, although students whose research projects are related to m they are being developed in the context of other academic subjects at their respective universities: five are in musicology (at Örebro University), four othenburg University), in educational science and teacher education (at G and one in musical performance and i nterpretation (at Gothenburg University). There are also other institutions with other kinds of teacher training: Stockholm’s pedagogical institution (SMI), where musicians with a university degree can be trained to work in Art and Music Schools, but without
Reflections on Nordic research collaborations 53 getting a university degree in education; Umeå University, where music is an optional profile (one of 16 different profiles for the teacher education program) which can be chosen but together with another subject. In summary, the Swedish landscape for music education is c haracterized by a high degree of diversity and a low degree of “typical” national traits. However, one such national characteristic is the early introduction of popular music in classroom teaching of music. The Om utbildning på musikområdet (OMUS) reform of 1978 paved the way for a widened repertoire in higher music education (Olsson, 1993), which noticeably moved the former dominance of Western classical music to become merely one genre among many others. Swedish music education researchers Bergman and Lindgren (2014) and Georgii-Hemming and Westvall (2010) have shown how the popular music discourse has gained a position of hegemony, moving Western classical music more to the margins.
Music education and social sustainability Some features of the conservatory tradition of teaching music, as well as Swedish pop-rock hegemony, are destabilized by El Sistema (Lindgren & Bergman, 2014). With El Sistema follows a wider framing of music education. For example, when El Sistema was introduced to Malmö in 2013 at two schools in an area with 85 nationalities represented among its inhabitants, the 450 children and six music teachers quickly found themselves as main players in the media – often portrayed as the hope for the future, or as an alternative to the picture of Malmö as a tough city in crisis. The global growth of El Sistema has gained both respect and wonder. One of the troubling questions is whether Western classical music – the music of the colonizers – can contribute to a more democratic society. Is the symphony orchestra a democratic place, or rather a place for fostering of obedience and submission? As Baker (2014) points at in his critique of El Sistema in Venezuela, social justice and inclusion are complex c oncepts and need to be handled with great care. His argument is much in line with Nettl’s (1995) observations of music education in American schools, based on his ethnomusicological standpoint that music education reflects social values: “The music school is the analogue of a factory, corporation and scientific establishment; it reflects the society of which it is a part” (Nettl, 1995, p. 145). In 1995 Bruno Nettl rhetorically asked if the dominance of classical music in American schools reflects a society of marionettes, willing to f ollow the conductor. In 2016 it is interesting to note how El Sistema, with its dominance of Western classical music, as it lands in Sweden, disturbs the hegemonic position of pop-rock music in Swedish music classrooms, a point easily misunderstood by observers from outside Scandinavia. This hegemony of popular music is the result of the OMUS reform in 1993, a reform that opened up higher music education in Sweden to include
54 Eva Sæther and Adriana Di Lorenzo Tillborg all genres, for example, Nordic folk music and music from other ethnic groups. The term “World Music” had not yet come into use (Sæther, 2003). The irony of this reform is that it was too efficient. While in general S wedish music education has been acknowledged internationally for its updated content, Swedish research (Bergman, 2009; Lindgren & Ericsson, 2010; Westvall & Georgii-Hemming, 2010) has shown that pop/rock dominance in the classrooms prevents students from developing their full musical potential. Girls, for example, have often been limited by their “given” position as vocalists in such ensembles. Other musical styles than popular music have been marginalized, thereby limiting both access to a variety of musical tools and the affordances of musical diversity. During the first semester of El Sistema in Malmö, the music t eachers composed songs to be performed by children at the numerous concerts that contributed to both the children’s musical development and the position of El Sistema as an important factor in the cultural life of Malmö. One of the most popular songs was “We want to build Malmö” (Vi vill bygga Malmö), as documented in videos (www.youtube.com/ watch?v=wWacDrP9iJ4). The lyrics of this song capture the essence of the self-image of El Sistema in Sweden: “We want to build Malmö, with music and song…”. In addition, the music serves as a reminder of the d iscourse in music that c ontributes to the negotiation and formation of new identities (Folkestad, 2013). In the case of El Sistema in Malmö, the negotiations involve both the children and the music teachers – and at the institutional level, the music and art school. The song has been performed by the El Sistema children for numerous prestigious and value-laden ulticultural city in Sweden (Sæther, performances in Malmö, the most m 2016). By performing this song, the vision of the local El Sistema plays out in practice as the children insist on taking part in the construction of their future. The song text thereby serves as a musical illustration of music education and social sustainability. Before delving deeper into these themes, El Sistema in Malmö will be briefly contextualized. The music education concept El Sistema now spreads rapidly over the world and as it lands in different school contexts and educational traditions it takes on different shapes. When it started in Venezuela in the 1970s the ambition was to save poor children living on the streets by offering them high-quality and intense training in classical music – and a place in an orchestra. In Sweden, El Sistema is promoted as a tool to promote integration and now exists in 35 cities. In Malmö, the activity is included into the regular budget of the municipal Art and Music School (Kulturskolan) as an answer to the recommendation from the researchers in the Malmö commission6 to include culture in efforts to counteract the growing socioeconomic gap in Malmö. Music education in this context, Malmö, is regarded as a tool for building a more sustainable society. The cornerstones of El Sistema are, according to an international review, social development through music, collaborative learning in ensembles,
Reflections on Nordic research collaborations 55 an inclusive approach, frequent contact, and promotion of community (Creech, Gonzales-Moreno, Lorenzino, & Waitman, 2013). The most important characteristics are: • • • • • •
Possibilities to develop new musical abilities and to perform Possibilities to develop cultural capital (in the sense of Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1985)) Interpersonal bonds and solidarity in the work toward shared goals Intense and frequent contact between teachers and students Mutual respect Acknowledgment of quality (Creech et al., 2013)
To the music teachers working within the El Sistema in Malmö, the collaborative and inclusive approach has on the one hand been a challenging and new task – on the other hand, the challenges seem to have developed a sense for reflexive awareness, developed in praxis. Reflexive awareness During recent decades, empowerment and agency have been used as concepts that describe whether or not individual citizens have the power and possibility to change their own situation. Sociologist Mikael Stigendal, one of the authors of the Malmö Commission, argues that for socially sustainable societies to have a future, collective empowerment should be in focus, rather than merely individual interests (Stigendal, 2016). Both societal structures and agents are important for sustainable development. Stigendal also claims that the authorities need to shift their attention toward potentials, instead of looking primarily at problems. In the El Sistema context it might, for example, be useful to talk about the first two involved schools not as segregated, but rather as integrated. The results of the fieldwork on the introduction of El Sistema in Malmö (Sæther, 2016) show that all involved agents – the music teachers, the children, and the members of the Symphony Orchestra – have been exposed to habitus alterations, a concept introduced by Pöllmann (2016) and developed from Bourdieu’s concept habitus clivé (Friedman, 2016). Habitus alterations are direct in situ intercultural experiences, strong enough to interrupt “long-accustomed practical sense and taken-for-granted ways of being reflexive, possibly stimulating new forms of reflexive intercultural awareness and a renewed feel for the intercultural game” (Pöllmann, 2016, p. 6). El Sistema provides practical opportunities to dislocate habitus through cross-cultural mobility, thereby also developing music teachers’ intercultural pedagogic competence, a competence needed in times of major migration flows and growing diversity. Working in multicultural classrooms, with both artistic and social goals, puts the music teachers in situations where they have to make use of competencies gained during their teacher training,
56 Eva Sæther and Adriana Di Lorenzo Tillborg while at the same time being open to alterations of their own beliefs. In that process, the music teachers develop both as teachers and as contributors to the scientific field of music education.
Inclusion and policy enactment in music education The implementation of El Sistema as a tool to promote integration in Sweden is one illustration of a Scandinavian discourse of making music and arts accessible to everyone (Heimonen, 2003, 2004; Karlsen, Westerlund, Partti, & Solbu, 2013). The presence of comprehensive systems of Art and Music Schools in every Nordic country and the spreading of El Sistema in Sweden’s municipalities are other examples. The Art and Music School system in Sweden was originally constituted of schools that exclusively offered music programs/activities. Today the system has a variety of subjects and activities besides music, such as dance, drama, and visual arts, as mentioned before. This development, which started in the 1990s, was motivated by a desire to provide broader opportunities to cultural activities (Kulturskolerådet, 2017), which might lead to reaching to new groups of pupils. Despite the proportions of the system, a national policy has never been established for Art and Music Schools in Sweden. Both the music education research field (Rostvall & West, 2001; Heimonen, 2004; Holmberg, 2010) usic and the music education praxis field, represented by the Art and M School leaders (Kulturskolerådet, 2017), have drawn attention to the absence of national policy documents. However, the situation might be about to change since the Swedish government commissioned an investigation to suggest a national strategy (Kulturskolerådet, 2017). The full report from the investigation was presented on October 24, 2016, as a book with the title En inkluderande skola på egen grund [An inclusive school on its own terms] (SOU, 2016:69). As explained elsewhere, the first part of the title points to inclusion as an important foundation for music and art schools and the second part highlights the specificity of this kind of school as a unique agent with its own legitimacy within Swedish society (Di Lorenzo Tillborg, 2017). The outcomes from the investigation point to the need for national aims, a national center for music and art schools, funding to municipal cooperation at regional level, strengthening teacher education, as well as investment on research and funding for different purposes. The investigation also takes a critical stance and problematizes the democratic foundation of Sweden’s Art and Music Schools, exposing excluded groups of children and adolescents. It is interesting to note that even though a national policy has not yet been created, the results of Adriana’s article on Art and Music School leaders’ discursive practices (Di Lorenzo Tillborg, 2017) expose how the leaders are positioning themselves in relation to a national policy. The leaders have actually been enacting policy, as per Braun, Maguire, and Ball (2010) since the 2013 meeting of the Association of Art and Music School leaders,
Reflections on Nordic research collaborations 57 when the association officially decided to work toward a national strategy (Kulturskolerådet, 2017). Furthermore, leaders have also actively used social media as an instrument for discussions and argumentations. Similar to what happened during the establishment of El Sistema in Malmö, the traditional media field has also played an important role in the national policy process. Both the already mentioned policy agents – Art and Music School leaders, researchers and representatives from the government – but also representatives from other parts of society – p rofessional musicians and representatives from culture institutions – are main players in and through newspaper articles, TV news, and radio programs. Who, then, can be regarded as a policy maker, and which agents are most successful at influencing the policy-making process? This description of policy shaped by multiple agents endorses a view of policy as complex processes where agents influence each other as well as the process itself (Braun et al., 2010; Schmidt, 2012, 2017; Wiggins, 2015). As a researcher, in the moment Di Lorenzo Tillborg decided to undertake a research project focusing on policy and inclusion, she also became an agent in the policy process, bringing specific themes to the political agenda, such as the inclusion of refugees and of children and adolescents in need of special support. By focusing on these issues, Di Lorenzo Tillborg’s Ph.D. project might contribute to emphasize the importance of considering the inclusion of diverse learners when making and enacting policy. Due to the absence of national regulation, Sweden’s Art and Music Schools have until now adopted different policies, also regarding inclusion of diverse learners. The potential of such schools to facilitate meetings between different kinds of individuals, promoting inclusion and social change, arguably should be emphasized and encouraged by a national policy. Music education policy and practice can collaborate for building a more sustainable society. Collaborations between the research field, policy, and practice can be facilitated by different kinds of networks. Research collaborations through NNME network The NNME network is a forum where master’s students, who in many cases also are active in the praxis field as music teachers, can meet more experienced researchers to discuss challenges in music education practice, policy, and research, and to develop new knowledge. As mentioned before, from 2008 the network themes, such as social justice, power relations, sustainable development, and citizenship, reflect globalization and the need for crossand intercultural collaboration. While writing a master’s thesis about tensions between tradition and market aesthetics in Art and Music Schools in Sweden (tensions that might be a consequence of globalization) (Di Lorenzo Tillborg, 2015), Di Lorenzo Tillborg participated in the NNME intensive course in 2014 and presented the ongoing thesis. The presentation took place in a friendly and collaborative
58 Eva Sæther and Adriana Di Lorenzo Tillborg environment, in the spirit of Cecilia Ferm Almqvist’s keynote presentation on “critical friends” at the same NNME course. Sigrid Jordal Havre and Live Weider Ellefsen, both Ph.D. students then, as well as Professor Cecilia Ferm Almqvist had important comments and questions, challenging previous beliefs and theoretical considerations. About two years later, Weider Ellefsen, who had completed her Ph.D. studies (with Eva Sæther as one of the opponents at the defense), was the invited discussant to Di Lorenzo Tillborg’s 25% seminar after one year of the Ph.D. studies. Weider Ellefsen is now also collaborating as a coauthor in one of the articles for Di Lorenzo Tillborg’s Ph.D. thesis. The date of Di Lorenzo Tillborg’s NNME presentation, November 6, 2014, turned out to be one of the most memorable days in her professional trajectory, not only because of the presentation and the new collaborations that were initiated then, but also because Di Lorenzo Tillborg found out that she had been accepted as a Ph.D. student at Malmö Academy of Music, Lund University. That memorable day was actually also her birthday, so Cecilia Ferm Almqvist was no longer the only one to celebrate her birthday during the network’s annual intensive course week. The mentioned events are just a few examples of how the NNME network has contributed to constitute a ground for reflections and collaborations in the context of the music education research field. From the supervisor’s point of view, the above-mentioned examples of fruitful but challenging input from colleagues in the NNME network on her students’ work have served as useful input to the development of quality criteria and supervision procedures. In the spirit of friendly critical collaboration, the NNME also democratizes the knowledge production by involving everyone in the process, from fresh master’s students to senior researchers.
Democracy As earlier research suggests, music education can be a tool for promoting democracy and social development (Bergman, Lindgren, & Sæther, 2016). However, as Kertz-Welzel (2016) shows, there are no guarantees that music education is always to the benefit of democratic and inclusive ambitions. It depends on both the “taken-for-granted” factors that influence curricula and how well prepared and how well informed music educators are to work in conflict-filled situations (Karlsen & Westerlund, 2010). Within El Sistema, as in parts of the discourse on diversity, there is an idea that it is possible to reach consensus; we can all be part of the WE (no matter who defined that WE). This idea is criticized by Mouffe (2007) who describes democracy as a struggle about positions. What happens in the public sphere, the school, depends on what articulatory practices (like artistic practice) are regarded as natural or evident, within the frame of dominating ideas. In order to challenge such ideas and promote democracy, there is, in Michel Foucault’s terms (1971/1993), a need to expose the repressed and excluded discourses. Our research shows that in Sweden, dominating practices and ideas are
Reflections on Nordic research collaborations 59 challenged by El Sistema – and by the Art and Music School investigation (SOU, 2016:69). Mouffe (2007) argues that artistic praxis might play a crucial role in how societal conflicts are managed. She presents a model where there is neither victory nor deprivation, but where different positions are constantly in friction, often with artistic practices as important articulatory practices for the conflicts to be played out. The school and the Art and Music School serve as arenas for confrontations of different hegemonic projects, seen, for instance, in the construction of the music subject as aesthetic bildung or more as musicking.7 It is this struggle that is the essence of democratic societies – the struggle between different hegemonic projects. By introducing the concept of agonistic struggle, Mouffe (2007) highlights the coexistence of different hegemonic projects, opposing ideas that can never be rationally reconciled. Instead, she argues, what characterizes a society at a given moment is always the result of pragmatic constructions that can be deconstructed and reformulated at any moment. This view is supported by the analysis of Art and Music Schools as constituted within and through tension fields between discourses (Di Lorenzo Tillborg, 2017). Researchers have an important part to play in bringing excluded and repressed discourses to that struggle. As discussed elsewhere, “If El Sistema Sweden is to support the sustainable growth of the children’s selves it has to offer a creative musical arena that challenges the modernist idea of humans as universal and alike” (Bergman, Lindgren, & Sæther, 2016, p. 9). However, it is also important to avoid constructing cultural differences from binary categories. Bearing in mind what Bhabha (1994/2004) introduces as a third space, a space in between us and them, it is possible to pay attention to what discursive alternatives are made possible within the practice of El Sistema. This third space is a place for negotiations, and potentially new hybrid forms to emerge. We argue that the negotiations that take place within the practices of El Sistema in Sweden, as well as in the ongoing policy process of Sweden’s Art and Music Schools, will potentially contribute to the development of music education praxes and policies that are particularly relevant in a diverse society.
Conclusion The emerging results from our ongoing research projects touch the importance of research being connected to the field of praxis and engaging in policy as tools for democratic praxis. Music education researchers have claimed that music teachers and researchers have a responsibility to focus on the marginalized (Dyndahl, 2006; Vestad, 2015). Our extension of this claim is that undertaking research projects for policy as much as on policy is a way to promote inclusion, democracy, and sustainability. In our respective research projects, we see two possible developments of music education in the Nordic countries. The first is rather pessimistic, assuming that the music subject risks being marginalized due to the increasing
60 Eva Sæther and Adriana Di Lorenzo Tillborg weight given to the core subjects that are measured in major international tests like the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The current situation for music teacher education in nearby Denmark is especially a concern. The other one is more optimistic and includes the importance of NNME and other networks. Music education is a small field of research; therefore, we need each other to produce and spread research that shows the importance of music education, especially in times of migration challenges and globalization, with the increasing need for intercultural competence. Networks that facilitate collaborative research are important in strengthening the music education research field. Accordingly, a new network has been created during 2017, a network for research concerning Nordic Art and Music Schools (In Norwegian Nordiskt Nettverk för kulturskolerelatert forskning), as an expansion of the earlier Norwegian network. The network includes research in different educational fields represented in Art and Music schools, such as music, drama, and dance, establishing a foundation for creative interdisciplinary collaborations concerning specific challenges for Nordic Art and Music Schools. Finally, we return to our initial quotation, on the importance of challenging previous beliefs. Networks such as the NNME network stimulate a critical and reflective approach and create a potential for development of our research field. They do so by inviting us to imaginary spaces, where different “taken-for-granteds” are questioned and collaboratively remodeled by sharing access to each other’s experiences, analytical tools, and exemplary actions.
Notes 1 Robert E. Slavin, Director of the Center for Research and Reform in Education at John Hopkins University, blog 20160804. 2 In Swedish särgrundskolor or särskolor. 3 Art and Music Schools is an umbrella term including all music schools and schools with music and other art subjects that are financed by the municipalities in Sweden. In Swedish kulturskolor. 4 In Swedish träningsskolor. 5 In Swedish gymnasieskola. 6 Based on research that showed growing socioeconomic gaps in Malmö, the task of the Malmö Commissions researcher was to suggest recommendations to counteract the worrying development. After two years of interdisciplinary work, the commission published a long list of possible actions (Stigendal & Östergren, 2013). 7 Small (1998) introduced the concept of musicking to emphasize the active and social aspects of music making, including listening, the audience, the many ways of making and performing music and the many functions of music in society.
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Reflections on Nordic research collaborations 63 Stigendal, M. (2016). Samhällsgränser. Ojämlikhetens orsaker och framtidsmöjligheterna i en storstad som Malmö. Stockholm: Liber. Stigendal, M. & Östergren, P.-O. (Eds.). (2013). Malmös väg mot en hållbar framtid: hälsa, välfärd och rättvisa. Malmö: Kommissionen för ett socialt hållbart Malmö. Uniarts Helsinki. (2017). Retrieved December 5, 2018 from: https://sites.uniarts. fi/web/globalvisions. Vestad, I. L. (2015). Ethnography and discourse analysis. A combined approach to the exploration of marginalisations in young children’s lives. In E conomidou, S. & Stakelum, M. (Eds.), European perspectives on music education 4. Every learner counts. Democracy and inclusion in music education (pp. 171–188). Innsbruck: Helbling. Westerlund, H. & Karlsen, S. (2017). Knowledge production beyond local and national blindspots: Remedying professional ocularcentrism of diversity in music teacher education. Action, Criticism and Theory for Music Education, 16(3), 78–107. Westvall, M. & Georgii-Hemming, E. (2010). Music education – A personal matter? Examining the current discourses of music education in Sweden. British Journal of Music Education, 27(1), 21–33. olicy Wiggins, J. (2015). Constructivism, policy, and arts education. Arts Education P Review, 116(3), 115–117. doi:10.1080/10632913.2015.1038673.
4 Musical performance and tacit self-censorship Tiri Bergesen Schei
Introduction: my personal involvement in NNME Since 2003 I have, as a master’s program teacher and leader, attended seven intensive Nordplus course weeks organized by the Nordic Network for Music Education (NNME).1 The Nordplus courses are of great importance for the students, creating a unique opportunity to present and discuss their research projects with peers and teachers from the Nordic and Baltic countries. They are thrown into a real research community, engaging with some of the scholars who write the influential articles and books that they use in their studies. Participating teachers also greatly benefit from the NNME courses. We have been given the exclusive opportunity to develop our identity as a research community in Northern Europe, to reach out and present our own projects to students and research fellows, and to establish networks, formal and personal, with colleagues. Jørgensen (2004) and Olsson (2008) have mapped the status quo of research in music education on the PhD level up to 2000 (Schei, Espeland, & Stige, 2013). A charting of the activity on the master’s level in Northern Europe has so far not been done. By continuously arranging seminars for the master’s students, the NNME network is contributing to set the agenda of what topics are considered important for the future field of music education in the Nordic and the Baltic countries. The present book is important by illuminating how new Nordic researchers within the field of music education are educated and offered rich opportunities to communicate with each other. I have given four keynote talks at NNME courses and been involved as an opponent and commentator on master’s students’ papers in every one of them. As a group leader of discussions I have become acquainted with many students. Quite a few of them have continued in PhD programs and are now colleagues in the NNME network and the Nordic Network for Music Education Research. Of special importance to me is the N ordplus teacher exchange program, and the opportunities I have had to travel and connect with colleagues at universities and colleges in the NNME network.2 This has allowed me to develop collaboration across countries and institutions. Because we know each other’s fields of expertise, it has
Musical performance and self-censorship 65 become easy to ask colleagues in the NNME network to be opponents for PhD candidates and contribute with their competence in committees, thus expanding the community of music education. The NNME courses have also impacted on students’ choices of theoretical and methodological approaches for their masters’ theses, such as phenomenological approaches learned from researchers in Denmark, informal learning theories and methods from various researchers in Sweden, or philosophical methodologies from Finland. In 2008, at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Globalization and Identity in Music Education was the course theme, and influential researchers, among them Even Ruud from the University of Oslo and Lucy Green from L ondon University, contributed with keynotes about musical diversity, cultural recognition, teenagers in the music classroom and various understandings of musical identities. These experienced researchers have had a great impact on the field of music education in the Nordic countries for a long time. For my work on identity issues, Ruud’s research was of particularly great importance. The latest NNME three-year course theme, Democracy, Sustainability Universality and Community, has brought forward how time, place and culture matter when music is performed, taught and learned. Our main aim in the NNME network is to support novice researchers and involve them in a community where they can influence the content of future music education by presenting their own master’s theses and discuss with experienced teachers.
Identity and performance In this chapter I outline central ideas regarding identity construction processes and musical performance. Some of these were presented in my keynote speech in Reykjavik, at the University of Iceland, in 2015. I chose a cultural focus on musical performance. Ethnomusicological aspects are often played down in music education research. I also make connections with my keynote in Helsinki in 2008, where, as a new doctor of music education, I talked about the central themes in my dissertation on professional singers’ identity formation, and the key concept of “identitation”. Identitation is a neologism that captures the never-ending flow of change and emergence in our professional selves, the dynamics of creating, confirming and renewing a person’s identities; in other words, being, having and seeking identity (Schei, 2007, 2009). I investigated these issues from a discourse theoretical perspective, with Michel Foucault as my main theoretical basis (Foucault, 1982). To study performances within a Foucauldian perspective implies identifying and deciphering the performers’ taken-for-granted truths and rules of behavior. The way that they submit to, and reenact, such tacit truth-patterns reveals how they are governed by them. It means that they are shaped and formatted by their learned culture, throughout educational
66 Tiri Bergesen Schei and performance experiences. Examples of unquestioned truths could be conceptions of correct vocal technique within classical song, how to practice groovy timbre in pop, or the necessity for a jazz singer to produce her own, personal style in improvisations. Seen in this light, an exploration of performers’ ways of speaking, behaving and performing might show us how disciplinary mechanisms regulate behavior when musicians perform, practice and talk about performance. The pattern that was revealed in my study was that the singers complied with the demands they perceived to be natural aspects of their professional life, what they had learned to perceive as characteristics of a “real”, high-quality singer, and the tacit norms embedded within vocal ideals, voice genres, educational traditions, conceptions of normality and common sense. I consider the musician, the subject, to be culturally constituted within the dominant discourse of his or her musical genre. Understanding the subject through discourses implies that every subject within the discourse governs itself, but does so within the governing power structures and constraints of the discourse. The concept of “identitation” invites us to analyze the phenomenon of identity within the three dimensions of being, having and seeking, thereby shedding light on the ongoing, unfinished and complex processes that create, confirm and renew a person’s identities within a complex web of interacting “subcultures”, or, more precisely, discourses. In Helsinki I gave the example of the identity formation of one of my informants, the pop singer, illustrating some of the questions that arise as we attempt to do research on singers’ performances and identity formation. Are we interested in pop stereotypes, or are we looking at what pop singers say about singing pop and being pop singers? How do we construct our categories, and how will these categories shape our research findings? And, importantly, what are our taken-for-granted opinions of groups and individuals, including pop singers and their assumed dreams of becoming idols? In the intervening years, issues of identity formation have been researched from many angles within music education research in the Nordic countries (Ferm, 2008; Hebert, 2012; Karlsen, 2007; Karlsen & Westerlund, 2010; Onsrud, 2013; Ruud, 2013). For me, the topic has expanded. I am concerned with performance issues and singers’ identity formation, but have also learned that issues of self-censorship and self-staging in musical performances seem to be a profound trait shared by most humans, not only professional singers. In this chapter I will discuss whether all musical performance might involve tacit self-censorship. This question was thoroughly discussed with the master’s students in the NNME course at the University of Iceland in 2015. We concluded that the topic of identity formation, seen from various angles, is highly relevant to the field of music education research. Studies of what performing means for the performer might reveal why and how culture always matters. Studying performances is studying identity work as it emerges.
Musical performance and self-censorship 67
Cultivated cultures Is there a tacit self-censorship that makes us adjust our musical expressions, performance behavior and style to satisfy our audience, or are we fully autonomous performers? What are the motives for choosing to perform? Who are you – the performer? What do you perform and why? Who is the audience? Where in the world are we? To study musical performances without considering the global context would be ahistorical. Globalization and modern technologies of communication have moved borders and radically altered traditional perceptions of musical utterances in the cultural space. This is what we can state: We are culture. Culture is where we are, what we constitute, how we experience and how we convey our experiences. Culture is how we have learned to interpret the world, including ourselves as parts of it. Tia De Nora writes that “culture operates at a very ‘deep’ level and in ways that come to organize bodies, hearts and (sometimes only later) minds” (DeNora, 2016, p. 391). She refers to McCormick (2009, p. 7) who states that “the context of musical performance is itself the result of an on-going process of cultural construction” (McCormick, 2009, p. 395). As anthropologist Alan Merriam clarified: “culture as a whole is learned behavior, and each culture shapes the learning process to accord with its own ideals and values” (Merriam, 1964, p. 145). The concept of culture consists of countless stories and a diversity of understandings, traditions and layers of meaning. Culture is a continuous “reading” and interpretation of symbols embedded in social action and historically constructed artifacts that are socially maintained. Besides, the position from where we view will shape our gaze. “[C]ulture is not a practice (…) It is threaded through all social practices, and is the sum of their interrelationship”, writes Stuart Hall (1997, p. 59). This is followed up by Richard Middleton: “Culture is what is learned, what is cultivated, it is just what is not in the genes (…)” (2003, p. 5). It is not one concept and cannot be understood unambiguously. It means that culture is constituted of collective symbolic meanings that contradict, complement and confirm each other in complex, dynamic processes of narration and history-making. Music is a social construction and needs to be understood culturally. There is never only “here and now” for a performer. The cultural space is loaded with historicity, woven by meanings that inhere in language and artifacts. Culture is the concert hall and its layout, the chairs, the audience with all their preunderstandings of the music and their expectations of the performer(s), the written program in their hands. Culture includes concert reviews in the newspapers, rumors about the upcoming concert and the audience’s previous experiences with the performer(s). Culture is style, styling, behavior and self-staging – different in genres, time and space. Culture entangles activities and thought. For an artist, culture includes staging the self and performing the body – in a presumed, tacit, dialogue with an audience who largely shares the artist’s cultural assumptions and will apply them in reading, interpreting and evaluating the performance as well as the performer.
68 Tiri Bergesen Schei Institutionalization of jazz and rhythmical music studies, for example, has changed the picture of music education and how performances are viewed. When rhythmic music enters the conservatories and universities, new cultural codes arise, and more importantly, the codes for correctness can change. When music students are evaluated according to a curriculum, the content and interpretation of the music also changes (Tønsberg, 2007). We see that the rhythmic sections are among the most popular choices for students. What was not worthy of economic support some years ago now stands out as the most attractive music styles. It has effect on the performers within these genres. And the cultural codes are continuously being mixed and changed beyond recognition. Exploring and developing knowledge about the processes of becoming and being a musician, artist and a performer might give insight into how we incarnate our life stories in our bodies, in our minds and in our musical utterances. Imprints of lived life are visible and noticeable in our ways of walking and talking, behaving and expressing. We tend to take the person behind the instrument or in front of the audience for granted. It is implicit and “invisible” how the guitarist communicates with the band members or how the singer focuses on having the right appeal to the audience. These are effective, tacit cultural codes. It is not obvious for the audience how intertwined the technical mastery of the instrument is with the well-being of the performer on stage (McPherson & McCormick, 2006; O’Bryan & Harrison, 2014).
Musical performances: performances of what? Challenging for everyone studying musical performances is to grasp the complexity that lies within the art of performance itself, and in being the person who performs (Ginsborg, 2014; Kenyon, 2012). How we study and what we “find” is more or less dependent upon the perspective we view musical performances from. My Foucauldian “glasses” help me to see how “cultural power” is embedded and entangled in the musicians’ self-censorship when they decide who they “are” as performers. The performer is essential as a person, as a mediator of feelings, values, form and aesthetics through his or her way of interpreting the music, in the situation. Adjustments to variable surroundings, and most importantly, the performers’ expectations of themselves as performers, are immensely important to explore. Professionalism in music implies awareness not only of how to play or sing, and how to communicate, but also of how to take care of one’s musician self, in a life-long perspective. The care of the self is a theme often neglected. Foucault has thoroughly analyzed self-care. He concludes that the subject is always constituted through social relations and institutions; in other words culturally constituted and bodily manifested through practices (Foucault, 1988a; McLaren, 2002, p. 3) on the various stages of human interaction (Goffman, 1959).
Musical performance and self-censorship 69 The importance of an audience To perform presupposes the existence of an audience. There is a relation between the sender and the receiver. You perform because you have something to say, musically, and you need someone to say it to. In her book Saying Something: Jazz Improvisation and Interaction (Monson, 1996), ethnomusicologist Ingrid Monson describes the improvisational interplay between African American musicians in jazz bands, focusing on the soloist and his or her communication with the band, and how they together reach out to the audience. She brings forth an insight about performance that often is tacit, and only partly acknowledged by both professional and amateur musicians; namely, that the performers adjust to one another, and are shaped by each other. They have knowledge about each other that goes beyond the text, the melody line, the form, the chord progressions and the improvisation. She writes: The positive feelings musicians report for their peers generally occur between players who respect one another professionally. Musicians are constantly being evaluated both by one another and by audience members. (Monson, 1996, p. 95) Interestingly this corresponds with what my jazz informant says: (…) in a way one is constantly being evaluated. It is as if every concert is an exam, with a lot of judgement. (Schei, 2007, p. 154) A musical performance is a presentation of the musician within a cultural frame. The performer is acutely aware of, and concerned with, down to the least detail, how s/he performs. A question for the researcher is how the performer is driven forward to perform, what s/he strives to achieve and avoid, what his/her agenda might be. Zena Meskaoui has studied Haifa Wehbi, a Lebanese singer who started her career as a model. According to Meskaoui “(…) Wehbi’s performance uses the power of representation, interweaved with the act of singing and dancing, to seize control over the viewers, men and women. She flirts with the viewer as well as with the different identities she embodies” (Meskaoui, 2008, p. 69). Meskaoui writes that Wehbi performs being a body or a body image, and her self-staging certainly involves the body: In Ana Haifa (…) she is a body and not just has one (Radley, 2003, p. 70). Her (self) staging involves embodiment. She performs being a body: The body in question here is more expansive than the physical body. (Meskaoui, 2008, p. 67)3
70 Tiri Bergesen Schei By performing herself she performs her identity, and this identity is “being Haifa”. Meskaoui writes: According to Judith Butler (Bodies That Matter, 1993), and based on Foucault’s philosophy of the subject, subjectification is not given, but depends on power relations within the psyche and society. The individual, here called the subject, ‘struggles’ to ‘be’. Since there is no ‘essence’, no core of the ‘self’, the process of formation of ‘oneself’ is continuous, always in the becoming. (Endnote 7, p. 70 Meskaoui, 2008) Self-regulation to satisfy “the other” Meskaoui’s remarks confirm the findings in my own research on newly educated professional singers, who definitely were performing their ideals, doing the utmost to fit into the frame of being “real” singers within the classical, pop and jazz genres, respectively. I did in-depth interviews over the course of a year with three singers. The research question was: What are the professional standards and demands experienced by singers within classical, pop and jazz, and how are these demands integrated and expressed in the identities of the vocal performers? I explored, through their stories of education and performance, how their professional identities as singers were established and maintained. By observing them perform, and through the interviews, I learned that singers use a number of sophisticated strategies to construct themselves as the singers they believe that they have to be, to perform in accordance with what they perceive to be the rules for classical, pop and jazz songs. Ideals change along each cultural time line. When we see how mass media figures speak about pop singers, for example, it is obvious that they take for granted what it means to be a pop singer, how pop singers act on stage and how they have become what they are. It is as if media assume that the tag “pop singer” is a stable category and that a pop singer’s identity is once and forever given. Yet this is not a reasonable way of understanding any singer’s position and identity. A pop singer will, as all subjects, exist through processes of adaptation and change, as Meskaoui emphasized: “(…) the process of formation of ‘oneself’ is continuous, always in the becoming” (2008, p. 70). Using terms from Foucault’s theories, the subject governs and creates her-/himself through “self-technologies”, strategies and techniques of self-discipline and self-censorship. The consequence is a performance of identity in accordance with ideals that are personal, but also relational (Foucault, 1982, 1988b; Foucault & Khalfa, 2006; Foucault & Schaanning, 1999). Self-technologies are cultural products, individual practices that surpass the individual, practices that a subject does in order to be what s/he wants to be (Foucault, 1988b, p. 18).
Musical performance and self-censorship 71 Fashion and personal style Appearances and surfaces offer deep meaning. As Virginia Postrel puts it, when writing about aesthetic identity as personal and social, as an expression of who we are, who we want to be and who we would like to be grouped with: “I like that. (…) I’m like that” (2004, p. 107). Identity is meaning of surface. Before we say anything with words, we declare ourselves through look and feel: Here I am. I’m like this. I’m not like that. I associate with these others. I don’t associate with those. (Postrel, 2004, p. 102) Postrel shows the postmodern human being, who consciously chooses her identity on the basis of aesthetic criteria. The important observation is not which style is used, but rather that style is used. Pop singers today have numerous possibilities to choose identity as something that they believe is authentic. They know that they need to choose a personal style and they know indeed the consequences of fitting into a form as pop singers on stage. Fashion is closely related to style. Philosopher Lars Svendsen writes that “the formation of self-identity in late modernity is a project where the body is the crucial point” (2004, p. 75; 2006). My female pop informant says: “… I think image is decisive, and that you must have a certain style. For male pop singers it is enough to have a cool image, but female artists must also be beautiful and slim” (Schei, 2007, p. 128). When a performer says that she must look good when performing, she is speaking about fashion. Fashion is situated in the center of mass-mediated cultural representation. Fashion is a way to expose the body. It is a representation of the self. Fashion shows how human beings produce their own practices and construct their identities. Svendsen (2004) claims that fashion is one of the most central phenomena if we want to understand the times we live in. For the pop singer, “image” is to appear beautiful and slim and have a certain style. “Body image” has become a central concept to understand how modern human beings are satisfied with themselves, writes psychiatrist Finn Skårderud (2000, p. 194), adding that we see ourselves with what we believe are expectations of others. This is the pivotal moment when our eyesight becomes cultural. The pop singer in my study knows the crucial importance of audience response. She has to be concerned with her outfit and her weight. The music business is hard. Clothes and slimness from the fashion discourses interweave with the demands of vocal genres and “correct” vocal expressions. How the pop informant either conforms to the norms or shows her independence by subtle resistance is probably a consequence of fashion within the pop culture. The following quote shows her strategic thinking: (…) I am very concerned with what kind of food I eat, I try to eat healthy food and I need to go to fitness studios regularly and exercise a lot. You see, I know that there will be photographers everywhere when I am on
72 Tiri Bergesen Schei tour, so I have to be good-looking. I am working on a new CD now, so there will be pictures too. This is all about self-confidence, because I think I will sell more if I feel attractive. I cannot act on stage and be forced to hide my stomach or anything. But I am healthy! I regulate my weight, so I do have control!. (Schei, 2007, p. 129)
The triggers for perfection There is a tension between the goals of conveying text, melody and harmonic progressions for the sake of music itself, and of doing it as perfectly as possible in order to impress with one’s skill and talent, and be accepted as a “real” musician within a particular genre. We must assume that the goal is to create performances that are meaningful for the musician and for the audience. A musician strives for perfection, but what may trigger aspirations to perfection is indeed a core issue. The musician wants to make an impression: “The way in which singers create meaning, an essential marker of vocal style in any variety, depends on the complex interaction of the many factors that go to make up performance rhetoric” (Potter, 1998, p. 158). By performance rhetoric Potter means the articulation of language, technique, technology, gesture and semiotics, dress codes, expression of sexuality and authority of a particular style that are united to create an interpretation that enables the perceiver to enjoy what is going to happen. The core of performance is rhetoric, as musicologist Simon Frith, one of the spokesmen for the postmodern perspective on popular music studies, writes: A good jazz performance, that is to say (like any good musical performance), depends on rhetorical truth, on the musicians’ ability to convince and persuade the listener that what they are saying matters. (…) it puts into play an emotional effect, a collusion between the performer and audience which is engaged rather than detached, knowing rather than knowledgeable. (Frith, 1997, p. 117) The presence of an audience Any audience makes a big difference for the performer. In a live concert, the audience is present in the same space and actively plays a part. The performer will notice gestures, gaze, sounds or silence, and interpret it as meaningful responses. The audience affects the musician, but we will not know to what extent. Nicholas Cook ends his article about Music as performance by stating: “To call music a performing art, then, is not just to say that we perform it; it is to say that through it we perform social meaning” (2003, p. 213). Cultural codes are effective between the performer and the audience. Musical performances are situated culturally, and the performer performs
Musical performance and self-censorship 73 with the knowledge that s/he is seen and heard by the audience, which of course is what is wanted. Musicians use a number of sophisticated strategies to conform to the standards of the genres they inhabit, or the musical style that they perform within, while at the same time exploring the degrees of freedom that exist. Those who stretch or cross the borders of genres contribute to development and change. Michael Jackson grew up on TV. He was quite unlike most artists in the music history, being exposed already as an 11-year-old boy and during his life his self-staging was visible from the TV screen. His identity in the early years was molding into a shape wanted by Motown, the iconic American Record Company: The Motown polish was really starting to gleam and though Michael still had the blank eyes of a little boy who didn’t understand the words to the ballads, and still spoke in interviews like a kid awkwardly reciting lines in a school play, he was already demonstrating a savvy sophistication for giving each audience what it wanted. (Austen, 2005, p. 255) We know the rest of the story. “With his porcelain complexion, straight hair, white wives, blond children, and musical crossover ambitions, Jackson logically should have been abandoned by this audience”, writes Austen (2005, p. 290f), but the audience deeply loved him for his music, his performances and his energy. Despite the fact that self-censorship was a central matter for Michael Jackson, it is obvious that his vocal and bodily expressions were teasing several discourses about genre and ideals. As he was between blackand-white discourses of “human being” his self-presentation was innovative and courageous. Others, who conform to the conventional ideals and tacit rules, will do what they are expected to do, and probably be predictable in their musical style, quite unlike Michael Jackson, who surprised the audience with new styles, dances, vocal expressions and outfits, again and again. Jazz musicians are expected to be performers who create something new, something innovative, as my jazz informant stated (Schei, 2007). They have a freedom to improvise, or so it is said. But how free is the freedom? Their expectations of themselves will be intertwined with cultural codes of what is good and bad, in a musical culture where “different” is seen as “good”. Many rock and jazz concerts have moved into the concert halls, while symphony orchestras find unexpected performing venues, such as outdoor arenas or airport departure halls. In Bergen I bumped into the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra playing with the young violin soloist Sonoko Miriam Shimano in the open city square, on a rainy day. There were hundreds of people,4 most of whom probably never enter the imposing concert halls where this music is usually found. The audience was a cross section of the population: tattooed youngsters next to old ladies, students, businessmen, young families with babies. We experienced how the outdoor space
74 Tiri Bergesen Schei became a cultural arena of importance. Throughout the Mendelssohn violin concerto there was a lovely silence. Looking at the audience I remember thinking that our expectation of what is low and high culture has changed. Judgments of live performances flourish on reality TV, and are disseminated on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter simultaneous to the performance. Consequently, the location of performance now is everywhere, not only the concert venue. Amateur artists enter TV studios off the street, aspiring to be pop stars, sometimes succeeding, and sometimes being ridiculed and leaving within minutes. Identities are performed live for millions of viewers (Meizel, 2011). The panel announces winners and losers “on site”, and applause from the audience resonates with the panel’s judgments. If not, we can hear loud screaming or whistling to indicate dissent. “People’s attitudes about themselves and others can greatly affect how they feel when putting themselves ‘on display’” (Woody & McPherson, 2010, p. 409). Being an amateur on the stage can be far easier than being the professional, because the amateur has less to lose. It was just a game, a trial, they might say. But professional musicians know, down to the least detail, how to play each note with the timbre or the groove that they will decipher, how to sing funky or how to interpret Puccini or how to use the body in hip-hop. They are detail-oriented because that is part of being professional. For professional artists the live podium is a challenge of another kind. One single mistake might lead to feelings of failure. Audience out of reach Performances devised in recording studios share very different relationships with their audience, and hence elicit different forms of self-censorship. The audience can then be anyone, everywhere. Seen from the audience’s perspective, we receive a perfect version of a performance that is already history when we listen to it, and that was produced with endless “takes” of the complicated parts. The performers’ job is done. It is up to the listener to make the music come alive for him or her. Is the performer totally out of reach, or do we construct an impression of the performer from what we hear? Roland Barthes, the French avant-garde researcher on literature, writes about speaking and singing voices and what he calls “the grain of the voice”, which can be understood as the body in the voice, heard by another body, the listener. It means that the body becomes perceptible through the timbre of the voice and that we can imagine vocal utterances “live” when we hear them. According to musicologist Ansa Lønstrup (2004, p. 17f), we listen only to the grain of the voice and not to the cultural connotation, meaning we relate our own body to the body in the voice that we hear as if the voice on the CD were alive. We identify with the body in the voice, so to say. Lønstrup, in her works on what she calls “vocality and auditive culture”, writes about Barthes and other researchers who are concerned with how we hear “ourselves” when we listen to other voices. The human voice has common traits
Musical performance and self-censorship 75 like timbre, color, firmness or mildness recognizable to all. That makes at least the voice identifiable as an instrument and as a human communicative tool. Tia DeNora also refers to Barthes’ “grain of voice” and how he has reminded us that music requires particular physical actions, and the chosen actions will be “responsible for the shape of the sound envelope, musical timbre, volume and pitch …” (2016, p. 392). A musical performance always invokes interpretations in the listener, and these interpretations include a body, the body of the performance. When the performer in the studio makes her CD, she is acutely aware of the potential audience. We will not know her thoughts about herself as a performer, but we will know whether she is a rebel or an artist who submits to the normal and accepted ways of interpreting the music that she is playing or singing.
Self-censorship and emotion My view is that self-censorship is of concern in all musical performances, whether live or conveyed on a CD or other media, whether the musician is aware of it or not. It is a universal theme that is important to include as a topic in the field of music education. Each performance is situated in culture – in a time, in a place, in a web of constant evaluations on scales of good or bad, ugly or beautiful, right or wrong, be it self-evaluation or from others. Such factors make the performer aware of the how of the situation. Several researchers have elaborated on the ideas about a person’s adjustments to conformity and social norms related to the concept of “the looking-glass self” (Goffman, 1967; Scheff, 2005; Shaffer, 2005). The effect can be so strong that a human being, all alone, can imagine an audience and react physiologically, bodily, as if the audience were real and present in the room. Looking in the mirror, the performer visualizes the audience and imagines how they might judge the performance. Will they applaud it? Emotions play a central part in all performances and in the lives of the performers. Juslin and Laukka (2003) have systematically investigated emotional expressions in performance settings. Juslin and Lindström (2016, p. 598) follow up, and state that there is little systematic knowledge about how emotions influence the performer’s concentration, choice of repertoire and interpretation, while how emotions are artistically expressed has been thoroughly analyzed. Juslin’s GERMS model outlines five criteria for what good performances are comprised of (G = generative rules, E = emotional expression, R = random variability, M = motion principles, and S = stylistic unexpectedness), and emphasizes the performer’s stylistic independence as a key element for success (Juslin, 2003, p. 281). Juslin and Lindström (2016, p. 601) refer to a study (Lindström, Juslin, Bresin, & Williamon, 2003) where 83% of the performers report in questionnaire that they “always” or “often” try to express emotions in their performances. But “what the performer presents in a music performance is not the emotion itself but rather its ‘expressive form’”, write Juslin and Lindström (2016, p. 599).
76 Tiri Bergesen Schei Vocal shame starts long before the performer enters the stage as a soloist. A child whose voice differs from the rest of the group might get a stern look or a negative comment from the teacher. In many cases such commenting is enough to prevent the child from musical performances throughout life, and even develop voice shame (Schei, 1998, 2011). Woody and McPherson (2010, p. 406) discuss similar situations where children’s feelings of guilt or shame prevent them from taking the stage. They also highlight competition and heavy criticism among musicians, sometimes part of “conservatory culture” (Kingsbury, 1988). “In some cases, the emotions surrounding a performance are marked by fear and worry, such that a musician who otherwise love music and enjoys making it will avoid doing it before an audience” (Woody & McPherson, 2010, p. 409). Andy McGuiness (2013, p. 109f) also notes the structure of shame as essential in music performance because of the performer’s awareness of “the Other” in the situation. Jean-Paul Sartre, in his book, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology (1943), offered a deep investigation into the nature of shame. He states that shame is recognition, and writes that we recognize ourselves as “the Other” sees us. Shame is an immediate shudder which runs through me from head to foot without any discursive preparation. (…)But this new being which appears for the other does not reside in the Other; I am responsible for it as is shown very well by the education system which consists in making children ashamed of what they are. (Sartre, 1943, p. 222) Knowledge about mechanisms of shame has played an important role in my understanding of the audience as the magical mirror for self-understanding and self-assessment. As music educators and researchers, we should make it our task to teach future teachers and performers about self-censorship, emotion and the power mechanisms that inhere in all performance, and how they may become obstacles to performing with joy and confidence.
Summing up: cultural implications Are musical performances characterized by self-censorship, and if so, does this apply to all cultures? I have in this chapter presented reflections about various layers that influence musicians’ self-regulation, self-staging and self-censorship in musical performance situations. I have tried to disentangle how power operates between the subjects, seen from the perspective of the performer, as well as from the audience. In a time when music teaching in school is receiving less attention, and when lessons available for music learning in higher music education institutions are few, it is important that music educators and researchers advocate awareness of the impact that cultural discourses have for every performer and listener. Such awareness
Musical performance and self-censorship 77 should be taught and reflected upon from early school age. Being a music performer is to be in continuous identity formation. Being aware of the emotional and relational mechanisms that influence musicians’ performances and self-regulation is a matter of deep importance for newcomers on the musical stage. I believe that “culture” is a concept that needs prefixes in the music discourse; the concept is too wide to be meaningfully interpreted when it stands alone. By adding “pop” to “culture”, we produce images and expectations of pop artists’ voices and slim bodies, outfits, band constellations and performing venues (Fiske, 2010; Frith, 1998). By replacing “pop” with “hip-hop” (Alim, 2006), new pictures pop up of tagged street walls – young men with ratty, but also uniformed clothes perform characteristic long rhyming phrases with little variation in the melody. We know that this is hip-hop. Why do we know it, and why is “the hip-hop culture” added automatically to our vision? First of all, cultures are composite images experienced over time as something stable and reliable, something repeatedly “true”. Understanding this from a discourse theoretical perspective, hip-hop culture represents a discourse as long as there is a tacit agreement about what hip-hop culture is, revealed by the lack of questions about what hip-hop is. As the inner life of hip-hop changes, new subgroups may emerge, and the discourse of hip-hop diversifies into one or several divergent discourses. Hip-hop, like all cultures, evolves continuously from within; it is never stable. It pulsates; it is inherently unstable, yet predictable in the sense that (big) groups of people know aspects of the culture and are able to give detailed descriptions of it. They not only know the culture, but they live the culture, and therefore the rules that structure the inner life of the discourse are tacit, meaning obvious – like water for fish and air for human beings. Rules are often hidden in complex dynamics of audience expectations that make musicians regulate their performance toward what is believed to be expected and appreciated. Even musical rebels who contribute with original and rule-breaking performances polish their self-staging in manners that are recognizable and reach out to expectations. They have to be identifiable – cultures arise through recognition. The musical performer will always be dependent upon the cultural framework because the doing is inseparable from the doer.
Notes 1 I have attended the following NNME courses: Stockholm (2003), Oslo (2005), Bergen (2006), Helsinki (2008), Copenhagen (2010), Riga (2013) and Reykjavik (2015). 2 I have had Nordplus teacher exchange visits to Island (2009), Stockholm (2010), Tallinn (2011), Copenhagen (2011), Riga (2014) and Örebro (2015). 3 Ana Haifa is one of Haifa Wehbi’s song titles. 4 http://harmonien.no/konserter-og-billetter/2015/08/sommerkonsert-paatorgallmenningen/
78 Tiri Bergesen Schei
Bibliography Alim, Samy H. (2006). Roc the Mic Right: The Language of Hip Hop Culture. New York: Routledge. Austen, Jake (2005). TV-a-Go-Go: Rock on TV from American Bandstand to American Idol. Chicago, IL: Chicago Review Press. Cook, Nicholas (2003). Music as Performance. In Martin Clayton, Trevor H erbert, & Richard Middleton (Eds.), The Cultural Study of Music. A Critical Introduction. New York: Routledge. DeNora, Tia (2016). ‘Turn, Turn, Turn!’ Musicalizing Cultural Sociology with the ‘in Action’ Perspective. In David Inglis & Anna-Mari Almila (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Cultural Sociology (pp. 390–400). doi:10.4135/9781473957886.n28 Ferm, Cecilia (2008). Playing to teach music–embodiment and identity-making in musikdidaktik. Music Education Research, 10(3), 361–372. Fiske, John (2010). Understanding Popular Culture. New York: Routledge. Foucault, Michel (1982). The Archaeology of Knowledge & the Discourse on Language (A. M. Sheridan Smith, Trans.). New York: Pantheon Books. Foucault, Michel (1988a). The care of the self. Available from http://search.ebscohost. com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=733099 Foucault, Michel (1988b). The Political Technology of Individuals. In Patrick H. Hutton, Huck Gutman, & Luther H. Martin (Eds.), Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault (pp. 145–162). Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. Foucault, Michel, & Khalfa, Jean (2006). History of Madness. London: Routledge. Foucault, Michel, & Schaanning, Espen (1999). Diskursens orden: t iltredelsesforelesning holdt ved College de France 2. desember 1970. Oslo: Spartacus. Frith, Simon (1997). Music and Identity. In Stuart Hall & Paul du Gay (Eds.), Questions of Cultural Identity. London: SAGE Publications. Frith, Simon (1998). Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Ginsborg, Jane (2014). Research Skills in Practice: Learning and Teaching PracticeBased Research at RNCM. In Scott D. Harrison (Ed.), Research and Research Education in Music Performance and Pedagogy (pp. 77–89). Dordrecht: Springer. Goffman, Erving (1959). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. Goffman, Erving (1967). Interaction Rituals: Essays on Face-to-Face Behavior. New York: Anchor. Hall, Stuart (1997). Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices (Vol. 2). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Hebert, David G. (2012). Wind Bands and Cultural Identity in Japanese Schools (Vol. 9). Dordrecht: Springer. Juslin, Patrik N. (2003). Five facets of musical expression: A psychologist’s perspective on music performance. Psychology of Music, 31, 273–302. Juslin, Patrik N., & Laukka, Petri (2003). Communication of emotions in vocal expression and music performance: Different channels, same code? Psychological Bulletin, 129(5), 770–814. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.129.5.770 Juslin, Patrik N., & Lindström, Erik (2016). Emotion in Music Performance. In Hallam Susan, Cross Ian, & Thaut Michael (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of M usic Psychology (2nd ed., pp. 598–614). New York: Oxford University Press.
Musical performance and self-censorship 79 Jørgensen, Harald (2004). Mapping music education research in Scandinavia. Psychology of Music, 32(3), 291–309. Karlsen, Sidsel (2007). The Music Festival as an Arena for Learning. Festspel i Pite Älvdal and Matters of Identity (PhD), Luleå University of Technology. Department of Music and Media. Karlsen, Sidsel, & Westerlund, Heidi (2010). Immigrant students’ development of musical agency–exploring democracy in music education. British Journal of Music Education, 27(3), 225–239. Kenyon, N. (2012). Performance Today. In Collin Lawson & Robin Stowell (Eds.), The Cambridge History of Musical Performance (pp. 1–34). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521896115.002 Kingsbury, Henry (1988). Music, Talent, and Performance: A Conservatory Cultural System. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Lindström, Erik, Juslin, Patrik N., Bresin, Roberto, & Williamon, Aaron (2003). “Expressivity comes from within your soul”: A questionnaire study of music students’ perspectives on expressivity. Research Studies in Music Education, 20(1), 23–47. Lønstrup, Ansa (2004). Stemmen og øret - studier i vokalitet og auditiv kultur. Århus: KLIM. McGuiness, A. (2013). Self-Consciousness in Music Performance. In Martin Clayton, Byron Dueck, & Laura Leante (Eds.), Experience and Meaning in Music Performance (pp. 108–134). New York: Oxford University Press. McLaren, Margaret A. (2002). Feminism, Foucault, and Embodied Subjectivity. A lbany: State University of New York Press. McPherson, Gary E., & McCormick, John (2006). Self-efficacy and music performance. Psychology of Music, 34(3), 322–336. doi:10.1177/0305735606064841 Meizel, Katherine (2011). Idolized: Music, media, and identity in American idol. Available from http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=670268 Merriam, Alan P. (1964). The Anthropology of Music. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. Meskaoui, Zena (2008). Performing the body: Haifa Wehbi in the becoming. Al-Raida Journal, 4, 122–123. Middleton, Richard (2003). Music Studies and the Idea of Culture. In Martin Clayton, Trevor Herbert, & Richard Middleton (Eds.), The Cultural Study of Music: A Critical Introduction. New York: Routledge. Monson, Ingrid T. (1996). Saying Something: Jazz Improvisation and Interaction. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. O’Bryan, Jessica, & Harrison, Scott D. (2014). Prelude: Positioning Singing Pedagogy in the Twenty-First Century. In Scott D. Harrison & Jessica O’Bryan (Eds.), Teaching Singing in the 21st Century (pp. 1–9). Dordrecht: Springer. Olsson, Bengt (2008). What kind of theories dominate Swedish research on music education? – a discussion about theories in use. Nordic Research in Music Education. Yearbook, 10, 9–26. Onsrud, Silje Valde (2013). Kjønn på spill–kjønn i spill: En studie av ungdomsskoleelevers musisering. (Ph.D.), Bergen: The University of Bergen. Postrel, Virginia (2004). The Substance of Style. How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture & Consciousness. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. Potter, John (1998). Vocal Authority. Singing Style and Ideology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
80 Tiri Bergesen Schei Ruud, Even (2013). Musikk og identitet (2nd ed.). Oslo: Universitetsforlaget. Sartre, Jean-Paul (1943). Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology. New York: Taylor & Francis. Scheff, Thomas J. (2005). Looking-glass self: Goffman as symbolic interactionist. Symbolic Interaction, 28(2), 147–166. doi:10.1525/si.2005.28.2.147 Schei, Tiri Bergesen (1998). Stemmeskam: hemmede stemmeuttrykks fenomenologi, arkeologi og potensielle rekonstruksjon gjennom sangpedagogikk (Master’s’s thesis), Bergen: Bergen University College. Schei, Tiri Bergesen (2007). Vokal identitet. En diskursteoretisk analyse av profesjonelle sangeres identitetsdannelse. [Vocal identity. A discourse-theoretical analysis of professional singers’ identity formation]. (Dr. art.), Bergen: University of Bergen. Schei, Tiri Bergesen (2009). “Identitation” – Researching identity processes of professional singers from a discourse-theoretical perspective. Nordic Research in Music Education. Yearbook, 11, 221–236. Schei, Tiri Bergesen (2011). Kan stemmeskam overvinnes? Om helsefremmende aspekter ved profesjonelle sangeres identitetsarbeid. Skriftserie fra Senter for musikk og helse, Antologi nr. 4, «Musikk, helse, identitet" (Oslo: NMH-publikasjoner 2011:2), 85–105. Schei, Tiri Bergesen, Espeland, Magne, & Stige, Brynjulf (2013). Research and research education in music–disciplinary or interdisciplinary approach? Nordic Research in Music Education. Yearbook, 14, 27–45. Shaffer, Leigh S. (2005). From mirror self-recognition to the looking-glass self: Exploring the justification hypothesis. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 61(1), 47–65. Skårderud, Finn (2000). Sultekunstnerne. Oslo: Aschehoug. Svendsen, Lars Fr. H. (2004). Mote: Et filosofisk essay. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget. Svendsen, Lars Fr. H. (2006). Fashion: A Philosophy (John Irons, Trans.). London: Reaktion Books Ltd. Tønsberg, Knut (2007). Institusjonaliseringen av de rytmiske musikkutdanningene ved Høgskolen i Agder. (Ph.D.), Oslo: Norges musikkhøgskole. Woody, Robert H., & McPherson, Gary E. (2010). Emotion and Motivation in the Lives of Performers. In Patrik N. Juslin & John A. Sloboda (Eds.), Handbook of Music and Emotion: Theory, Research, Applications (pp. 401–424). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
5 Music, universality and globalization Some challenges for music education in the decades to come Geir Johansen
Introduction During the past decades, we have witnessed several changes as well as new developments of earlier trends in music education. Scholars in the Nordic/ Baltic region have contributed to such changes and developments in several ways. Saether (2008), Karlsen (2013), Karlsen and Westerlund (2010) and Hofvander Trulsson (2010) have contributed to differentiate our knowledge of multicultural music education by bringing empirical information of the experiences of students, teachers and parents. Moreover, significant conceptual discussions along with displaying a many sided debate on the f ormal-informal nexus have been presented by Folkestad (2006) and Karlsen and Väkevä (2012). New considerations and data of nonformal music learning in internet communities have been presented to the international field of music education by Partti and Karlsen (2010) while the scholarship on music teacher education has prospered greatly from the works of Georgii-Hemming and Holgersen (Burnard, Georgii-Hemming, & Holgersen, 2013). Our knowledge about pop music in the classroom has increased likewise thanks to the scholarship of Georgii-Hemming and Westvall (2010). Among the recent developments are also a new body of self-critical studies. Scholars such as Røyseng and Varkøy (2014) have enlightened the debate on instrumentalism. Ferm Almqvist, Vinge, Väkevä and Zandén (2017) have brought new, critical views on the assessment of music learning. Sæther (2010) points out that well-intended attempts of inclusion can be experienced as “othering” by students in a multicultural classroom. Karlsen (2015) indirectly criticizes traditional notions of multiculturalism by turning to the concept of diversity, thereby widening the scope to include more than issues of ethnicity. Moreover, she reminds us that engagement with music can also function in ways that hurt, confuse, divide, marginalize and even mock other people. It follows that Dyndahl and Graabræk-Nielsen (2017) and Johansen (2015, 2017) point to a need for the de-romantization of our justification philosophy. In the present chapter, I suggest that there is a need for paying even more attention to such self-critical thought within the future agenda of Nordic/Baltic music education scholarship, since it obviously connects with an increasing international interest in these matters.
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Universality and justification The justification of music and music education is often connected with universality and globalization. For example, on the internet page www.debate. org, one can read the following: Music just brings everyone together, no matter what race, culture, religion etc. There are no barriers because the music does the talking for us. It’s something that everyone can relate to – in regards to the different genres of music. Music can bring about peace, create friendships and do wonderful things for people. Therefore, music is a universal language. (www.debate.org/opinions/is-music-a-universal-language) This quotation suggests that music, by fostering peace and friendship across cultures and religions, is valuable for the growth of society on a global basis. In particular, the connection between all the good things music can do and the notion of universality is striking. The problem is, does it hold water? Can music do all these good things, and are those assets universal? Across the various positions we may take in answering this somewhat provocative question, runs the conviction that when studying music education in all its forms and facets, of course we should take its relationship with the surrounding society into consideration. If we do so, we can get sight of some significant perspectives able to help us in enlightening exactly such issues for music, universality and globalization. However, this raises challenges with respect to put aside some of our old “romantic” notions about music and music education for a while, and allows new ones to emerge alongside them. In other words, we will have to live with a larger variety – some would say complexity – of notions than we did before. In this chapter, I will start with pointing to some existing notions of the universality and global traits of music and music education, which I regard as “romantic”. Then, I will draw attention toward some of their problematic aspects, supported by theory as well as empirical information. Moving on, I will suggest that we should reinspect the justification arguments that we link to the universality and globalization of music and music education. We should do this by unchaining the link between their substance – what they are actually about – and their utility and function of justification. This will require us to move from normative perspectives ( justification interests) to descriptive-analytical perspectives (theoretical-empirical interests).
Questioning romantic notions Rich evidence demonstrates that music educators worldwide keep themselves with “romantic” notions of the universality and global traits of music and music education, most often referred to when they attempt to justify what they do. In 1996, ISME, the International Society of Music Education,
Music, universality and globalization 83 chose Music – A Universal Language as the overarching theme of its world conference. Very little indicates that they brought up this issue because of a need to discuss its credibility and sustainability as a foundation for music education. Equally, music educators frequently offer arguments about everything music is good for, such as the social and intellectual growth of human beings,1 without any reservations. In addition, such justification arguments regularly come with an inherent message that such assets are universal or global. Chris Philpott (2012: 49), elaborating on “the justification for music in the curriculum”, describes seven categories of justifications. They are instrumental justifications, therapeutic justifications, civilizing justifications, emotional justifications, rational justifications, symbolic justifications and liberal justifications. For the purpose of illustration, I will point to four of them here. Instrumental justifications entail experience and understanding of music as reaching “other dimensions of cognition, such as mathematical skills, spatial skills, language skills and the development of intelligence”. Therapeutic justifications hold that music can promote “health, self-esteem and cure damaged lives”. Civilizing justifications suggest that engagement with music “makes for a better and more rounded human being”, while Emotional justifications point that “music making is a means of developing our emotional intelligence” (all quotes p. 49). Before I move on, I want to pinpoint the connection between the content or substance of these arguments, and their function of justification: How do we link information about music and “other dimensions of cognition” to justification arguments? Below, I will suggest that we need to resolve that link, thus enabling us to make the content of those arguments subject to further investigation, for we can thereby realize their potential for bringing new insights to our field. This may be one of our future challenges.
Romantic notions – their problems When I call notions such as the ones listed by Philpott (2012) “romantic”, it points to how, as I see it, they are normative, loosely founded and not necessarily reliable. In addition, they reflect how easy it is to uncritically adapt information that apparently complies with our hopes and dreams for the future of our subject and its education. I will ground this lack of reliability in empirical as well as philosophical arguments. In my empirical arguments, I will set out from a notion that if engagement with music gives so many positive effects, then extensive engagement with music would strengthen such positive effects further. However, if we look at extensive engagement with music, such as among professional musicians, another picture emerges. In order to support this statement, I want to present four empirical examples. They are all tragic and disheartening, but I hope they can serve the purpose of actualizing the need for sobering up and reconsidering some of our romantic notions.
84 Geir Johansen 1 Compare the notion that engagement with music makes for a better and more rounded human being, to the first page heading of The Independent, Sunday, 26 April 2015: “Top UK music teacher […] jailed for 11 years over sex attacks in sound-proof Guildhall practice rooms”. 2 Compare the notion that music creates friendships and does wonderful things to yourself and other people, to the The Guardian, 31 August 2015, reporting that that a “Concert pianist […] killed in her Manchester home. […] A 48-year-old man, understood to be her partner, has been arrested on suspicion of murder. [As] a concert double bass player, [he] has played at high-profile venues globally”. 3 Compare the justification statement «loving children into wholeness» (Booth, 2010) of the Venezuelan music education concept El Sistema, to Geoffrey Baker’s (2014) findings in what is thus far the most extensive, systematic study of El Sistema. Baker reports that “Many [El Sistema] students, however, reported fierce teachers and an aggressive learning environment in which shouting was commonplace and hitting pupils not unknown” (192), and that “Discipline sometimes crosses over into something stronger, becoming a (sic) euphemism for despotism” (191). As put by one El Sistema student: “Here, it’s tyranny and bad language and repression and control”. 4 Still with El Sistema, compare its function as a means of social inclusion, as highlighted by many of its proponents, with Baker’s (2014: 202) findings that “El Sistema produces social stratification and inequalities via the internal organization of the orchestra and also the structure of the program itself […] yet those obvious effects are masked by talk of inclusion”. Now, let us move from these disheartening, empirical facts and data, hopefully balancing our views on extensive engagement with music, to some theoretical arguments opposing the “romantic” notions of justification. 1 Justifications such as the ones I pointed to in the introduction are “soft” and “have undermined the case for music and the arts” (Philpott, 2012: 49). What we need are “hard” justifications, Philpott holds. 2 The delineation of “music is good for you” is derived from the Western classical tradition (Brown & Theorell, 2006: 151; Philpott, 2012: 53): “Western people have a need to believe that the music of the European classical tradition is something noble and good, the kind of thing that works positively for humankind” (Philpott, 2012: 53). 3 We are far too eager to justify music for its universal usefulness for other purposes. When we seek to justify music and music education, we must start with music itself – what it is, and how it is learned and taught differently in various cultures across the globe. I take Schippers (2009) as an example in this respect, describing the cultural differences of teaching and learning music as well as suggesting a framework for comparing them without running the risk of blurring those differences.
Music, universality and globalization 85 4 We are far too eager to justify music for its general universality. What is universal are the differences from culture to culture. In 2017, we celebrated the 40-year anniversary of Christopher Small’s (1977) book Music, Education, Society. It clearly demonstrates how the credibility of music’s general universality was questioned already in the 1970s, and in addition, how such views of universality featured tacit notions of the assumed supremacy of Western art music. As indicated above, I suggest that our “romantic” notions emerge in particular when we try to justify what we do. However, as “light” and stereotypical versions of philosophical as well as empirical knowledge, they run the risk of blurring or get in the way of developing deeper insights of our field. Therefore, we need to set aside certain notions, especially regarding music’s putative universality as bolstered by a romantic view, and categorize them according to what they are: opinions, among a row of other opinions, as part of the variety and complexity of our field. Then we need to approach them in a scholarly way, resolving the link between their content and their function as means of justification. Studying the content, or substance of the connections between music and health as such, allows us, subsequently, to study how knowledge of such connections has been used in our legitimation arguments, and, moreover, to study how those arguments have functioned with respect to particular target groups as well as results in terms of, say, music and health education projects. This will mean to consider the substance as well as function of our arguments in a descriptive, analytical way, as opposed to a normative perspective growing out of the need to uncritically support our hopes and dreams. After all, there is a vast difference between applauding statements declaring that research has proved that children profit from listening to Mozart while doing homework (of normative justification reasons), and asking what kind of study brought this widespread information about the so-called “Mozart effect”. The latter would constitute a descriptive, analytical approach, focusing on how it can inform the scholarly as well as practice field of music education. Following this train of thought may inform us that the study (Rauscher, Shaw, & Ky, 1993) tested only spatial-reasoning, that the students’ assignment was to mentally unfold a piece of paper, that a group of students who listened to Mozart performed slightly better than other groups and that no student had effects extending beyond the 15-minute test period (Lerch & Anderson, 2000). Compare this to, for example, that Governor Zell Miller in 1998, referring to the Mozart effect, proposing to spend $105,000 to make music available to each of the approximately 100,000 children born in Georgia each year.2
A descriptive-analytic approach By the term “descriptive-analytic” approach, I mean approaching an issue or field of interest in a scholarly fashion, strongly attending to the research ideals of avoiding bias and with no particular aim of proving anything. The
86 Geir Johansen intentions are solely to analyze and describe something, and not until that is done can discussion of implications be raised. This is opposed to what I call a “normative” approach, entailing studies setting out to prove that something is right (or wrong), to support a particular agenda or stance, or to find the “best” solution to a challenge. Above, I have argued that if we disconnect the justification arguments from the thematic issues of which they are simplifications, we can inspect those thematic issues systematically. We can do that by tracing, and then looking into, some of the theoretical, philosophical or empirical studies on which the justification arguments are based. I would suggest that addressing such fields analytically and critically, we can provide ourselves with a more solid ground for what we do, and want to do. Let us look closer to the notion of universality. What is universal about music? I will discuss this issue from two starting points: first, the field of music education itself, and second from a sociological perspective. The universality of music – a music education perspective The scholarly field of music education can provide us with valuable information. We can, for example, set out from the psychology of music education, ethnomusicology or the anthropology of music education. Within the psychology of music education, Davidson and Scripp (1992: 392) suggest a framework of cognitive skills in music. In as much as their framework can be employed in analyzing music across cultures, it can perhaps help us tracing some universal dimensions of music. If we turn to anthropology or ethnomusicology, works such as the ones by John Blacking or Huib Schippers equip us with significant information. Blacking (1976: 102) draws the attention toward deep structures in music, suggesting that: It is possible to see the basic musical form of theme and variation as an expression of social situations and social forces transformed according to patterns of culture and the state of the division of labor in society. Thus the essential differences between music in one society and another may be social, and not musical. Schippers (2009) studied how music is taught and learned within a variety of geographical and cultural settings globally. On that ground, he presents his Twelve Continuum Transmission Framework (TCTF) for “cross cultural analysis of music education strategies”. Note that works like those of Davidson and Scripp (1992), Blacking (1976) and Schippers (2009) are not disconnected from geography and culture, in the way that some of our romantic notions are. On the contrary, they direct attention toward how differences from culture to culture can be described and further scrutinized by drawing on the same set of categories. Even if there is still a chance that the categories themselves are culturally
Music, universality and globalization 87 constructed (e.g. Eurocentric), this is where a critical perspective comes in, and thereby, it opens up for more sustainable forms of analysis. The universality of music – a sociological perspective If we employ a sociological perspective, we can possibly see that in our contemporary societal and cultural situation, the concept of universality primarily points to challenges, and not to something that everyone understands and can feel united under. It can be held that the most universal human experience today is that we face challenges. Sociologist Zygmunt Baumann (2012: viii) holds that forms of modern life are united by the growing conviction that change is the only permanence and uncertainty the only certainty. We face new, different challenges of universality, connecting universality to terms like globalization and glocalization (Featherstone, Lash, & Robertson, 1995; Giddens, 1990; Johansen, 2013; Smith, 2003). This brings back my introductory suggestion that we should take the relationship between music education and society into consideration. With a side-glance to sociological studies describing the contemporary situation as liquid modernity (Baumann, 2012), postmodern (Lyotard, 1984) and late modern ( Giddens, 1990; 1991), or by the notion of reflexive modernity (Beck, Giddens, & Lash, 1994), and in particular to the sociology of education (Sadovnik, 2007) and international curriculum studies (Smith, 2003), we can come up with helpful categories for analysis. David Geoffrey Smith (2003) suggests that there are three forms of globalization operating in the world today. Globalization-1 entails the revival of radical liberalism or Neoliberalism that dates back to the administrations of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. Their ideology affects music education as well as music teacher education by promoting education as knowledge production, its outcomes as “delivered” and k nowledge as a commodity, and by conceiving of students and parents as customers within a competition-based school market system. The next of Smith’s forms, Globalization-2, represents the various ways in which p eople around the globe respond to Globalization-1 through acts of accommodation or resistance, for example as discussed by the panel “Re-Thinking Standards of the Twenty-First Century” at the University of Exeter in 2009 (Woodford, 2011). This panel discussed challenges to music education in relation to issues such as the pros and cons of international comparative educational assessments and capitalist competitive ethics and corporate logic. The third form, Globalization-3, entails “the conditions that may be emerging for a new kind of dialogue regarding sustainable human futures” (Smith, 2003: 35). I would suggest that this includes the internet-based democratization of information and knowledge that gives access to earlier restricted
88 Geir Johansen musical competences, such as composition, the local learning practices of various forms of world music and community music projects. Roland Robertson (1995), in addressing the complexity and dynamics entailed by globalization, holds that there is a need for transcending dichotomies such as homogenization and heterogenization, as well as universalism and particularism. To fulfill this need Robertson proposes the concept of “glocalization,” arguing that local, bottom-up conceptions of (traits that are frequently associated with) globalization should be regarded as equally valid as the top-down conceptions of locality. I would suggest that the validation of such bottom-up and top-down conceptions of globality and locality, when seen as complementary perspectives reflected in each other, would enable more comprehensive views of the complexities of our field, including our notions of the universality of music.
Conclusions and recapitalizations Having said all this, what would be our future, then? How should we proceed with respect to carrying out our research studies, developing our basis for music education, considering our justification arguments and carrying out our everyday music teaching: What would be the challenges for the decades to come? I suggest that analyses taking ways of thinking such as those suggested here as their points of departure may contribute significantly toward sharpening our focus on several issues and challenges in need of further discussion. We are challenged to realize that what music educators have in common is difference, dynamics and a growing recognition that music education and society affect each other reciprocally. Following from this is the recognition that music education is not “the same” all over the world, not for all groups of people and not regardless of class, gender, sexuality and culture. Moreover, we have to face the insight that “culture” separates as well as unites, and that the “classical” notion of culture as “fine arts” differs strongly from anthropological notions, or the notions of culture theory. Based on such understandings, we may hopefully arrive at more well-informed ways of describing, understanding and analyzing music and music education on the global scene. Music education should be discussed in the light of the relationship between the global and the local (Giddens, 1990; Robertson, 1995), and as a possible globalization 2 and 3 factor (Smith, 2003). This is partly because the traditional notion of “universality” has fallen, together with the notion of “grand narratives” or big T Truths in music and music education, making our new universal truth about music and music education to entail that there exists a row of parallel, different truths. Altogether, these insights and their debates within an increasingly dynamic field of music education scholarship and practice may contribute significantly to how our notions of the values of music and music education, and hence our justification arguments, can be based on more solid grounds.
Music, universality and globalization 89 Putting aside normative perspectives and accepting the challenge of inspecting the content of our arguments in critical and descriptive-analytic ways might make us come across some universal traits of music and music education far from those most frequently pointed to when we try to justify our endeavors today. These traits will perhaps not be so well suited for justification purposes, but, perhaps, better suited for arriving at deeper insights into what we do and what we want to do. And thereby, in turn, perhaps laying a more solid ground for our future justification of music and music education. Finally, as the critical reader has already noticed, my argumentation for a descriptive-analytical approach to a field traditionally based on normative priorities is in itself conveying a normative intention. That is the paradox of the thoughts displayed and perhaps worthy of a discussion itself.
Notes 1 See for example https://musiceducationworks.wordpress.com/home/ 2 www.nytimes.com/1998/01/15/us/georgia-s-governor-seeks-musical-start-forbabies.html
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90 Geir Johansen “learning” in the Scandinavian countries. Research Studies in Music Education 39(1), 3–18. Folkestad, Göran (2006). Formal and informal learning situations or practices vs formal and informal ways of learning. British Journal of Music Education 23(2), 135–145. Georgii-Hemming, Eva & Westvall, Maria (2010). Music education – a personal matter? Examining the current discourses of music education in Sweden. British Journal of Music Education 27(1), 21–33. Giddens, Anthony (1990). The Consequences of Modernity. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Giddens, Anthony (1991). Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in a Late Modern Age. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Hofvander Trulsson, Ylva (2010). Musical fostering in the eyes of immigrant parents. Finnish Journal of Music Education 13(1), 25–38. Johansen, Geir (2013). Music education and the role of comparative studies in a globalized world. Philosophy of Music Education Review 21(1), 41–51. Johansen, Geir (2015). (Self-) Critical Music Education. How should we relate to the “New Wave”? Presentation at ‘Saloon’, department of Music Education, Don Wright Faculty of Music, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario. Johansen, Geir (2017). Hva er selvkritisk musikkpedagogikk, og hvordan skal vi forholde oss til den? [What is self-critical music education, and how should we relate to it?] In Karette Stenseth, Gro Trondalen & Øivind Varkøy (Eds.), Musikk, handlinger, muligheter. Festskrift til Even Ruuud (pp. 265–278). Oslo: Norwegian Academy of Music, CREMAH, Centre for Music and Health. Karlsen, Sidsel (2013). Immigrant students and the ‘homeland music’: Meanings, negotiations and implications. Research Studies in Music Education 35(2), 158–174. Karlsen, Sidsel (2015). Inkludering – av hva og av hvem? [Inclusion – of what and whom?] In Sven Erik Holgersen, Eva Georgii-Hemming, Siw Graabræk Nielsen & Lauri Väkevä (Eds.), Nordic Research in Music Education Yearbook Vol. 15 (pp. 61–84). NMH-publications 2014:8. Oslo: Norwegian Academy of Music. Karlsen, Sidsel & Väkevä, Lauri (Eds.). (2012). Future Prospects for Music Education: Corroborating Informal Learning Pedagogy. Newcastle upon Tyne: C ambridge Scholars. Karlsen, Sidsel & Westerlund, Heidi (2010). Immigrant students’ development of musical agency – exploring democracy in music education. British Journal of Music Education 27(3), 225–239. Lerch, Donna & Anderson, Thomas (2000). The Mozart Effect: A Closer Look. Urbana Champaign: University of Illinois. Retrieved from http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/ students/lerch1/edpsy/mozart_effect.html. Lyotard, Jean-Francoise (1984). The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Partti, Heidi & Karlsen, Sidsel (2010). Reconceptualising musical learning: New media, identity and community in music education. Music Education Research 12(4), 369–382. Philpott, Chris (2012). The justification for music in the curriculum: Music can be bad for you. In Chris Philpott & Gary Spruce (Eds.), Debates in Music Teaching (pp. 48–63). London & New York: Routledge. Rauscher, Frances H., Shaw, Gordon L. & Ky, Catherine N. (1993). Music and spatial task performance. Nature 365, 611.
Music, universality and globalization 91 Robertson, Roland (1995). Glocalization: Time-space and homogeneity-heterogeneity. In Mike Featherstone, Scott Lash, & Roland Robertson (Eds.), Global Modernities (pp. 25–44). Thousand Oaks: Sage. Røyseng, Sigrid & Varkøy, Øivind (2014). What is music good for? A dialogue on technical and ritual rationality. Action, Criticism & Theory for Music Education 13(1), 101–125. Sadovnik, Allan R. (2007). Sociology of Education. A Critical Reader. New York/ London: Routledge. Schippers, Huib (2009). Facing the Music. Shaping Music Education from a Global Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Small, Christopher (1977). Music, Society, Education. London: John Calder. Smith, Geoffrey (2003). Curriculum and teaching face globalization. In William Pinar, F (Ed.), International Handbook of Curriculum Research (pp. 35–52). New Jersey: Erlbaum. Sæther, Eva (2008). When minorities are the majority: Voices from a teacher/researcher project in a multicultural school in Sweden. Research Studies in Music Education 30(1), 25–42. Sæther, Eva (2010). Music education and the other. Finnish Journal of Music Education 13(1), 25–42. Woodford, Paul G. (Ed.). (2011). Re-Thinking Standards for the Twenty-First Century: New Realities, New Challenges, New Propositions. London, ON: University of Western Ontario, Studies in Music 23.
6 An Icelandic perspective on the Nordic music education community Helga Rut Gudmundsdottir
Introduction In this chapter the aim is to recount my experiences as a member of the Nordic Network for Music Education (NNME) for the past 15 years. The title suggests that my perspective is an Icelandic one, which is justified by the fact that I am Icelandic and have been the Icelandic IC in the network continuously since 2002. However, my perspective and experiences are also influenced by the fact that I lived in Norway as a child and learned Norwegian concurrently with my mother tongue Icelandic. I am also shaped by my education, first becoming a music teacher in Iceland and then completing my graduate studies in music education in Canada and the USA (where I conducted the research for my doctoral dissertation). The story begins with a brief introduction of the NNME network and its functions, followed by accounts of the increased participation of Iceland in the network and its later expansions to include the Baltic region. Then, I discuss the intensive courses organized by the network, which arguably comprise the most important function of the network. I support these contentions with recounts of student experiences and explain why these intensive courses have been valuable not only for participants but also for the larger community. The network has faced challenges and undergone significant transitions. The resilience and cooperative spirit of all members in this network have contributed to its long successful life. I provide an example of one major challenge the network faced with the recount of the dilemma that arose early in the new millennium regarding which language should primarily be used in the network. The field of music education is the main subject of the NNME network, and it is the improvement and promotion of music education toward which all network activity is ultimately aimed. In this light, I provide some background information on music education in Iceland and the Nordic region and try to draw some comparisons based on my own personal observations and perspective. Similarly, I discuss the research in music education in the Nordic countries with a focus on my perception of the predominant research culture in our region. Finally, I have made some suggestions that I believe could enrich music education and help move research in the field forward.
Icelandic perspective on Nordic music ed 93 The NNME network The NNME has for several years provided a unique platform for the teachers and students in the field of music education to stay in touch and keep informed about similar programs in other Nordic academic institutions. The network facilitates and helps fund teacher and student exchanges (through Nordplus) between participating institutions. Several teachers have v isited the University of Iceland in this capacity, from Denmark, Norway, S weden, Finland, Estonia and Lithuania. Likewise, I have made several visits through the same means to institutions in the network, giving talks and hosting seminars with master’s and doctoral students in music education. The impact of the NNME network on the academic careers of the participating professors or teachers should not be underestimated. There is little doubt that regularly meeting up with colleagues in neighboring countries has several benefits to the professional lives of those involved. For example, in small communities like Iceland (with its population of roughly 330,000, and approximately 150–200 school music teachers), there is only one academic position in music education, which makes it difficult to create and sustain a professionally stimulating environment around teaching and research in that particular field. In lieu of a local professional community the NNME network provides the much needed professional feedback, encouragement and point of reference for isolated professors and academics, not only in remote locations as Iceland but also for smaller universities and academic programs across the Nordic countries.
Arrival of Iceland in the NNME collaboration My first contact with the NNME network occurred through a network supported teacher exchange from Bergen University College to the Iceland University of Education in Reykjavik, the fall of 2001. I had only the year before returned from my studies abroad to take the position of Assistant Professor in music education. The visiting teacher was Prof. Stein Bakke from Bergen University College, who advocated strongly for Iceland’s increased participation in the NNME network. The following year, as the International Society for Music Education (ISME) 2002 world conference was held in Bergen, a meeting of NNME representatives was also held at Bergen University College. I attended that meeting, where I met the network manager, Torunn Bakken Hauge, for the first time. I immediately understood that her role in the network was important but it was only later that I realized how imperative her initiative and leadership was to the network’s operation and success. Without Torunn’s vision and persistence, the NNME network would never have had the successes we have enjoyed during those two decades. The inclusion of the Baltic countries in the network is a great example of the impact Torunn has had for the development of this network. The incentive to expand the network came from the Nordplus grant guidelines. Torunn realized that adding members would better our chances of
94 Helga Rut Gudmundsdottir successful applications in an increasingly competitive grant environment. Subsequently, Torunn was the one who single-handedly reached out, sending e-mails to people she had no idea who were. Not knowing whether anyone would respond. This was an example of her vision and persistence. And here we are some years later, with a larger and stronger network and wonderful colleagues with whom we otherwise would never would have been acquainted. One could say that Iceland was a passive member of the NNME network before that network meeting in 2002. However, the network’s mandate mostly applied to master’s students and there was no particular master’s program in music education in place at my institution. Therefore, there was not an imminent reason to become highly involved at the time. The Iceland University of Education had accepted teacher exchanges to Iceland instigated by other members of the network and was not actively seeking exchanges for teachers or students from Iceland. Before 2002 Iceland had not participated in activities such as network meetings or organizing intensive courses within the network. From 2003 onward there was an increased presence of Icelandic participants in the network. Then, in 2008, two things occurred: (1) the Iceland University of Education became the School of Education within the University of Iceland and (2) it became mandatory for teachers in Iceland to hold a master’s degree. This created more master’s students specializing in music education at the University of Iceland, resulting in increased involvement of Iceland in the planning, execution and participation of NNME course.
The NNME intensive courses The weeklong intensive courses of the NNME are the hallmark and the pillars of the network. These courses create the core culture of the network and have a great impact on all participants whether teachers or students. One of my fellow NNME colleagues once stated that these intensive master’s courses are what makes doctoral students. Indeed, it is possible to trace the personal history of several current professional academics in S candinavia who began their careers as student participants in the NNME intensive courses or had their careers boosted by NNME-related activities. Research projects and international collaborations have been instigated through the NNME connections, not just between professors but also involving students. The first NNME intensive course I attended was held in 2003 in Stockholm and it was intense indeed. The course was engaging, ambitious and densely organized with many lectures and only a few brief breaks between. I did not know any of the other participants and I had not been assigned any role at the course. I just attended as a teacher and network representative from Iceland. Nevertheless, the course proved to be highly engaging and my brain seemed to overspin, taking in a myriad of languages. Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and forms of English with a peculiar Scandinavian- influenced vocabulary and a multitude of quaint accents were all served in
Icelandic perspective on Nordic music ed 95 one linguistic stew that was challenging to digest. If I would not understand all the Scandinavian languages (except for Finnish, which is different), this may not have been as challenging. The experience was both multicultural and culture-specific at the same time, which I quite enjoyed while I tried to figure out how I would fit into this community. My identity as an Icelandic scholar, educated in North America in quantitative research traditions, was somewhat different from the identities and traditions I encountered there. One of the first impressions I had concerned the modes of behavior and conduct that are tempting to attribute to stereotypical Scandinavian characteristics. I will try to explain this with a short story from that first course I attended in Stockholm, in 2003. As I recall, we were on the third day of the course and the program had been quite demanding with numerous back-to-back lectures. At one point late in the afternoon, between two lectures, a N orwegian student promptly stood up proclaiming loudly “Jammen nå må jeg ha pause altså!” [English transl.: “Well, now I really need to take a break”]. Then he calmly proceeded to walk out of the room. The other attendants looked confused at each other, as the rest of the Norwegian students followed behind him, the room was quickly emptied and the nearby cafeteria instantly filled with chatting students and teachers who all had desperately needed a break. For me this episode was highly comical to observe, although it is quite possible that others present would recall the incident in a different manner, if they remember it at all. To me it reinforced the stereotype of Norwegians who tend to speak their mind and have only a moderate respect for authority. The Swedes had created an ambitious plan that they decided to uphold regardless of how realistic it turned out, while the Danes and Finns were happy that someone took the initiative to break up a difficult situation and swiftly followed suit. From this incident we most importantly learned that it was imperative to carefully plan breaks in future NNME courses, and over time I think we realized more and more how essential those social interactions are between students, between teachers and between students and teachers. The lunch breaks needed to be long enough to encourage inspiring conversations, and constructive coffee breaks could be used for building social and professional networks across academic ranks and cultures.
Languages in the network Currently, the default language used within the NNME network is English. We correspond in English and the intensive courses are conducted in the English language. However, this was not always the case. In the early days of the network the center of the network activities was in the traditional Scandinavian countries and those speaking Danish, Norwegian and S wedish comprised the majority. Because these languages are so similar it is possible for people speaking these languages to communicate in their mother tongue and understand each other, especially with good will, patience and
96 Helga Rut Gudmundsdottir practice. In Finland there is a minority who speaks Swedish, and in Iceland the Danish language is a mandatory subject in school, so in some cases the Finns and Icelanders are able to keep up with one of the Scandinavian languages but often they are at a disadvantage when faced with Scandinavian languages they have not learned. The switch to English as the default language of the NNME network took place during the first decade of the new millennium, even before the Baltic countries joined the network. This transition was met with some opposition by members of the network who were reluctant to give up the S candinavian languages as the primary mode of communication. Network meetings had often been in Scandinavian languages rather than English, and it was accepted that students from Denmark, Norway and Sweden could give presentations in their own language. Even keynotes were delivered in these languages despite it being known that some participants would not be able to understand them. I vividly remember the frustration expressed by Finnish students after a long keynote speech and discussions in the Norwegian language that they could not follow at all. For this reason it became important to press for changes in the language protocols. If all participants were to be welcomed to the table, we needed to ensure that all could have equal access to the flow of communication. Early in the first decade of the millennia the pressure for change became strong from the representatives of Iceland and Finland, who insisted that there could be no equality or justice in a situation where Icelandic and Finnish students would invariably be forced to use a foreign language (English or a Scandinavian language) while the other students could use their mother tongue for presentations. The reluctance to make English the main language of communication is quite understandable from the viewpoint of Danes, Norwegians and Swedes who could all speak their mother tongue and still understand each other. A confounding factor was that the Nordic grants we were seeking seemed at that time to encourage and promote the use of Scandinavian languages and the perception was that giving in to English language would constitute a kind of defeat. In fact, the preservation of Nordic languages was one of the principal incentives in the creation of the Nordplus funding operation (Nordic Council of Ministers, 1992). In a report on the Nordplus grant program the language issue was discussed and the suggestion was to give crash courses in the Nordic languages to Finnish and Icelandic members to make it easier for them to participate actively in networks. The report was written in English and the authors apologized for that fact by explaining that it was for the purpose of external evaluation outside the Nordic region (Nordic Council of Ministers, 1992). Therefore, abandoning the ideology of the common Nordic/Scandinavian language culture and heritage for English as the lingua franca was a large step to take at the time. Although Scandinavian languages are embraced and cherished in the NNME network, English language has been strengthened as the official
Icelandic perspective on Nordic music ed 97 mode of communication, which is important for the inclusion of nations that do not speak any Scandinavian languages. The first intensive course where all students and presenters were required to use English in presentations was the course in 2005 in Oslo, Norway. The decision to use English as the default language of correspondence and communication in the network as well as in the intensive courses became even more relevant later on with the inclusion of the Baltic nations, in the decade that followed. Although English is often the third or fourth foreign language learned in the Nordic countries, it has been accepted as the most practical language of communication in this network, as it seems to be the case in much of global communication (Crystal, 2012). Another important consideration in this matter is that English is the predominant language of scholarly publications and major international conferences in the current international academic landscape. In a network where the purpose is to increase the participants’ competencies for academic endeavors the building of English communication skills in a professional context is definitely valuable.
Iceland and the NNME intensive courses An intensive network course was held in Iceland for the first time in 2015. Until then, the number of Icelandic master’s students who had taken part in the intensive courses was only ten in total, but thereof eight participated after 2008 as the Icelandic master’s program began to emerge. When the course was held in Iceland, the number of students participating increased and we had a larger number of Icelandic master’s students than in the previous years for obvious reasons. The high cost of traveling limits the number of students who can attend these courses. However, host institutions can include more of their students because there is no cost of travel for them. Therefore, it is common for students from the host institution to outnumber other participants in the NNME courses. The NNME courses do acknowledge two levels of student participation, where the basic level is for students who participate in all course activities and the more advanced level is for students who also present their own projects. Because the master’s program for music educators in Iceland is small, we have organized our program such that student participation in NNME courses counts as assignments in the course they have to take on music education research. Our students could choose between those levels and be compensated with course credits accordingly. Some of the Icelandic master’s students have taken part in more than one intensive course. They participated on a basic level the first time and present their project the second time they participated. After returning to Iceland we usually had the Icelandic students give presentations for their fellow students back home about their experiences at the NNME course. This way the students were encouraged to reflect on what they learned during the intensive week and the students back home would be exposed to some of these new perspectives.
98 Helga Rut Gudmundsdottir
Students’ experiences with NNME intensive courses Students who participate in the intensive courses benefit enormously from meeting other students at the same level, with similar backgrounds and interests. Music education research is a unique field with particular historical perspectives and its own research culture and traditions. As with any academic field it is important to foster a research culture that reaches out to other similar communities seeking to open up, develop and broaden the scope of scholarly inquiry. Most graduate programs in music education in the Nordic countries are small and in danger of being isolated from similar programs in other institutions. Through the intensive courses teachers and students become aware of the current issues in research, methodology and practice within the field of music education in communities other than their own. This promotes awareness of new approaches and expands the vision of both teachers and students. Such awareness can lead to changes in programs and practices both at the university level and in music education practices in schools and in the community. Many of the students who graduate with master’s degrees in music education become leading figures in their field in schools at all levels and in the community, for example as band-, orchestra- or choral leaders. Interestingly, even students who have not pursued an academic career testify that the intensive courses became a turning point in their pursuit of the degree. They felt more confident and motivated to complete an ambitious project for their master’s degree after taking such a course. The motivation inspired by these courses has had an impact beyond the academic world and into various communities. As one of the Icelandic master’s students who participated in 2009 explained: My participation in NNME caused me to take my master thesis project more seriously than before. I was debating at the time what I should write about and realized that this project was not just about getting it over and done with. I became motivated to choose a subject that really mattered to me and I wanted it to be relevant and helpful for other music educators. The participation in the course also immensely increased my interest in pedagogical issues, which affected my future efforts to make a difference in my workplace (school) and even in the community. Through these courses friendships have formed that have led to further exchanges beyond the academic world. Here is a quote from a student who participated in 2014: We created a Facebook group in which the participants could form their own connections and even work together after the course. One of the students [from another institution] came back to Iceland this year and gave a workshop.
Icelandic perspective on Nordic music ed 99 Thus it can be concluded that the format of the intensive courses encourages and fosters personal and professional relationships in and out of academia. Such relationships would not necessarily be formed through a different venue of interinstitutional exchange. The benefits are in terms of both the academic context and the professional field of music education.
Music education in the Nordic region The strengths of music education research in the Scandinavian region are closely linked with the strengths of music education practices in these countries; that is, the inclusion of popular culture in music education and emphasis on learning methods that are informal and learner centered. Popular music culture has gained considerable space in Scandinavian music classrooms (Smith, Moir, Brennan, Rambarran and Kirkman, 2017), which is unlike what we have seen until very recently in most other Western cultures such as the Anglophone British and North American nations we commonly compare with our own. This is to a large extent driven by democratic philosophies in music education (Väkevä, 2006; Väkevä and Westerlund, 2007) or at least coincides with these democratic ideologies in music education. Another strength in music education programs in the Scandinavian region is the inclusion of non-Western methods of music learning such as rote learning, imitation and improvisation based on musical genres and traditions from West African and other foreign cultures (Hauge, 2012; Hauge and Christophersen, 2000; Hedegaard, 1995; Sæther, 1993). Furthermore, Scandinavian researchers in music education have been leading in terms of their attention to cultural issues that arise with increasing immigrant populations and the resulting implications for music education (Hofvander Trulsson, 2010; Karlsen, 2012; Karlsen and Westerlund, 2010; Sæther, 2008; Ruud, 2006). In the aforementioned Anglophone cultures, such as Britain, Australia and the USA, it seems that music education has remained more c onservative in terms of the predominance of Western music, placing more emphasis on music reading skills and traditional ensemble playing (Hebert, 2011; Mark and Gary, 2007; Mills, 2005; Smith, Moir, Brennan, Rambarran and K irkman, 2017). Also, the more traditional ways of teaching music through methods such as the Kodály approach seem more prevalent in the Anglo-Saxon cultures than in Scandinavia. However, music education in the Baltic region does not seem to have followed the same path as in Scandinavia. There, the influence of Western art music is more apparent and the emphasis on the preservation of local folk music seems much stronger in the Baltic region than in Scandinavia. The Western art music influence in the Baltic is apparently rooted in the historic ties with Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union while the strong sense of preservation of local folk music traditions can be explained by imminent threats to their sovereignty and urgent need for strong national identities.
100 Helga Rut Gudmundsdottir It is not obvious where to place Iceland in the picture I have just painted of music education in the Nordic countries. To some extent, the popular music revolution has reached the Icelandic music classrooms, but certainly to a lesser degree or at a slower pace than it has in the rest of Scandinavia. For some reason, the typical music education program in Iceland has been strongly influenced by Western choral music traditions and the most common methods in the music classroom draw from the approaches of Kodály and Orff. Interestingly, choir singing is the only extracurricular musical activity for children, that is offered free of charge. The Icelandic association for school music educators is an active member of the Nordic choral association Norbusang, which was established in 1987 and organizes yearly choral singing festivals (Helldén and Johansson, 2007). According to the website of the Icelandic school music educators association, the Norbusang is the only major international activity they take part in, which demonstrates the importance of choral music in the official activities of the Icelandic association. Therefore, it is possible to conclude that traditional music education in Iceland has had more in common with the programs we have been introduced to in the Baltic than with music education in Scandinavia. However, such speculations call for further studies in order to be confirmed or refuted.
Music education in Iceland The history of formal music education in Iceland is not very long. The first formal music school in Iceland was established in 1930 as the Reykjavik music conservatory (a.k.a. Tónlistarskólinn í Reykjavík) (Sveinbjörnsson, 1997). This was in close collaboration with the Icelandic state radio and the aim was to educate music performers for an Icelandic symphony orchestra. The Icelandic Symphonic orchestra was established two decades later (Bjarnason, 2000). A law on music education was passed in 1963, which created the foundation for state-supported music schools for children. As a result, public music schools were established in most school districts around the country. Similar systems are not in place for any other arts than music, which seems to have a particularly strong position in the Icelandic education system (Bamford, 2009). A national curriculum for music schools was created and published in 2000, which details the graded standards for every instrument (Ministry of Education and Culture, 2000). This curriculum has not been revised since, and no revisions have been planned to this date. However, no other art subjects have a separate national curriculum outside the compulsory school system as music does. Currently there are approximately 90 public music schools operating around Iceland, with roughly 15,000 students, providing access to music education in all communities and the financial support to the music schools is conditioned and framed by the national curriculum (Grendal and Sigurbjarnarson, 2009). In smaller towns and communities the music schools are run directly by the municipality,
Icelandic perspective on Nordic music ed 101 often in conjunction or close collaboration with the compulsory public school system. This is apparent through shared use of facilities and the integration of private music lessons into the students’ school day. That is, music students are commonly allowed to leave during regular lessons at their school to attend their private music lessons with a music teacher during the school day. This has been determined to provide good results, as these students do not suffer academically from this arrangement, but rather tend to do well on average in their academic subjects (Thorisson and Skulason, 2002). The municipal music schools usually provide music preschool with basic recorder lessons and private lessons on the most common instruments such as piano, guitar and voice. Opportunities for learning orchestral instruments, i.e. strings and wind instruments as well as other instruments, such as accordion and percussion, depend on the available teachers and facilities. Wind bands are more common than string orchestras in rural areas with 37 active school wind bands all over the country. The national school wind band association has been an active member of the Nordic school wind band organization NOMU (Nordisk Orkestermusik Union) since 1999 and organizes yearly nationwide conventions (the Icelandic school band association/Samtök íslenskra skólalúðrasveita, 2014). Private music schools are also in operation in some of the larger rural communities and these schools offer less conventional music studies emphasizing alternative musical genres such as popular music. The city of Reykjavik differs from most of the smaller municipalities in that it does not run music schools itself but rather outsources these services to private institutions. The result is a semiprivate, semipublic system that encompasses approximately 18 music schools in Reykjavik although there are at least as many all-private music schools in operation. The cost of music schools for pupils in Reykjavik is considerably higher than in rural areas with a few exceptions such as the wind-band programs in selected school districts where the operation is similar to the close collaboration between compulsory school and the music program in rural areas detailed above. Iceland differs from most of the neighboring countries in that music education within the compulsory schools is traditionally strong in early childhood education and in the lower grades. However, at the high school and college level music is usually not offered as a subject. Some compulsory schools offer music as an elective subject in grades 8–10 (13–15-year-olds) and a few junior colleges offer choir as an elective subject. Therefore, music studies are almost entirely confined to the public and private music schools at the high school level and above. In Iceland, teachers become certified through completing a master’s degree in education. Those who want to teach music can elect music as a teaching subject at B.Ed. and M.Ed. level or they can complete a B.A. in music and then add an M.Ed. degree to become a certified teacher for compulsory school (grades 1–10). Teachers with this qualification are also employable within the public or private music school system as well as for conducting
102 Helga Rut Gudmundsdottir choirs and bands and as music specialists in early childhood settings, i.e. preschools and day-care centers. However, there are no requirements specifically to become a certified music teacher in Iceland. Teachers in music schools have a large range of music studies behind them and many are professional performers, e.g. in the Icelandic symphony orchestra. Since 2009, the Iceland University of the Arts has been offering a master’s program in arts education, which provides general teacher certificates (for compulsory schools) to individuals with a bachelor’s degree in an arts subject. At the University of Iceland, the teacher education program offers a specialization in music education for those who intend to teach classroom music in compulsory schools.
Music education in the compulsory schools The compulsory system focuses primarily on group lessons in music in grades 1–7 and as an elective subject in grades 8–10. Traditionally, the school music in Iceland is based on singing, and the Icelandic national curriculum in 1965 mentioned singing lessons and singing teachers but not music teachers (Gudmundsdottir, 2008). There are very few textbooks in music from this era but the material that exists contains folk songs and children’s songs supplemented with basic lessons in music theory and sight-reading exercises. The early 1970s were a growth period for music in the Icelandic compulsory school system. This is reflected in a large section devoted to music education in the 1976 national curriculum and considerable effort in the making of new textbooks for the subject music in grades 1–5. The textbooks and songbooks that followed were strongly influenced by the Kodály approach which is obvious, for instance, from the use of movable do and Curwen hand signs. The musical material included in the curriculum was a mixture of Icelandic and Nordic folk music. In addition, there were introductions to composers of Western classical music and instruments supplemented with audio examples. Although there is some brief mention of Orff instruments in this material, it was not until later that Orff instruments became more common in Icelandic music classrooms. The Orff approach gained momentum in the 1990s when a couple of Icelandic music teachers returned from Austria as certified Orff teachers and gave inspiring courses for practicing music teachers. The Orff instruments continue to be standard equipment in Icelandic music classrooms, although singing is the most common and highest valued activity among school music teachers (Gudmundsdottir, 2013). In recent years, popular music and technology have become increasingly common in Icelandic music classrooms. A textbook on the history of popular music for grades 5–7 came out in 2007, and in 2013 music teachers were encouraged to use iPads in the classroom through the Biophilia project instigated by renowned musician Björk. However, most music teachers seem to be taking baby steps in the use of technology in the music classroom (Schram, 2016).
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Research methods in music education in the Nordic countries As a researcher with a stronger background in quantitative methods than qualitative methods, I have sometimes felt at odds with the overwhelming majority of my Nordic colleagues who mostly employ qualitative methods or philosophical inquiry in their scholarship. This is not to suggest that I recall any real conflicts, for there has always been the utmost mutual respect between all the Nordic scholars no matter their methodology of choice. Working with teachers and students at the NNME courses I have had the opportunity to learn to think in new and challenging ways within novel frameworks. Through the NNME course participation I have sought further knowledge about concepts, such as phenomenology and the German philosophical term “bildung”, which I did not encounter much during my North American graduate studies. However, as the quantitative scholar in the Nordic group I have also considered it a responsibility to share my perspective on methodology. Although my colleagues and their students hold respect for my choice of research methods, I have found it necessary to enlighten and even correct some misconceptions of the purpose and intent of qualitative inquiry. An example of this comes from when I presented a study on infants’ ability to participate in musical activities. Because I used the word “measure” in the context of observing infants, some in the audience who were used to more qualitative approaches were under the impression that my intention was to rank and rate infants in order to evaluate their individual differences in musicality. I would of course have disagreed with any researcher with such an intention and would not deem it an ethical endeavor myself. It was challenging to defend my approach and explain that quantitative inquiry does not necessarily lead to hierarchical comparisons of individuals. The purpose of that particular study was to demonstrate infants’ advanced musical communication abilities that exceed what they have been credited with in the previous research literature. I had employed quantitative methods, simply in order to demonstrate the predominant abilities of infants at a certain age. For some reason, I have found that in the Nordic context, the motives of researchers are more readily questioned if they choose quantitative methods. To the extent that quantitative findings almost seem to be considered less real than findings achieved through qualitative inquiry. Furthermore, a common misconception that I hear from colleagues unfamiliar with quantitative methods is that researchers who apply statistical measure have an unrealistic presumption about the generalizability of their results. While the underlying basis for many statistical tests is that a properly constructed sample can represent a given population, most researchers applying such tests are well aware that no one study can explain complicated traits and tendencies of a population. In fact, quantitatively inclined researchers are, in my experience, usually most reluctant to jump to simple conclusions based on their results.
104 Helga Rut Gudmundsdottir
Matters of concern Scholarship in music education research is strong in the Nordic countries and has already gained esteemed recognition within the international research community as elaborated in this book. This can also be seen in the increasing numbers of publications in international music education forums from Nordic authors, as well as citation counts. However, music education research in the Nordic countries has overwhelmingly been in the realm of qualitative research and philosophical studies. In my opinion, there is cause for concern that very little quantitative research in music education is practiced in the Nordic countries. In comparison to the international venue of music education research, there seems to be an obvious imbalance in the magnitude of qualitative research and the scant quantitative research. This is a tradition or perhaps a cycle that seems difficult to break because the overwhelming majority of the leading experts in music education in the Nordic countries conduct research using qualitative methods or philosophical inquiry. Therefore, the emerging generation of music education scholars in the Nordic academic institutions will rarely receive their mentoring from experts in alternative methods of inquiry such as quantitative or other types of research methods. While it can be claimed that the NNME courses and other network activities have elevated scholarship in music education research in the Nordic countries, more could be done to increase the diversity of methodological inquiry and forms of scholarship. Although this could have already been achieved through inviting more varied scholars from other countries and traditions, its implementation would have been complicated to fund because Nordic funding does not support mobility for scholars from outside the Nordic region. Perhaps in the future, the NNME network should consider reaching further beyond Nordic funding in order to promote and encourage more varied scholarship within the Nordic region. The Nordplus-funded NNME network has been a valuable resource for the music education community in the Nordic countries. It has benefited programs that create the music educators for the future. The participating institutions, the academics, the students and the local music education communities have been enriched through the exchanges and collaborations facilitated through this network. Research in music education has grown in the same period of time this network has been operating. This growth would almost certainly have occurred without this network although probably not to the same extent as it has with the help of this network. It is though certain that this network has affected and encouraged Nordic research in music education and will continue to have an impact on the future directions of Nordic music education in research and practice.
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References Bamford, A. (2009). Arts and cultural education in Iceland. Reykjavik: Ministry of Education and Culture. Bjarnason, B. (2000). Sinfóníuhljómsveit Íslands. Saga og stéttartal. Reykjavík: Sögusteinn. Crystal, D. (2012). English as a global language. London: Cambridge University Press. Grendal, S., and Sigurbjarnarson, A. (2009). Greining á kerfi tónlistarskóla á Íslandi [Engl. transl.: A report on the music school system in Iceland]. Unpublished report. Gudmundsdottir, H. R. (2008). Tónmennt í íslenskum grunnskólum: Útbreiðsla, aðstæður og viðhorf. [Transl. Music Education in Icelandic schools: Scope, conditions, and attitudes.] Tímarit um Menntarannsóknir, 5, 63–76. Félag um menntarannsóknir, Háskóla Íslands. Gudmundsdottir, H. R. (2013). Tónlistarþroski ungbarna og tónlistaruppeldi – Yfirlitsgrein [Transl.: Musical development of infants and music education – A review]. Netla - Veftímarit um uppeldi og menntun, Menntavísindasvið Háskóla Íslands, 3. október 2013. Hauge, T. B. (2012). Rhythmic music pedagogy: A Scandinavian approach to music education. Journal of Pedagogy and Psychology “Signum Temporis”, 5(1), 4–22. Hauge, T., and Christophersen, C. (2000). Rytmisk musikkpedagogikk i grunnskolen. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget. Hebert, D. G. (2011). Originality and institutionalization: Factors engendering resistance to popular music pedagogy in the USA. Music Education Research International, 5, 12–21. Hedegaard, S. (1995). Trommeleg: Et musikpædagogisk grundlag. Brøndby: Semi-forlaget. Helldén, B., and Johansson, A. (2007). 20 år med Norbusang, 1987–2007. Göteborg: Norbusam. Retrieved from: www.norbusang.org/wp-content/uploads/Norbusang 20ar_jubileumsbroschyr.pdf Hofvander-Trulsson, Y. (2010). Musical upbringing in the eyes of immigrant parents. The Finnish Journal of Music Education, 13(1), 25–38. Karlsen, S. (2012). Multiple repertoires of ways of being and acting in music: Immigrant students’ musical agency as an impetus for democracy. Music Education Research, 14(2), 131–148. Karlsen, S., and Westerlund, H. (2010). Immigrant students’ development of musical agency–exploring democracy in music education. British Journal of Music Education, 27(03), 225–239. Mark, M., and Gary, C. L. (2007). A history of American music education. Blue Ridge Summit, PA: Rowman & Littlefield Education. Mills, J. (2005). Music in the School. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ministry of Education and Culture (2000). The Icelandic national curriculum guide for music schools: General section, 2000. Retrieved from: https://issuu.com/ kennarasamband/docs/adalnamskra_ton_almhl_enska Nordic Council of Ministers (1992). Evaluation of NORDPLUS—the Nordic Programme for the Mobility of University Students and Teachers. Nordiske Seminar— og Arbejdsrapporter (Vol. 2). Copenhagen: Nordplus. Ruud, E. (2006). The role of music in the development of identity. In B. Stålhammar, (Ed.), Music and human beings: Music and identity (pp. 59–69). Örebro, Sweden: Universitetsbiblioteket.
106 Helga Rut Gudmundsdottir Sæther, E. (1993). Training Swedish music teachers in Gambia. In Teaching musics of the world. The second international symposium, Basel 14–17 October 1993. A ffalterbach: Philipp Verlag. Sæther, E. (2008). When minorities are the majority: Voices from a teacher/ researcher project in a multicultural school in Sweden. Research Studies in Music Education, 30(1), 25–42. Samtök íslenskra skólalúðrasveita /The Icelandic school band association. (2014). Retrieved 12 March, 2018 from www.sisl.is/ Schram, Ó. (2016). Spjaldtölvur og sköpun í tónmenntakennslu [Transl.: Smart tablets and creativity in music education] Unpublished M.A. thesis. University of Iceland, School of Education. Smith, G. D., Moir, Z., Brennan, M., Rambarran, S., and Kirkman, P. (2017). Popular Music Education (R)evolution. In Smith, G. D., Moir, Z., Brennan, M., Rambarran, S., and Kirkman, P. (Eds.), The Routledge research companion to popular music education. New York: Routledge. Sveinbjörnsson, B. (1997). Tónlist á Íslandi á 20. öld. Með sérstakri áherslu á upphaf og þróun elektrónískrar tónlistar á árunum 1960–1990 (Doctoral dissertation, Thèse: Musciologie, Institut for Musik og Musikterapi, Aalborg Universitet. Retrieved from: www. ismennt. is/not/bjarki/Phd/phd.html). Thorisson, T., and Skulason, S. (2002). Hljóðfæranám sem hluti af samfelldum skóladegi –Tilraunaverkefni í níu grunnskólum í Reykjavík skólaárið 2001–2002. [Engl. transl.: Instrumental lessons as a an integrated part of the school day -An experimental project in nine compulsory schools in Reykjavik the school year 2001–2002]. A summary from a report for the Reykjavik Department of Education. Retrieved 11 March, 2018 from www.musik.is/Pistlar/thorir_1.html Väkevä, L. (2006). Teaching popular music in Finland: What’s up, what’s ahead? International Journal of Music Education, 24(2), 126–131. Väkevä, L., and Westerlund, H. (2007). The ‘method’ of democracy in music education. Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, 6(4), 96–108.
7 Musician and teacher Higher popular music education in a Danish perspective Lars Brinck
Introduction It’s mid-October 2008 and the weather is actually quite mild for this time of year here, I presume. I’m not familiar with weather conditions here. This is my first time in Finland. Pine trees and lakes. Beautiful, deserted, untouched from where I’m standing: Beside this beautiful wooden villa outside Helsinki, the taxi just dropped off my two students and me. Rhythmic Music Conservatory, Copenhagen (RMC) recently joined the NNME network and we’re attending our first intensive course. Exciting. We’re all popular and jazz musicians and music teachers looking anxiously forward to meeting our Nordic music educational peers across genres and styles. The Rhythmic Music Conservatory (RMC), situated in central Copenhagen, Denmark, is the only music academy in Denmark solely offering programs within popular music, jazz, electronica, etc. (in the Nordic countries coined as “rhythmic music”).1 A small academy of about 200 students and 15 tenured professors and lecturers, it is positioned adjacent to other national art schools of architecture, film, performing arts, design and modern dance at Holmen, a former naval shipyard across from the Copenhagen harbor.2 It was a new thing in 2008 for me as music education professor at RMC to attend an intensive Nordic Network for Music Education (NNME) course with some of my music education master students. Music education programs at the music academies at the time had a long engaged history within the classical, folk musical and (later) rhythmic musical realms, and – as I will address in this chapter – the idea of artistic and educational competences to be closely linked and even formlessly entwined has been prominent. As Christophersen and Gullberg (2017, p. 425) summarize, “Popular music has a (…) strong position in Nordic music education”, which applies to all levels of education. Since the middle of the 20th century, with Danish composers and music pedagogues Bernhard Christensen and Astrid Gøssel,
108 Lars Brinck the improvisational, bodily and repetitious jazz music entered Danish kindergarten music education. Children’s spontaneous singing, pentatonic improvisation and storytelling on marimbas and drums became an important new approach to educating the enlightened, democratic, and socially just individual agent of modern society (Michelsen, 2001). In the 1970s rhythmic music entered higher education curriculum at Aarhus University in the shape of “integrated theory and practice” with rock, pop and Latin American music at the core. Rhythmic music became eligible for specialization at the music academies’ music educational programs.3 During the 1980s new institutions saw the light of day: Center for Rytmisk Musik og Bevægelse (CRMB) in Silkeborg was initiated by musicologist and pianist Steen Nielsen and music teacher and educational theorist Karen-Lis Kristensen.4 In Copenhagen, the RMC was established, mainly around prominent music educational innovators such as Karsten Simonsen and Bent Haastrup. CRMB offered an integrated musician/music teacher program based on the ideas of Bernhard Christensen and Astrid Gøssel, while RMC offered a jazz musician program (soon to be supplemented by an integrated musician/music teacher program). In the early 1990s, the provincial (then) classical music academies decided to also offer rhythmic music programs, with DJM eventually taking over the CRMB program. However, RMC remained an independent institution for rhythmic musicians and music teachers in Copenhagen. Many of the rhythmic music education concepts from this fruitful and innovative period still stand. First, higher education rhythmic music pedagogy in Denmark is still dominated by notions of unpredictable, collective, creative practices with a high degree of participant involvement, composition and arrangement and (for many) a strong connection to the bodily grounded experience of the groove, whether implicit or explicit. Second, the idea that musicianship and music educational interest and competence develop in entwined, parallel motion seems also to still carry a strong argument. Both fundamental ideas about a rhythmic music pedagogy seem to adhere to a notion of the collective, relational practice at the very core of human development, of embodied learning. Our week in Kallio-Kuninkala outside Helsinki was a remarkable experience for both me and my master students. The hospitality of the NNME network teachers and students from the other Nordic countries was reaffirming for future mutual endeavors. Specifically, I remember walking back and forth every morning and afternoon between the teachers’ villa, and the main house, where we all ate and hung out and where some of the students slept. That and walking to the former barn, where presentations and other activities took place. Walking back and forth, often in the most hospitable and welcoming company of one or more of my (now) close and cherished music education scholarly peers,
Musician and teacher: popular music education 109 as we had the most interesting conversations about music and music education, and classical, folk musical and jazz and popular musical points of departure entwined. Also, my students had the time of their life. Their presentations were well-received and my fellow scholars commented empathetically and with great insight on perspectives and potentials of their educational research interests. In light of the thematic approach of this chapter, I was also happy to find, that the students’ entwined artistic and music educational skills proved fruitful for them. Going from deep scholarly discussions in the afternoon to our evening jam session in the villa, around the piano. They (and I) genuinely felt, that there was a space here (and out-there) for an entwined musicianship/music educational practice and theory. (author’s reflections from NNME course)
First verse: popular music education (PME) as/in school As already mentioned, aspects of the development of the field of PME that seem significantly underexposed include the notions of the dialectics between the individual and collective perspective on practice, theory and, hence, learning. This involves the notions of the dialectics between the artistic and the educational arenas, where skills and competencies are developed. I partly lean on Thompson and Stevenson (2017), and point to Mantie’s (2013) discussion on whether popular music’s entrance into the educational field has caused “teaching strategies and methods [to] change accordingly” (p. 348). As Hebert et al. (2017) state, “popular music education is still finding its feet and defining its parameters” (p. 451), and I somewhat agree on the authors’ notion that many issues and concerns within PME research are either (yet) scarcely touched upon, while others for some reason have been taken under serious scholarly scrutiny. But what actually do we now seem to know about PME? In my opinion, two main veins seem to have evolved within international music educational research as we approach the third decade of the 21st century (Brinck, 2014; Hebert, 2011): One looking for answers, understandings and new questions in a somewhat relational, collective perspective on human existence and development, typically within social sciences, sociology, anthropology, ethnography and parts of educational psychology. Also, there is one taking a predominantly individual and cognitive approach to understanding how we learn and develop identities, typically within biological and natural science, but also within educational psychology.5 In the following section I will discuss the slow but significant general increase in music educational research addressing the more collective and relational aspects of learning and teaching within PME, and how this increase
110 Lars Brinck in research from a social, collective perspective seems to be a fruitful contribution to higher PME. But first, I give a brief glance of how I frame PME research from an individual, cognitive approach.
First interlude: research in PME from an individual, cognitive perspective To start with the latter, a primarily individual and cognitive understanding of human development has prevailed for many years, and has certainly been a dominating perspective in the way that we organize our schools (cf. K ristensen, 2013). Individuality, competitiveness, benchmarking, individual grades and individual learning outcomes, among other things, are increasingly at the core of what one might call conventional Western educational thinking (Brinck 2014; Lave, 2011). Thus, these concerns naturally become the core interest for (music) education research. Educational questions taking this approach often include: How can we understand learning from the perspective of the individual student? How can we design teaching environments and educational technologies to optimize the individual student’s development – the schoolish way of doing things? And, with short-term efficiency in mind: What works in our music classrooms? Research aiming at explaining and understanding musical actions and perceptions from an individual and cognitive perspective through brain scan experiments (Limb & Braun 2008; Vuust et al., 2016) or other types of decontextualized examinations of musicians’ actions and perceptions (Monk, 2012; Mondo & Zatore, 1995; Wilkins et al., 2014) only seems to fortify tendencies already dominant within this vein of music educational research. Of course, thinking of musical development – hence music e ducation – in individual terms makes a lot of sense from the immediate point of view, so that we as institutions end up evaluating our students’ (individual) learning outcomes as part of our daily routines, and certainly as part of our tests and exams. But clearly there’s more to be said about popular musical activity and how to engage in it. Generally, individual and cognitive approaches to especially popular music educational practice seem to somehow misrepresent what rhythmic music is mainly about, namely collective, creative, improvisational unpredictable practices (Brinck, 2014, 2017; Green, 2002). This also implies that decontextualized ways of thinking about and researching for new knowledge about human musical development arguably limit our understanding of (hence teaching and performance of) one of our most social, collective and even wordless human practices – popular music. Thompson and Stevenson (2017) take on a similar discussion, questioning for instance categorizing learning according to the institutional contexts (informal, nonformal and formal learning), where the specific practices take place, and whether such distinctions are actually fruitful in understanding how and through which practice popular music is developed and learned.
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Second interlude: research in PME from a relational perspective A growing body of popular music educational research is taking an interest in the social, relational and collective aspects of musical (and human) development, which seems to be contributing with new and productive knowledge to the field. Generally, the notion of PME promoting equality and social justice has been quite significant in the Nordic countries for the past decades, probably also due to the NNME network insisting on the societal relevance of these issues (cf. also Christophersen & Gullberg, 2017). This includes music educational research from the perspective of traditional Nordic societal, human values such as social justice (Thorgersen et al. 2015), inclusion (Christophersen, 2009; Karlsen, 2012), diversity (Brinck, 2011; Brinck & Tanggaard, 2016; Dyndahl & Nielsen, 2014), ethnicity (Hebert, 2010) and democracy (Almqvist 2016; Hebert & Heimonen, 2013), all having been at the core of the NNME network’s intensive courses over the years. However, Christophersen and Gullberg (2017) suggest discussing critically the “more or less explicitly articulated ideals of cultural and educational democracy” (p. 425) related to arguments for (specifically) PME, which they argue may lead to quite narrow understandings of adequate musical repertoires, hence teaching methods. Another prominent area of music educational research in our Nordic region addresses aspects of music and learning related to contexts, environments and general discursive relations. This would include scholarly interest in the significance of social contexts and societal environments on human musical development and identity (Berkaak & Ruud 1994; Brinck 2012, 2014, 2016; Söderman 2000, 2001, 2007; Söderman & Folkestad, 2004), and the significance of institutional educational contexts and discourses (Christophersen, 2009; Gullberg 2002; Mariager-Andersson, 2010). In Brinck (forthcoming), contextual analyses of the dialectic relations between cowriting rock bands’ learning and their music’s development are expected to cast yet another light on some of these issues.
Second verse: higher popular music education between artistic practice and educational research – the case of RMC Within the popular music and jazz idioms, RMC has for more than 25 years contributed to “rhythmic music” artistic and educational practice development (Brinck 2010, 2012, 2017, 2018a; Brinck et al., 2018; Christophersen, 2009; Hebert, 2011). However, it is only within the past few years that RMC has also been able to offer research-based music educational teaching and to execute scientific research projects,6 which naturally has led to a notable increase in RMC’s international relations within the field of music education – including music educational master networks like the NNME.
112 Lars Brinck Let me offer some additional thoughts on the music educational programs and now parallel educational research efforts at RMC. As already touched upon, we at RMC have for years been striving for still stronger arguments for how (and why) we educate our artists to also become able and responsible teachers for future artists.7 My colleagues and I consequently investigate ways to talk about and arguments to support music educational practices allowing and aiming at developing skills of collective improvisation, creativity, communication, and visionary thinking and doing. Concurrently, we seek to develop institutional settings and subject matter approaches, whereby students’ artistic and educational skills and competencies are looked upon as entwined and interrelated matters – both in practice and in theory. In Brinck (2018a), I provide a range of empirical learning and analytical examples of this approach. This institution-wide effort was mainly informed by our different artistic experiences and educational development practices, and to a lesser degree by conventional scholarly work such as literature reviews, well-defined hypotheses and research questions or even consciously selected epistemological or ontological points of view. On the other hand, as we argue, any practice holds significant implications of theoretical points of views, deeply embedded, formlessly entwined (Brinck, 2014; Brinck et al., 2018). A dialectical, foundational position may find sustainable theoretical, empirical support in social practice theory, and in a fundamental situated learning theoretical point of departure (Lave, 1996, 2011). We try to look at the development of the students’ perspective on learning and teaching from that position, embracing the dialectic and entwined relations between (artistic and educational) theory and practice in a historically construed and constructing perspective. This provides a fertile ground for everyone to acknowledge learning (hence aims of teaching) as an ongoing relational process deeply embedded in human (artistic, educational) practice. By highlighting the students’ perspective on their own (historically informed), processes of learning are closely connected to the notion of becoming an artist-teacher. The student’s careful and deep interest in her/his artistic developmental processes in many cases becomes the fertile ground from which a sprouting interest in the other’s learning processes emerge. A historically informed interest in learning in many cases slowly turns into an interest in ways of teaching, ways of providing frameworks and possibilities for others to engage in musical endeavors (2018a).
Chorus: the relations We’re in Iceland. Three educational master students and myself. It’s the fall of 2015, and the three students just barely have started on their first of a series of educational/artistic research projects. Two of the students will present their initial thoughts on the project, clearly based on pivotal aspects of their own artistic interest, now slowly being (also) including an educational path.
Musician and teacher: popular music education 113 Their presentations and subsequent discussion with teachers and students from the other Nordic countries went well. Especially dialogues with the session chairs were very productive. Encounters at the course has already lead to new appointments: A student is going to spend three days in Bergen, teaching his workshop to the Bergen educational students, meeting with the professors to advance the project’s theoretical and methodological aspects. Another student is developing new pedagogical approaches with a fellow student from Iceland, by mail. Coming home from Iceland constituted a remarkable change in the way the students worked with their projects and in the way they talked about music education research. The three students were already internationally oriented, originating from three different European countries, but the intensive course brought a new serious orientation toward an international field of music education to the students’ attention. I’m from Italy, I’m studying in Denmark, and the field that I’m studying is international as well. And I’m beginning to understand the Nordic regional historically-informed traits and movements, and how they are both similar to and different from my Spanish upbringing, my Danish schooling – I’m an international educational scholar among other international scholars! An international music education (research) network such as NNME clearly provides serious contributions to a mutual music education “research” discourse among both master students and their teachers/educational researchers. Participation in intensive courses clearly has a significant impact on the students’ ability to systematically engage in educational research through serious development practices, methodologies and theoretical perspectives. Former students now serve as acknowledged (and still curiously developing) music teachers and artists in Denmark, one even now enrolled in education doctoral studies. International network activities such as NNME also have significant developmental impact on the scholarly relations between professors. Mutual interests emerge during both casual conversations and formal discussions, and ideas for future research endeavors often develop during night-time conversations or at the mandatory course dinner. Relations develop, change, emerge and fade. In any case, they move us to new places and times.
Third verse: from educational research back to practice Bridging research with the actual practices and lives that scholarly endeavors most often claim to be qualifying, has been – and will still be – a major challenge to any research community or field of study. How can we as researchers not only claim our work has an impact on human practice, but
114 Lars Brinck actually see or hear that happening? Especially within such delicate areas of research and practice development as the educational and even music educational realm, this dialectic relation between the theoretical, empirical development of practice and everyday practice itself seems of the utmost importance. To me, this seems still to be a challenge for future music educational research and practice development. One possible way to resolve this challenge might be – as I argue here – a thorough and deliberate investigation of the dialectic relations between theory and practice as these relations show themselves in theory and in musical practice. They would entail dissolving conventional hegemonies of theory over practice, of the abstract over the concrete, of schools over streets, of concerts and recitals over rituals and spontaneous happenings. From the perspective of artistic practice, music education research appears to have a remarkable potential here in the sense that the production of musical activity (the performance, the studio recording, the song) is so easily accessible and tangible to the human mind and body. Could we explore this more within the field of music education? How and when do we know when our research and developmental undertakings do in fact have some kind of impact? How do we design our research projects in ways that will actually make a difference for the practices that we seek to improve? The artistic sensitivity that musicians can contribute to the field of music education seems to be crucial here: An artistic sensitivity that all music educational researchers know “to the bone” and in their hearts, but that we maybe sometimes forget to use as a profoundly relevant guide for our research interests, questions, designs and analyses.
Outro Relations matter! Changing relations matters even more, insofar as we recognize what we learn from them. This goes for changing relations in the musical practice, in the music classroom, in the research community, in the school and in the band room. Especially within the social, relational understandings of PME, I find that serious contributions have been made over the last 20 years of music educational research and practice in the Nordic region. The NNME network clearly has assisted in qualifying how we think and talk about music education within the international field, in terms of both how we do scientific research among colleagues and how we teach our students to constantly develop their teaching practice through careful attention to and analysis of their own and others’ practices – both artistic and educational. I’m actually not sure to what extent our scholarly work impacts across continents, but I sense a growing interest in Nordic perspectives in regard to democracy, social inclusion and equality, although severely threatened by nationalist, sexist and racist movements across the globe. Maybe here’s the most important task for music education research and practice to
Musician and teacher: popular music education 115 come: Pointing to the existential importance of maintaining and nourishing human relations across borders, beliefs and economic abilities through music, and constantly cultivating our students and colleagues’ curiosity toward this music, our mutual language.
Notes 1 Denmark currently has four music academies, all of which are publicly funded: The Royal Academy of Music (DJM) in Aarhus/Aalborg, Danish National Academy of Music (SDMK) in Odense/Esbjerg, The Royal Danish Academy of Music (DKDM) in Copenhagen and the Rhythmic Music Conservatory (RMC) in Copenhagen. DJM and SDMK offer both classical and rhythmic music (jazz and popular music) programs, while DKDM has only classical music (but also a new Chinese music institute) and RMC offers only rhythmic music programs. 2 Danish music teacher education is divided into three main sectors: Music teachers for public music schools, private schools, boarding schools and “folk high schools” (adult one-year courses) are all trained at one of the four music academies. Music teachers for general schools are trained at the teacher programs at one of eight university colleges and kindergarten and extracurricular pedagogues at similar programs at the university colleges as well. High school music teachers are trained at one of Denmark’s five universities. According to Nielsen (2010) most music education programs in Denmark have been remarkably reduced within the past 25 years, due to a number of related factors: Only the number of music education programs at music academies have increased, as have the number of local music schools, the primary labor market for academy-trained music teachers. Music in general school has been reduced or combined (watered down) with other creative crafts, as has the number of music teacher programs and the number of designated music lessons at the university colleges. Music as mandatory Year 1 subject in high school has been canceled, consequently reducing the number of students studying to be a high school music teacher. Generally, developing musical skills has increasingly become a possibility for the few and “talented” (who can afford it) (Kulturministeriet, 2017; Nielsen, 2010). 3 To the best of my knowledge, I was the first music academy student in Denmark to graduate with rhythmic music as the only artistic specialization. That was in 1982 in Aarhus. 4 Later to be joined by a group of rhythmic music musicians/teachers, for instance Leif Falk, Åse Haugaard, Peter Seebach, Astrid Elbek and myself. 5 In my PhD dissertation Ways of the Jam (Brinck, 2014), I offer a thorough review and subsequent discussion of the historical dominance of jazz in music educational settings in Denmark compared to the USA, showing for instance how jazz curriculum quite easily seems to have taken over a series of individual and cognitive understandings of teaching and learning. Rock and pop music genres entering the curriculum (especially in Denmark and other Nordic countries) seem to highlight some significant inadequacies to such relatively individual approaches, highlighting the need for more social, contextual, collective perspectives on how music is learned, and consequently “schooled”. The band as an arena for learning becomes an inevitable perspective (Brinck, 2017, 2018b). 6 The academy’s primary foundation of knowledge is artistic research (creative artistic practice). Scientific research has only recently been added to RMC’s knowledge foundation, due to an R&D strategy aiming at strengthening the staff’s music educational and scientific competencies “from within” the artistic
116 Lars Brinck practices, so to speak. This strategic effort has over the last five years led to three academy teachers obtaining their scientific PhD degrees within the areas of music and learning, music education anthropology and musical entrepreneurship, respectively. 7 According to Danish federal order, the academy’s artistic programs should provide at least 30 ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) worth of educational curricular activities alongside other subjects on the three BA-programs “music performance”, “music creation” and “music production”. On the master level, RMC offers an exclusive 120 ECTS music educational program alongside music performance, music creation and music production programs. A BA program totals 180 ECTS (3 years), a MA program 120 ECTS (2 years).
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8 Advancing music education via Nordic cooperation Equity and equality as central concepts in Finland Marja Heimonen and David G. Hebert Introduction: music education in Finland Among the nations of Northern Europe, Finland has recently developed a reputation as a special place for education. Recent research publications note how the Finnish educational system is commonly described as a “miracle” (Niemi, Toom, & Kallioniemi, 2012; Simola, 2005), while popular periodicals even describe “a continuous stream of foreign delegations making the pilgrimage to Finland to visit schools and talk with the nation’s education experts, and constant coverage in the worldwide media marveling at the Finnish miracle” (Partanen, 2012). How does this reputation for educational achievement play out in the field of music? In this chapter, we offer a general introduction to the current status and very recent historical background of music education in Finland, and then delve into the theme of equity, which we identify as central concept in Finnish arts education. Specifically, we consider the notion of “music for all” in relation to actual policies and practices observed in Finland.1 According to a recent study, “teacher education programs in the Nordic countries are largely fighting the same kinds of problems but, in most cases, Finnish teacher education stands out as an exception” (Rasmussen & Dorf, 2010, p. 51). Such research corroborates several previous studies that hold up Finnish teacher education as a success story (see e.g. Sahlberg, 2011), but even in Finland there are many enduring challenges. We begin this section with an outline of structural issues associated with music education and will then address the principle of “music for all” that is connected to current concerns of music teachers and the problems caused especially by economic cosmopolitanism. Music education in Finland may understood as structured in eight sectors (Musiikinopetus Suomessa, 2017), as follows: 1 Early childhood music education is offered in “music kindergartens” for children under school age (Varhaisiän musiikkikasvattajat, 2018). 2 General music education is taught in schools, and covers basic education and upper-secondary education, including specialized classes in music (Koulujen musiikinopettajat ry, 2018).
120 Marja Heimonen and David G. Hebert 3 Private music education is offered in studios, private music schools, etc. 4 Liberal adult education is mainly for adults who participate in music as a hobby (Vapaa Sivistystyö ry, 2018). 5 Basic arts education in music refers to extracurricular (out-of-school) music education mainly for children and adolescents according to a general or advanced syllabus (Suomen Musiikkioppilaitosten Liitto, 2018; Taiteen perusopetusliitto, 2018). 6 Vocational education is offered at the conservatories, leading to a vocational degree as a musician (Suomen Konservatorioliitto, 2018). 7 Higher music education is offered at various universities of applied sciences. 8 Higher music education at the university level (e.g. music teacher education) is offered at the University of the Arts Helsinki (Sibelius Academy), and at the universities in Jyväskylä and Oulu. In addition to music in general education, approximately 90 legally established music schools offer basic arts education (i.e. out-of-school, extracurricular music education) and form a comprehensive national network mainly for children and adolescents (Suomen Musiikkioppilaitosten Liitto, 2018). As of 2018, 393 institutions offer basic education in the arts. These institutions have 126,000 students, of which approximately 69,000 study music (Taiteen perusopetusliitto, 2018). This kind of network aims to create equal educational opportunities in music: competent instructors teach in schools or music schools established all over the country, offering education free of charge or with subsidized student fees. In Finland, three universities (Sibelius Academy/University of the Arts Helsinki, University of Oulu and University of Jyväskylä) educate music teachers for general music education in schools, while Sibelius Academy and the eight universities of applied sciences train music pedagogues for teaching in music schools. The 17 conservatories in Finland offer vocational upper secondary education and training in music for students aiming to become professional musicians, piano tuners or music technicians. The Education Evaluation Centre (Holopainen, 2016) has recently evaluated this education and the results of the assessment were very positive. In higher music education, the Finnish model has been based on a collaborative structure between research universities and universities of applied sciences. Presently, a lot of cooperation occurs between these institutions. In the city of Jyväskylä, the Finnish Music Campus already consists of the university, the University of Applied Sciences and the Vocational institute of Jyväskylä. All of these institutions are physically close to each other and students can choose to study in courses offered by each of them (Finnish Music Campus, 2018). In the city of Tampere, a similar model called Tampere3 will start in 2019, and include the present University of Tampere, the Technical University and the University of Applied Sciences. This is a new model that challenges the traditional dualism, and students are already
Advancing music ed via Nordic cooperation 121 being offered courses from each of these institutions. Altogether eight universities of applied sciences offer music studies at this moment since two of them – Lahti and Karelia – have closed their music programs during the last few years (Kopra, 2017). These new forms of cooperation have received a lot of public attention and are said to represent the future of higher education (Tampere3: Education, 2018). Because changes to working life are rapid nowadays, Finnish educational policy is based on the principal that in both general schooling and higher education, students and teachers are increasingly to be given a broad education, envisioned so as to become capable of effectively responding to new needs that inevitably arise in society (see Heimonen, Laitinen, & Westerlund, 2009, p. 238; Valtioneuvoston asetus, 2012). However, cultivating flexible, broadly educated individuals can also be seen as an aim dictated mainly by the global business world, which requires workers who are mobile and adaptable. An increase of research and research-based practice in music education has been virtually exponential in Finland across the past two decades. Doctoral studies in music education offered at the University of the Arts Helsinki, and at the universities in Oulu and Jyväskylä have created a forum for music educators to continue their studies at the doctoral level. The most recent doctoral dissertations in music education at the University of the Arts are Listening Education in Finnish Basic Education: Towards a Communal Sonic Agency by Olli-Taavetti Kankkunen (2018), The (Im)possibility of Inclusion by Tuulikki Laes (2017) and Learning Through Producing by Aleksi Ojala (2017). In addition, Songcrafting Practice: A Teacher Inquiry into the Potential to Support Collaborative Creation and Creative Agency by Sari Muhonen (2016) and Music Learning in Costa Rica: A Postcolonial Institutional Ethnography by Guillermo Rosabal-Coto (2016) were completed in 2016, and the dissertation of Rosabal-Coto leads us to a new phenomenon in music education: globalization. New doctoral students in music education at the Sibelius Academy are nowadays from different parts of the world. In addition to the aforementioned Guillermo Rosabal-Coto (2016) from Costa Rica, doctoral students have come from Australia (Kallio, 2015), South Africa (Odendaal, 2013), Argentina, Canada and Norway, for instance. The doctoral seminars are organized weekly in English, and a video connection is offered for those attending from abroad or outside Helsinki region. Moreover, courses are offered in English, and a course on Finnish education compared with the homeland of foreign students was been designed with the reports of some of students published in the Finnish Journal of Music Education (e.g. Capponi-Savolainen, 2009; Robertson, 2009; Rosabal-Coto, 2009). Knowledge of international research literature is required nowadays in master’s-level studies as well, although education of future music teachers in Finnish- and Swedish-speaking schools requires that studies are mainly in the national languages of Finland (i.e. Finnish or Swedish). However,
122 Marja Heimonen and David G. Hebert especially for master’s-level students, the annual intensive courses and exchange opportunities available through the Nordic Network for Music Education (NNME) have been important, since students have thereby been able to collaborate with other Nordic students and teachers. In these seminars, the master’s students have been able to present their ongoing thesis research and get support and comments from their Nordic peers and teachers. Several students and teachers have studied and taught in other Nordic countries – and vice versa, Nordic peers have visited the Sibelius Academy. Finnish music educators have participated in NNME seminars and meetings from the very beginning (at the first meeting in Bergen). Reports by the participants that highlight the importance of these seminars for the students can be read in the Finnish Journal of Music Education (e.g. Aalto, 2014; Sihvola, 2016). In addition to international students, several international professors and researchers have worked at the Sibelius Academy. David Hebert, originally from the United States, worked as a professor for two years, and at different times, Tom Regelski and Randall Allsup, also from the United States, held appointments as Fulbright professors. Norwegian researcher Sidsel Karlsen’s (2014) postdoctoral research on children with immigrant backgrounds attending schools in Helsinki, Stockholm and Oslo was funded by the Academy of Finland, while Maria Westvall (2014) from Örebro University, Sweden, one of the NNME-funded guest teachers, directed a threeyear project on cultural diversity in Swedish-speaking schools in Finland (Heimonen & Westvall, 2015; Mansikka, Westvall, & Heimonen, 2018). Articles by international scholars such as David Elliott (1996), Keith Swanwick (1996) and Tom Regelski (1996) were published nearly 20 years ago in the Finnish Journal of Music Education (see vol. 1, no. 1, from 1996). In the editorial, Marjut Laitinen (1996), Professor Emerita, writes that the language of the journal Musiikkikasvatus is Finnish, but because of the theme of the first issue, philosophy, most of the articles are written by international scholars in English, since at that time there was not much talk of philosophy of music education in Finnish (Laitinen, 1996). One exception is innish. the Finnish philosopher Pentti Määttänen (1996) whose article is in F In 20 years, this situation has changed since several Finnish researchers and professors in music education, such as Westerlund (2002), Heimonen (2002), Juntunen (2004) and Väkevä (2004), specialize in philosophy, and Sibelius Academy hosted the ISPME (Philosophy of Music Education) conference in 2010. Moreover, in 20 years, the Finnish Journal of Music Education developed into a significant refereed journal that not only serves the needs of Finnish readers, music teachers and researchers, but also has an international audience. The themed issue of year 2000 (vol. 5, no. 1–2), edited by Westerlund (2000), included articles by Wayne Bowman (2000), Juha Ojala (2000) and Sami Pihlström (2000), among others, and indicates the strong influence of pragmatism in Finnish music education research. Presently, several researchers, professors and students participate in projects
Advancing music ed via Nordic cooperation 123 such as “Global Visions” (http://sites.uniarts.fi/web/globalvisions/home) and “ArtsEqual” (www.artsequal.fi/). Master’s-level students participate in projects such as The Very Young Composer (Kuule minä sävellän), organized several times at the Sibelius Academy. All of these projects address how music education is connected with social and global questions, as well as with other arts, such as dance and drama. At the University of Jyväskylä, notable strengths in music education have been in cognitive research (e.g. Fischinger, Frieler, & Louhivuori, 2015). In addition, projects in Africa and multicultural music education have been the focus of research studies (e.g. Njoora, Mtwali, Louhivuori, & Moilanen, 2015). Research on music education technology (Myllykoski, 2012) and music therapy (Erkkilä, 2016) has also received emphasis. In the sphere of doctoral studies, Johanna Hasu (2017) completed a notable dissertation on learning difficulties of piano students. In the 1990s, Maija Fredrikson (1994) completed her doctoral studies in early childhood music education at University of Jyväskylä and later served as a professor in music education in Oulu. The present professor in music education at Oulu University is Juha Ojala (2000, 2009), who specializes in musical semiotics and music education. This is just a brief overview of music education that highlights the variety of research traditions. Qualitative research is the focus at the Sibelius Academy, for instance, but around 20 years ago when Kai Karma was the professor at that institution – where he developed his musicality tests – quantitative research was the main research method (see Laitinen & Kainulainen, 2007). Much like in other Nordic nations, popular music (Westerlund, 2009, p. 6) and music technology (Partti, 2016) have taken a central role in school music education across recent decades, a development that is most commonly interpreted as bold and innovative from a global perspective, and is often credited with increasing the democratization of educational methods in this field. However, the prevalence of popular music and music technology also raises concerns regarding the impact of commercialization in this field. We have previously proposed some key questions related to this concern that may also apply to other Nordic nations: Is commercialism a new enemy that music teachers should actively resist? Are Finnish music teachers losing their independence from global market forces that dictate the repertoire used in music lessons, causing children to become uncritical consumers of the market’s musical products? (Heimonen & Hebert, 2016, p. 169) Moreover, creative music making, composing, is mandated to become a stronger part of music education than ever before, according to the new core curriculum (National Board of Education, 2014) implemented in August 2016. In short, a shift from music listening and performing to creative music
124 Marja Heimonen and David G. Hebert making is underway in Finland. A recent political debate concerns the number of music institutions and music teachers in Finland, which some regard to be excessive. This issue is closely connected to economic cosmopolitanism, that is, the global question of how strongly market-based aims influence educational politics in the arts. Put succinctly, how is music education to be justified in an era of global corporations and educational policies that aim to accommodate a global market?
Equity and equality as key concepts Many researchers have concluded that across recent decades, equity ( yhdenvertaisuus in Finnish) became the most central concept in Finnish educational policy. Education in Finland is described as featuring “equity and equality for students” (Halinen & Järvinen, 2008, p. 77), and some Finns stake claim to a legacy of egalitarian pedagogy, in that “the promotion of equity, learning and education is a central factor in our national history” (Niemi, 2012, p. 20). Partanen (2012) argues that “Finland’s experience shows that it is possible to achieve excellence by focusing not on competition, but on cooperation, and not on choice, but on equity”, and notes that “The Scandinavian country is an education superpower because it values equality more than excellence”. Still, Tirri and Kuusisto (2013) ambivalently note that “Since the 1970s, educational policy in Finland has emphasized equality for all pupils”, but also that “Finland has not traditionally recognized gifted education, in particular, in its legislation”, and, in their view, the country should do more to “recognize the social and affective needs of gifted pupils”. What does this mean in the field of music education, in which talent is so often regarded as an important factor for learning? We should proceed by clarifying our central concepts. Specifically, how might we distinguish between the interrelated concepts of equity and equality in the field of music education? Equity is a notion associated with justice, fairness and impartiality. Equality, on the other hand, is commonly understood as the condition of actually having the same rights, status and opportunities, and in Finland equality is especially connected with gender (see “Tasa-arvolaki” Laki naisten ja miesten välisestä tasa-arvosta/Equality Act). It may be difficult to imagine equity in the absence of social equality and vice versa, but an array of both defensible and indefensible arguments have been offered as support for notions of equity based on inequality. For instance, someone who is mentally disabled, or severely mentally ill, is even today rarely tried “equally” for a crime of which they are accused in the exact same way as someone who is cognitively more capable of behaving responsibly. This phenomenon suggests that in such cases it would actually be unfair to treat all individuals equally. In societies in which inequalities are normalized and institutionalized – such as societies with caste systems, slavery or extreme gender oppression – one might convincingly argue that within the constraints of an inherently unequal system, a particular judge
Advancing music ed via Nordic cooperation 125 ruled “fairly” on the merits of a specific legal case, with equity relative to confining circumstances that prevent actual equality. However, in contemporary democratic societies the two concepts are commonly assumed to be inextricably entwined and essentially interdependent: equality cannot be enforced without equity, and equity cannot be ensured without equality. It follows that in Finnish education policy, “positive discrimination” means that more resources may be granted to schools or programs in poor areas toward the objective of securing equity. How might we understand these concepts in relation to common issues in music education? Specifically, how can they be applied to the concept of talent, or even to choice of musical repertoire? One might argue, for instance, that students who demonstrate special talent in music should (or should not) have access to a richer quality or quantity of state-funded instruction, or, contrarily, that they should only have the same access as everyone else. The principal of equality would suggest that it is inappropriate to offer special programs for the talented few, that “everyone is talented in their own way” and all must have equal access and opportunity, irrespective of ability. However, equity-based arguments might suggest that to not offer special instructional opportunities for talented students is self-destructive to society by failing to nurture its talents, and that it is inherently unjust to not do so, since the talented few do not necessarily choose to be talented and are unfulfilled with an educational curriculum designed for average students. In terms of musical repertoire, a critical question to consider in terms of equality/equity debates is whether teachers should sense an obligation to reserve “equal time” for each genre, or musical tradition, for instance, or require absolutely equal gender representation on classroom instruments, perhaps irrespective (or contrarily, entirely dependent on) student’s own preferences. These examples illustrate how there can be debate regarding a broad range of prospective applications of these notions of equity and equality, depending on context and individual values. But how does this actually look in the field of music education in contemporary Finland?
Equity and equality in music education Welfare states, such as those found in Northern Europe, are said to promote not only health and social welfare but also emotional welfare as part of a good life (Niiniluoto, 1993), an approach that is considered to also apply to artistic activities. Within such a system, the state has a crucial role to secure equal educational opportunities for everyone, a mandate that extends to general music education. In general education, entrance examinations are used only in the case of some special classes (e.g. those for music). In music schools, auditions are in general used to select pupils, in contrast to the system in some other Nordic countries, in which everyone gets a place after queuing. In teacher education, including music teacher education, only a small percentage of all applicants – usually those who have a proper background in music and have
126 Marja Heimonen and David G. Hebert studied it for almost their entire life – can get a seat, so selections by auditions are necessary. For instance, the music education program at the University of the Arts Helsinki accepts 30 new students per year and in 2017 there were 251 applicants (UniArts Helsinki: Music Education, 2018). This selectivity of admissions contrasts with major institutions in some other Nordic countries in which the vast majority of applicants are accepted. The problem of auditions and testing is how to identify not only the most talented but also those who are most motivated to study music. Musicality tests have been reconsidered in relation to principles of educational equality, yet some claim that without musicality tests, selection of pupils can be made using unjust criteria. However, more sociologically oriented researchers tend to criticize such tests for being excessively narrow (specifically, criticism of their “ecological validity”) by selecting those who are able to concentrate and listen to neutral test sounds produced by a computer. Thus, the question of testing is complex, especially when the Union for Music Teachers in Schools (Koulujen Musiikinopettajat ry) officially declares that “music belongs to everyone”; in other words, music is for all (Kotilainen, Manner, Pietinen, & Tikkanen, 2009). Moreover, a view of music as a right of everyone is also promoted by prominent Finnish brain researchers who have argued that children’s learning can benefit if they are allowed to listen and make music during the early years when their brains most rapidly develop (see, e.g. Huotilainen, 2009a, pp. 40–41, 43, 2009b, pp. 121–130). Concepts and theories of learning, particularly behavioral and constructivist views, have been discussed in the development of Finland’s educational policy, and these two views of learning have influenced the Finnish national curricula for basic education (Kauppinen, 2009, p. 50). The renewed educational legislation that came into force in 1999 (Perusopetuslaki, 628/1998), which was followed by the 2004 renewal of the Core Curriculum for Basic Education, adopted a constructivist understanding of learning that emphasized a socially and culturally bounded view, according to which music is seen as a cultural phenomenon. Thus, one of the aims of teaching is for pupils to understand that music is context-bound and has various meanings for humans in various cultures and societies. Therefore, music is seen as connected not only to school, but especially to the musical culture outside the school (Kauppinen, 2009, pp. 56–57). A new core curriculum (2014) in basic education was implemented in 2016, in which creative music making, composing in schools, is emphasized. This entails new opportunities – and challenges as well – to get students to become actively involved in music making (see Huttunen, 2017). In general music education, active music making could give every student an opportunity to engage in and experience music. Moreover, global awareness is part of teacher training: good practices are shared internationally. Equity is not only an aim within the nation, but also globally, and Finnish projects are organized in South A frica, Kenya and Botswana, for instance (Hyvönen, 2009; Louhivuori, 2009, p. 197; Tikkanen & Väkevä, 2009, p. 193).
Advancing music ed via Nordic cooperation 127 Equity in education can also be examined through the lenses of the concept of freedom, which is connected with the role of the state. In the Nordic welfare societies, the state has had an active role in creating conditions and circumstances for its citizens, which refers to positive freedom, equal opportunities to take part in the society (Rawls, 1972). In Finland, music education is free of charge to every child as part of general education, and public funding is also granted for out-of-school music education. Presently, neoliberalistic ideologies are becoming more popular, so the role of the state is diminishing while in many sectors privatization is increasing. If the view of a minimal state favored by Nozick (1974) is accepted, the role of the state will ultimately be limited to that of a night-ward; i.e. the state’s duty is simply to ensure public safety. This would mean that all the costs of education are covered with student fees collected from students or their families, which would surely increase social inequality. In the present Finnish society, the fees in many schools offering basic arts education are already rather high, and not all children can afford them, which has been noticed in Sweden as well (SOU, 2016: 69). Based on the financial situation of the municipality in question, the fees also vary. Equity, in terms of the provision of real opportunities to attend basic arts education, is evidently in danger. In the 1990s, Kari Kurkela (1993) presented a principle, “a good relationship to music”, that was taken into the syllabi by the National Board of Education. Kurkela’s idea was based on psychoanalysis, and the content of the concept was left open such as in the legal principle of “the best interest of the child” (Heimonen, 2002) to become formulated in practice, in real life. Cecilia Björk (2016) developed the idea by interviewing teachers at music schools in her doctoral dissertation. Teachers in her study tell how they have created good relationships with music in diverse ways with their students. Björk’s study demonstrates how increased diversity and student-centered teaching are attained in Finnish music schools. She uses collaborative- reflective conversations, a method associated with Nordic social work. According to Björk’s study, the principal aim of these teachers was to develop a sustainable interest in music – or inspiration – in their students. Balancing between competing values is emphasized in the work of teachers at Finnish music schools; they seek not only to transmit solid musical skills but also to enhance joy as their aims in music teaching (Björk, 2016). As stated before, the principal concern is connected with public funding: state funding is decreasing in Finnish society and this tendency has a negative influence on education. Equity is in danger. The public debate is sometimes hectic, even within the project ArtsEqual that supports equal opportunities and arts as a basic service for everyone. Pauli Rautiainen (2016), a professor in public law, argues that equity in society increases when specialized classes and high schools in music or other arts are shut down since they are elitist and selective, dedicated only for a limited group interested in music or other arts. However, we argue to the contrary that inequality increases if specialized classes and schools are closed since arts education
128 Marja Heimonen and David G. Hebert is offered free of charge within general music education in these specialized schools. Theoretically, the problem of equity can be illustrated by an anecdote regarding how one best handles the challenge of limited resources: the predicament of having only one flute but as many as three children, everyone wanting the flute (Sen, 2009). Who gives a reasoned argument? One of the children says that she can already play the flute and therefore the flute should be given to her. Another child claims the flute since he is so poor that he does not have any toys to play with. The third one states that he has built the flute, so it belongs to him. Who is right? You cannot divide a flute into three identical pieces without losing the very idea, and purpose, of this instrument. According to Rautiainen (2016), nobody should get the flute: equity increases easily if the flute disappears. However, do we want music to disappear simply because we cannot divide it equally among all those who stake a claim for it? As music educators and researchers, we might rather try to get more flutes for every child if she or he would like to have one, thereby aiming for the ideal that music should reach everyone and truly be for all. From the viewpoint of neoliberalism, education is a means of economic development (Kiilakoski & Oravakangas, 2010). If this is accepted, the aims of education, including music education, are dictated to serve the needs of the market. Efficiency is emphasized and a view of a civilized human being that has been given a broad education is neglected. A view of Bildung is narrowed to become instrumentalism, or education for “useful profit-makers” in the words of Martha Nussbaum (2009, p. 62). In fact, this is happening everywhere in Finnish universities as budgets are slashed: duration of studies is limited to certain years, and opportunities to take additional courses are limited as well. Rather, everyone should study efficiently and graduate on time. Even technology that is usually seen as a means of enhancing freedom and autonomy in studies is narrowed to serve the economy of effectiveness; in other words, saving costs. Several teachers, including two lecturers in musicology at Helsinki University, were terminated in 2016. Moreover, many teachers are not allowed to give lectures or meet students since it is cheaper to provide all the material electronically and let the students upload questions and read individually. How are we to promote a critical discussion and deep communication, which are crucial for education, if economics is given priority? Courageous educators are needed to challenge these new trends: humanities, including education in music and other arts, are crucial for well-being, creativeness and a good life in society. Music education has been justified in various ways by politicians. Music schools have often leaned on Sibelius, music’s meaning for national identity, and especially the need to educate professionals (particularly in classical music) who require proper training from the very beginning (Heimonen & Hebert, 2013). In general music education, the selection of future professionals was a primary aim of the field some time ago, very probably in the 1970s (Kauppinen, 2009, p. 62). Nowadays, the aims are broader; the pupil’s
Advancing music ed via Nordic cooperation 129 needs are central, and the idea that everyone is able to learn music is emphasized in music teacher education. A changing society requires new kinds of justifications for music education. One way to promote equity is to support pedagogical innovations created for children with special needs, which has been done by Markku Kaikkonen at the Resonaari Music School in Helsinki. This music school is granted law-based state support although it offers music education for disabled children, the young and elderly people. Kaikkonen has invented a pedagogical method called Figurenotes (see, e.g., Vikman, 2001) that is based on colors and is used in educating and making music with pupils with special needs. The method and the school as well have become popular, and the Resonaari group called Riskiryhmä (“risk group”) of older women playing rock music has become almost a symbol of the research project ArtsEqual. This group, led by Tuulikki Laes, has given concerts and presentations numerous times. Laes (2017) conducts research within this field while promoting music education to people of all ages with special needs. In short, she supports musical agency and empowerment via education that is seen as belonging to the rights of everyone (e.g. Laes, 2013, p. 617). An aim was reached when the group Pentti Kurikan Nimipäivät, formed by four men with special needs playing punk music, was elected to be the representative of Finland in the European Song Contest. Two of these musicians are now acting as assistant teachers in the music school Resonaari that offers basic arts education according to the extended syllabus, which leads us to the Finnish system of basic arts education. Especially in the1990s, advocates of arts other than music also claimed for their rights to state funding based on both equity and the concept of Bildung, which supports a broad view of education in different subject areas (Heimonen, 2014). Music education had all along justified its state funding on the costs of individual tuition needed to educate a proper basis for future professional studies. However, the other arts were taken into the system of state funding in the 1990s. Two syllabi in basic arts education were created: one for more professionally oriented studies, and another with more of a liberal arts orientation. As of 2018, state funding is still connected with the use of these curricula, and schools applying the advanced syllabus are granted more funding than those applying the general syllabus. The problem of equity is discussed and some kind of solutions to enable everyone to study in a music school is sought. Could all the applicants be accepted to music making in a group or singing in a choir, for instance, so that nobody is completely turned away and thereby neglected the right to study? The problem of not having sufficient study places for all the applicants is relevant especially in the capital region (Helsinki) and other major cities. Equality in education tends nowadays in Finland to be connected with gender issues, and equity with equal opportunities. These notions are based on separate laws but are closely related to each other. In fact, equality between boys and girls is based on the Equality Act whereas discrimination based on sexual orientation is outlawed in the Equity Act. Minja Koskela,
130 Marja Heimonen and David G. Hebert one of the present Finnish doctoral students who participated in the NNME seminar in Denmark as a master’s student, has continued her studies on gender issues in music classes. In her master’s thesis (Koskela, 2011), she critically discussed why it is we so often see that girls sing and boys play in music class. Cecilia Björck (2009, p. 17) has also remarked on gendered problems for claiming space in popular music soundscapes in her study in Sweden. Moreover, Taru Leppänen (2011) has done research on music books used in lower comprehensive schools, criticizing the typical gender stereotypes presented in these books: kind girls who are like nurturing mothers and disobedient boys who are the active norm breakers. Compared with other countries, the position of women in Finland is usually regarded as unusually positive in terms of gender equality and equity. However, in Finnish music schools, there are far more girls than boys, and in general music education in comprehensive schools, girls and boys are reportedly treated differently (Kuoppamäki, 2015). This situation creates new challenges for theory, pedagogy and educational policy. According to feminist scholars in Finland (e.g. Koskela, 2011, Leppänen, 2011), music teachers should choose gender sensitive songs and material to support equality, and promote girls to play the drums and guitar, music instruments that are usually played by boys (Jääskeläinen et al., 2016). In 2016 the National Board of Education published a guide for all Finnish schools on how to promote equality, and this guide questions gender equality in the current Finnish society. The National Board discusses gendered education and segregation, diversity of genders, gender sensitive teaching and teasing based on gender, and sees education in school as a pathway to gender issues in society outside school as well. The guide suggests to teachers that they treat each child individually rather than use such terms as “girls” and “boys”, which raised a heated public discussion by parents who questioned whether these kinds of social issues are necessary to be dealt with in schools, in which learning arguably should be prioritized. Moreover, critics stressed that it is ridiculous to deny teachers the right to call a girl a “girl” and a boy a “boy”. The National Board of Education replied that this is just a guide, not mandatory regulation, and it gives only suggestions. The Teachers’ Union (Rinta-Tassi, 2016) explained that common sense is not to be denied: its chair Olli Luukkainen admitted that when he visits schools he still sees girls and boys. This equality guide (Jääskeläinen et al., 2016) gives concrete examples for teachers of how to promote gender equality in different subjects and age groups. In music classes of first and second graders, teachers may encourage pupils to engage with music in various ways: to sing, listen, move and compose. Pupils are encouraged to listen to many kinds of music, and to play various instruments without assuming “gendered” views of girls’ and boys’ instruments. When music is taught in grades three to six, teachers should promote their pupils to listen to, and act with, various kinds of musics, and take care that girls are given an equal opportunity to play the drums, for instance. Teachers could also pay attention to how diversity of genders is
Advancing music ed via Nordic cooperation 131 present in learning material such as songbooks. Devoting attention to gendered views in marketing and social media can also be emphasized at this stage. In the grades from six to nine, a critical approach toward gendered norms in music practices can be favored, together with an activating approach of how one might change gendered practices. Teachers could question why there are so few female composers, and how marketing and social media promote a gendered view of women, for instance, and how to change these issues. A deluge of norms, including acts, decrees and core curricula, govern the field of education in Finland. Connected with a tradition of strict and narrow interpretation, and faithful obedience to norms, application of national documents is sometimes rather narrow. Times change and liberal views of education are favored: presently, power is delegated to the local level, including the administrators of individual schools. Moreover, Finnish teachers have a lot of autonomy to decide both how and what to teach. However, even today state authorities’ documents (e.g. Jääskeläinen et al., 2016) are sometimes interpreted quite narrowly. Finnish democracy is built with the means of legal norms that promote equality and equity, not only by being an example of behavior in a just society but also by introducing official sanctions for norm breakers. In this way, legal norms differ from ethical and moral ones, although social sanctions connected to ethical and moral norms may sometimes be as effective – or even more effective – than legal sanctions. Special acts and decrees on equality and equity, basic arts education and basic education, qualifications of teachers, etc. are typical to Finnish society. Based on the constitution and acts, basic education that includes music education is free of charge, and university-level education as well.
In Nordic context: a comparison with Sweden The NNME, with a history of more than 20 years, has been an essential vehicle to inspire comparative studies across the Nordic countries, from which much has been learned about how circumstances in Finland differ from elsewhere. Finland shares a common history with Sweden, and was governed by Swedes for centuries until 1809. The common Sweden-Finland legal system remained in force even during the century that followed, while Finland was part of Russia, which ended when Finland finally gained its independence in 1917. A Swedish-speaking minority is still active in Finland and has its own schools and university-level education (Mansikka, Westvall, & Heimonen, 2018). Finland and Sweden still share many similarities in the sphere of national education policy. However, a view of local decision-making and democracy is stronger in Sweden than in Finland: rather than nationally binding general laws, the Swedes rely (more or less) on local decision-making. Regarding schools for music and arts, it is said that a Swedish forest would be silent if not all birds were allowed to sing. In several ways, Swedish music education is even more equity-oriented than in
132 Marja Heimonen and David G. Hebert Finland: group tuition is favored and individual tuition is very limited so that a large number of children can attend music schools. Visits to Sweden reminds us of the importance of including everyone, and of not making decisions without first listening to everyone’s voice. In such a system, open discussions between individuals may even be regarded as more important than the decisions reached (Di Lorenzo Tillborg, 2017; Heimonen, 2002). Even if the relationship with Sweden is close due to geographic, historical and political reasons, there are differences that surprise us, including the interpretations of equity and equality. In Swedish schools, teachers tend to design music lessons based on the interests of pupils; thus, popular music is the main genre taught and learned so that education meets the needs of the adolescents. In Finland, we aim at the same but often arrive a bit later. However, even if we learn and sometimes imitate the Swedish way of thinking and acting, we hope to avoid their mistakes as well. When Georgii-Hemming and Westvall (2010) critically remarked that in Sweden, music education is nowadays becoming too “pupil-centered”, with a limited repertoire only based on popular music favored by teenagers, the media began to question this phenomenon, and this discussion reached Finland as well. Learning from other nations is important, but it usually happens vice versa. Regarding music education research, cooperation with Sweden and other Nordic countries has been vibrant, some of which has first arisen from NNME-based cooperation. There is notably a discursive mentality and encouraging way of mentoring students that Swedish researchers tend to emphasize in their work. In a Swedish-Finnish project, the Swedish director traveled to Finland several times, gathered data in different parts of the country, and in a friendly and natural way made contacts with schools and their personnel. We held regular Skype meetings and organized numerous focus group discussions (Mansikka, Westvall, & Heimonen, 2018). Sociological and critical theories are nowadays common in Finnish music education research (e.g. Kallio, 2015; Väkevä & Westerlund, 2007). However, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, sociological lenses were much more common in Swedish research on music education (e.g. Bladh, 2002; Bouij, 1998).
Conclusion In this chapter, we have surveyed several specific topics of relevance to the themes of equity and equality, while also describing the general situation of music education in Finland. This included description of the various kinds of music studies and related institutions, as well as the changing landscape of higher music education and the increasingly important role that research plays within it. In Finland, there seems to usually be a strong interest in reforms that promise to foster creative innovation, and we find that restructuring of higher education and changes in curriculum are having a major impact. We noted the effect of globalization on both research and practice in music education, and how several Finnish researchers in this field have
Advancing music ed via Nordic cooperation 133 recently gained wide recognition as world-class scholars, especially contributing to philosophical scholarship (often from a pragmatist orientation) as well as qualitative studies that address pluralism and intercultural issues, some of which is supported by substantial government-funded projects. As we addressed the central themes of equity and equality, we especially noted how the notion of “music for all” is applied in Finnish music education. Equity and equality, as we show, are closely related, yet slightly different concepts that can impact music education in different ways. A comparison with Sweden enabled us to critically reflect on the extent to which claims of a Finnish “miracle” may have any validity relative to Sweden and other countries in our field. We noted that an emphasis on music technology and popular music pedagogy can be found in both countries, and that one concern for the future is that through such emphases both national systems may to some extent be vulnerable to commercialism. However, music educators in both nations seem to also be aware of this vulnerability and make efforts to ensure that their students are in control of processes that if decided by teachers might otherwise lead to a mass standardized, and ultimately exploitative, use of particular products. Although Finland may arguably have its “miracle”, we suggest that it also shares much in common with the other Nordic countries, with more similarities than differences, and an ever stronger interest in connecting with both musical and educational practices worldwide.
Note 1 This chapter contains original, unpublished material, extending on three of our previous coauthored publications: (1) article in a journal also published by Routledge, Arts Education Policy Review (Hebert & Heimonen, 2013); (2) article in Visions of Research in Music Education (Heimonen & Hebert, 2010) and (3) a chapter in the book Patriotism and Nationalism in Music Education (Heimonen & Hebert, 2016). In this chapter, Marja Heimonen’s research has been undertaken as part of the Arts Equal project funded by the Academy of Finland’s Strategic Research Council from its Equality in Society programme (project no. 293199).
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9 Bridging the past, present and future in Estonian music education Anu Sepp, Urve Läänemets and Kristi Kiilu
Introduction Estonia, represented by Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, joined the Nordplus-funded Nordic Network for Music Education (NNME) in 2008. Since then there have been continuous contacts and cooperation with the network members from different countries. It has been a most interesting and rewarding period, full of numerous discussions, meetings, exchange of experience and knowledge in our very special field of music education. It is appropriate here to express our gratitude to the NNME as an organization, and especially to Torunn Bakken Hauge and David Hebert for their wonderful work providing opportunities for many to be part of this community. It has been very interesting to follow the developments and characteristic features of music education in different countries and learn from the best practices during these ten years, especially in terms of the thorough and high-level research. An important event, especially for us (but hopefully the entire network), was the annual NNME conference in 2014 that was held in Tallinn. It gave the opportunity to involve more of our students as well as teachers and lecturers in the field of music education, and give participating members of the network a brief insight into Estonian music education. The role and position of music education in social life has grown everywhere and meaningfully contributes to sustainable development of cultures, lifelong learning and identity construction. At the same time, there are diverse local and regional practices to be analysed and considered, including how implementation of democracy, globalization, social justice and inclusion have taken place in different societies under different power relations. The field of folk music and teacher training has enriched all participants in the network with new ideas to be considered for music education practices in different societies. We are in a curious position between the Nordic and the Baltic countries: geographically and historically we share a lot with other Baltic countries, yet culturally and educationally we also have a lot in common with Germany and Scandinavia, especially with Finland, as we share a lot in language and music (we even have the same melody for both of our national
142 Anu Sepp et al. anthems!). Yet, in music education we have chosen and developed our own different paths. Perhaps that is the reason why influences on Estonian music education and culture can be traced back from different directions.
A brief historical overview Common knowledge is that it is extremely difficult to make a smart selection of the educational content recognized as necessary for a particular society. The knowledge, skills and values recognized as content for learning must be carefully explained why they are relevant for learners of different social groups and society at large. Even the lists of school subjects differ greatly in various countries, and accordingly, music is a school subject not always present in national curricula (NC). However, music education in Estonia has enjoyed the position of a compulsory subject in general comprehensive schools at all times, starting with the first curriculum document of 1874. It is also worth mentioning that all teachers at the end of the 19th century were also music teachers at the same time, and active leaders of cultural life in all rural areas, conducting choirs and orchestras. Long traditions of old folk songs – regilaul, Estonian runo – and joint singing in the church on Sundays have also greatly contributed to music becoming a part of everyday life, including studies at schools, the necessity of which has never been questioned. It has to be mentioned that music or singing has been a compulsory school subject in Estonia since 1874, when still part of the Russian Empire. Since the establishment of statehood in 1918, development of the national educational system started with compiling first official curricula for general comprehensive schools (in 1919, 1921, 1928, 1939 and 1938), in which music education was specified as a compulsory subject. The initial decades of national educational development were characterized by professionalism and close contacts with European educationists, especially with German-speaking countries in music education. As a result, by the end of the 1930s, Riho Päts developed Estonia’s own music education approach (as described in detail later in this chapter). However, there was a totally new context for development of music education in Estonia both during and especially after World War II, as the country became again part of the Soviet Union, and all education had to follow the educational paradigm used in the empire. The Soviet power exercised psychological and physical destruction of the cultural, political and economic elite (including family members). In addition to various ideological restrictions, there were two waves of deportation (1941–1949), when approximately 30,000 people were sent to remote parts of the USSR. Riho Päts, the main organizer of music education at schools, was also sent to a Siberian prison camp among thousands of other innocent victims. When Päts was released in 1955, he returned to Estonia and continued his interrupted work for development of Estonian music education. He managed to write a very
Estonian music education 143 important and influential handbook for music teachers “Muusikakasvatus üldhariduskoolis” (“Music education in general comprehensive schools”), which was published in 1962. This textbook must be considered a milestone of music teacher education in Estonia, providing the general theoretical and practical foundations for the nation’s music education (Päts 1962, 2010). The 50 years of Soviet power had rather diverse effects on music education. Fortunately, the so-called Stalinist years did not last long, and after 1953 more peaceful times came as the deported people, including several musicians, could return home to Estonia. Since 1960, some of the local leaders of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic have been smart enough to use their power to support Estonian culture and education. This was very much thanks to Ferdinand Eisen (1914–2000), the Minister of Education at that time (1960–1980), and his provident educational policy. Estonia managed to maintain its local language, Estonian, for instruction in schools. Although most of the educational content for general comprehensive schools was centralized, several original textbooks for school subjects were compiled in Estonia, and music as a subject in the curriculum (called “programmes” these days) was thereby preserved (Selke 2007). In the 1960s, a network of specialized schools (in math, foreign languages, sciences, arts, sports) was established all over Estonia. This included the Tallinn Specialized Music High School, which functions up to the present day and provides specialized music education to children and young people aged 7–19. Suffice it to say that the majority of graduates of that school usually continue their studies in the field of music. The Soviet period can also be characterized by continuation and reactivation of the choir movement among children and youth. Choirs were organized at every general comprehensive school and also at some vocational schools. As a result, a special song festival1 for schoolchildren and youth was organized in 1962, and remarkably, the tradition has lasted through the present (Sepp, Ruokonen, & Ruismäki 2012). It has to be highlighted that music education and the choir movement during these years were a means of double-identity building. Despite some songs with clear ideological manifestations in the repertoire of the song festivals, there were many instances in which the real essence and soul of the event was expressed by folk songs and songs by Estonian composers. In Estonia, singing as a part of ethnic culture starts at home, so it becomes developed since childhood. Accordingly, the next step has to be related to preschool education. There have been progressive developments in music education in kindergartens. There is an in-depth study available, “The development of the concept of music education in Estonian kindergartens 1905–2008” (Kiilu 2010), where we can also find analysis of what are probably the best music programmes of the period – those of 1968, 1974, 1979 and 1987, accompanied by materials for teachers, which could be used for singing and other musical activities as well as organizing musical events in all preschool institutions. It can be concluded that the so-called Soviet
144 Anu Sepp et al. period need not be described in dark colours only, for there were also positive developments and achievements in music education, which could take place only thanks to some most dedicated people at different levels of their respective activities. As Estonia regained its independence on August 20, 1991, significant changes followed in all spheres of life influencing also education. A search for a new educational paradigm commenced and since then several new reforms have been initiated at different levels of the Estonian educational system. New ideals and aspirations towards freedom and democracy also included possibilities for innovation of the learning process; teachers started to focus more on child-centred approach; there were changes in lifestyle, considering the impact of globalization and lifelong learning (Raudsepp & Vikat 2009). Free mobility of students, labour force and academic staff enabled more to learn from the Western experience and, as a result, numerous new textbooks and workbooks were compiled and published in Estonia. According to Lindeberg, mostly examples of European, especially Finnish textbooks for school music followed (Lindeberg 2007). A situation of instability developed, caused by introduction of the “market economy approach” in society, which became further reinforced by considerable economic d ifferences between schools in different regions of Estonia. All of these developments understandably meant changes in teachers’ in-service training, which also affected music education at large.
Organization of music education in Estonia today The new millennium has brought along major changes in education, especially within the European Union (which Estonian joined on May 1, 2004), requiring decisions concerning how to deal with local, regional and national differences. Globalization of the political, economic and cultural developments needed a common approach, and at the same time, it was important for every country, region and nation in Europe to maintain its own characteristic features, and keep their own cultural traditions alive. Music education in Estonia is unique in all institutions of general comprehensive education as it can be characterized by the fact that it forms one holistic system, starting from kindergartens (Kiilu 2010) and continuing up to the end of upper secondary school. The aims, essential content features and expected outcomes are specified in the NC of respective educational levels. Music as a school subject is studied throughout the comprehensive school as a compulsory subject in all grades. According to the allotted time of studies (number of lessons), there are two music lessons per week in grades 1–4, and one music lesson per week in grades 5–9. In upper secondary school, there are three music courses, every course lasting 35 academic hours. At all levels, music is taught predominantly by specialist music teachers (Sepp 2014). It means that like all other subject teachers in Estonian comprehensive school, also music teachers must have a master’s
Estonian music education 145 degree, which became a requirement in 2009. Thus, the duration of music teacher training since 1923 at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (previously Tallinn State Conservatoire and Estonian Academy of Music) has also been five years and the obtained educational qualification corresponds to the present-day master’s level. It has to be mentioned that students choosing music teacher training get a very wide-ranging education (including choir conducting, vocal training, piano, recorder, zither, rhythmic music instruments – percussion, guitar, bass, music history, solfeggio, harmony, ensemble and choir singing, etc.) as well as pedagogical training and music teaching didactics (Kodaly method, Orff approach, activity learning, etc.). After graduation, they are able to work as comprehensive school music teachers but they also conduct choirs and ensembles, coach soloists, lead bands in hobby centres and work for nongovernmental organizations. Today we have to be extremely happy with the fact that the music education system in Estonia is still functioning from the preschool age (children aged 3–7) up to the end of upper secondary school (students aged 18–19). It is a great opportunity to offer all the population access to music education despite its socio-economic costs considering provision of study aids and music teacher education. It has to be accepted that pre-service training of music teachers takes considerably longer than training of teachers for other school subjects, and learning environments required for music education (musical instruments, special room requirements, etc.) cost considerably more than those needed for other school subjects. It has been generally accepted that all school subjects represent particular fields of culture, the knowledge of which has been recognized as relevant to personality development. However, we have to seriously think about how to maintain bridges between the present and the past, as well as to how envisage the future using such a rich heritage.
Pedagogical approaches in Estonian music education There is one person, Riho Päts2 (1899–1977), whose contacts with leading European specialists allowed him to lay foundations for systematic music education in Estonia and training of music teachers for general comprehensive schools. In the 1920s and 1930s, Päts visited several countries: Germany, Austria, Italy, Finland, the Soviet Union, Lithuania and Czechoslovakia. From these travels, he learned about current trends and approaches to music education in the respective countries. In the Soviet Union there was already a functioning system of music education from kindergarten up to the end of compulsory basic schools. In Germany he studied solmization, development of music listening skills and how to use instruments in school lessons. In Finland he studied the analytic-synthetic method of singing developed by Vilho Siukunen3 (Raudsepp 2013, 60). Päts analysed and synthesized the underlying ideas and components of these foreign music education practices and created his own music education approach appropriate for the Estonian
146 Anu Sepp et al. sociocultural and educational context. His ideas are considered priceless, as he was able to present them to Estonian music teachers for practical implementation in school music lessons, with repercussions to the present day. Researcher Inge Raudsepp, who has studied the contribution of Riho Päts in detail, has summarized his innovation as follows: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Use of analytical-synthetic relative method; Use of analytical commentaries and synthesis in studies; Use of improvisation as means of activating musical thinking; Development of analytical music listening skills; Developing vocal skills and singing through differentiated teaching-learning; Developing cognitive abilities through playing instruments; Using joint singing to preserve and shape national identity. (Raudsepp 2013, 61)
Riho Päts managed to develop a music teaching approach which combined traditional methods (joint singing, choir singing, playing instruments) and innovative ideas from Europe (e.g. Z. Kodály-method and C. Orff approach) into one holistic entity. The principles created by Päts were most innovative and ahead of his time, yet they were also well accepted by music teachers. In the so-called Soviet period there was another important person who started to work with Päts, compiling music textbooks and developing Estonian music education. This person was Heino Kaljuste (1925–1989) and they both were members of the Estonian delegation participating at International Society for Music Education conference in 1964, in Budapest. The opportunity to attend the mentioned conference was one of the greatest impetuses to new developments in music education in Estonia, mainly focusing on the ideas of Orff and Kodaly. Päts and Kaljuste, inspired by the idea of Kodaly’s relative match pitch method, worked out their own JO-LE-MI method, which was practically introduced into all recently founded music specialized schools and classes in Estonia. The first class using the new system was organized in 1964 at Tallinn 22 Secondary School, and the first teacher to follow it was Ene Üleoja. The present Estonian music education still uses the foundations laid by Riho Päts and Heino Kaljuste, where, besides music making (singing and playing instruments), it involves activation and development of (musical) thinking through the relative pitch matching, improvisation and analytical music listening skills. Also, it underlines the importance of differentiated instruction not only taking into consideration individual differences and development of the child but also involving the teaching methods being used. All in all, Päts’s music education approach includes joint singing and instrument playing (recorders, six-string zithers, guitars, Orff instruments), developing of aural imagination, listening skills and elementary music literacy as well as use of movement and improvisation.
Estonian music education 147 According to previous research (Sepp, Ruokonen, & Ruismäki 2015), the music education methods and approaches that have most influenced Estonian music teachers are these of Riho Päts, Carl Orff and Zoltan Kodaly. Thus, Estonian music education today arguably follows principles commonly associated with praxial music education, which emphasizes teaching and learning music through direct involvement, in order to understand its real meaning and purpose, and keeping in mind the holistic development of a person when educating “in music, about music, for music, and through music” (Elliott & Silvermann 2014, 17). Thus, one of the key issues is the choice of repertoire for singing, listening and other musical practices, the wide range of musical pieces from different cultures, different epochs, different styles and genres that are used to open the vistas for understanding the diversity and richness of human musical cultures.
Curricula and syllabi When talking about curricula for general comprehensive schools all people have to attend, we come across the perennial question, “what knowledge and skills are worth learning?”, and the selected content of education. Understandably, all societies decide themselves about educational policy specifying the responsibilities of both the state and individuals, access to education and organization of education, especially the compulsory part of general education (Läänemets 2003). The 21st century has brought new approaches to learning and schooling for various reasons. Governments have to decide primarily about the financial side for providing the population with education considered necessary for functioning of society at large. It also means decision-making about the content based on accepted philosophical, ethical and cultural values in society. Education is still considered the main mechanism for developing sustainability and cohesion of a society while also protecting the cultural heritage of a nation for development of the distinctive identities of its people. In Estonia, music education has a special position because of its traditionally, as well as officially recognized and widely accepted, value as part of people’s identity building. Music is often called the second mother tongue after the native language Estonian. Development of a new national curriculum for kindergartens and general comprehensive schools has not been an easy process since 1991. Estonia could have better studied and made some use of the experience gained in 1918–1940, during which the content of education was professionally well selected and adequately prepared for practical implementation in schools with specified materials for teachers. However, the new NC of 1996, 2002 and the most recent one – that of 2010/2011 – have all preserved music education as a compulsory subject throughout the system of general education (grades 1–12). There is also music education in kindergartens preparing preschool children to enter school at the age of seven. All new curricula tend to
148 Anu Sepp et al. follow the American framework model, which makes teachers responsible for development of local curricula at schools and kindergartens. Such a policy has created quite a great diversity, which in turn has made the mobility of children, when changing residence or school, particularly difficult. There is a lot of innovation considering the new music syllabi. The new music syllabi contain several innovative changes, and although these documents stress the use of music instruments, the problem with economic differences and insufficient skills of some music teachers to play the guitar, recorder or Estonian six-string zither remain the main obstacles. In terms of musical content, the syllabus for general comprehensive schools contains rock, pop, jazz music as well as folk, world and classical Western music, but also children’s songs, and it is supported with the systematically renewed study aids and teaching materials to support instruction. The constant number of music lessons specified in the national curriculum provides an opportunity for sustainable development of pupils’ musical abilities in basic school. The selection of the most relevant content for music education is a complicated task for educationists, as it specifies the knowledge and skills learners are expected to obtain. The principles and criteria for selection of the content of school subjects can be divided into two big groups: common didactic principles relevant for all school subjects and specific subject–related principles. According to Taba (1962) and Sowell (2005), the first group of principles applicable to all school subjects are the following: • • • •
Validity and significance of the content for the intended purpose of education; Learnability of the content by students for whom the curriculum is planned; Appropriateness of the content for the needs and interests of these learners; and Consistency of the content with the realities of society and culture.
As can be observed, general principles for selection of the content for learning are culture, society and learner based. However, there are also specific principles elaborated for selecting content for particular school subjects. Sowell has specified criteria for selecting the content for math (Sowell 2005), Kalamees-Ruubel for Estonian and literature (2014); Kokkidou has developed a model for analysing the content of music education, which at the same time could be taken as a set of criteria for designing a syllabus or curriculum for music education. The axes of evaluation pay attention to the following features: the role of traditional music, ideas of multiculturalism, cross-curricular connections, use of new technologies, involvement in music – kinetic activities, the role of music theory knowledge and music listening skills (Kokkidou 2009).
Estonian music education 149 Accordingly, the structure of the content of music education in Estonian National Curriculum (presented in the subject syllabus for music education) contains all the above-mentioned aspects describing knowledge, skills, practical activities as well as environments and learning outcomes. The characteristic features include the importance of singing, playing different musical instruments, also musical creativity and thinking, developed through rhythmic and melodic improvisation and accompaniment. New learning environments provided by digital technologies have opened new vistas for listening to most wide and diverse repertoire performed by musicians all over the world. The entire syllabus is developed around the learning outcomes which also make up the content of the subject and it quite precisely indicates the components of elementary musical literacy, the repertoire of joint singing and some themes introduced in musicology. It still leaves much freedom for teachers to make decisions how to compose their weekly plans and design activities for regular lessons. As specified in the music syllabus of the national curriculum of 2011, the main goals of music education in comprehensive schools in addition to general competencies to be developed as described in the general part of the curriculum are the following: to derive joy from music and discern, realize and develop students’ abilities through making music; to become interested in music as a form of arts and shape pupils’ personal aesthetic tastes; to think and act creatively and also express themselves creatively through musical activities; to apply the acquired basics of musical literacy skills in musical activities; to value music and musical activities as they enrich people, culture and daily life (Põhikooli Riiklik Õppekava 2011). These goals are meant to be achieved through pupils’ involvement in different musical practices – singing, playing musical instruments, musical movement, composing, listening to music and musicology, musical literacy and educational outings (Põhikooli Riiklik Õppekava 2011). The respective syllabi are constructed around these practices, so that the objectives and content for all three stages of comprehensive school are described. A unique and special feature, not only in comprehensive schools but rather thanks to it, is the enormous popularity of choir singing among the whole society/population and the number of school choirs of different kinds (children’s, boys’, girls’, mixed and chamber choirs). For example, according to the statistics, almost 24.8% from the total number of schoolchildren participated in the Youth Song Festival in 2011 (Sepp, Ruokonen, & Ruismäki 2012), so we share the same love for choir singing and Song Festivals as Latvia and Lithuania. The opportunities for formal education (organized and specified in the national curriculum) and informal (“hidden curriculum”, or everyday life around us) supportive activities for learning music are rather diverse and they can be seen in the following scheme (see Figure 9.1).
Figure 9.1 Opportunities for learning music in the Estonian educational system.
Estonian music education 151
Future prospects It seems that we are facing the same kind of problems connected with the future of music education: how to find balance between new and traditional learning environments? How to introduce the treasures of classical and folk music in the rapidly commercializing world? Is music going to be only entertainment or can we refer to it as art also in the future? The most promising results of neurosciences have proved the positive effect of music to humans in every generation. However, so far, the consumer-based world seems to ignore all these facts as music is the phenomenon that cannot be measured in Excel tables or often doesn’t have a price. Although the political documents point out the importance of multi-literacy in education, musical literacy seems to have been forgotten and left out of the list. It could be expected that organization and the content of music education will probably remain an actively disputed issue for years to come. Nevertheless it has turned attention to the possibility of comparative analyses of educational documents regulating music education in different countries (Sepp 2014). The 21st century with its activities called Organisation of Curriculum Change has initiated discussion about the content of education after a long time being focused on methods of teaching and testing. Accordingly, philosophical debates about education – about new and modern values, compulsory and optional school subjects, proportions of traditional and new updated knowledge and skills – have also come to the foreground. A study was carried out in 2016 (Sepp, Läänemets, Kalamees-Ruubel, & Kiilu 2017) with the aim of determining how Estonian students (N = 367, aged 13–16) perceive the need to study art subjects. It clearly demonstrated the meaning of studies in the arts for this most critical age group, as 94.6% of respondents considered them important, interesting and relevant for their school activities. Perhaps comparing the Estonian music education system with others can give new ideas and offer different perspectives to be considered for developing and creating the best possible version for our children. The statement All children in all countries deserve the opportunity to participate and enjoy the wonderful world of music should be wider understood and recognized as a powerful tool for personality development both at individual and collective level. Curricula and syllabi as national education policy documents can demonstrate the potential of music education for sustainability of culture and cohesion in societies as well as mutually rewarding cooperation between educators. The activities of professional networks uniting music teachers of different countries can further most meaningfully contribute to professionalization of music education in all countries by sharing their research and practical experience. The past experience and achievement deserves recognition, and maybe rediscovering in certain fields. At the same time we have to carefully monitor developments in music education in different countries as well as recent results in brain research (e.g. Gruhn 2011;
152 Anu Sepp et al. Huotilainen, Putkinen, & Tervaniemi 2009), which have clearly shown the positive potential of music education for development of human brain and learning at large. Accordingly, many countries have started to pay attention to enlargement of music education, especially in kindergartens and basic schools. It is necessary to build meaningful bridges between the past and present pedagogical experience, if we want to preserve original cultures and bolster the sustainability of societies. The most outstanding Estonian-born curriculum theorist Hilda Taba emphasizes the interaction between school and cultural environment as follows: Schools function on behalf of the culture in which they exist. The school is created by a society for the purpose of reproducing in the learner the knowledge, attitudes, values, and techniques that have cultural relevancy or currency…. of the many educative agencies of society, the school is the one which specializes in inducting youth into the culture and is thus responsible for the continuity of that culture. (Taba 1962, 17) The same dilemma is illustrated here: what kind of proportions are desirable between the traditional and innovative, considering both the content of learning well as and methods of teaching? Moreover, there is also the issue of learning environments: real or virtual. Future generations will definitely live in a different world compared to the one we are now living in today. However, the musical culture, and culture in its wider sense – as a way of living – has to be both real and realistic. Decision-making about the sustainability of individual musicking in its different fields and forms for the future is a crucial question, deserving much wider discussion than that of a school subject. Music as a very special field of arts must be preserved and developed instead of considering it as a means of entertainment, “edutainment” or fun only. We must recall that music is – according to Joseph Addison in “Song for St. Cecilia’s Day” – “the greatest good that mortals know” (Smithers 1954).
Notes 1 The cherished tradition of Song Festivals (also called Song Celebrations) dates back to 1869, when the first all-Estonian Song Festival was organized in Tartu. Since then, the tradition has been ongoing – there are four nation-wide song and dance celebrations in the course of every ten years: every second and seventh year of the decade a youth song and dance celebration, and on every fourth and ninth year of the decade, a general song and dance celebration. 2 Riho Päts (1899–1977) was a professor, Estonian composer, music teacher and educator, conductor, author of numerous music books. He laid the foundations of present-day Estonian music education during the 1920s–1930s, synthesising and combining the ideas
Estonian music education 153 of Vilho Siukonen, Zoltan Kodaly and Carl Orff with Estonian traditional joint singing. He emphasised the ideas of relative music learning and participating in active musicing. His compositions included mostly choir music, arrangements of folk music and music for children. Riho Päts studied at Tallinn Konservatoire, graduating first composing (1926) and then piano (1927). Since 1921 he worked as a music teacher in Tallinn (founded and conducted a big childrens’ choir and recorder orchestra). He taught future teachers at Teachers’ Seminar and Tallinn Pedagogicum (1941–1944) and worked as a lector at Tallinn Conservatoire (1940–1941, 1944–1950). In 1950 he was arrested as a bourgeoisie nationalist and sent to prison camp in Siberia, was released in 1955 (rehabilitated in 1968). As he was denied the position in Tallinn State Conservatoire, he continued to teach in Tallinn Pedagogical Institute during 1956–1971, teaching music education didactics and conducting the pedagogical practice. He also organised numerous in-service courses for music teachers. In 2002 the Riho Päts Foundation of School Music was established to commemorate his great mission in developing Estonian music education. (Sepp & Raudsepp 2017, 3) 3 The idea is to activate pupils’ musical thinking, highlighting the relations and connections between the elements of melody and functional meaning of pitch, and developing the “inner ear” and independent musical thinking by using acoustic pitch model – melodic images and associations using the pitch symbols when learning a song, so the theoretical knowledge could be acquired through music practice.
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154 Anu Sepp et al. Research (pp. 285–299). Mahwah, NJ; London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers. Päts, R. (1962/2010). Muusikaline kasvatus üldhariduskoolis. [Music education in comprehensive school]. Tallinn: Koolibri. Põhikooli riiklik õppekava. (2011). Vabariigi Valitsuse määrus 6.jaanuar 2011. määrus nr 1. Riigi Teataja I [The National Core Curriculum for Basic Schools]. Retrieved from www.riigiteataja.ee/akt/128082013007 Raudsepp, I. (2013). Riho Pätsi fenomen Eesti muusikapedagoogikas. [The phenomenon of Riho Päts in Estonian music pedagogy]. Doctoral dissertation. Tallinn: TLÜ kirjastus. Raudsepp, I. & Vikat, M. (2009). The role of Riho Päts in Estonian Music Education. In H. Ruismäki & I. Ruokonen (Eds.), Arts Contact Points between Cultures: 1st International Journal of Intercultural Arts Education Conference: Post Conference Book (pp. 27–33). Helsinki: University of Helsinki. Selke, T. (2007). Suundumusi Eesti üldhariduskooli muusikakasvatuses 20. sajandi II poolel ja 21. sajandi alguses. [Music Education in Estonian Comprehensive School: Trends in the 2nd half of the 20th Century and at the Beginning of the 21st Century]. Doctoral dissertation. Tallinn: TLÜ Kirjastus. Sepp, A. (2014). From Music Syllabi to Teachers’ Pedagogical Thinking: A Comparative Study of Estonian and Finnish Basic School Music Education. (Doctoral thesis). Helsinki: Helsinki University. Sepp, A., Läänemets, U., Kalamees-Ruubel, K., & Kiilu, K. (2017). Art subjects in National Curricula – ideas for future developments in general education. Ed. Velta Lubkina, Svetlana Usca. Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference May 26–27, 2017, Volume II, vol.2: Society. Integration. Education. Rēzekne, Latvia, 26.-27.05.2017. Rēzekne: Rezekne Augstskolas Izdevnieceba. 197–207. Sepp, A., & Raudsepp, I. (2017). The music teaching concept of Riho Päts through the lens of praxial music education. Finnish Journal of Music Education, 20–2, 22–29. Sepp, A., Ruokonen, I., & Ruismäki, H. (2012). Review of the choir singing tradition in Estonia: Praxial music education and socio-cultural aspects. Problems in Music Pedagogy, 10–11, 113–124. Sepp, A., Ruokonen, I., & Ruismäki, H. (2015). Musical practices and methods in music lessons: A comparative study of Estonian and Finnish general music education. Music Education Research, 17(3), 340–358. Smithers, P. (1954). The Life of Joseph Addison. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Sowell, E. J. (2005). Curriculum: An Integrative Introduction. (3rd ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Taba, H. (1962). Curriculum Development. New York: Harcourt, Brace &World.
10 A paradigm shift in Latvian music teacher education A selection of research experience in the period, 2008–2017 Māra Marnauza and Sanita Madalāne Background of cooperation Looking back across the past decade, it is evident that Baltic-Nordic cooperation and exchange has been an important catalyst of ideas for reforms to ensure the sustainable development of music education since 2008, when the Baltic countries joined the Nordic Network for Music Education (NNME). From the time that Riga Teacher Training and Educational Management Academy (RTTEMA) entered the network, our institutional coordinator (IC) has been Dr Māra Marnauza, often supported by Dr Sanita Madalāne. Since 2018, teachers and students of RTTEMA have been taking part in all NNME intensive courses, from which they have gained important new inspiration: Inga Bērziņa (2008, in Finland; 2013, in Riga; 2014, in Estonia), Imants Ainārs Mežaraups (2009, in Norway), Māra Marnauza (2010, in Denmark; 2011, in Sweden; 2013, in Riga; 2015, in Island), Sanita Madalāne (2010, in Denmark; 2011, in Sweden; 2013, in Riga), Zigmunds Žukovskis (2013, in Sweden; 2014, in Estonia; 2015, in Island), Laimrota Kriumane, Sandis Bārdiņš, Andris Pundurs, Boriss Avramecs (2013, in Riga), and master’s students Iveta Āboliņa, Evelīna Ņevmeržicka (2008), Linda Kūla, Dace Štrodaha (2009), Vita Zemture, Arta Juška (2010), Ieva Vēvere (2012, 2013, 2014), Inga Meijere (2012, 2013), Aija Zakovska (2013), Violeta Zaķe (2013), Reinis Jaunais (2013), Fiona Mary Vilnīte (2013, 2014), Rūta Lankovska (2015). In 2013, an NNME intensive course was hosted by RTTEMA under the title “Music Education for Lifelong Learning: Perspectives on Professional Competence in the 21st Century”. The goal was set: to explore, discuss, and compare the possibilities to promote the development of music educators’ professional competence, including pedagogical, musical, and research aspects, across the entire lifespan. This was the first time that an NNME intensive course was hosted by an institution located in the Baltic countries. The following problem areas were covered in the course, which was concerned with development of theoretical and practical competencies in music education: the pedagogical competence of music teachers in a lifelong
156 Māra Marnauza and Sanita Madalāne learning context; the development of musical competence at different stages of life; research competence for development of future musicians’ and music teacher’s professional competence. Eight keynote lectures (representing the Nordic and Baltic countries, as well as Germany) provided expert knowledge from theoretical and empirical perspectives on the selected topics. A total of 11 master’s and PhD students presented their ongoing research projects in a structured way and shared ideas with each other and with teachers. The Baltic-Nordic teachers’ panel discussed new possibilities and challenges to develop further cooperation between Baltic-Nordic countries in music education. Each participating Baltic-Nordic country was represented. The Baltic-Nordic students’ panel discussed master’s courses in music education and the changing cultural situation in Baltic-Nordic countries. Master’s classes and three concerts provided examples of innovative practices in music and music education, and ultimately, 11 articles were completed by the students. Through the NNME, Nordplus mobility grants have been used to share direct practical experience as well. NNME has been the platform for further cooperation in the area of scholarly and pedagogical practice. For instance Professor Lauri Väkevä (Sibelius Academy, Finland) was a keynote speaker for the International Scientific Conference of RTTEMA “Theory for Practice in the Education of Contemporary Society” in 2012, in Riga, Latvia. Professor David Hebert has repeatedly lectured for RTTEMA master’s students and consulted PhD students in music pedagogy, and gave concerts in 2012 and 2013. Professor Torunn Bakken Hauge also visited RTTEMA together with colleagues Trine Daviknes and Bjørg Solsvik Åvitsland, and master’s students in 2013. Dr Tiri Bergesen Schei lectured for RTTEMA in 2014. Through NNMA, Prof. Māra Marnauza, Dr Sanita Madalāne, and Dr Inga Bērziņa have visited Bergen University College, Sibelius Academy, Estonian Academy for Music and Theatre, and Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences. Several of our NNME partners have also published articles in our research journal in Latvia, the Journal of Research in Pedagogy and Psychology: Signum Temporis (Laika zīmes, ISSN 1691-4929). The journal is published annually by the RTTEMA, Latvia, and its Editor in Chief has been Māra Marnauza, with Coordinating Editor Dr Sanita Madalāne and Editorial Assistant Dr Imants A. Mežaraups. NNME colleague Professor Kristi Kiilu (Estonian Academy for Music and Theatre) has served on the editorial board of this journal. The journal features original research articles by leading Latvian and international researchers in education related fields. Articles published in this journal by our NNME partners include the following: Lauri Väkevä (Sibelius Academy, Finland) “Digital Musicianship in the Late Modern Culture of Mediation: Theorizing a New Praxis for Music Education from a Pragmatist Viewpoint”, David G. Hebert (Bergen University College) “International Comparisons in the Improvement of Education”, Torunn Bakken Hauge (Bergen University
A shift in Latvian music teacher education 157 College) “Rhythmic Music Pedagogy: A Scandinavian Approach to Music Education”, Inga Bērziņa and Māra Marnauza “Development of Cooperation Skills During Acquisition Process of Jazz Singing”, Imants Ainārs Mežaraups “Analytical Methods in the Process of Learning Music”, and others. RTTEMA has also published a collection of scientific articles in music education: “Music Pedagogy”/“Mūzikas pedagoģija” (Zinātniskie raksti, ISSN 2255-7768). Scientific articles of RTTEMA master’s program graduates and their professors in music pedagogy were published in 2011–2013. There are also articles published by master’s graduates – NNME project participants – Linda Kūla, Dace Štrodaha, Inga Meijere, and teachers: Dr Inga Bērziņa, Dr Laimrota Kriumane, and Dr Andris Pundurs.
Characteristics of Latvian educational system According to the information provided by Ministry of Education and Science and Academic Education Centre, we now offer an overview of the general education system and try to emphasize the place of music study content at different stages of education. In preschool education (level 0), five- to seven-year-old children have to participate in preschool programmes provided by general education establishments or kindergartens as a part of the compulsory basic education. The objective of the preschool education is to foster general development of children and their readiness to enter primary stage of the basic education. Regular musical activities are included in the content of preschool programmes. Music as a study subject is obligatory in the basic education (levels 1 and 2) that begins at six or seven years of age and lasts a total of nine years (graduating at 14- or 15-year-old students). Graduates receive a nine-year basic school certificate. General upper secondary education (level 3) (15 or 16 years until 18- or 19-year-old students) includes studies of at least 12 subjects, of which 5 (Latvian language and literature, mathematics, foreign language, history, physical education) are compulsory. Music is one of the seven elective subjects that are chosen out of the following: physics; chemistry; biology; computer science and information technology; economic geography; basics of business; technical drawing; visual arts; housekeeping; second and third foreign language; human, nature and society; music; history of culture; history of religion; amateur performances; or other subjects proposed by the school and approved by the Ministry of Education and Science. A certificate of general secondary education is awarded upon completion of the courses of at least twelve elective subjects and successful passing of five final examinations (two set nationally, three upon choice of the candidate). Vocation-oriented education in arts and music is voluntary and provides for a person’s individual educational needs and wishes. There is a great
158 Māra Marnauza and Sanita Madalāne variety of vocation-oriented education in Latvian schools, for instance towards nurturing the tradition of choral singing. Different vocational education and training programmes are developed and offered for all branches of the national economy of Latvia. The National Standard of the vocational education and the Occupational Standards determine the curriculum/content of vocational education programmes. Majority vocational education schools in Latvia provide fourand three-year vocational education and training programmes and only some programmes are designed for the basic vocational education and training purposes. In post-secondary non-tertiary vocational education (level 4), vocational continuing or in-service training programmes can be acquired also after graduating general secondary or vocational education and training institutions (duration one to two years) or in vocational upgrading/ development programmes (duration not less than 160 study hours, which may be considered as a part of the qualification). These programmes are focused towards mastering purely professional skills and knowledge in line with the requirements of the respective qualification level. The study process and assessment of achievements are organized in a similar manner as it is done in vocational secondary education and training programmes. In tertiary education (levels 4–5), the admission procedure is not centralized, so each higher education institution has its own admission board and criteria. From the year 2004, the entrance examinations are replaced by the results of national centralized secondary education examinations. The system of higher education in Latvia is binary since the Law on Education Establishments sets a difference between academic and professional higher education, but this is not strictly institutionalized. Universities and other institutions of higher education mostly run both academic and professional programmes. Three categories of programmes can be distinguished: academic programmes leading to academic degrees, professional programmes based upon a standard of the first academic degree (thus making graduates eligible for further academic studies), and the applied professional programmes oriented towards higher professional qualifications (but not providing background for direct admission to further academic studies). The tuition at preschool, basic and secondary education in state- or municipality-founded educational establishments is funded from the national or municipal budget. Academic higher education programmes are based upon fundamental and/or applied science; they usually comprise a thesis at the end of each stage and lead to a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree. Duration of bachelor’s programmes may be three or four years at different institutions. The three- to four-year bachelor’s degree is considered a complete academic qualification. The master’s degree is awarded after the second stage of academic education and requires at least five years of university studies.
A shift in Latvian music teacher education 159 The Law on Higher Education Institutions and the Law on Vocational Education and Training stipulate a two-level professional higher e ducation – the first level of professional higher education or college education (two to three years) leading to professional qualification level 4, and the second level of professional higher education leading to qualification level 5 (two to three years). Having mastered a programme of professional higher education, students are awarded a professional qualification or a professional bachelor’s degree that can be followed by a further one to two years of professional master’s studies. The master’s degree of higher professional education is awarded if the total duration of studies is at least five years. There can be the so-called “short” second-level professional higher education study programmes (one to two years), where qualification is obtained on the basis of the previously acquired first-level professional higher education or academic bachelor’s degree. In total, the duration of professional qualification level 5 study programmes is not less than four years after secondary education and not less than two years after college education. In postgraduate education (level 6), a master’s degree or the equivalent (graduates of five- to six-year professional higher education programmes in Law and Medicine can continue education at postgraduate level directly) is required for admission to doctoral studies (PhD). Doctoral studies last three to four full-time years. They include advanced studies of the subject in a relevant study programme (or an equivalent amount of independent research while working at a university, research institution, etc.) and a scientific research towards doctoral thesis. Publications in internationally quoted scientific journals are required before public defence of the doctoral thesis as an integral part of a study programme. The Council of Science appoints Promotion Council and sets the procedures for the award of doctorate degrees. Music teacher qualifications can be obtained at just a few institutions in Latvia: The Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music, RTTEMA (however, since October 1, 2017, due to restructuring, its music teacher education programmes have been taken over by The Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music), Daugavpils University, and Liepāja University. Music teacher qualifications are required to work in kindergarten, or primary and secondary schools.
Competency-based approach: a new paradigm In recent years, the educational system of Latvia has been moving towards a new paradigm, and music educators have responded accordingly. The main objectives of education had previously been declared to consist of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, but now according to the new shift in Latvia, each individual’s specified competency level is to be attained.
160 Māra Marnauza and Sanita Madalāne Here is how this is explained in terms of policy: “Competence is defined as a complex ability of a person to use knowledge, skills and express attitudes, solving real life changing situations” (VISC, 2016). The new National Standard of Basic and Secondary Education has started from 2017/2018 (Education for All 2015. National Review Report: Latvia, 2014). To prepare for these changes, the content of higher education for teachers (including music teachers) has been experiencing a paradigm shift from a focus on knowledge and skills to a new focus on the competency-based approach, particularly in the period of 2011–2013. Strengthening connections between school education and research in higher education was the main rationale for these innovations to the educational system. In the period of 2008–2017, nine PhD dissertations were completed at RTTEMA under the supervision of Professor Māra Marnauza, who has long been active in NNME. We will now discuss the results of five of these theses that illustrate basic aspects of this paradigm shift to a competency-based approach in Latvia.
Reflection as an important component Across time, a stimulating format of systematic reflections and discussions (in both smaller and larger cross-national groups) has been institutionalized in NNME courses in connection to the keynote lectures. These were designed in innovative ways to challenge conventional practices in higher education, including such techniques as breaking into pairs and writing public comments onto a wall covered by paper, or the equivalent using mobile phone technologies and large projection screens. Similar approaches were used in the Young Scientist Conference of RTTEMA starting from 2011, and produced great results as students acknowledged its efficacy to enhance their research competence development and professional growth. Reflection is considered as an important component of professional development in every field of activity. Korthagen (2005) states that reflection is the mental process of trying to structure or restructure an experience, a problem, or existing knowledge or insights by making it an explicit subject of thinking. Bäßler (1998) points out that there are three basic competences necessary for an effective music teacher: (1) artistic (musical), (2) scientific, and (3) mediation competence as the result of summing artistic (musical) and scientific (pedagogical) competences. At the beginning of the study at higher education institutions, pursuit of artistic (musical) competence tends to dominate. During the study process, the balance between these first two components of mediation competence changes, according to H. Bäßler (1998), for the proportion of artistic (musical) competence decreases while the proportion of research (pedagogical) competence increases. A music teacher is not just a musician herself,
A shift in Latvian music teacher education 161 but is also a mediator between the music and the children, comprehending not just the theoretical concepts of music, but also how to enable her students to be successfully involved in music making and understand essential concepts. A model of development of future music teacher’s professional competence during the study process in higher educational institution (see Figure 10.1) has been worked out by the authors of this chapter to show the changing balance between the components of mediation competence – personal competence, musical competence, pedagogical competence, and research competence which are mutually interconnected by reflection. In this model, the personal and musical competence of a future music teacher is expected to be developed on a high level already at the moment of starting the bachelor’s studies. During the study process, the proportion of these former components decreases, but the proportion of the latter pedagogical competence and research competence are on the contrary – increasing. Reflection is present as important binding component between these study areas and expected to be as a tool for development of future music teacher’s professional competence. According to Pollard (2005), reflection requires attitudes of open- mindedness, responsibility, and wholeheartedness, and implies an active concern with aims and consequences, that is based on professional’s judgement, and informed by evidence-based enquiry and insights from other research. Reflective teaching, professional learning, and improvement are obtained via collaboration and dialogue with colleagues. The experience of professional reflection during the NNME courses has been profoundly stimulating, a core issue for the authors of this research.
Figure 10.1 T he model of development of future music teacher’s professional competence during the study process in higher educational institution (based on: Bäßler, 1998; The European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning, 2008; Key Competences for Adult Learning Professional, 2010).
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Future teacher’s research competence In Latvia during recent years there has been much research based on application of the competence approach to the sphere of music education – starting from basic education system through higher education of music teachers. One of the PhD dissertations developed in this way is The Improvement of the Future Teachers’ Research Competence in an Institution of Higher Education by Sanita Madalāne, defended in 2011 under the supervision of Prof. Mara Marnauza. In this thesis, the structural components of future teacher’s research competence are determined as a result of theoretical analysis, while the process through which teachers gain research activity experience is modelled. It was thereby concluded that such competence is of a multidimensional character with personal traits, attitudes, knowledge, and skills being its structural components that are implemented on the level of comprehension and developed through personal experience in various formal/informal and conscious/ unconscious contexts (Madalāne, 2011). Based on the basic competences – personal, social, and professional – that were identified with the help of the analysis of the theoretical literature, the following structural components of the future teachers’ research competence were proposed (see Figure 10.2):
Figure 10.2 The structural components of future teachers’ research competence (Madalāne, 2011, 47).
A shift in Latvian music teacher education 163 These are as follows: 1 Reflection as a structural component of the personal dimension of the competence with the following aspects of manifestation: reflection on one’s own learning, reflection on one’s own professional growth, reflection on the learning process organized, reflection on the research activity, reflection on the interaction with partners. 2 Cooperation in a partnership as the structural component of the social dimension of the competence requiring cooperation with classmates, lecturers, research supervisors, pupils and their parents, teachers supervising a teaching traineeship, and other colleagues in an educational institution. 3 Research during the studies and research during the teaching practice as the structural components of the professional dimension of the competence; the forms of their research activity during the studies are as follows: study courses, teaching practice, writing of the term papers/bachelor’s thesis based on empirical research carried out during the traineeship, participation in a scientific conference, and a research project led by a professor. Madalāne concluded that the research process proceeds uninterruptedly, unevenly, and cyclically when the researcher comes across an issue, acquires information, and assesses and analyses it, thereby drawing conclusions, approbating them in practice in a specific social, political, and cultural context, and reflecting each time with a new and higher quality (Madalāne, 2011). The concept of the research component is defined in this way in the doctoral thesis: the research competence is the structural component of the future teachers’ professional competence that improves in a partnership and a purposeful and planned unity of the reflective and research activity during the studies and in the teaching traineeship functioning as a factor encouraging teachers’ professionalism.
Music teacher’s emotional competence Another very important topic was examined in the PhD thesis, The Building of a Music Teacher’s Emotional Competence in the Process of Studies at a Higher Education Institution by Laimrota Kriumane, defended in 2013. Kriumane participated in the NNME Intensive Course 2013 hosted by RTTEMA in Riga. Issues of the equilibrium between the domains of rationality and emotion in contemporary education in Latvia had been addressed repeatedly prior to this study. It was first in the 1930s when the interest of scientists and teachers in the integral development of personality in an emotionally and intellectually balanced study process manifested itself in the pedagogical trends and movements of the time. These ideas formed the conviction that learning and personal development could not be successful without the development of emotions and feelings. Kriumane (2013a) emphasizes emotional experience and competence, suggesting that effective music teachers must master emotional control, which
164 Māra Marnauza and Sanita Madalāne begins with the perception of one’s own emotions and those of other people, gaining recognition of the direction of one’s own emotions and those of others towards stability and/or expressivity. The interaction between emotional control and emotional experience thereby influences the musical expression of this experience. These processes are connected to empathy, which, in the context of a music teacher’s emotional competence, implies both the ability to sympathize and co-experience with other people, to acknowledge the importance of others and care for them, as well as the congenital ability to respond to music. The component of emotional experience manifests itself in both creative musical activity and motivation for studying. Through theoretical analysis, criteria and indicators were developed for the emotional competence of future music teachers (Table 10.1). The model for building a music teacher’s emotional competence, shown in Figure 10.3, is based on the conclusions derived from analyses of the essence of emotional competence and its theoretical mechanisms. The application of this model ensures the building of emotional competence in future music teachers. Table 10.1 C riteria and indicators for the emotional competence of future music teachers (Kriumane, 2013a, 51) Criteria and indicators of emotional competence Criteria
Indicators
Emotional control
1. Emotional stability 1.1. Emotional balance 1.2. Suppression of negative emotions 2. Expressivity 2.1. Expressiveness of speech 2.2. Expressiveness of facial expressions and pantomimic
Empathy
1. Co-experience 1.1. Sympathy 1.2. Cooperation 2. Social responsibility 2.1. Helpfulness, caring for others 2.2. Acknowledgement of the importance of others, regardless of their status
Emotional 1. Creative musical activity experience 1.1. Emotional experience in creative musical activity, individual lessons, and exams 1.2. Emotional experience in creative musical activity, choir practice, and concerts 2. Studying 2.1. Determination and perseverance in theoretical studies 2.2. Determination and perseverance in creative activity (both in the process of studying and outside it)
A shift in Latvian music teacher education 165
Figure 10.3 Model for building a music teacher’s emotional competence (Kriumane, 2013b, 112).
Kriumane (2013a) determined two indicators for the criterion emotional control – emotional balance and expressivity; for the criterion empathy – co-experience and social responsibility; for the criterion emotional experience – creative musical activity and studying. For each indicator of emotional competence criteria, a description of high-, medium-, and low-level performance is provided, setting an evaluation with 8–10 points for the high level, 5–7 for medium, and 1–4 for low level. Analysis of pedagogical experience in secondary higher education indicates that the building of emotional competence in students is advanced by the interaction of all three aspects of studying – creative musical activity, theoretical studies, and pedagogical experience (teaching). Many forms of music education studies contribute to the building of emotional competence, yet there are courses, the content and objectives of which contribute, in particular, to the advancement of emotional competence development – by providing knowledge of emotions; by developing introspective skills; by promoting the understanding of emotional objectives in studying and accentuating their importance; by advancing emotional goals in study courses and attaining them; by furthering the expression of expressive, artistically convincing emotional experiences in music; by advancing objectives for the perfection of emotional control (see Figure 10.3).
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Choir conductor’s professional competence The nationwide Latvian Song and Dance Festival involves hundreds of choirs and folk dance groups, entrancing thousands in the audience. The Festival has earned high honours internationally, with inclusion on the UNESCO Oral History and Non-material Cultural Heritage List. Ensuring the continuation of this cherished tradition is perceived as one of the main challenges for music teachers all across the Latvia. The art of Latvian choir singing, its manifestation in the Song and Dance Festival movement in Latvia as well as the main countries of exile – the USA, Australia, Canada, Germany – has a rich history, a sustainable present and a hopeful future. Along with cultivation of the tradition of choir singing from the 19th century until the present time, the Song Festival has become an affirmation of the choir conductors’ artistic development and professional mastery. For now there is one scientific monograph focusing on conducting methodology in Latvian language with a broad summary in English language, authored by professors Māra Marnauza and Mendelis Bašs (2012). The book Conducting Methodology includes systematic findings on the creative organization of a conductor’s theoretical and musical activity, as well as long-term development. These include conducting technique and the theoretical principles of musical form to be applied in the art and pedagogy of conducting, the biographical study method as a basis for understanding the conductor’s personality, and analyses of musical works as a study method for formation of a conductor’s artistic conceptions of musical interpretation. In the authors’ opinion, a conductor’s professionalism is connected with competency in three aspects: (1) overall theoretical knowledge, (2) musical activity skills, and (3) the conductor’s personal qualities that are determined by character, attitude, artistic interaction, and pedagogical principles. Prof. Marnauza has long been working also on the issue of integrative approaches in the process of studying conducting (Marnauza, 2000). She has worked closely with her colleague and PhD student Andris Pundurs in her mixed choir FORTIUS and the female choir BALTA. The topic of PhD research done by Andris Pundur is Development of the Choral Conductor’s Musical Hearing in Study Process defended in 2014, supervised by Prof. Māra Marnauza, and is very important for the music education system in Latvia. Pundurs took part in NNME Intensive Course 2013 in Riga. Pundurs (2014a) produced a model (see Figure 10.4) that illustrates the development of the choir conductor’s musical hearing in practical work with the choir – teaching the choir a song. It reveals the continuous comparative process between the choir conductor’s ideal representation of the song’s sound image in his internal musical hearing and the actual sound of the choir. Based on the processes outlined in this model, a conclusion was made that, as indicated in the analysis of theoretical observations, in the perception of the actual choral sound consecutive listening plays an important role. Therefore, the elements of musical expression (pitch, intervals,
A shift in Latvian music teacher education 167
Figure 10.4 M odel for the development of the choir conductor’s musical hearing in practical work with the choir (Pundurs, 2014b, 177).
melody; rhythm and tempo, chords and harmony; articulation and dynamics) are placed in a consecutive vertical order, thus indicating the succession in which they should be addressed, each in turn, during practical work with the choir. The overall choral sound is formed, by unity of the constitutive elements of artistic conception, as the combined sound produced by the choir, which the conductor listens to and assesses, when the mastery of constitutive elements of musical expression in the song has reached a sufficient level. While singing the vocal parts and playing chords, analysing the score and anticipating into national problems in the choral sound, much depends on the ability to hear the accuracy of sound relations in an interval, and the activity of internal musical hearing in the process of comparison, assessment and correction is critical. In the process of comparing the actual sound of the choir and the internal ideal sound image, the personal demonstration of sound production principles given by the conductor plays an important role in preventing disparities. The above model demonstrates the importance of attention, representation, and memory in the internal operation of the choir conductor’s musical hearing, because, as indicated by the analysis of theoretical observations, the formation of the song’s internal ideal sound model occurs in close connection with these psychical processes. Perception and visual activity also play a key part in the external activity of the choir conductor’s musical listening, in addition to the attention, representation, and memory mentioned above.
168 Māra Marnauza and Sanita Madalāne
The professional competence of instrument (trombone) teachers Sandis Bārdiņš, who presented his research results for NNME Intensive Course 2013 in Riga, developed a PhD dissertation entitled Correlations between Students’ Instrument Playing Skills and Body Action Optimization in the Learning Process of Trombone Playing at Music School, defended in 2015 under the supervision of Prof. Māra Marnauza. His project was also consulted by Emeritus Professor Dr Phil. Wilfried Gruhn (University of Music Freiburg, Germany – a guest lecturer at Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, Estonia) during NNME Intensive Course in Riga. Bārdiņš (2015) states that the development of a high-quality sound (tone) in trombone playing, for the unlimited achievement of musical expression, is one of the most difficult pedagogical tasks for brass teachers in music schools, dependent upon the interrelated coordination of a refined breathing system and movements of many body parts – lips, tongue, hands, and even legs. The musician’s imperfect body movement during brass instrument playing emerges in the form of a weak sound, a narrow playing range, and unclear articulation, therefore creating constraints on the musician’s professional development and enhancement of playing skills. In this respect, it is vital to determine the correlations of physical actions and their adaptation to brass instrument playing, pedagogical methods, and approaches to the principles of the nervous system. Through this research, it was established that a broad range of body movements impacts the development and enhancement of trombone playing skills. The principal insights gained during the research are represented in Figure 10.5, which illustrates the gradual enhancement of trombone playing skills according to the diverse developmental levels of trombone playing. Effective integration of various dimensions of the self – physical, cognitive, and emotional – is necessary to play the trombone well. Moreover, it is not possible to play the trombone musically and emotionally without well-developed instrument playing movements, and in the process of creating sound, optimal functioning of the musician’s physical body is crucial. Bārdiņš (2015) states that at an elementary level, most essential for trombone playing is the appropriate action of and mutual coordination of lips, tongue, the right hand, and breathing movements. At the next level, the improvement of these elements that contribute to the quality of the sound requires optimization of body action, by the enhancement of the proprioceptive perception of muscle tension-relaxation, as well as the elasticity of muscle action. The third level in the development of playing skills is intentional development of motor programmes of instrument playing actions, balancing three dimensionally the trombone playing bodily actions and instantly correcting these actions according to the changes dictated by auditory perception. The fourth level – musicality – is described as the skills to create phrases and musical structures, which largely are dependent on the cognitive
A shift in Latvian music teacher education 169
Figure 10.5 P rofessional enhancement levels of trombone playing (Bārdiņš, 2015, 55).
knowledge of music history and theory, as well as skills to hermeneutically interpret musical scores. This approach advances technically masterful playing to a higher dimension, enabling additional nuances in tone, turns of phrases, and fluidity. Finally, the fifth level – emotionality – is largely described as an intuitive approach to music, which integrates the cognitive knowledge of particular scores and is represented by the musician’s empathetic communication with both the author of the musical content and the listener, expressing human, ethical, and aesthetic values.
Jazz ensemble singing The diversity of musical styles and their development, from the second half of the 20th century into the 21st century, has required the creation of new study programmes and improvement of their content. To meet the interests of youth, the teachers of Latvian educational institutions created new study programmes of jazz, rock, and popular music and worked to improve the already existing ones. Such programmes are offered by children’s schools of music: Ventspils Children’s Music School and Bolderāja Art and Music School; secondary education music schools: Ventspils Secondary Music School, Jāzeps Mediņš’ Secondary Music School, Riga Dome Choir School, as well as the RTTEMA. Beginning from 2007, RTTEMA has offered a master study programme “music pedagogy”
170 Māra Marnauza and Sanita Madalāne specifically for teachers of jazz and popular music. Since 2009, the jazz studies programmes for bachelor’s and master’s level students have been offered by Jāzeps Vītols’ Latvian Academy of Music. The 18th annual International Association of Schools of Jazz meeting, held in June 2008 in Riga, Latvia, and hosted by RTTEMA, entailed discussions of issues in jazz education and common analyses of the teaching processes and newest developments in the field. Inga Bērziņa, a jazz teacher who has been a participant in several NNME intensive courses, has frequently cooperated with NNME partner institutions with the financial help of the Erasmus programme and Nordplus. She defended her PhD dissertation in 2010, Development of Cooperation Skills in the Process of Studying Jazz Singing, under the supervision of Prof. Māra Marnauza. Professor David Hebert was an invaluable consultant for the PhD development. Bērziņa (2010) states that improvisational cooperation in jazz has specific characteristics distinguishing it from cooperation in other musical genres. This can be explained by the nature of improvisation that is characteristic to jazz, which can be understood in terms of the two categories of “sympathic” and “empathic” cooperation: 1 Sympathic cooperation: During a joint musical performance the musicians use their musical bases and improvise without taking a risk or challenging their musical individuality or creativity of the group. From the musical perspective, it is manifested through rather predictable, supplementary phrases and responses ensuring musical unity without any creative risks, sharing the musical experience. Thus, cooperation takes place using the methods of improvisation that are not sufficiently creative in nature. 2 Empathic cooperation: The musicians respond to one another in an atmosphere full of risk and challenge, which, in its turn, extends their knowledge basis. In such special cases, musicians go much further than simply supportive musical phrases and stimulate the perception and creation of new ideas. This requires that the musicians share the aesthetical judgement and are unanimous (Seddon, 2005). Figure 10.6 shows the cooperation structure among the members of a jazz group (students of a vocal and instrumental jazz ensemble) in the initial, strengthening, and harmonization stages in which the teacher’s leading role changes towards supporting equality of all members of the group. The ten indicators of cooperation skills and the included abilities in this subchapter are described on three separate levels: 1 reproductive 2 interpretative 3 productive
A shift in Latvian music teacher education 171
The initial stage of a jazz group’s activities
Teacher’s leadership
Sympathic cooperation
The strengthening stage of a jazz group
The harmonisation stage of a jazz group
The equality of members of a jazz group
Empathic cooperation
Figure 10.6 C hanges in cooperation quality of a jazz ensemble in different stages of the development of a group (Bērziņa, 2010, 39; adapted from педлер (Pedler), 2000; Seddon, 2005).
Based on an adaptation of Seddon (2005), another part of Bērziņa’s model considers indicators of social versus musical aspects of cooperation in jazz singing, and illustrates these processes by specifying the indicators that correlate with the criteria of social versus musical cooperation (Table 10.2). Bērziņa’s dissertation research determined that the development of clear criteria and indicators helps jazz musicians to approach cooperation skills more analytically. In her study, considerable progress was achieved in the development of all musical cooperation skills: mastery of the body language, presentation of the artistic image, listening skills, impulsive interaction, and empathetic creativity, all these providing proof of the professional development of the jazz singer. Social cooperation skills – interest, purposefulness, responsibility, and result assessment – also reached some statistically significant differences in skill level in her study. As the initial level of these skills was considerably higher than that of musical cooperation skills, statistical analysis did not indicate an equal growth. The interconnection between individual jazz singing skills and the development of cooperation skills was demonstrated through the research. It follows that we may conclude the learning jazz ensemble singing, as a process of cooperation, not
172 Māra Marnauza and Sanita Madalāne Table 10.2 Criteria and indicators for jazz singers’ cooperation skills (Bērziņa, 2013, 40, adapted from Seddon, 2005, 53) Criteria
Indicators
Social cooperation
Interest in group work, full participation in the process, proposals of ideas Determination, a plan for individual development, a plan for common growth, a lesson plan Responsibility: serious attitude, respect, preparation for classes Use of the musical basis: application of practical and theoretical skills and basis of knowledge, exchange of information Assessment of results: analysis of common and individual work in every class and after a period of time Mastering of the body language: eye contact, gestures, and indicative hand gestures comprehensible to other members of the group Presentation of the artistic image: creation of an atmosphere fitting the image, inspiring of the group during musical performances Listening skills: an adequate musical presence at a particular moment of a performance Impulsive interaction: an ability to hear musical impulses from other members of the group and respond to them through improvisation Emphatic creativity: based on the knowledge of jazz music theory, skills, and experience and creatively experimenting (using courage and originality) and providing one’s own creative musical impulse
Musical cooperation
only encourages the development of professional qualities but also improves cooperation skills. Evidently, when students’ social cooperation skills improve, so do their musical cooperation skills, and vice versa: when students’ musical cooperation skills improve, so do their social cooperation skills.
Conclusion In this chapter, we described the educational system in Latvia as well as the recent paradigm shift to a competency-based approach, and discussed its implications for the field of music education. We also described the findings of five recent Latvian doctoral dissertations on various topics in the field of music education. The dissertations cover diverse themes, which range from the need for research competence to strengthen music education, to the musical and pedagogical value of emotional competence (e.g. “emotional intelligence”), to ways of enhancing the professional competence of choir conductors and brass instrument teachers, and even new knowledge in the field of jazz singing. We demonstrated how the NNME has especially served
A shift in Latvian music teacher education 173 as an important platform for development of research competence and sharing of professional knowledge across the Nordic and Baltic countries, which has certainly been beneficial for our milieu in Latvia. In conclusion, we encourage readers to examine the latest music research coming from Latvia, as well as the fine recordings and live performances of our choirs and other world-class ensembles. Latvia may be a small country, but in the field of music it makes unique contributions to the world.
References Bārdiņš, S. (2015). Correlations between Students’ Instrument Playing Skills and Body Action Optimization in the Learning Process of Trombone Playing at Music School. The Summary of PhD Thesis. Riga: RPIVA. Bäßler, H. (1998). Bruchstücke zur Frage, ob und inwieweit sich die Musiklehrerausbildung zu ändern habe. In Deutscher Musikrat: Ausbildung für musik pädagogische Brufe – Die Herausforderung für die Zukunft musikalisher Bildung. Musikforum 89, 22–31. Bērziņa, I. (2010). Development of Cooperation Skills in the Process of Studying Jazz Singing. The Summary of PhD Thesis. Riga: LU. Bērziņa, I. (2013). Sadarbības prasmju pilnveidošanās džeza dziedāšanas studiju procesā. Mūzikas pedagoģija IV. Rīgas Pedagoģijas un izglītības vadības akadēmijas Zinātniskie raksti. Rīga: RPIVA, p. 6–45. Education for All 2015. National Review Report: Latvia (2014). Prepared by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Latvia. Retrieved: http:// unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002313/231327e.pdf (31.01.2017) Key competences for adult learning professionals: Contribution to the development of a reference framework of the key kompetences for adult learning professionals (2010). In Buiskool, B.J., Broek, S.D., van Lakerveld, J.A., Zarifis, G.K. (Eds.), Final Report of the Study Financed by European Commission, DG EAC. Zoetermeer, p. 157. Retrieved December 5, 2018 from http://www.academia.edu/236719/Key_ Competences_for_Adult_Learning_Professionals_Contribution_to_the_development_of_a_reference_framework_of_key_competences_for_adult_learning_ professionals Korthagen, F.A.J. (2005). The organization in balance: reflection and intuition as complementary processes. Management and Learning, 36(3), 371–387. doi:10.1177/1350507605055352, http://mlq.sagepub.com (12.05.2010) Kriumane, L. (2013a). The Building of a Music Teacher’s Emotional Competence in the Process of Studies at a Higher Education Institution. The Summary of PhD Thesis. Riga: LU. Kriumane, L. (2013b). Mūzikas skolotāja emocionālās kompetences pilnveide augstskolas studiju procesā. Mūzikas pedagoģija IV. Rīgas Pedagoģijas un izglītības vadības akadēmijas Zinātniskie raksti. Rīga: RPIVA, pp. 46–124. Madalāne, S. (2011). The Enhancement of Future Teachers’ Research Competence in an Institution of Higher Education. The Summary of PhD Thesis. Riga: LU. Marnauza, M. (2000). The Integrative Approach in the Process of Studying Conducting. Summary of PhD Thesis. Riga: LU PPI, p. 50. Marnauza, M., Bašs, M. (2012). Diriģēšanas metodoloģija [Conducting Methodology]. Rīga: Zinātne, p. 272.
174 Māra Marnauza and Sanita Madalāne Pollard, A. (2005). Reflective Teaching. Evidence-Informed Professional Practice, 2nd edn. London: Continuum, p. 503. Pundurs, A. (2014a). Development of the Choral Conductor’s Hearing in the Study Process. The Summary of PhD Thesis. Riga: RPIVA. Pundurs, A. (2014b). Kordiriģenta muzikālās dzirdes attīstība studiju procesā. Mūzikas pedagoģija IV. Rīgas Pedagoģijas un izglītības vadības akadēmijas Zinātniskie raksti. Rīga: RPIVA, pp. 125–192. Seddon, A. (2005). Modes of communication during jazz improvization. British Journal of Music Education, 22, 47–61. The European qualifications framework for lifelong learning (2008). Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, p. 15. VISC – Valsts Izglītības satura centrs (2016). Ceļā uz kompetenču pieeju mācībām. Konference Tagad. 30.11.2016. Pieejams: www.izm.gov.lv/images/izglitiba_visp/ Konferences_Tagad/VISC_-_Ceļā_uz_kompetenču_pieeju_mācībām.pdf педлер (Pedler), M. (2000). Практика обучения действием. Москва: Гардарики, 336 c.
11 Music teacher education challenges National and international perspectives in Lithuania Jolanta Lasauskienė When the wind of change blows, some build walls, others build windmills. Chinese proverb
Introduction Collaboration between Lithuania and Northern countries started in 1991, when five Northern countries first established the Nordic Information Office in Vilnius (Nordic Council). Over the last 25 years, Nordic countries have contributed to political, social, cultural and economic processes, which started in Lithuania after the restoration of the independence in 1990. Lithuania and the Nordic countries share many similar values, attitudes and traditions. State history as a fundamental element of Baltic identity Common to all the Baltic countries is that the three countries—Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia—have been through the same historical periods and faced similar problems. Specifically, the three independent states lost their independence once and later regained it (Lithuania re-established independence on March 11, 1990; Estonia on August 20, 1991; and Latvia on August 21, 1991). The Baltic states have also become members of NATO and the European Union (since 2004). All three countries had unique early histories and relations with other nations and cultures, with lasting effects on culture and language that continue to influence national perspectives and policy (OECD, 2001). Lithuania is inseparable from Central and Eastern Europe as regards its historical and cultural context (Vilnius was part of Poland until the Second World War). Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian are three highly distinct languages, although L ithuanian and Latvian belong to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. During almost 50 years of Soviet occupation, all three countries were subjected to the full force of Soviet ideological, political and economic policies.
176 Jolanta Lasauskienė Music as essential to Nordic and Baltic cultural identity Group singing is important across all of Northern Europe. It should be underlined that from a civic and political point of view, the tradition of song and dance festivals in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia has always been perceived (particularly in the periods of occupation) as a secret tool for sustaining the national identity and safeguarding of independence efforts (“Singing Revolutions”). Song Celebrations in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, as an expression of cultural identity, display the exceptionality and uniqueness of music education. In 2003, UNESCO confirmed the tradition of Song and Dance Celebrations in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, and in 2008 these festivals were inscribed in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (UNESCO, 2008). We must recognize that the standard of living and social participation skills of people in the democratic societies of Nordic countries are much higher, and that is where much can be learned from Nordic countries (especially in the spheres of civic society, democracy, public and transparent policy, educational system, protection of children and women rights). However, this should not be done at the cost of own national identity. Why NNME activities? The Nordic Network for Music Education (NNME) is unique within the Nordic-Baltic framework of international networks. The partners in the network are among the leading institutions in the Nordic and the Baltic countries within the academic field of music education (music pedagogy). The particular strengths and specialties of each country and institution are shared via network cooperation, and thus it is possible to combine master’s classes and carry out in-depth studies with perspectives and breadth exceeding the capacity of individual institutions. Involvement of the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences into the NNME was not easy at the beginning. Though the university administration in principle supported the idea of participation in projects across Nordic and Baltic countries, financing was not allocated to implement project activities. Due to this reason, university teachers and students took part only in selected intensive courses for Master students: Hedmark University College (2009), Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (2014), University of Iceland (2015) and Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (2017). However, nine music teacher educators and ten student teachers went to Scandinavian countries on the teacher and student exchange programmes, returning full of fascination and even amazement. My first real interest in the system of Scandinavian music education started almost 15 years ago (2003) at the University of Joensuu, Finland. I was invited to see music lessons in a primary school, and was surprised to
Music teacher education in Lithuania 177 be shown a room completely full of musical instruments, plenty for all of the children, which seemed incredible at the time. Every child was able to play or improvise as s/he wanted, and had access to a wealth of instruments. In Lithuania, such instruments were often not available, but in general, each Lithuanian music classroom had a piano. Music education in Finland was an absolute contrast to the educational systems of the majority of post-Soviet and Western countries, where the main motivating means for school learners and teachers was enhancement of competition. It is obvious that children receive specific attention at school, and none seem to slip to the margins of the teacher’s focus. It is highly important that teachers, although not always specialized in music, are trusted at school, and they are given creative freedom, i.e. they choose the most appropriate methods for teaching music themselves. Other aspects that call for discussion are the predominance of popular music in the music curriculum and considerable attention devoted to playing digital musical instruments (electronic keyboard, electric guitar) and drums for band playing in school music lessons. In Lithuania, to the contrary, singing receives exceptional attention because it is regarded not only as an essential form of general music education, but also as a relevant tradition of Lithuanian music culture (especially at junior school age). School music textbooks are based on Lithuanian folk tunes, and the Lithuanian multipart songs, or Sutartinės, are highly unique examples of folk music (UNESCO, 2010). Developing school learners’ international experience and expanding their musical vocabulary, Lithuanian musical folklore and playing of various rhythmic and melodic instruments occupy a specific place in children’s self-expression. My other direct Scandinavian experience is related to participation in the NNME intensive course at the Master’s level in Hedmark University College (held in Hamar, 2009). The professionalism of the courses on “Democracy in Music Education from Nordic Perspective” and the variety of research presented by Master students as a part of their thesis projects surprised immensely. A new thing to me was that the students’ research project presentations were followed by a discussion led by a teacher commentator coming from a different country and institution. I enjoyed presentations by such keynote speakers as Petter Dyndahl, Live Weider Ellefsen (Hedmark University College, Norway); Randall Everett Allsup (Teachers College Columbia University, United States) and others. I then became convinced that in the field of music education, the central themes, the problems addressed, penetration into philosophy of music education and contemporary approaches towards problems differ fundamentally between Baltic and Nordic countries. However, friendship with our network partners and participants from Nordic and Baltic countries has turned into a fruitful professional and scientific collaboration that continues through today. Lithuanian students and music educators are satisfied professionally and personally after their
178 Jolanta Lasauskienė experiences in the intensive courses and exchange programmes, as evident from many statements: “It was our first experience of intensive courses like that” (a participant in Reykjavik, 2015); “I have a deeper understanding of music education methods and music education philosophy through those courses” (a participant in Tallinn, 2014); “We met a lot of interesting music pedagogy professors from different countries with a different outlook on music education and approach into music as universal language” (a participant in Tallinn, 2014); “Many students demonstrated their research projects presentations there. I think I can use that knowledge in my music teaching” (a participant in Reykjavik, 2015). Students from Lithuania mentioned that: “the Baltic countries are rather small, but this Nordic Network (NNME) makes smaller countries seem bigger. It was really inspiring!” (a participant in Bergen, 2017). Open questions and aims The topic of music teacher education raises many issues for discussion (Abramo & Reynolds, 2015; Menezes, 2015; Aróstegui & Ibarretxe, 2016; Burnard & Georgii-Hemming, 2016; Güsewell et al., 2017; Holgersen & Burnard, 2016). Teacher education acquires utmost significance, r esponsible for shaping future generations, and has to address the diverse and constantly changing needs of learners and society. Naturally, the functions of teachers and preparation to perform these functions have remained the object of much discussion in the 21st century. According to recent PISA results (2015), the educational systems developed in the Nordic countries (and now, Estonia as well) are highly evaluated all over the world, and considered to be among the model examples for Lithuania (PISA, 2016). Still, to adapt this model in another cultural space, for example in Lithuania, is complicated because of the long-e stablished traditions and attitudes. However, in Nordic and Baltic countries the structure of music teacher education and classroom music education has also gone through big changes, both in its content and implementation (Georgii-Hemming & Westvall, 2010; Graabræk Nielsen & Westby, 2012; Hauge, 2014; Sepp et al., 2015; Thorgersen et al., 2016; H ietanen & Ruismäki, 2017). This chapter attempts to answer these questions: what are the most i mportant priorities in education of music teachers in Lithuania and other countries? What are further trends of this development and possible problem-solving techniques? The aim of the study is to highlight the specific traits of the development of music teacher education, delineating the situation in Lithuania and discussing prospective directions of this development. In terms of methods, this chapter is based on analysis of scientific literature, analysis of international and national documents of education, generalization of research results and reflection on personal educational experience.
Music teacher education in Lithuania 179
The most significant changes in teacher education The Baltic states are often grouped together, but the significant differences among them are reflected in their education policy (OECD, 2001). However, education has been a central priority for each of the Baltic states since they regained independence. All three countries are engaged in reform on each level and sector of their education systems, from preschool through higher education. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania provide excellent case studies of how states in Eastern and Central Europe emerged from the policies and ideologies of the former Soviet Union to establishment of new education policies and institutions. Development of the national education system The Lithuanian educational system compared to that of other countries is young, for the General Concept of Education in Lithuanian was adopted in 1992 (Lietuvos svietimo…, 1992). After the restoration of independence (1990), there appeared an opportunity to create a national system of education, to formulate goals for the new system and its structural elements, which respond to the most progressive trends of the world, and Europe in particular, as well as to the uniqueness of Lithuania (Valstybinė švietimo…, 2012). The education system in Lithuania consists of seven levels, which correspond to International Standard Classification of Education levels: primary education (obligatory), basic (lower secondary) education (obligatory), secondary education, short-cycle tertiary education, bachelor’s or equivalent, master’s or equivalent, doctoral or equivalent. There are two types of higher education institutions: universities and colleges. Compulsory and general education During the reform of compulsory education, the content of curriculum was regulated by several general programmes. Currently the main documents, regulating the state-level curriculum in comprehensive schools, are The General Curriculum of Pre-primary Education (Priesmokyklinio ugdymo…, 2014) and The Description of Primary, Basic and Secondary Education C urriculum (Del pradinio, pagrindinio ir vidurinio…, 2015). Since then, numerous structural changes have been implemented. From the Soviet educational system of 11 grades, Lithuania transitioned to a system of 12 grades – more similar to Western models; middle school (grades 5–8) suddenly turned into a “comprehensive school” (grades 1–10); the duration and definition of “primary”, “middle” and “high” schools also shifted, in addition to the establishment of such new categories as “gymnasiums” and “pro-gymnasiums”; since 1993 students have been evaluated on a tenpoint grading scale. All of this was part of educational reforms to establish a Western Lithuanian educational system that has not stopped ever since. However,
180 Jolanta Lasauskienė the decline in the numbers of students and school learners in recent years has introduced significant changes in the network of Lithuanian schools of higher and general education. The total number of students in Lithuania has dropped by more than 20% over the past six years (Statistics Lithuania, 2016a). Higher education Since 1991, several structural changes were made to Lithuanian higher education according to the Bologna Process, including the introduction of the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), and the establishment of a quality assurance system (Bologna Declaration, 1999; Flores et al., 2016; Leišytė et al., 2015). The implementation of the new study structures had a national character with some international influence (Dėl studijų pakopų…, 2016). Moreover, a three-cycle degree structure was based in part on the US model. As it happened, several decades ago Lithuania chose the American study model, i.e. four years for BA studies and two years for MA studies, whereas the model of three years (BA) and two years (MA) has prevailed in Europe. Although certain European tendencies to shorten duration of higher education studies have been observed, this seems not to apply to teacher education programmes in European and other progressive countries. At present 17 European countries (Czech Republic, Germany, Estonia, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Luxemburg, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden, Iceland and Serbia) require the academic Master’s degree for teachers (Eurydice, 2015). Improving the quality of teacher education Reforming of the teaching profession is one of the main challenges in Lithuania (OECD, 2017). Up to now, the main problem faced in implementing the change in curriculum has been teacher education (Del pedagogų rengimo…, 2017). Teacher education is based on the main documents regulating the preparation of teachers (Dėl pedagogų rengimo…, 2012; Dėl studijų pakopų aprašo…, 2016), the legal acts that determine teachers’ professional qualification and other relevant documents (Mokytojo profesijos…, 2007). Although the legal base is periodically reviewed and renewed, the teaching practice changes much faster than the legal documents in Lithuania. Two models of initial teacher training are applied in Lithuania: concurrent (when subject-specific education and professional education of a teacher are conducted simultaneously) and consecutive (when teacher’s professional education is organized after subject-specific education) approaches to teacher training (Dėl pedagogų rengimo…, 2012). It is now widely believed that only concurrent studies can address current needs, and increasingly more EU countries apply the concurrent model (Eurydice, 2015).
Music teacher education in Lithuania 181 There are several areas where the Lithuanian teacher education programmes need improvement (Lietuvos pedagogų rengimo…, 2016): •
•
• •
It is necessary to increase a block of pedagogical studies, to seek for a dialogue between subject teachers and subject didactic teachers building up the teacher’s identity. A tendency to increase the block of pedagogy-related study subject is observed in EU countries. In Denmark and Turkey, the volume of professional pedagogical studies has increased up to 90 credits. Ireland, France and Iceland have moved from 60 to 120 ECTS credits. Teacher education has to be based on research (research-based music education, research-based music teacher education), for international scientific studies show that such teacher education is most effective and efficient. International experience shows that teacher education is more and more directed towards education of teachers of several study subjects, emphasizing interdisciplinary education. There is no formal system of licencing, the relationship between higher education institutions and schools of general education is very weak, the system of teacher training is not practically applicable for lifelong learning, the content of study is hardly oriented towards the fostering of new skills and competencies, and the process of teachers’ training is not sufficiently improved. Many experts in the sphere of education seek to establish the need to change the paradigm of educators’ training.
Reform of Lithuania’s teacher education system has been promoted by a number of factors such as openness to the world and mobility, individualized education and accessibility to quality education. However, it is necessary to ensure adequate social and economic conditions for teachers, if we still want to have young people willing to become teachers and who are still capable of meeting the high requirements imposed on future teachers. The changing role of music teachers The activities and competences of a music teacher are some of the most significant factors related to improved learning outcomes in school music education (Lasauskienė, 2011). However, the pace of reorganization of music teacher education system is not very fast in Lithuania. Even ancient thinkers noticed that teacher’s activity is close to that of an artist or creator. A music teacher has to be a “double” artist (a musician and a personality educator), because not only the educational activities but also the content itself is based on arts. Lithuanian scholar Girdzijauskiene (2013) criticizes questions regarding the dichotomy between “teacher” and “musician” as overly simplistic. In her opinion, there is no single answer to such questions as “what should be the qualities and abilities of a music teacher?”,
182 Jolanta Lasauskienė “what kind of competencies do teachers need?” and “what are the functions of these qualities in the context of music education and general education?”. As mentioned above, development of music teacher competences acquires specific features, both due to the peculiarities of artistic expression and due to their links with pedagogical activities. The study subject of music is highly specific, which is characterized by distinctive methods and a system of artistic cognition. Because of this specificity, the methods of cognition and idea implementation used in natural sciences cannot be applied for such cognition. Modelling of music teacher competences Defining music teacher competences is a complicated task because not all the components of educational activity are directly revealed during activities. However, there is a lack of systematic approach to the content and structure of competences of music teachers in the context of activity, which can be applied for standardization of music teacher education (Lasauskienė, 2010). Seeking to create a study programme of music education that focuses on professional competences of a music teacher to ensure quality music education, a model of music teacher competences was devised. A three-stage approach to modelling was used, indicating the roles, areas of activity, competences. The structure is visualized in Figure 11.1, and explained in some detail below. The content of music teachers’ activities is best revealed through the roles of a teacher – musician (performer), educator, manager and researcher.
Figure 11.1 T he structure of music teacher’s competences. Source: Compiled by the author.
Music teacher education in Lithuania 183 A teacher-musician can be a perfect performer (a singer, a piano player, a conductor) but not necessarily a good music teacher (Pellegrino, 2009). The activity of a teacher-musician is successful, when his/her qualifications for music and educational activities are closely interrelated. Research shows that teachers in Lithuania (and Europe in general) tend to evaluate their subject-specific competences higher than their pedagogical excellence (OECD, 2017). Therefore, pedagogical, didactic and subject-specific knowledge has to be integrated in the process of studies as much as possible (Zühlsdorf, 2016). Managerial skills of a music teacher are related to public, cultural, artistic expression; promotion of arts; organization of musical activities; and participation in them (ability to bring together learners of different needs for joint musical artistic activity, to organize individual and collective music performance: to lead choirs, orchestras, vocal and instrumental ensembles; to train solo performers) and in creative projects. A teacher-researcher is a necessity today because it is important to reflect on one’s own practical activity and its results, to record and evaluate the progress of implementation of educational innovations, as well as results and consequences of the renewed educational activity. Each area of the activity is combined with certain roles (a musician, an educator, a manager and a researcher). Five main areas of music teachers’ professional activity were distinguished: (a) personality (self-) development, (b) management of the music teaching and learning process of music education, (c) development of musical abilities, (d) management of non-formal music (self-) education and (e) performance music education research. The most important competences of a music teacher were defined: to be able to analyse one’s activity, as well as to develop one’s competences and personal traits; to be able to organize and assess the activity of learners’ music (self-) education; to be able to interpret, arrange and evaluate music, to be able to organize music activity of school community; to be able to organize a study of the professional activity (Lasauskienė, 2011). Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences in the context of music teacher education The Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences is the most important teacher education institution in Lithuania. The speciality of music was established there in 1957, becoming the first higher education institution in the Soviet Union committed to preparing music teachers with higher education for comprehensive schools. At that time, music teaching and its ideas in Lithuania were influenced by Western European and Russian music pedagogy. However it is particularly important that the content of music teaching actually remained national in its character. The music educators of that time substantiated the conception of Lithuanian music education in their research papers, methodological works and music textbooks (Vitkauskas et al., 2012).
184 Jolanta Lasauskienė There are four other institutions in Lithuania where similar programmes (music pedagogy) are implemented: Šiauliai University, Klaipėda University, Vytautas Magnus University and the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. The recent trend in Europe and Lithuania has been to concentrate music teacher education in higher education, namely at university higher education institutions, and discussions about optimization of the state university network are intensive. This situation is challenging in Lithuania, Northern Europe and all over the world (Pinheiro et al., 2016). Degree studies The study programme of music education differs from other study programmes in its focus on deeper psychological pedagogical training, conditioned by the educational profile of a university. Graduates of the study programme of music education are qualified to work as music teachers of comprehensive schools, to lead school musical ensembles (vocal and instrumental ensembles, to teach to play a musical instrument) and to enter the master’s or the subsequent doctoral study programme of education. The programme has an international profile, and it should be noted that since 2014 more than 70 students from China have studied in the Department of Music. The scope of the bachelor’s degree curriculum is 240 ECTS credits (including a module of pedagogical studies of 60 credits and a module of study subject of 90 credits). Full-time studies take four years whereas part-time studies last five years. The graduates are conferred the bachelor’s degree in Arts Education and Music, and in the Teacher’s qualification (Lietuvos edukologijos…, 2013). The issue of research competence is one of the main concerns for teacher education at the master’s level. The scope of the master’s degree curriculum is 120 ECTS credits (which includes writing and defence of a master’s thesis of 30 credits). The deep background of methodological and practical experience, creativity in educational processes and the wide range of learned instruments are the strong aspects of this programme. On the other hand, present general requirements for the structure of study programme development do not satisfy training of music teachers with a broad profile. It is a real challenge to integrate study courses of music into a strictly regulated number of study subjects within the study programme because the majority of music courses (such as piano, conducting, choir studio, singing) are of a continuous nature and require consistent studies, which tend to embrace the entire period of university studies. Music educators The study programme of music education is being implemented by three professors, six associate professors (doctors of social sciences) and two associate professors (acknowledged artists). A large number of these music educators are graduates from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre,
Music teacher education in Lithuania 185 and music performers who have been active participants in concert activities and leaders of well-known community ensembles (choirs, folk music groups) or have been successfully teaching in comprehensive schools. Across the period 1997–2017, the topics of nine doctoral dissertations defended on music education in Department of Music are of a broad scope, but the majority aim at educating music teachers for comprehensive schools. Since 1968, Lithuanian researchers have defended a total of 43 doctoral dissertations and 3 habilitation dissertations, of which 28 have been over the last two decades. Such attention of researchers to music teacher education was initiated by the necessity to renew music teacher education in Lithuania (Šečkuvienė, 2014). One of the key problems relevant for the science of music pedagogy in Lithuania includes philosophical substantiation of research in music pedagogy and the paradigm shift. The traditions and challenges of music teacher education in Baltic and Nordic countries and problems are partially similar (Juvonen et al., 2012; Kriumane & Marnauza, 2012; Sepp et al., 2015; Thorgersen et al., 2016). All programmes aim to educate music teachers with both good musical and pedagogical (didactical) skills. All curricula now include educational sciences, didactics (pedagogical methods) and practical training along with musical and instrumental content knowledge. Comparing study programmes in music education across Baltic and Nordic countries, it is necessary to note that university programmes of music teacher education are characterized by a wide variety of forms and content. The most common feature that differentiates the Lithuanian study programmes is that they are more specialized (for example, teacher of popular and jazz music, manager of musical groups, vocal pedagogue, teacher of instrument playing, teacher of piano-playing, choral conducting), targeted at a very specific form of music education, extracurricular activities, instrumental or vocal teaching. A student of the Department of Music conducted research that aimed to highlight similarities and differences of music teacher training in Lithuania and Norway (Urlovaite, 2015). According to the findings, colleagues from Norway emphasized that too few credits (up to 60) in the study programme are assigned to prepare a good music teacher: “practical classes of piano, arrangement, accompaniment, singing and playing various instruments are not enough. Each year the number of music courses (music teaching hours) has gone down radically”. The Lithuanian music educators emphasized the importance of music teachers having practical performing experience, but they attach particularly critical importance to implementation of students’ musical competences during their teaching practice: students are not always able to apply their practical skills of singing, playing the piano or any other instruments. It sometimes happens that students, who frequently perform in concerts at University, very rarely use live performing of music during music lessons.
186 Jolanta Lasauskienė
Concluding discussion According to the opening Chinese proverb, when the wind of change blows, some build walls, others build windmills. However, I find there is no single answer to questions such as: • • • • •
How do we face contemporary challenges and realities? What does it mean to be a music teacher in the 21st century? How do we educate the next generation of music teachers? How do we prepare for the profession? What should a university education in music look like?
The direct experience of the author, and results of previous research, revealed that the curriculum of music teacher education at higher education institutions of Lithuania is mostly predominated by “specialized training” of professional musicians (performers). On the other hand, the experience of educating music teachers at Lithuanian universities has a long tradition and is quite original. Another extreme is observed in comparison with other countries, when the content of subject teacher training is restricted to a utilitarian basis (“a teacher has to know as much as it is necessary for teaching of learners”). Neither extreme is productive under contemporary conditions. In Lithuania, as well as across Northern Europe, the need for improving the quality of teacher education is underlined. There is an abundance of recommendations regarding how to change the system of education and how to prepare teachers who meet all the new expectations. However, having been through several educational reforms in Lithuania, we now face a situation in which the teacher’s profession is absolutely depreciated. Due to low turnover of teaching staff, the professional community has become rather closed, teachers who are young and full of new ideas do not go to schools and school learners’ achievements tend to gradually deteriorate (Lietuvos pedagogų…, 2016). The analysis of OECD (2017) provides obvious reasons for the current educational situation. The main reason is that Lithuania dramatically reduced financing for education in the period of 2008–2014, whereas other countries (Slovakia, Czech Republic and even Russia) either increased or reduced it to a smaller extent (Latvia and Estonia). Countries that are now very content with the high achievements of their students understood a long time ago that education of high-level professionals requires substantial investment into teacher education. An overview of factors influencing music teacher education and professional development in Lithuania reveals the strengths, which should be maintained, and weaknesses, as well as demographic problems: •
Decreasing number of teachers: According to the data of the Ministry of Education and Science, the number of teachers in Lithuanian
Music teacher education in Lithuania 187
•
•
•
comprehensive schools has shrunk by more than a third (Lietuvos š vietimas…, 2016). Moreover, a bigger part of teachers in Lithuania are at retirement age or over 50 years old. The number of people willing to become teachers has been annually decreasing (first due to a drastic decrease in state-financed places). The number of students has gone down by a third over the last five years. A big number of Lithuanian students (~10,000–12,000) have been studying abroad (Lietuvos statistikos…, 2015). Lithuania is one of the countries which have recently suffered from a huge wave of emigration. Fragmentation of study programmes and low prestige of the profession: Education and research in Lithuania are highly fragmented, leading to poor conditions for achievement. It is worth noting that at present there are over 20 state higher education institutions (Lietuvos š vietimas…, 2016). Teachers are trained by 14 higher education schools (seven universities and seven colleges). Although teaching is, in theory, a particularly important profession, it is far from regarded as prestigious in Lithuania. Need for targeted research: The strategic priorities in Lithuania for dealing with the emerging problems have not been envisaged (Lietuvos pedagogų…, 2016). There is a lack of systemic governmental approach towards teacher preparation and the teaching profession, and a new and modern conception of teacher education. For many years, there has been widespread fear to make determined, courageous decisions that require financial resources. Moreover, once made, decisions have turned out to be insufficiently systemic and lacking a basis in data and research. Specifically, attention to the solving of structural problems, such as excess of teachers, ageing of teachers, costly teacher training and low academic achievements of students, is insufficient. Lack of a national teacher education strategy: Lithuania currently lacks a well-defined national strategy and vision for teacher education, and a clear policy for teacher education and professional development is also not available. How Lithuanian educational policy may be understood in the context of global and European dimensions is unclear to many. Lithuania has not clearly answered the question of what education it wants to have. Contrarily, Estonians and Finns held lengthy discussions, entered into agreement and were not distracted by the influence of new political winds, while consistently following their educational policies for more than 20 years. This does not mean that teacher education and the entire system of education have not improved in Lithuania, but there remains a need to reach agreement regarding the strategic goals, and then to merely revise and correct the means to attain these goals.
According to the data of recent surveys, our challenges are related to demographic changes, modifications of higher education and making teaching into a more attractive profession. Possible solutions include optimizing and
188 Jolanta Lasauskienė updating school system to provide more rights for the teachers and higher salaries. Is this possible in Lithuania? Yes, only promises are not enough now: agreements must be fulfilled, and it is necessary to work consistently and not to be distracted every time new political winds start to blow. Participation in Baltic and Nordic projects is very important for our university, so we learn from international cooperation and mobility development, gain from dissemination of international experience in music education and see development of joint music teacher education research across the Northern European region. Challenges facing music teacher education in many countries should be courageously examined in terms of the various political and cultural contexts of their respective situations.
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Music teacher education in Lithuania 191 UNESCO, (2010). Culture. Intangible Heritage. Sutartinės, Lithuanian m ultipart songs. Lithuania. Retrieved from https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/sutartineslithuanian-multipart-songs-00433#identification Urlovaite, I. (2015). Būsimų muzikos mokytojų kompetencijų raiška: Lietuvos edukologijos universiteto ir Bergeno universiteto kolegijos atvejis (Expression of Pre-Service Music Teachers’ Competencies: The Case of Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences and Bergen University College). Bachelor’s Thesis. Vilnius: Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences. (in Lithuanian) Valstybinė švietimo strategija 2013–2022 m.: tikslai, problemos, tobulinimo k ryptys. (The National Education Strategy for the Period of 2013–2022: Goals, Problems, Improvement Directions). (2012). Švietimo problemos analizė, 17(81). (in Lithuanian) Vitkauskas, R., Abramauskienė, J., Barisas, K., Kirliauskienė, R. & Tarnauskaitė- Palubinskienė, V. (2012). Bendrasis muzikinis ugdymas Lietuvoje. (General Music Education in Lithuania). Vilnius: Edukologija. (in Lithuanian) Zühlsdorf, F. (2016). Teacher Education at University: How to Teach Content Knowledge and Pedagogical Content Knowledge in an Integrated Way. Bringing Teacher Education Forward: National and International Perspectives. Programme and Abstracts. Oslo: University of Oslo.
12 Emotional imitation method in the context of Lithuanian music education Lolita Navickiene, Asta Rauduvaite, Giedrė Gabnyte and David G. Hebert
Introduction: Lithuania joins the music education network Cooperation of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (LMTA) with universities from Baltic and Northern countries was established in earlier decades, but collaboration in the field of music education has only recently begun. These relations established with the Department of Pedagogy in 2016 were materialised by an introductory meeting at Bergen University College (now Western Norway University of Applied Sciences), in Bergen, Norway, with participation of all coordinators from each of the Nordic Network for Music Education (NNME) network institutions. The meeting pleasantly surprised us, not only by the abundance of ideas and plans generated, but also by the clearly felt and long-established traditions of collaboration, goodwill and sincerity of the members. The observations expressed by Prof. David Hebert to authors contributing to the present book, co-written by members of Nordplus-NNME, became a good start of collaboration with LMAT. Hebert’s suggestions encouraged deeper reflection on the situation of music education in Lithuania, and inspired discussion about the need for changes in contemporary music education and challenges imposed by this unique epoch. Informal discussions that occurred during the meeting enabled us to know the music teacher educators of Norway better, and to communicate with other Nordplus-NNME members as well. The cooperation of Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences (LEU) with NORDPLUS-NNME network under the leadership of Torunn Bakken Hauge, which started in 2009, has proved to be an excellent opportunity to become acquainted with cultural and scientific achievements across Northern Europe that contribute to the strengthening of music teacher education. Various issues were raised regarding the conditions of music education, sharpening our shared perspectives for improvement of music activities and expanding educational possibilities via pedagogical innovations. In other words, it is our impression that the activities of the NNME network are key to a high-quality future for music education in Northern Europe. Undoubtedly, the theory and practice of contemporary pedagogy increasingly target implementation of the principles of lifelong learning, quality
Emotional imitation method in Lithuania 193 assurance and preparation of an individual for life and successful professional activity as well as community participation. At present, education is widely understood as the main power modernising society, which is a prerequisite for each individual’s success in life.
Historical background Music education in Lithuania is a unique system functioning at the crossroads of traditions and innovations, and at present embracing diverse ways of teaching music in formal and non-formal education. One of the prerequisites for emergence of music education in Lithuania was Baltic ethnic education, based on the tradition of the child’s engagement in folk musical activities (singing and playing instruments) within their living environments, especially in the extended family. Slightly later, another model of Lithuanian music culture evolved and prevailed in specific educational institutions, most frequently in church schools or institutions related to church teaching. The content of such music teaching reached Lithuania through the spread of pedagogical ideas and Christian teaching, which had dominated in Western Europe. The development of music education in Lithuania is most precisely characterised by the historical periods indicated by scholars, which predetermined a long and multifaceted process of formation of music education influenced by sociocultural, ethnic and religious circumstances (Jareckaitė, 2006). The period of pre-institutional or pre-theoretical experiential expression of didactics can be referred to as a timid start of music education in Lithuania dating back to the years prior to the establishment of the first Lithuanian schools. Its origins appeared in the living environments of communities and were grounded on passing down experience and knowledge among community members. The main goal of music education was personal spiritual self-expression based on informal education (Jareckaitė & R imkutė Jankuvienė, 2010). The beginning of formal music education in Lithuania is considered to be the period marked by introduction of Christianity, followed by prevailing canonical ideology as well as by establishment and development of the first schools based on that ideology. In the 14th century, congregational, monastic and cathedral schools and colleges were functioning in the country, where teaching methods and curriculum that were widespread in Europe were also applied. Although a curriculum based on religious scholastics dominated in these schools, and educational principles aimed for evoking religious spirituality and piety, from the perspective of the historical evolution of music education, such school activities can be evaluated as a significant development, which contributed to the cultivation of music education in Lithuania. The period from the middle of the 16th century to the end of the 18th century is regarded as a historical epoch marked by the movement of the
194 Lolita Navickiene et al. reformation and counter-reformation, which had a specific impact on the traditions of music education in Lithuania. The latter historical period is closely identified with Catholic and Protestant faith that predetermined expression of music education and conditions for its development. Music education in Lithuania was most intensively developed by Jesuits in the colleges they established, and later in the university. As a result, music education was saturated with scholastics based on religious rituals and rites (Palionytė Banevičienė, 2002). The publication of the first textbook for music in Lithuania in 1667, which is linked to Žygimantas Liauksminas and contains the late modified Gothic notation system, can be seen as a separate period in the development of music education and the science of music education in Lithuania. The presentation of music theory and music practice as a unified system in music education was a scientifically new perspective and trend at that time, which significantly contributed to emergence and development of the science of music education in Lithuania alongside branches of other sciences (Liauksminas, 1972). The period between 1773 and 1795 is distinguished by secularisation of education, when music education evolved in Western Europe in the context of prominent classics in pedagogy. The ideas of Comenius, Rousseau and Pestalozzi were widely spread in music education, which led to specific shaping of the further development of music education in Lithuania. The rule of Russian Empire and German occupation (1795–1918) considerably suspended the traditions of music education in Lithuania, which were about to settle, but resistance movements served as an impulse for the appearance of new activities in music education. The period in question is significant for the science of music education because of establishment of the first music school, later with opening of music schools in the periphery of Lithuania and the beginning of instrumental education (Azizbekova, 1999; Kryžauskienė & Rudvalytė, 2004). The period of Lithuanian independence (1918–1940) is of particular importance because the attention allocated to music education significantly increased: school programmes of music education were designed, issues of music education received coverage in the press, concert life in the country became more active and the basis for professional musician training was created. The contributions of Juozas Naujalis to the development of music education in Lithuania are particularly notable. His name is tightly linked to establishment of Kaunas State Music School, which later became a conservatory. The traditions of instrumental education mostly developed in this school, and they later led to establishment of a coherent music education system in Lithuania (Melnikas, 2007; Vainauskienė, 2009). During the Soviet occupation (1940–1990) music education served as a means of propagating Soviet ideology. However, despite any criticisms one might have of that system, it cannot be denied that musical culture musicological scholarship flourished during this period: a new system of music
Emotional imitation method in Lithuania 195 education was created, new music textbooks were written, music collectives of high level started to appear and over 70 music schools for c hildren were set up, as well as three music-specialised secondary schools, five music-specialised upper-secondary schools, two pedagogical schools, three cultural schools and the Lithuanian Conservatory. It is important to mention that the training of music teachers at that period started in Vilnius Pedagogical University (now – LEU) and in Šiauliai Pedagogical Institute (now – Šiauliai University) (Narbutienė, 1992). The restoration of Lithuania’s independence in 1990 inspired various systemic changes in music education: upper-secondary schools that had specialised in music were transformed into conservatories, while music- specialised secondary schools were turned into gymnasiums of arts, and music institutes into universities, and finally, the former Lithuanian Conservatory became LMTA. Beyond that, the development of music education research and research-based practices has been significant. Each period in the historical development of music education in Lithuania is marked by a specific evolution of musical culture, which matured and spread new cultural, artistic and educational ideas for decades. The content of these ideas has not always been favourable for specific personalities, and was affected by epochal ideologies, dependent on political regimes, political wills and values of the period. All the aforementioned aspects suggest we view the development of music education as a dynamic process, a reflection of continuously transforming sociocultural conditions that both shape and are shaped by the contributions of notable individuals.
Development of the emotional imitation method (EIM) The 21st century is the beginning of a new period in the development of music education, which embraces numerous contrasts, uncertainty and doubts. At present, music education is no longer a narrow specialised sphere because new contexts that are linked to the school learner’s needs, abilities, ambitions and realities are necessary. Therefore, general music education in Lithuania is inextricably linked with the experiences and achievements of music education all over the world, still striving for preservation of uniqueness and cultural traditions. Undoubtedly, each higher education institution is in a constant search for the ways to optimise the study process in the training of the next generation of teachers. Next to various methodological strategies used in the Study Programme of General Music Didactics implemented in the Department of Pedagogy of LMTA, the method of emotional imitation (EIM) is applied. The emotional imitation method, which was designed in 2000 (EIM, Lolita Jolanta Navickienė, the author), reveals broad possibilities of integrating developmental stages, various kinds of art, study subjects taught and musical activities. In general, it can be stated that
196 Lolita Navickiene et al. EIM is a method of promoting school learners’ musicality and musical abilities as well as their self-education imitating the content of emotional intonations of a composition or experiences of an imaginary character, which is evoked with the help of integration of other kinds of art. (Navickienė, 2000) The distinguishing feature of EIM is that all the educational goals are implemented in the process of education: cognitive ones that answer the questions: “Who/What?”, “Where?”, “When?”; psychomotor training goals: “How to do this?”; emotional ones: “What feelings are evoked in me?” and moral reflection: “Why is it important to my life and in what way?”. In terms of its application, EIM is a universal method, i.e. it can be applied in the whole process of general education, enriching musical activities (listening to music, singing, solfeggio, rhythmical, instrumental music playing) with possibilities of integrating other kinds of arts (fine arts, fiction, poetry and others). Employing EIM, the goal of music playing embraces more than simply learning of means of music expression, knowledge of the main theme of a composition, learning a song or completion of a rhythmical drill. Rather, educational objectives highlight possibilities for educating towards desirable personal character with the help of musical activities. It is well known that every method of education has its logical substantiation. The structural features of a method are as follows: (1) goal, (2) means used for implementation of the goal and (3) ways of action. Thus, EIM can be characterised in the following ways: • • •
The goal: to optimise school learners’ education and informal education as well as to develop their musical abilities; Means for implementation of the goal: emotions as a central component of musicality and one of the core foundations of music;1 Ways of action: imitation, experience, display and emotional integration of feeling of an imaginary character of a musical composition.
Previous research (Navickienė, 2005) reveals the specific features of EIM that can also be assigned to: •
•
a group of upbringing methods (a personal example, demonstration of environment examples, an educative dialogue, suggestion, creation of educative situations, organisation of successful activities, involvement into interesting activities, etc.); a group of teaching methods (transmission, consolidation and checking of knowledge, acquisition of abilities and skills, development of a creative and reflective personality, stimulation of learning, etc.).
The above-mentioned EIM features are not declarative. Due to emotional imitation, such aspects of musical activity as rhythmic exercises, solfeggio,
Emotional imitation method in Lithuania 197 singing, listening to music and instrumental music performance become “reactivated” under the fresh influence of feelings. This occurs within the unified topic of a lesson that expresses a particular moral value because emotional imitation means displaying the inner experiences of an imaginary character presented by school learners themselves. Applying the Method of Emotional Imitation, the following groups of methods are used: 1 information methods: clarification of the analysed period of art; 2 practical-operational methods: completion of musical activities or emotional imitation of presented assignments or exercises; 3 creative methods: presentation of an intent of educational activity during musical activities; 4 methods of demonstration and illustration, narration, rendering and heuristic conversations: presenting an intent of educational activity during discussions. In fact, school learners, particularly in adolescence, encounter various frustrations, which can lead to development of various complexes, insufficient self-confidence and excessive vulnerability. EIM can be successfully applied in such contexts, as it promotes school learners’ musicality, artistry and expressivity through imitated emotions. The scheme of such educational processes can be as follows: musical activities → emotional imitation → musicality → expressivity → ability to freely express oneself. In such a way, emotional imitation can become a means that leads to a free but self-controlling, sensitive self-expression. Notable Russian drama theorist Konstantin Stanislavski (1863–1938) established a well-known method of theatrical excellence (Станиславский, 2007). Stanislavski’s approach shares much in common with the principles of EIM (Table 12.1). Table 12.1 EIM and K. Stanislavski’s connection of methods K. Stanislavski’s principles of actor education
Principles of the method of emotional imitation
“Only love, which is an absolute core of “Love for children is the main condition life, can inspire a true artist”. for teacher’s professional and creative activities”. “A director cannot stage a performance “The teacher cannot teach a lesson not having failed to find the main idea of being aware of its goals and the main the performance”. motto”. “Theatre has to be open, close and “The school has to be open, accessible available to everybody”. and close to everybody”. “The repertory of the theatre has to be “The vocal or instrumental repertory of highly distinctive from the national music lessons also has to be national in perspective and closely related to its content and democratic in its form”. democratic traditions”. (Continued)
198 Lolita Navickiene et al. K. Stanislavski’s principles of actor education
Principles of the method of emotional imitation
“Theatre is art of representation of life; not life in general but a relevant reality of the present”. “Theatre should strive for the unity between the ethics and aesthetics. The true beauty in the art cannot be amoral”. “A true artist should love the art in himself and not himself in the art”.
“Music lessons have to reflect not life in general but relevant present and developmental problems”. “Children should have access only to the best and most valuable examples of music and other kinds of art”.
“The main goal of music teachers is nurturance of children’s love for music rather than contests won by them or their personal achievements”. “Persistent polishing of powers already “Consistent efforts and sincere work developed by an actor is the only will provide both the learner and the path to true art”. teacher with abilities to sing, play and act in a suggestible manner”. “The main objective of an artist-art “The main objective of a music teacher creator is to become a leader and an is not only to teach but also to educate educator of the public”. children employing the power of art”. “The director is an interpreter of the “A music teacher is frequently a creator play, its producer, an organiser and of cultural life at school, a moderator, an educator of the creative process”. an active participant in it, who also educates a child applying own example”.
Philosophical foundations of EIM To create a new method, it is important not only to justify it from the purely subjective perspective, but also to provide its philosophical methodological substantiation. Therefore, EIM is presented here in the context of systems of educational philosophy. Humanist pedagogy derived from a trend in psychology, which analyses the personality as a holistic phenomenon in the process of self-completion, may be credited for some of the conceptual roots of EIM. Its forerunners, American psychologists Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers, stated that the main quality of a personality is zeal for the future and pursuit of self-actualisation (Maslow, 2006; Rogers & Freiberg, 1994). Partnership, democratic style and norms of human relations are the most important peculiarities of pedagogical activities seeking to help a learner to understand their own needs and interests, and encouraging the maturation of his/ her personality. The principles of meaningful learning introduced by Carl Rogers and H. Jerome Freiberg (1994) are also applicable to music education. •
An individual possesses inborn abilities to learn and favourable conditions support his/her natural striving for discovery and knowledge. This shows that a child is curious and interested in the surrounding world. After satisfaction of his/her physiological and spiritual needs, there is
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•
•
•
a growing need for self-expression, i.e. a learner wants to show what s/he feels, knows how to and is able to. The music education can help to satisfy learners’ needs for self-expression and self-education. However, it is important to accustom learners to differentiate between the real needs and spontaneous wishes. A learner assimilates material, when s/he understands that subject-related material is linked with his/her personal goals. In this context, music can be as a means to attain the goal, i.e. to concretise general values considering personal aspirations. Meaningful learning occurs in acting in reality. Given the possibility of acting independently, searching for information and attaining the set assignments, a learner starts feeling a personal benefit. The knowledge obtained in such a way would help him/her to understand himself or herself, others and the surrounding environment. All this is related to the statement that learning of a child, who directly encounters practical, social, ethnical problems, tends to accelerate. A learner acquires the knowledge best that s/he aims at and the knowledge that affects not only the learner’s intelligence but also its personality. Such knowledge is integrated, related to possessed information and with the learner’s needs, interests and values. The process of music education that is organised in a wide variety of forms directly predetermines building up of school learners’ musical experience and their need for music.
The pedagogical conception of existentialism is based on the idea of existentialist philosophy that reality is the individual’s subjective world, the essence of which is expressed by the concept of existence (Bitinas, 2000). According to the most prominent representatives of this trend, such as Soren Kierkegaard (1995), Jean-Paul Sartre (1974) and Karl T. Jaspers (1998), the main purport of human life is to overcome the internal and external burden of own fate (Akvinietis, 2000). Such philosophical propositions were linked with the science of pedagogy, where the purpose of education is to help learners become established in the plane of their own existence, to find strength to cope with fear of a hostile world and to envisage the purpose of existence within overall concerns. The pedagogical conception of existentialism distinguishes the following principles that optimise education: 1 The humanities naturally comprise the basis of curriculum because they help to reveal the significance of human existence, i.e. the sublimity and nullity of an individual, his/her temporal and spiritual nature. This statement indicates the ultimate possible effects of the art of music, namely its influence on development of school learners’ emotionality and spirituality. 2 The educator and the learner must take interest in the most essential issues of human existence, to cope with satisfaction evoked by life, which is purely grounded on material welfare. The educational essence of this principle can be implemented through the process of understanding
200 Lolita Navickiene et al. music grounded on the objectives of musical activities in EIM. The relevant topics used during debates can help towards finding answers to problems occurring among school learners of different developmental stages, as well as to develop criteria for moral evaluation. The most representative proponents of existential psychology, Viktor Frankl and Rollo May, revealed the characteristic features of a spiritual creature (Bitinas, 2000; Frankl, 2013): 1 Ability to internalise oneself at a certain moment, i.e. what I feel, what I desire, what my emotions are like, what I want or do not want, and to understand the reason for my further actions and further progress of actions. Thus, EIM allocates a sufficient attention to the individual’s emotional sensations, experiences and self-cognition. 2 Ability to rely on one’s own personal values and desires, ability to make decisions and choose, i.e. ability to behave as one chooses both externally and internally. This statement emphasises the objective of EIM: to build up a free, proactive personality with a morally strong character. 3 Ability to be responsible for one’s own state, thoughts, wishes and actions in the context of experiences. The teacher faces an objective to help each child to discover himself or herself, to understand and follow “your inner voice”, to understand the earthly mission. Following the propositions of existential psychology, it can be assumed that a need for learning to improve, to develop personal qualities and abilities to attain the set objectives, is a prerequisite for accumulation of intellectual and spiritual potential of an individual, and his/her ability to help solve and cope with problems caused by various emerging situations. William James and Charles S. Peirce, two forerunners of philosophy of pragmatism, created the theory of maximal adaptation to living conditions (Bitinas, 2000). On the basis of this perspective, John Dewey (2013), an American philosopher and educator, created a pedagogy of pragmatism. Having synthesised the ideas of John Lock, Francis Bacon and Charles Darwin on human nature, Dewey stated that the purpose of the internal driving powers of a human is to support optimal adaptation to the environment and maximal self-realisation. Coping with problems, an individual accumulates experience in life’s difficulties and their ultimate solutions. This conclusion serves as a basis for the pedagogical theory of pragmatism and experience that defines the interaction of an individual with the surrounding environment, which is regarded as the key characteristic of the pragmatic philosophy of education. The pedagogy of pragmatism is based on these principles, which create a prerequisite for implementation of the purpose of education, i.e. to teach a learner to solve real-life problems and, having acquired experience in solving problems, without violation of the norms in society, to attain maximal
Emotional imitation method in Lithuania 201 essential well-being. The following EIM principles can be singled out as especially germane to this discussion: 1 Not the knowledge or social ideas themselves are of utmost importance in the structure of education but rather the individual’s ability to employ public experience in solving personally significant problems. This means that the basis of curriculum has to embrace not only teaching/learning to solve specific problems, but the process of solving such problems itself. It is unrealistic to learn all the ways of problem-solving in the process of teaching, but it is absolutely necessary to build up relevant skills, to practically apply general principles and methods of decision-making as well as to form a rationale for logical actions. Understanding of music, and imitation of various states, becomes a possibility for solving personal problems (lack of confidence, constraint, fluster, embarrassment). 2 Learners have to get accustomed not to adapting to prevailing circumstances but rather to searching for new possibilities which can be adjusted for creating personal well-being. This perspective entails a change in the process of teacher education, i.e. it becomes problem-based. Solfeggio and rhythmical training, understanding of music and other activities based on EIM, create conditions for addressing various problems that are relevant to learners of different developmental stages. 3 An important role in independent learning is ascribed not to memorising of teaching material or completion of mundane exercises but rather to solving of various life challenges, and to development of various creative projects. In such a way, school learners understand the importance of art in the life of an individual, while learning to communicate, to work intensively, and develop personal qualities that strengthen character. The underlying propositions of contemporary neo-Thomistic psychology derive from the philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinas (2000), which was renewed in the second half of the 19th century and validated by the encyclical from Pope Leo XII in 1879. Elevation of the creative activity and personality of an artist, strong positions of humanistic, individualistic and hedonistic tendencies, and a considerable attention to the internal world were reflected in the philosophical and esthetical considerations of Thomas Aquinas (Azenbacher, 1992). Neo-Thomism linked Aristotle’s logic (interpreted by Arabic commentators) and Christian faith as a prerequisite for knowledge advocated by St Augustine in the 4th century. The main problem addressed by the philosophy of neo-Thomism is the link between knowledge and faith. Two kinds of neo-Thomism are distinguished: confessional and non- confessional. The latter serves as basis for the pedagogical conception of perennialism. The following principles are presented: 1 Education will become full-fledged when learners acquire religious knowledge that improves their spiritual life next to knowledge characterising
202 Lolita Navickiene et al. the material world. The main principles of divine activity embrace faith, hope and love. This means that feelings and experiences occupy a highly important position in the creation of the individual’s spiritual world. 2 Development of virtues distinguished by Aristotle, such as wisdom, justice, courage, self-control and others, acquires high significance, because life grounded on those underlying values shows that an individual lives following wisdom as a means of achieving religious values. Thus, analysis of various religious festivals (Christmas, Easter, etc.) while discussing musical experiences creates favourable conditions for development of intellectual (and spiritual) cognition. 3 Happiness as the supreme value of human life is achieved only through approximation to God. Therefore, it is important to build up a sense of conscience while improving the mind and will. A path to happiness will open when a learner understands the origins of the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, is able to distinguish their expression in various situations of life and pursues it [love] only inspired by love, and devotion to God, without being forced to do so. Thus, emotional imitation of positive states such as joy, tenderness, tranquillity and sincerity helps towards better understanding life situations being imitated during a lesson, and contributes to the building up of moral ideals. The conception of “innate ideas” formulated by Plato (Platonas, 2014) became a cornerstone for the idealistic approach to education, which states that everything that belongs to the “sensual world” consists of substances subject to time flow. However, the substance itself is not independent, i.e. it cannot exist by itself, and rather reflects unchangeable ideas. The final essence of the world of ideas and consciousness, which is eternal, regular and ordered, is the universal mind, which is an integral part of its own and the primary cause of everything that exists. An individual is a part of this universal mind and his/her spiritual essence and soul are enduring and immortal preconditioning the whole life and activities of an individual. The contemporary idealistic conception of education suggests the following principles that contribute to optimisation of the process of education, and are accepted by EIM: • • • • •
The process of education is based on high intellectuality; Education is adoption of the main human cultural values; Education has to be holistic, systematic and multidimensional; The basis of education is self-realisation of the learner; The purpose of the educator’s mastery is to reveal the potential of the learner’s spiritual powers and to promote the spread of those powers in every possible way.
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Distinctive emphases of EIM Thus, on the basis of propositions of certain conceptions of educational philosophy, EIM was designed. Currently it is grounded on the following principles: 1 The absolute majority of people have an inborn need for music and musical expression; therefore in the process of education it is important to preserve it (principles of humanist education). 2 The need for music and musical expression can be preserved, when curriculum complies with the learner’s goals and interests and is perceived as useful by the learner himself or herself (principles of humanist education). 3 Emotional imitation of emotional intonations of a musical composition or experiences of an imaginary character during solfeggio, rhythmical and other musical activities make up a possible prerequisite for meaningful learning (principles of humanist education). 4 Analysis of such existential questions as existence, purport of life, goal, etc. comprises an important thematic part of assignments (listening i ntents) organising listening of music (principles of existential education). 5 Teaching of the study subject of music is grounded not only on assimilation of generalised experience accumulated by humankind but also on problem-based learning (principles of pragmatic education). 6 The study subject of music is a possibility of music culture education, which is implemented not only during a lesson but also during various extracurricular events and projects (principles of pragmatic education). 7 In the process of music education, it is important to direct the intellect of learners towards spiritual cognition seeking development of human virtues, such as wisdom, justice, courage, etc. (principles of neo-Thomist education). 8 Music education can facilitate the individual’s understanding of himself or herself as a value (principles of idealistic approach to education). 9 Understanding of music and music performance helps to perceive the content of the individual’s internal spiritual world and, having perceived it, creates conditions for its improvement (principles of idealistic approach to education). The following principles of the method of emotional imitation are relevant to teaching practice: •
Emotional imitation is a way of promoting musicality, development of musical abilities and learners’ self-education, which facilitates development of their ability to create a desired state to go through, and to display it in a suggestible way. This means that the method embraces the whole musical expression and is oriented towards development of both musical experience and need for music. It is also a way to pursue a more ambitious
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•
•
•
•
•
•
goal, that is ability to live employing feelings and thoughts generated by an individual himself or herself. The unity of emotional and rational foundations is characteristic of music perception and music playing. This statement claims that cognitive, training and emotional goals set in the process of education are equally important. The content of a music composition or an exercise for development of rhythmic, solfeggio, singing and playing skills consists of a combination of three components: musical representation, esthetical moral background and artistic representation. Following the principle, not only a music composition but also a music exercise can be analysed from three perspectives: (1) analysing the structure of a composition of an exercise; (2) discussing peculiarities of the artistic epoch, when the composition or the exercise was created; (3) clarifying experiences or possibilities of their displaying (for example, how to sing a song in a more suggestible way). Emotionally logical perception of music and a way of “communication” with it can provide a moral orientation to the pedagogical process. Following intents of educational activity, it is possible to discuss problems relevant to school learners of various developmental stages and to determine criteria for moral evaluation. Emotional imitation, performed during musical activities, is most frequently of individual content and form. This means that a teacher does not have to target at knowledge of absolute truth. Sincere musical expression of a learner can be sensitively corrected rather than negated. To achieve the desired goal, a teacher has to establish favourable conditions for the learner’s self-expression, i.e. sincere atmosphere of trust. The method of emotional imitation is an accessible, understandable and democratic promotion of school learners’ musicality, musical abilities and self-education, which does not require exceptional abilities or preparation. Being a listener or a performer of a music composition (exercise), a learner has to be intentionally active and “to communicate” with a composition as a subject with a subject, i.e. to seek to decode the meaning, content of experiences and their development in a music composition or an exercise and to be able to verbally convey own experiences. This means that exhibition of verbalisations can be organised using methods of group work and additional means of expression.
EIM as a game to be played by children and teachers The concept of emotional imitation is based on the process of musical activities: (1) presentation of introductory information; (2) presentation of an intent of educational activity (IEA); (3) listening to music; (4) moral discussion.
Emotional imitation method in Lithuania 205 The first part (presentation of introductory information): Theoretical or historical knowledge (the composer’s personality, his/her country, artistic epoch, the most prominent artistic values of that period as well as calendar, public or class realities, folk customs, an interesting event can be discussed, knowledge of music theory can be presented, etc.) of a music lesson and song lyrics can be presented in this part. It aims at implementation of cognitive educational goals.2 The second part (presentation of the intent of educational activity): The intent is a complex of informative and laconic questions, which can embrace all the life spheres and analyse relevant problems. That is, learners are encouraged to have a different approach to the music they listen to, where every melodic motion, shift, dynamic turn, pause or entry of instruments become important. This is a certain intrigue, when the whole class is involved and the activities of all the school learners in the classroom are directed towards finding solution to a certain question. The third part can be of two kinds: •
•
It can relate to perception of a music composition. A participant of a “game” has to find the answer to presented questions (this is a part for implementation of cognitive, psychomotor training and emotional educational goals). Every sound or phrase is as if actualised with the help of questions. Therefore, understanding of expressive means of music becomes not the final but only an intermediary goal, which leads to specification of the learner’s personal experiences and to analysis of common human values. It can relate to performing a music composition, when activities that usually aim to implement rational goals are enriched with emotional and moral goals.
The fourth part (a moral discussion): This is an exceptional feature of this method, which provides a teacher with an important and relevant possibility of educating school learner insensibly because doing this directly is frequently understood as moralising by learners, which has a negative effect on them and can lead to discipline problems. Emotional and moral educational goals are implemented during this stage. The imaginary character is almost always present in EIM, therefore completing assignments they express not only their personal experiences but also provide evaluation of the character’s actions and discuss issues relevant to school learners of different developmental periods, e.g. “Were the boy’s actions appropriate?”, “What would you do in his place?”, “What should a true friend be like?”, “What child can have true friends? What character traits are typical of such a child?”, etc. Thus, during the moral discussion a teacher can analyse the underlying values, to touch upon issues that are relevant to a particular class and educate school learners as if insensibly. As has been mentioned above, the range of intents of educational activity is broad. On the basis of the applied means, 25 types—integrations of intents of educational activities—are presented, i.e. application of EIM for various musical activities (Figure 12.1).
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Figure 12.1 Intents of musical activity in EIM.
Following the principles of emotional imitation, examples of various musical activities, which were successfully applied during lessons of different levels of education, are presented below. The discussions, which encourage school learners to provide well-reasoned opinion and decisions and are initiated by a teacher, become very significant in this activity.
Applications of EIM to school music lessons In this section, through use of examples appropriate for students at various levels of education, we present and reflect upon six actual lesson plans based on the EIM. Lesson 1 – music listening: Mozart Fantasia This lesson plan is for grade 7 students, and is based on listening to Mozart’s Fantasia. W. A. MOZART. FANTASIA D-MOLL, A FRAGMENT. Introductory information: Marie Anne Mozart, tenderly nicknamed “Nannerli”, was five years elder than her genius brother Wolfgang. However,
Emotional imitation method in Lithuania 207 Wolfgang was not the only exceptionally talented child in that famous family. According to biographers and researchers, Nannerli was not only a very talented and musical girl, but in her childhood, she was even more advanced in terms of artistry than her brother. Just like her brother, she received the first knowledge from her farther, Leopold Mozart, who was a teacher, polymath, the author of a textbook for the violin playing but a very strict, demanding and not very sentimental man. Intent of educational activity: Let’s assume the sounds of this composition reflect the relations between the sister of W. A. Mozart and Leopold’s attitude to Nannerli. What future did the father create for his daughter? Will the sounds of the composition: 1 reveal the father’s mounting concern about his daughter and affection to her, efforts and ambitions to see his Nannerli among the most prominent European musicians? 2 reveal the fathers satisfaction with her daughter’s musical abilities without giving any significant meaning to this? 3 evoke alternative associations? Discussion: (1) What is your attitude to such a position of Nannerli’s father towards his daughter? Why did it happen? Is it the fault of the epoch or the family? (2) Do parents who have more experience and better understand changes occurring in society have “to choose” the speciality to their children? Does young person have the right to make life choices following own mind and powers and even making mistakes? (3) What character traits are characteristic of a person, who is able to achieve own life goals? Outcomes Based on our experiences with teaching this lesson in Lithuanian schools, this lesson facilitates some notable learning outcomes. Along with the introduction of a famous work by W. A. Mozart and its musical language, this example presents an opportunity to aim for otherwise difficult to attain outcomes in moral education: to discuss the goals in one’s life, the importance of believing in one’s self, the relations between children and their parents. Lesson 2 – solfeggio: intervals lesson This lesson plan is for grades 5–10. The teaching of musical intervals is a complicated topic, which causes problems to the teacher (how to explain information in as clear a way as possible) and to the learner (how to assimilate the learning material). Employing additional aids, e.g. popular Lego bricks, and ascribing certain colour combinations to respective interval characteristics, complicated information is presented in an understandable way.
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Figure 12.2 A construction (building) for explaining intervals in music.
Necessary materials: Multicoloured Lego bricks are needed. Introductory information: Large and small, luxurious and modest buildings are built of bricks. Music of songs, symphonies, hymns and operas consists of certain parts, i.e. certain distances between sounds, which are called intervals. Today we will try to erect a building of intervals and to clarify what residents live in it (Figure 12.2). You will agree that every house has its foundation. In the building of intervals we are going to build the foundation in the first floor. It is single, undivided and solid. But it is sad being alone; therefore, it is of navy blue – a nostalgic colour. This first perfect interval is called perfect prime (unison) (the first in Italian). The residents of the second floor, second (a small red brick is added), are very vibrant, impertinent and eager to tease. That is why they do not get along with the first floor very well (m2 interval is played). Moreover, the s econd floor, i.e. second, consists of two parts and can be small (a blue brick connected to a half of a red brick is shown) and this is called minor second (m. 2) and large (one more red brick is connected) – major second (M. 2). Both m. 2 (it is being played) and M. 2 (it is being played) disaccord with perfect prime. Moreover, moods of the residents of the both floors do not coincide either. However, the residents of the third floor, third, who can also be small (minor third – m. 3) and large (major third – M. 3) are very good friends with the residents of the first one, i.e. prime. The floor of third is of white colour and the combination of blue and white is very popular in life and in music. In folk singing, songs were “accompanied”, i.e. when the second voice follows the first at the interval of third (m. 3 or M. 3). The fourth floor, fourth, just like prime, is an undivided, perfect interval and is of yellow colour. They received this colour not by accident.
Emotional imitation method in Lithuania 209 The residents of fourth are very proud-hearted. If a combination of blue and yellow is the union of colours mostly liked by English aristocrats (the Queen of the country likes wearing a blue suit with golden buttons), fourth is the first interval of the majority of national anthems (it is being played). The fifth floor of the house, fifth (P. 5), is undivided and also called perfect. It is moony and likes space; that is why, it is of blue colour. Blue sea and blue sky: these are symbols of P. 5 and it is by no chance that this interval is commonly issued in songs about them (for example, in the Latvian folk song “Vėjeli, pūsk” (Blow the wind)). The sixth floor sixth, just like the third one, can be small and large (m. 6 and M. 6). Moreover, it is white like third. And they are close friends and most popular among all the intervals. The same cannot be said about the red seventh floor, seventh, which can also be small and large (m. 7 and M. 7). The residents of the seventh remind of those from the second one, i.e. second. The eighth floor of the interval house, octave, just like the first one prime, is undivided, lonely and far away from its brother prime, and, therefore, it is also in navy blue. The building of intervals is not usual because it can do what no house on earth can – to stand upside down. The residents of the house are not afraid of and are used to doing this quite often. Then octave turns into prime, seventh – into second, sixth – into third (thus, inversion of intervals can be explained). Solfeggio etude: “After acquaintance with inhabitants of the interval house, let’s try to convey the dreaminess of the fifth” (for example, the Lithuanian folk song “Oi liepu, liepu” (Oh, Linden, Linden)). School learners from lower classes can bring several bricks of this popular constructor and build the intervals they want. Using EIM, the meaning and purpose of solfeggio activities tend to change. Acquisition of knowledge of music theory or precise repetition of an unknown melody becomes important not only from the point of view of intonation but also in terms of conveying a certain state. Therefore, expanding a traditional understanding of reading music, such an activity should be called a solfeggio etude. Similar to music listening, when EIM is applied, solfeggio can also be organised in several ways disclosing possibilities of integration with other arts or musical activities (group work methods, etc.). Discussion: How do you understand true friendship? What character traits are typical of a person, who is able to nurture friendship? How do we evaluate our ability to be friends? Why? Outcomes This lesson emphasizes the possibility to combine a tale as a means to explain the theory of musical intervals as well as a vector of emotional educational aims. This way, the ordinary solfeggio of basic intervals might
210 Lolita Navickiene et al. be transformed into the imitation of its characteristics, improving students’ expressive and artistic skills. Lesson 3 – integration of solfeggio with literature I: group work with “One Winter Day” Introductory information: This lesson plan is for grades 3–6. Learners are presented with six solfeggio exercises, they are briefly overviewed and the states prevailing in them are discussed: (1) mystery; (2) doubt, dreaminess; (3) parading glittering; (4) merry hurrying; (5) tranquilities; (6) satisfaction, kindness. Every learner in the classroom gets a scenario of “One Winter Day”. The class is divided into three groups: Group I gets “The Morning”, Group II – “The Day” and Group III – “The Evening”. “One Winter Day” Group I: “The Morning” “Atėjo tikra žiema. Išaušo vienas sausio rytas. Tirštas rūkas. Eglių viršūnės kaip paslaptingų karių šalmai švysčioja tolumoje…” (The real winter has come. It is one morning in January. It is densely fogy. The tops of firs, like helmets of secret warriors, are gleaming in the distance…)
“Viskas susimąstė, nes šerkšno išpuošta gamta pradėjo abejoti: gal taip pridengtas nuogumas ir yra tikrasis grožis?” (Everything around is plunged into reverie, because the nature decorated in dew has started to doubt: can’t the nakedness covered in such a manner be the real beauty?)
Group II: “The Day” “Viskas aplinkui, kas tik gali, kas turi bent vieną sniego kruopelę – spindėkite!” (May everything what only can or has at least a grain of snow glitter!)
“Saulė išsijuosusi skuba dirbti: nors akimirką reikia spėti pažvelgti į kiekvieną sniego gėlę ir įžiebti joje savo atvaizdą tam, kad žmonės eidami pro šalį prisimerktų ir šypsotųsi, tardami – ‘Oi! Kaip balta!’ (The sun is in a hurry with its work: it has to look into every flower of snow and set its image there for people going by would have to squint and smile saying – ‘Oh, so white!’)
Emotional imitation method in Lithuania 211 Group III: “The Evening” “Dūmų kasos, užverstos aukštyn ir kyšančios iš kaminų, ramiai rangosi link dangaus” (this part of solfeggio can be performed in canon). (The plaits of smoke sticking out from the chimneys are wreathing leisurely towards the sky.)
“O jis, dangus, savo žydryne visą dieną prieš žemę spindėjęs, vakare iš pasitenkinimo net nuraudo”: (And the sky, the azure of which glittered all the day against the earth, in the evening even flushed with satisfaction:)
“Norėtų tas raudonis saulę atstoti, bet viskas per niek – kad ir pačios gražiausios ar pačios niūriausios dienos negalima nei pratęsti, nei sustabdyti….” (regrettably). (The flush would like to serve as the sun but efforts are in vain – even the most beautiful or gloomiest day can nether be prolonged nor stopped….) Solfeggio etude: Every group has to learn the solfeggio exercises, the notation of which was discussed earlier. Seeking to create the atmosphere of the morning, day or evening, learners divide the text into separate phrases and have to read them in a suggestive manner (better by heart). While working on the assignment, concentration, development of unrestricted self-sensation and suggestibility, allocating considerable attention to facial expression and body language, become of utmost importance. The teacher can connect the parts performed by school learners with several improvised sentences. Discussion: After “One Winter Day” is finished, it is important to discuss interpretation impressions experienced by learners, to clarify the most difficult aspects. Why was it difficult? What evoked the greatest excitement? What were its reasons? It is necessary to find out their opinion, which group was most suggestable creating the atmosphere of a certain part of the day? Why? Why is nature important in the life of an individual? What can be learned from nature? Outcomes This solfeggio lesson stimulates development of children’s artistic and improvisational skills. Performing and convincingly imitating the emotions displayed by the teacher (e.g. stillness, happiness, satisfaction, amazement) helps them to attain the important emotional educational aims. Lesson 4 – integration of rhythm with literature II: Syncopation and Triplets Introductory information: This lesson plan is for grades 4–7.
212 Lolita Navickiene et al. Once upon a time, there lived two friends Syncopation and Triplet. Syncopation was very restless, sometimes even hot-tempered, and liked to interfere everywhere: into a group of playing children or conversation of adults, to be in a hurry or late. But it was never boring to be together with her. On the opposite, Triple was tender and reminded of small waves riding calm. She would run counting up to three in her thoughts. Playing Hopscotch, she would hop three times on two squares or three times on four squares.
One day the two friends started on a journey. Triple liked classical music and the blues, whereas Syncopation enjoyed jazz and modern music. Triple visited Poland, Hungary, Austria, Spain and America, where the majority of her relatives lived. She liked the Spanish bolero in particular. Intent of educational activity: Let’s clap the rhythm of bolero expressing exhilaration, joy and energy. What does a face of joyful and exhilarated person look like? His/her eyes? Posture?
Syncopation also visited Europe and then went to America, the birthplace of jazz. Her heart was pleased listening to excellent ragtimes, where lots of her relatives could have been met. Music listening: J. Brahms “Hungarian Dance” No. 5. Syncopation and Triple travelled all over the world until they finally met in…Vilnius. During the meetings with children, they shared their overwhelming impressions and revealed one wise thought… Intent of educational activity: Listen to the music composition and following its intonations and means of music expression tell what Triple and Syncopation understood travelling all over the world? Music listening: Lithuanian polyphonic folk song “Sode bitela” (The Bee in the Orchard) was performed by “Jazz Island”, www.youtube.com/ watch?v=HTqgjCm4mQk Moral discussion: 1 How do you understand the saying: “There’s no place like home”? 2 How would you explain to your friend, who lives in a foreign country, what makes Lithuanian music culture so important and significant? 3 Do you know what Lithuania can be justly proud of? Intent of educational activity: Clap the rhythmical exercises expressing a feeling of pride in your motherland.
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Outcomes Based on our experiences with teaching this lesson in Lithuanian schools, this exercise accentuates not only the differences between a triplet and a syncope but also the opportunity to discuss some relevant topics, e.g. the importance of the homeland, its uniqueness, its cultural history. Lesson 5 – integration of rhythm with literature III: semiquavers and “A Summer Morning in the Forest” The following lesson plan based on the EIM is designed for primary school students, and enables them to understand the work of a notable Lithuanian composer. The lesson is designed for primary school students. Necessary materials: Nails with thread, pencils and small rocks are needed. The learners in the classroom are divided into six groups. Introductory information: Using various sound-producing body movements and objects, we’ll try to create a summer morning. Look down and concentrate. Remember the old pine, refreshing and wet grass… Wild strawberries are in blossom and nightingales sing in the evening… The scent of lilies of the valley is still in the air… Pluck one, touch wet grass with your hand (exercise for remembering a physical action). Your hand got wet, shake it easily and let the drops fall down… Listen to the sounds: birds are singing and a branch has just cracked somewhere. Organisation of rhythmic etude: We all will try to create this summer morning in the forest. Each group will get rhythmic exercises for different sounds and a text, which will have to be expressively and clearly conveyed by the group members. It is necessary to avoid long pauses between the parts of the text, i.e. to create “The Summer Morning in the Forest” consistently. “The Summer Morning in the Forest” Group I: “The rain in the forest” (tap the desk with your fingers gently and silently; the members of the group enter the activity one after the other).
Group I: “Warm summer rain was pearling. It was early morning” (tapping of the rhythmic patterns is continued). Group II: “After the first beams of the sun appear (learners are slowly lifting their heads; they are squinting and smile tenderly), the rain stops and only separate drops slowly fall down from the tree branches to the ground” (tapping desk with fingers).
214 Lolita Navickiene et al. Group III: “Suddenly hollow energetic hammering re-echoed in the forest” (tapping with small rocks).
Group III: “This is the woodpecker who is diligently fighting for the morning bite…” (the rhythmic pattern is tapped further). Group IV: “Suddenly a graceful hound minces from the deep thicket” (tapping with pencils).
Group IV: “The hound looked around and looked up with interest, wishing to see that naughty smith” (imitating a change in the state, the same exercise is tapped). Group V: “It did not last long. A branch cracked (a clap with palms) and the frightened hound started to run…” (tapping with pencils).
Group VI: “Running through the wet grass, the spangled-legged shook down merry rain drops down from the bent grass” (pattern performed with the nails and the threads).
Group VI: “Falling down the rain drops reached the ground, were absorbed, lifting timid and sleepy shoot up. Closer to the sun”.
Moral discussion: After completion of the assignment, it is appropriate to discuss the results of all the workgroups, to analyse imitation of the exhibited states (e.g. how successful were learners in conveying interest, energy and precaution with the help of facial expression, body movements and music playing). 1 Are we able to rejoice over our achievement and those of others? 2 Are you able to notice the surrounding beauty while being in the nature? 3 Are we able to maintain and protect what brings joy to us?
Emotional imitation method in Lithuania 215 Outcomes This example puts an effort to accompany the usage of various instruments to create pastoral sounds by an attempt to express students’ positive emotions and to reflect on the importance and preservation of the nature. Lesson 6 – integration of music listening and coloristic expression The following lesson plan based on the EIM is designed for primary school students, and enables them to understand the work of a notable Lithuanian composer. M. K. ČIURLIONIS. NOCTURNE CIS -MOLL VL 183. Process of organisation. Each learner gets about 50–60 multicoloured squares. Introductory information: We have already discussed the creative works of M. K. Čiurlionis, his musical and high-sounding paintings and colourful and pictorial music. We will try to “paint” sounds using not the usual brushes and paint. You see colourful squares on your desks. Look at them and see the range of colours you have received. Intent of educational activity: Let’s assume that you have been deprived of speaking abilities for a while. Therefore you will have to express all your senses evoked by the work of M. K. Čiurlionis through arrangements of the colourful squares you have. Project test: When the musical piece ends, school learners have to reflect on possible variants of arrangements. While listening to music for the second time, they arrange squares on their desk, i.e. they complete an assignment of coloristic expression. On the basis of the conducted research (Navickienė, 2000), the works of school learners can reveal their character traits, performance results and artistic abilities. The interpretation of the symbols of arrangements presented below does not necessarily have to be known to learners and the diagnostic results can remain “the teacher’s secret”. The features peculiarities of coloristic compositions can be divided into 11 groups though combinations of elements from different groups are also observed. The first composition is “minimalistic”, when a few squares are put on the corner of the desk. The second composition is “chaotic”, when various spires, stripes, zigzags and labyrinths are chaotically scattered on the desk (their elements can be linked or put further away from each other within several centimetres). The third composition is “a non-assembled square”, when coloured elements are arranged as a square but are further away from each other within 0.5 or 1 cm.
216 Lolita Navickiene et al. The fourth composition is “hollow figures”, when squares connected with each make up a hollow geometric figure. The fifth composition is “a connected square” (“logical”), when a form of square (or rectangular) is formed. The sixth composition is “eccentric” (“spiny”), a composition, which reminds of a fir tree, a triangle or a pyramid, convergent at the top or at the bottom. The seventh composition is “horizontal”, a combination that reminds of one or two lines. The eighth combination is “vertical”, an ascending line consisting of 5–10 squares. A building that reminds of a tower (width of two to three squares). It has been noticed that the higher (the steeper) the figure, the more courageous, proactive and eager to lead the situation the learner is. The ninth composition is “circular”, a composition that reminds of a circle. The elements can be arranged consistently or be placed on each other. The tenth combination is “associative symbolic”, a composition, which remind of real objects, phenomena, parts of body, symbols from our environment (e.g. a bird, a sun, heart, flowers, tree, house, face, eyes). The eleventh combination is “radiant”, when a geometric formation or an associative image is decorated with “beams”. The grouping of the results of coloristic expression was carried out analysing the works of learners from the experiment group. Moreover, individual conversations with learners, head teachers and teachers of other subjects can help to objectively learn individual features of learners, which are significant for successful teaching/learning. The school learners of the first group (“minimalists”) are characterised as inner-centred, are introverts, have insufficient communication skills, receive criticism, have various complexes and have discipline problems, which are followed by low academic achievements. The school learners of the second group (“chaotic”) lack focus and concentration. Their performance indicators are modest or even low. The learners face difficulties to sit calm in the classroom, to express own opinion or to give oral answers. The school learners of the third group (“a non-assembled square”) are distinguished by their unstable behaviour, frequent problems of concentration and focus, disrupted flow of logical thought, desire to be in the centre of attention, loudly expression of opinion, average academic performance, etc. The school learners of the fourth group (“hollow figures”) are self- centred and tend to hide their experiences and personal life. They frequently feel isolated from the life of the class community and are unwilling to engage in extracurricular activities or organised events. They try as if to stay out of the way. General indicators of performance are average or good.
Emotional imitation method in Lithuania 217 The school learners of the fifth group (“connected square”) are active, good and very good learners. They are disciplined, rational, logically thinking, frequently introverts, who perceive life as a solid system, which is determined by strict life norms and principles of themselves and surrounding people. The school learners of the sixth group (“eccentric”) are distinguished by the categorical nature of their opinion, frequent negations, nihilistic trends and conflicts with environments; such learners are frequently in a disgruntled mood, critically biased to their community members, parents and teachers, they like to dispute and argue, though their general performance indicators are average or even good. The school learners of the seventh group (“equal”) are characterised as gentle, non-conflicting, optimistic, good-willing young people. In the dispute or conflict, such learners frequently yield a point, search for compromise and make every effort not to conflict with other members of community. Under favourable conditions, they eagerly involve in creative activities. Performance indicators are good or very good. The school learners of the eighth group (“leader”) are unofficial “leaders” in the class, the opinion of whom is very important to other learners. They are self-confident, have distinctive abilities in a certain activity (sports, music, etc.) or demonstrate good performance. Attention of the whole class members to such classmates is a daily and ordinary phenomenon. The school learners of the ninth group (“circular”) demonstrate unique and original thinking; they are distinguished by their cognitive curiosity and impressive amount of accumulated information (as if “walking encyclopaedias”). They are eager to understand and clarify everything and possess so far “latent” and unrealised artistic abilities. Their performance indicators are good or very good. The school learners of the tenth group (“associative symbolic”) make up the creative potential of the class community. Such learners are frequently extraverts and of sanguine or choleric temperament. They are emotional and feel a need for various forms of artistic expression (they like singing, drawing, dancing, writing poetry, etc.), have fertile imagination, are communicative, are self-confident, are good and are very good learners. The school learners of the eleventh group (“radiant”) are self-confident, spiritually idealistic, benevolent, and liked by their peers, and frequently have exceptional musical abilities. They are distinguished by original thinking, attractive appearance. They are kind to their classmates and teachers. The indicators of performance are often the highest in the class. Moral discussion: During the discussion, it is important to hear comments on activities completed by school learners and clarifications of one or another decision and to analyse the meaning, importance and symbols of colours in the individual’s life.
218 Lolita Navickiene et al. 1 Why it is important for an individual to get better self-awareness of own personality? 2 What can help for an individual to improve own abilities and aptitudes? Why it is important to improve constantly? 3 Can colours help one learn more about a person? EIM can be applied not only during lessons but also in extracurricular activities, working with choirs and other vocal and instrumental collectives, organising clubs of music fans, during meetings of class community or organising larger events at school, i.e. developing not only learners’ musical abilities but also their emotionality – the main component of school learners’ musicality. Outcomes This exercise, along introducing a well-known piano piece by M. K. Čiurlionis, aims to promote children’s creativity and openly talk about their experiences; this way the teacher has a valuable opportunity to get to know the students better, and thereby to reveal their stronger and weaker sides.
Discussion As scholars, we must acknowledge that no educational methods are completely unique, nor absolutely effective for everything, so here we offer some reflections on EIM’s strengths, its relative uniqueness, as well as possible shortcomings or areas for further development. EIM is especially effective for teaching the following musical skills and understandings: music listening, solfeggio and rhythmic exercises as understanding music theory transitions from an ultimate educational aim to a means of developing students’ creativity, expressiveness, artistic skills and at the same time addressing various relevant topics. We see the following evidence supporting its effectiveness: EIM makes learning music theory more relevant – as the knowledge itself (e.g. particular composer, his or her music; intervals, rhythm, melody, dynamics) is seen not as an ultimate educational aim but rather as a way to achieve broader educational aims (e.g. the ability to express one’s feelings, opinions). EIM is a particularly versatile method that can be applied to diverse situations of music education (e.g. listening to non-Western traditional music, analysing contemporary music that often proves to be complicated, singing various vocal exercises, playing in an ensemble) as almost every musical activity can be regarded through a prism of an imaginary character and addressed through emotional content. However, our experience while using and teaching EIM has revealed several challenging aspects of using this method. First, EIM relies heavily on the creative and artistic skills of the teacher as well as his or her background in other art fields (fine arts, literature, etc.). Indeed, creative intent of such
Emotional imitation method in Lithuania 219 educational activity often relies on an integration of music and other art subjects. Second, the strength of EIM lies in its ability to prompt relevant discussions on a great variety of moral topics, and thus the teacher has to perfectly master the psychosocial specificities of students’ age groups, and should be able to create a comfortable environment that permits an honest dialogue. At the same time, the EIM teacher must precisely manage the time dedicated to these discussions, balancing the attention drawn to the learning, musical activities and moral discussions. This once again emphasizes the individual teacher’s artistic, expressive and improvisation skills, and calls for strong and charismatic personal traits. We recommend that music educators consider using EIM, as it harmonises the entire educational process, helps to fulfil emotional and moral educational aims, promotes students’ creativity and prompts discussion of relevant topics, while at the same time it permits the ongoing focus on the principal subject, music. However, we also suggest that EIM can be developed further and applied not only for music but also for literature, history, fine art, dance and possibly other subject areas.
Conclusion Participation in Nordplus-NNME activities contributes to our educational goal to keep pace with rapid changes occurring in scientific progress and society’s life, encouraging the search for untried niches in education, innovative strategies as well as alternative forms and methods of music education. In the context of music education in Lithuania, which encountered influences from many different epochs and regimes and was formed by varied historical circumstances, predetermined by factors from different epochal contexts, today can be defined by diverse characteristics in the multifaceted area of European music education. To Lithuanians, it is important that our pedagogy has retained original and long-established traditions as well as uniqueness based on ethical values. We find that EIM can become a significant means for development of school learners’ creative abilities and personal qualities (initiative, self- confidence, critical thinking and rhetorical skills, emphatic abilities, etc.). The method, which is applicable to most developmental stages in various musical activities, creates prerequisites for a new presentation of the traditional curriculum of music education, while supporting development of musicality, cultural values and an array of other transferable abilities valued by educators.
Notes 1 Similar to other kinds of art, music consists of two foundations: sensual and rational ones (Navickienė, 2000). 2 Piličiauskas (1998) emphasises the complexity of music content as a prerequisite for artistic knowledge of a musical composition and suggests a three-component
220 Lolita Navickiene et al. formula of the meaningful essence of a musical composition (MEMC), which consists of musical representation (MR) – understanding of the structure, forms, elements, creative style of a composer, instrumentation, orchestration, etc.; esthetical moral background (EMB) – acquisition of peculiarities of stylistic historical epoch, when the musical work was created, national features, peculiarities of creation of other composers and achievements in fine arts, architecture, fiction, etc.; and artistic representation (AR) – the content of personal experiences of the perceiver, evoked by sounds of the musical composition listened to (MEMC = MR + EMB + AR). Therefore, immediately perceived sounds are applied for understanding the cultural and esthetic/moral background and techniques of musical representation.
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13 Integrated learning of music and science Reception of Björk’s Biophilia Project in the Nordic countries Bård Vågsholm Husby and David G. Hebert Introduction Across recent generations, music and science have at all levels of schooling tended to be viewed as fields that share relatively little in common. This has not always been the case, however, and there may arguably be strong reasons supporting some integration of music with science in educational programs. Indeed, relationships between music and science were emphasized by such ancient Greek thinkers as Pythagoras and Ptolemy, and influential Medieval Arabic theorists such as Al-Farabi. The most renowned scientist of the 20th century, Albert Einstein, derived great creative inspiration from playing the violin, and in the 21st century, several prolific researchers continue this tradition of integrating music studies with science, as seen, for instance, in the work of David Huron, Ian Cross, Sandra Trehub, Richard Parncutt, Donald Hodges, Isabelle Peretz and Daniel Levitin. While curricular integration may be accurately understood as posing existential risks for music as a school subject, particularly when combined with other marginalized arts fields, some forms of interdisciplinarity appear to contrarily offer the potential to expand music studies beyond specialized narrow confines to enrich general education. Curricular integration is a theme that also connects with the major three-year projects of the Nordic Network for Music Education (NNME), including on universality and sustainability, since interdisciplinary views enable educators to recognize the ubiquity and broader significance of music (universality), while also potentially inspiring broadened support to ensure the sustainability of music in schools and communities. Today we live in an age of broadband internet technology, in which music is increasingly integrated with other arts via technology, both inside and outside schools (Hebert, 2016). Music consumption has changed to such an extent that the free online video streaming service YouTube has become the main source of music for young people (Michaels, 2012). Music streaming services are the main medium for casual listening (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry [IFPI], 2015), and the smartphone has become the hub of choice for real-time online access to millions of tracks from all
Integrated learning of music and science 223 the major record labels as well as independent productions. Recording one’s own music is easier and cheaper than ever before, and it is entirely possible to make high-quality soundings and release-ready records on an iPhone.1 Such developments clearly suggest the need to consider unprecedented reforms to the field of music education. As early as 2005, Peter Gouzouasis drew attention to “the dilemma that music, and music education, faces in a society where software packages such as GarageBand may enable any person to seemingly compose music without traditional forms of music knowledge and music literacy” (2005, p. 5). With the increasing popularity of tablet computers in recent years, mobile touch-interface devices have led to the creation of various software representing new takes on familiar instruments as well as some quite original inventions costing a fraction of the price of hardware instruments with similar features and capacities. With this came a new breed of innovative music software called “apps”, designed to harvest the potential of this new technology. One such software is the Björk: Biophilia app (Second Wind Apps & RelativeWare, 2011) for iPad.2 In this app, each song of the album was represented by separate mini-apps, each having its unique design and musical possibilities. Based on this pioneering artistic product, an innovative educational program was developed and implemented in schools in Northern Europe, known as the Biophilia Project.
Purpose The purpose of this research was to investigate an innovative approach to integrated learning of music and science through technology, the Biophilia Educational Project. The project, active since 2014, is built upon the 2011 Biophilia “app”, and is a large-scale collaboration that advocates “creativity as a teaching research tool, where music, technology, and the natural sciences are linked together in an innovative way” (Biophilia Educational Project, 2015). The project has been implemented in schools and arts institutions in the Nordic countries to offer schoolchildren learning experiences based around themes from music and natural sciences, which are taught simultaneously. The Biophilia Educational Project is interesting for a number of reasons. One rationale for the significance of this study is the prominence of Björk, the remarkable musician who developed Biophilia. In musicology journals, Björk has been described as “one of the most imaginative and unusual popular musicians of her time” (Golden-Perschbacher, 2014, p. 48), which echoes claims in a music education journal that “after 50 more years have passed contemporary rock musicians like Björk and Thom Yorke, will be regarded by historians as some of the most significant artists of their generation” (Hebert, 2011a, p. 16). Prior to Biophilia, Björk’s artistic significance had already led to her inclusion in some curricular materials
224 Bård Vågsholm Husby and David G. Hebert for use in schools and higher education (Hebert, 2011b; R osenberg, 2011). Biophilia was not the first time digital tools were incorporated extensively into an educational program, nor the only time an artist has made efforts to offer their music in an unconventional format on a digital platform (popular examples of which include Lady Gaga’s ARTPOP, the D avid Gilmour in Concert app, the XX app and, to a certain degree, Jay-Z’s Magna Carta app). Nevertheless, it is arguably quite rare to see such a project achieve the kind of high profile that Biophilia has attained as a government-sponsored program. Even so, the project has seen little to no previous interest from music education researchers. Neither has the project seen much challenging of its claims to teach students skills necessary to “develop their musical imagination, to push their creative boundaries and make music in an impulsive and responsive way, inspired by the structures and phenomena of the natural world” (Biophilia Educational Project, 2015). The only apparent exception was one rather critical Icelandic language article in a journal that is not refereed (Guðmundsdóttir, 2014), as well as some articles discussing the app in isolation from the educational project (Blickhan, 2016; Engberg, 2013). A forthcoming book is reportedly under development by musicologist Nicola Dibben, but she writes from her position as the one musicologist that directly participated in the design of Biophilia Project texts. The present study examined the following guiding questions: (1) what is the concept of Biophilia and the Biophilia Educational Project; how did it evolve, and how is it implemented in compulsory music education in the Nordic countries? (2) What perceptions can be identified from the experiences of Icelandic teachers and other informants close to the Biophilia Educational Project, as well as Norwegian music teachers observed in a trial with the Biophilia app?
Background Biophilia is best understood as one unified concept shared across two closely related phenomena: (1) the 2011 Björk album of the same name and (2) the derivative educational project based on use of this “appalbum”. The Biophilia album by Icelandic artist Björk Guðmundsdóttir was released in the Autumn of 2011, and was the first of its kind in the sense that its main medium of release was an iPad app. Although several artists have released software-based albums, the Biophilia app was different in that it went beyond the jukebox-style app interface of its predecessors and rather provided mini-games for each song by which the user manipulates the listening experience via tactile interaction with the touch screen. These mini-games are officially referred to as songapps.3 Accordingly, the iPad album (which later also saw an Android release, as will be explained later) will be referred to as the appalbum or the appsuite and the subordinated
Integrated learning of music and science 225 apps as the songapps. The album may be also be understood as a concept album dealing with themes of nature and human emotion as well as the superordinate theme of humankind’s love for nature and the bond between humans and other living systems, sometimes referred to as the biophilia hypothesis (Wilson, 1984). The idea of an educational platform around Biophilia was reportedly conceived as Björk first developed the concept, and began its baby steps during the Biophilia tour from 2011 through 2013. The educational platform started out as workshops in relation to the concerts, and was mainly executed by the musicians and crew, later in collaboration with local arts centers. Their aim was to make educational workshops for children whereby they would learn about music, natural sciences and technology using Björk’s concept, and to a large degree, the iPad app. In 2012, a pilot project was launched in Reykjavík, where teaching ideas using, or inspired by, the Biophilia app album were tested in local primary schools. This pilot project, called Biophilia Educational Program, expanded into what is currently known as the Biophilia Educational Project, which has been brought to all Nordic countries, including Greenland and the Faroe Islands, with support from the Nordic Council of Ministers and the University of Iceland. This large-scale project saw implementation in 2015, with an internal evaluation planned for the end of 2016. Review of literature Previous studies have supported interdisciplinary approaches to arts via use of new technologies in schools. Burnard (2009) wrote that there have been several initiatives in the UK and elsewhere aimed at creative work in schools through use of new technology. Seemingly praising such concepts, she also notes that they tend to only result in “pockets of innovative practice”: Lack of support for the creation of space and time for music does little to achieve widespread implementation of the latest government edicts. How much teachers can do as managers of new technologies depends on what policy-makers can facilitate through new models of educational provision. (Burnard, 2009, p. 199) Burnard’s (2009, p. 198) summary of related research suggests that embedding creativity and technology in curriculum development depends on “time, space and interactivity […] coupled with teacher expertise”. Ensuring these four elements is seen as a principle for successfully merging creative work and technology in compulsory school teaching. Savage (2012) examined how cross-curricular teaching is usually approached in UK schools,
226 Bård Vågsholm Husby and David G. Hebert often conceived as an organization of school-level curriculum resulting in a theme-based approach. Savage (2012) found that teachers demonstrated cross-curricular pedagogy within their subjects, with reference to other subject areas, conceptualizing through illustrations, homework relating the taught theme to other fields and comparison of technical vocabulary from other subjects. In the Nordic countries, popular music tends to occupy a prominent role in school music programs (Hauge, 2014), but studies have shown a need for greater use of technologies to support music creation in schools. Nilsson and Folkestad (2005) completed a two-year empirical study of Swedish children composing music on a personal computer, with aims of the research being to produce deeper knowledge of creative processes. Eight-year-old children were invited to make music to complement pictures. Nilsson and Folkestad repeatedly collected Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) files from the children’s work and focused on analyzing the processes of creative music work. Väkevä (2010) argued that rock band practices are unable to address the full spectrum of popular music and that a variety of approaches should be incorporated to ensure that music education stays relevant. Examples of popular culture music phenomena include DJ-ing, remixing/mash-ups, collective online songwriting, home productions and a variety of sharing platforms. Väkevä (2010, p. 60) cited Gracyk (1996) as support for his claim that popular music should be considered an original art form for which aesthetic value is less related to live performance than in other music traditions. Internationally, an array of recent studies support the use of digital technologies in schools, including for composition and popular music songwriting (Pignato, 2013; Powell, Krikun, & Pignato, 2015; Smith, 2013). Moreover, Williams (2014) addresses the use of iPads in music education specifically, focusing on their role as musical instruments in an ensemble situation. Williams (2014) claims that traditional music education is misguided when only recognizing certain instruments, as this devalues other musical instruments along with their associated genres and styles. Wise, Greenwood and Davis (2011) examined how teachers incorporated digital technology in secondary music education. Their study used questionnaires and interviews of nine teachers, assessing their familiarity and utilization of digital tools, as well as their opinions on whether digital technology is supporting musical development. All teachers had used either the GarageBand DAW, the Sibelius notation software or both, extensively in secondary music education, and showed different attitudes toward Western notation as a tool for composing and toward the use of prerecorded loops in original compositions. A common finding among the teachers in the study was that they reflected on their use of digital technology as a way of accommodating to the needs and interests of their students, although not all found it easy to adapt their teaching. Two teachers in the study argued clearly that there is a need
Integrated learning of music and science 227 “to balance the use of digital technology with the opportunity to develop other musical skills and undertake other music activities” (p. 129) as they found their students enjoying performance on “traditional” instruments, as well as arguing for the “realness” of a non-digital approach. Ruthmann and Hebert (2012) point to a general tendency in music education curricula from what they call a “traditional Eurocentric curriculum, typically emphasizing Western traditional music” to more diversity in the musical practices, often including new media related to virtual and online music learning (p. 567). Furthermore, they describe how new technology has changed young people’s access to music creation and sharing tools as well as tools for music learning. Ruthmann and Hebert (2012) see this as an argument for moving music education further into the virtual and online domains, and that this also has the potential of eradicating the often repeated value-based segregation of music to “higher” and “lower” standards (being classical music and popular genres, respectfully) (p. 568). A thorough search for literature that directly addresses Björk’s Biophilia yielded very few results. Guðmundsdóttir4 (2014) wrote a short article about Biophilia that comes across as fairly critical toward its suitability for educational purposes. This article is written in Icelandic, and is published in Uppeldi og menntun (which is referred to in English as the Icelandic Journal of Music Education). In essence, Guðmundsdóttir (2014) provides a review of the song apps as a rationale for what she sees as limited potential for educational purposes, the main concerns being that the apps have a somewhat closed framework for musical creativity. Guðmundsdóttir (2014) acknowledges the artist’s intention of providing the user with means to engage in creation of music without the need for prior musical skills or knowledge, but seems to find that the app fails for the same reason, by not meaningfully connecting the activities to musicology and conventional musical knowledge. In a recent book release,5 Blickhan (2016) wrote a chapter on the Biophilia app suite, discussing its video game-like character and how the user’s interaction with Biophilia affects the listening process. Initially, Blickhan (2016) notes that the app is not marketed as a video game and speculates whether this could relate to the word game conveying “a light-heartedness or lack of seriousness that Björk does not intend to communicate to Biophilia’s listeners and users” (p. 2). Blickhan (2016) finds that classifying any of the song apps as games and bringing the word app into the equation makes things more difficult, as apps are often understood either as tools with specific function or functions, or as games. Biophilia does not work well in either of these descriptions, as the song apps do not relate to specific outcomes, and as games fail to reward user investment with a progression or a notion of correctness or “winning” (pp. 9–10). Blickhan (2016) compares Biophilia to Rock Band and SingStar, as the objective might be understood as being performance related “though for the most part Björk does not give users the
228 Bård Vågsholm Husby and David G. Hebert opportunity to be incorrect” (p. 10). The “interactiveness” of the songapps brings “a greater level of personal attention to elements of Björk’s songs” (p. 24). Blickhan (2016) further suggests that a contribution of this format is the harnessing of the personal involvement that is common of video games and applying that to a musical experience.
Method This chapter is based on an original master thesis that included fieldwork in Iceland and Norway funded by the Nordic government Nordplus program (via the NNME).6 The first author is an experienced popular music instrumentalist, songwriter and pedagogue who collected and analyzed the data. The second author is a full professor who mentored the project and contributed to data interpretation and development of this chapter based upon the original thesis. Grounded theory approach Our design is heavily inspired by grounded theory methodology, in particular the constructivist variant advocated by Charmaz (Birks & Mills, 2011; Charmaz, 2014). Grounded theory is essentially a methodology for discovering theory from data that serve to explain both actions and interactions in a social context (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). A prominent characteristic of grounded theory is the simultaneous collection and analysis of data, and continuous comparison of new data to preexisting data, with the aim of generating “general categories and their properties for general and specific situations and problems” that can further “provide theoretical guides to the layman’s action” (Glaser & Strauss, 1967, p. 30). In this case, our data were derived from interviews, documents and observation of a clinical trial of the Biophilia app with Norwegian music teachers. Interviews Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight participants (between September 28, 2015 and February 16, 2016), including members of the Biophilia Educational Project steering group in Reykjavík as well as teachers who have experience with teaching Biophilia. Four of the interviews were conducted in person and four by videoconference. The teacher interviews were between 23 minutes and 63 minutes in duration. All eight interviews were recorded and transcribed in detail, including breaks, hesitations, “thinking sounds” and occasionally nonverbal cues. All face-to-face interviews were conducted in English, which is a second language for all, but each interviewee was relatively fluent, as is common in contemporary northern Europe. However, the focus group interview was in Norwegian and later translated to English in transcription.
Integrated learning of music and science 229 Document analysis Documents were also collected for information related to Biophilia in opular culture as well as the development of the Biophilia concept as a p whole, also including visual documents, internet-based sources and physical material (Birks & Mills, 2011, p. 83). As Charmaz (2006) notes, texts are constructed for specific purposes and are built within particular discourses (p. 35). The documents collected for use in this study would be classified as extant texts according to Charmaz’ (2006) terms, meaning that the construction of these documents is not affected by the researcher (p. 37). Documents play an essential role in this study, offering critical context for what may be understood as “contemporary history” (Hebert & McCollum, 2014). Clinical trial In grounded theory terms, designing and executing a deviant (or negative) case may be considered a means of theoretical sampling as it is done to challenge the emerging saturation of categories and “find new variables or to provide alternative explanations…” (Charmaz, 2006, p. 101). Charmaz (2014, p. 199) also notes that acts of theoretical sampling “prompts you to predict where and how you can find needed data to fill… gaps and to saturate categories”. Designing such a “deviant case” in the form of a clinical trial of the Biophilia “app” seemed a realistic alternative to spending several more weeks in Iceland without a substantial research budget. In February 2016, a simple field test was conducted in Norway with teacher education students in which they were given time to explore Biophilia at their own pace and discretion, followed by a focus group interview in which their experiences and reflections were discussed. Selection of research participants was purposeful in the sense that all were required to have completed a music education degree and have no previous experience with Biophilia, neither the app nor the educational project. The aim of this clinical trial was not necessarily to provide generalizable findings, but rather to further explore diverse viewpoints in a transparent, systematic manner. Participants were informed of the research objectives, but were given limited information about the case design. They were seated in a lecture room around a square table with iPads lying flat on the table in front of them, then given 45 minutes to explore the Biophilia interface, without any instructions. Earphones were used by all five participants in the control trial. A video camera was placed on a 6 ft tripod, angled down toward the table in order to see what was happening on the screen. Immediately following the trial, a 45-minute focus group interview was commenced. Focus group interviews are characterized by “a nondirective style of interviewing, where the prime concern is to encourage a variety of viewpoints on the topic in focus for the group” (Brinkmann & Kvale, 2015, p. 175). Brinkmann and Kvale (2015) urge that the role of the focus group interviewer is that of a moderator, creating an atmosphere that is permissive to personal and
230 Bård Vågsholm Husby and David G. Hebert conflicting viewpoints, and nurturing their variety. The possible exchange of viewpoints among participants is a central feature of focus group interviews, enabling data generation not possible in a private interview.
Findings We now proceed to a presentation of findings from this research, which are divided into two major categories: the first regarding the design of the Biophilia “app” itself and the second concerning the educational project surrounding this unique product. Biophilia app Upon virtually entering the Biophilia app suite for the first time the user is presented with a monochrome space slowly moving closer toward a galaxy in the distance, and a familiar voice is heard as a narration from Sir David Attenborough starts playing. Welcome to Biophilia. The love for nature in all her manifestations, from the tiniest organism to the greatest red giant floating in the farthest realm of the universe. With Biophilia comes a restless curiosity, an urge to investigate and discover the elusive places where we meet nature, where she plays on our senses and forms, perfumes and smells. The taste and touch of salty wind on the tongue. But much of nature is hidden from us, that we can neither see nor touch, like the one phenomenon that can be said to move us more than any other in our lives. Sound. Sound harnessed by human beings delivered with generosity and emotion is what we call music. And just as we use music to express parts of us that would otherwise be hidden, so too can we use technology to make visible much of nature’s invisible world. In Biophilia, you will experience how the three come together. Nature, music, technology. Listen, learn and create. Travel the cosmos lying at your fingertips, touch the galaxies and move through their three dimensions. Discover the different song apps as they are introduced into the constellations and explore their extra features. And should you feel lost in space, you can always use the musical compass icon to take you home. Now, forget the size of the human body. Remember that you are a gateway between the universal and the microscopic. The unseen forces that stir the depths of your innermost being, and nature who embraces you and all there is. We are on the brink of a revolution that will reunite humans with nature through new technological innovations. Until we get there, prepare. Explore Biophilia. Sir Attenborough’s narrative appears to be a manifestation of Björk’s artistic intention with Biophilia, but it is effectively also a quick-start user guide. This narrative was also partly played back as an introduction for the Biophilia world tour concerts (Fenton & Strickland, 2014), and seems to aid as a preparation for the listener, establishing a context and highlighting the essence of the concept.
Integrated learning of music and science 231 The main screen of the appsuite consists of Björk’s galaxy. Some of the stars shine brighter than others, and are marked by unique colors and titles: Crystalline, Hollow, Mutual Core, Sacrifice, Thunderbolt, Solstice, Dark Matter, Virus and Moon. Nine are to be counted, grouped in separate constellations. Compared to the CD version of Biophilia, one track appears to be missing: Cosmogony. As long as the tablet is not muted, the user is able to hear the distant overdubbed howling of female voices in a slowly upward glissando, reminiscent of the haunting soundscape accompanying the monolith in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 feature film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The galaxy may then be considered the songapp for Cosmogony. Song app is the preferred term for the individual tracks within the Biophilia app suite. In the top-left corner recedes the compass, which is identifiable as the general logo for everything related to Biophilia. Release of Biophilia album and app Prior to Biophilia, Björk had released her previous Volta album in 2009 to favorable reviews.7 That album arguably features a quite complex soundstage, incorporating elements from industrial genres and electronica as well as orchestration. Biophilia, her next project, was to Björk a significant departure from what she called the “confrontational nature” of preservation that Volta represented (Graham, 2011). Biophilia represented a more minimalistic type of music composition, with songs more or less being based around a single instrument and voice. Several of the instruments used for Biophilia were build-to-order, and a few were made to respond to MIDI signals from touch interfaces Lemur and Reactable, essentially allowing Björk to perform these compositions accompanying herself using these tools. In the documentary When Björk Met Attenborough (Hooper, 2013), several of these custom instruments and their controller interfaces are demonstrated, including the use of a video game controller to control the gameleste.8 The song Crystalline is said to have been composed using this gameleste-PlayStation controller combination. Another arguably innovative instrument was the programming of a Tesla coil to produce bass arpeggios for Thunderbolt. From any perspective, there is little doubt that Biophilia represents a deliberate artistic attempt to fuse music, nature and technology, and arguably succeeded in that. This fusion is the DNA of everything Biophilia, and is also highly prominent in the educational project that would follow. Broader technological developments are responsible for the particularly innovative approach that Björk ultimately took in the Biophilia project. Specifically, Apple released the iPad in 2010, a wireless tablet computer based on its already well-established iOS mobile platform known from the iPhones. It had a 9.7-inch multi-touch screen, camera and Wi-Fi with optional cellular connection and had a large amount of productivity software and video games available upon launch. There was general praise from
232 Bård Vågsholm Husby and David G. Hebert critics, noting that this was essentially something new, unlike preexisting home electronic gadgets, but at the same time offering the functions of many predecessors within a single device. CNET reporter Donald Bell put it this way: “In an act of aggressive tech convergence, Apple has consolidated your Netbook, e-reader, gaming device, photo frame, and iPod into an elegant, affordable supergadget” and claimed that the iPad was ”the first affordable tablet computer worth owning” (Bell, 2010). Others focused on its more X-factor related features: “No YouTube film, no promotional video, no keynote address, no list of features can even hint at the extraordinary feeling you get from actually using and interacting with one of these magical objects”, wrote Bobby Johnson for The Guardian (Johnson, 2010). The entry level price point of $499 USD was also considered surprisingly accessible at the time (Yarow, 2010). “You can imagine a person like Björk getting an iPad in the first few days”, Biophilia developer Scott Snibble told Evolver. fm, “My understanding is that she took a look at some of the apps that came out right when the iPad came out and identified a couple of developers that were in line with her vision” (Anderson, 2011). Björk had been contemplating suitable platforms for the Biophilia concept, and began her collaboration with app developers to look into the possibility of making the iPad the medium for the Biophilia experience (Dombal, 2011). At early stages, Björk wanted to make the Biophilia album exclusively for the iPad, and might even have considered the CD version that would eventually be released as a by-product of the song apps (Helgi, 2015). The iPad allowed software to be programmed for the same functionality as Lemur and Reactable, while at the same time offering a platform for distribution. Biophilia was eventually released both as an iPad app suite with some tracks and a few months later on October 5, 2011 as a standard physical album, together with the release of the complete set of songapps. Biophilia generally made a good impression with critics, obtaining a score of 79 on Metacritic.9 The Biophilia iPad app suite, upon its release, was considered the first app album (Anderson, 2011; Helgi, 2015) or at least the first one to be recognized as so by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which now has Biophilia on display, the artifact itself being the first downloadable app in their collection (Antonelli, 2014; Beaumont-Thomas, 2014). In 2015, the museum even offered a designated Björk exhibition, featuring, among other things, the Biophilia app as well as some of the project’s unique instruments, such as the gameleste, the gravity harp and the Tesla coil (Museum of Modern Art, 2015). Björk has also said that the visual elements of the app played an important role, finding that natural phenomena offer “some fitting visual metaphors to translate the music theory” (Graham, 2011). This would appear to be an important part of the visual design of each songapp. Björk has also praised the unique possibilities afforded by to interact with visual elements in ways that Björk did not find possible to do with music videos in the past (Graham, 2011).
Integrated learning of music and science 233 The Biophilia app album was originally released for iOS as an iPad-only app, on July 19, 2011, containing only Crystalline in addition to the mother app Cosmogony. More tracks were released and made available against payment, essentially joining the emerging “freemium”-trend10 of the App Store since its launch. The complete app suite was available for download concurrently with the album release on October 10, 2011, and was updated to allow the purchase of all song apps in one bundle, priced 20% higher than the digital download of the album in iTunes. The Biophilia album was criticized upon its release for its Apple iPad exclusivity, to which Björk replied that she hoped and assumed that those wanting to use it on other platforms would pirate it (Perry, 2011). Furthermore, Björk faced criticism for releasing an app-based album as this would alienate potential buyers/listeners who could not afford an iPad, to which Björk replied that this was a natural choice given that the songs were already programmed for tablets and that touchscreens in any case would soon be “cheap and available to everyone” (Gregory, 2011). In early 2013, Björk launched a Kickstarter campaign11 to port the apps to Android and Windows 8. At this point, Biophilia had started taking form as an educational initiative. At the time, it was referred to as the Biophilia Educational Program. The Kickstarter campaign failed miserably, enough to place it fourth in the online humor magazine Cracked’s list of 6 Spectacularly Embarrassing Celebrity Kickstarter fails (Avery, 2015). The campaign generated only 4% (15.370 GBP12) of the 375.000 GBP financing that was called for. Most criticism toward the Kickstarter campaign seems to focus on the high cost for the Android port. Biophilia was eventually released for Android later in 2013, being ported by start-up company Apportable (Olivarez-Giles, 2013). As of early 2016 there is still no Windows version available, neither is there a plan to develop one. Moreover, the app has a tendency to crash when entering or exiting song apps, and trying to access certain features will “force quit” the app every time. There also seems to be issues with audio, as Björk’s vocals or the accompaniment can fail to play. This is very noticeable to anyone having previous experience with the app on an older tablet, but it is probably little known to a first-time user. The frequent crashes and missing access to song apps are disruptive to such a degree that the Biophilia app may be deemed incompatible with most recent devices. According to the Apple App Store version log for the Björk: Biophilia app, the last update containing bug fixes was version 1.4, released on December 11, 2011 to accommodate the release of iOS 5. It can therefore be assumed that stability issues may arise on Apple units or software released after 2012. From Biophilia tour to educational project When Björk began touring Biophilia, it was announced that concerts would be given in the form of city residencies. This touring concept would involve Björk staying in each town for a prolonged period of time, giving small
234 Bård Vågsholm Husby and David G. Hebert venue concerts, once every three days. Residencies were held in M anchester, Reykjavík, New York City, Buenos Aires, Paris, Richmond/Los Angeles and Tokyo, with a final concert in London. In addition to the residencies, conventional concerts were held to accommodate festivals and single stops. The idea of making an educational project from the Biophilia concept was not something Björk planned in detail from the very beginning, but rather an idea that evolved during the Manchester city residency and was later formalized as she returned to Reykjavík for the second residency (Helgi, 2015). As Björk has a routine of two resting days between concerts, the crew had spare time, and at some point the idea of teaching the themes of the album through use of the app began to evolve in the form of workshops, inviting local school children to partake. Björk invited local school authorities and their teachers, as well as the University of Iceland, to take part in developing the workshops that were to be held over four weeks in Harpa,13 the national concert hall, in October 2011 (Hilmarsdottir, 2015). Helgi, a participant in the present study, was appointed by Björk to record these workshops, and remained close to the project afterward in the development of the Biophilia workshops, curriculum and teaching methodology. Helgi ended up functioning as Björk’s representative in the steering group that was commissioned, which also consisted of representatives from the Reykjavík municipality and the University of Iceland. The experiences from the Harpa workshops evoked much interest in the project for those involved, as the workshops appeared to arouse children’s interest in the themes that were covered and the project had a noticeable impact on their desire to learn more (Hilmarsdottir, 2015, p. 3). Following completion of the Biophilia tour, the local school authorities in Reykjavík agreed to introduce the Biophilia workshops in the local primary schools as well as municipal after-school programs, and it was at this point being referred to as the Biophilia Educational Program. It was not introduced as a mandatory curricular activity, but all primary schools in the municipality of Reykjavík were invited to take part in what was referred to as an interdisciplinary thematic project for students in grades 5–7, held in Harpa (Hilmarsdottir, 2015). This program was based on the residency workshops, and the participating teachers were invited to seminars in Harpa to be introduced to the concept. The teacher workshops had a two-directional aim: teachers were instructed in the use of Biophilia song apps and in understanding the concept, but the participating teachers were also encouraged to give their input as to how the music and natural science aspects could be taught effectively to create an immersive learning environment. Schools that applied to take part in the project would be loaned a flight case filled with 20 iPads, artwork, some instruments and accessories for science experiments. This flight case is often referred to as Verkfærakistan, or just Kistan for short (translates to the toolbox), and was financed by the Ministry of Education (Hilmarsdottir, 2015). The project
Integrated learning of music and science 235 continued as a pilot project through 2014, and as of late 2015, Kistan is still in circulation although not as heavily used as earlier (Dagmar, 2015). For schools, having participated in the workshops have been the only prerequisite for booking Kistan. In January 2012, teachers and researchers who had participated in the Harpa workshops gathered with the project team and began developing a concept of how Biophilia could be brought to classrooms within the boundaries of “ordinary” school (Hilmarsdottir, 2015). This work eventually produced Learnteach, the now freely available teaching guidelines accessible to anyone at www.biophililaeducational.org. The Icelandic project has seen more than 80 teachers partaking in the workshops, thus covering more than half of Reykjavík primary schools (Hilmarsdottir, 2015, p. 3). In early 2014, the Biophilia Educational Project with its artistic and educational concept was presented to the Nordic Council of Ministers, seeking cooperation in development and expansion of the project to invite teachers from all the Nordic countries: Greenland, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. This Nordic project started its planning and preparation phase in 2014, and is in 2015 being implemented, guided by a steering group consisting of members from the Icelandic Ministry of Science, Culture and Education, Reykjavík City and Háskoli Íslands (University of Iceland). The role of Kistan and the iPads has been played down some in the Nordic project. Instead, participating Nordic schools are offered a one-time grant which they are free to use at their own discretion to best accommodate the project in their local environment. Workshops were still being arranged annually at the time of data collection, inviting teachers from the Nordic countries to Harpa for a three-day seminar before staring implementation in their home country. Concurrently, Biophilia is included in a project named The Nordic Knowledge Train (“The Knowledge Train and Biophilia Travel Overseas,” 2015). The Knowledge Train is based on a preceding Háskóli Íslands project called the University Train and shares a central aim with the Biophilia project, encouraging young people’s interest in science and technology. With the Nordic project, some further aims of Biophilia are defined as follows in a recent steering group report: promote critical thinking of students, encourage innovation, strengthen students’ identity and contribute to the professional development of teachers in creative education (Hilmarsdottir, 2015). The Biophilia Educational Project is essentially open for everyone, and while officially participating schools in the Nordic countries have the benefit of the free teacher workshops, Biophilia conveys an open-source image. The expense involved in teaching Biophilia would be, for instance, investing in things like tablets if such technology is not currently owned by the school in question, but for participating schools, this may be covered in part or fully by the grant given from the Nordic Council of Ministers. As the role of the Biophilia app itself has been toned down, the main message could be understood through these four aims: (1) creating space
236 Bård Vågsholm Husby and David G. Hebert for innovation by breaking up traditional teaching patterns, (2) interdisciplinary impetus for teachers and school leadership to become more open to teaching several subjects at the same time with teachers of different subjects working together in the classroom, (3) advocacy of a theme-based approach with emphasis on creative work and (4) evocation of Socratic dialogue, leaving room for children to explore and create with whatever tools available. The educational objectives of Biophilia comprise a freely shared concept available at the web page biophiliaeducational.org. Central to the teaching material is a document called Learnteach, which includes teaching guidelines for each of the songapps, as well as an introduction that bridges the artistic concept to the pedagogical intentions. Björk has expressed a desire to make Biophilia available to anyone who wants to use it (Dagmar, 2015), and Learnteach is considered a way of distributing the knowledge and methods from the workshops to whomever might find it useful in the general public. Learnteach is both an introduction and explanation of the Biophilia teaching concept, as well as a guide to the teaching principles, with several suggestions for how the apps may be used to teach certain themes within music, natural sciences, technology and human emotions. Learnteach emphasizes a somewhat unusual set of central principles for the Biophilia teaching method. First, there is the principle of co-teaching. It suggests that all teachers involved in Biophilia should work together on all activities enclosed. The five remaining principles appear as a suggestion for a universal teaching method that to be applied to the Biophilia activities. First, the themes are introduced, maybe as a short lecture, a video or something else that could serve to awaken interest and help connect the musical and the scientific concepts. This is followed by “a focused moment of listening” (Learnteach, p. 5). This is where teachers take students on a guided and focused exploration of the musical material at hand. The next principle is arguably the most recognizable feature of a Biophilia classroom: the “kid-in-own-space”. This is where students are given ample time to explore the songapps at their own prerogative, usually with headphones. The fifth principle is that creative works can, and perhaps should, be shared in some way or another. This means that students may play mini-compositions to each other in the classroom, but also sharing on a greater scale (outside the learning context) is also encouraged. Finally, lessons are usually finalized by a “socratic discussion circle”. The key to this segment is making sure everyone is heard in sharing their experiences, views and thoughts. In Learnteach, each song app has an accompanying set of teaching ideas. The common features are an opening question, one or more musical ideas, one or more natural phenomena, a human/emotional/psychological theme, a suggested connection between musical and natural concepts, relationship between song apps, suggestions for activities as well as suggestions for
Integrated learning of music and science 237 additional material on YouTube and other open sources. The Learnteach version available online (since 2015) is a 32-page PDF document, offered in seven different languages: English, Icelandic, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Swedish and Faroese. Based on feedback from interviews, the Learnteach does not seem in actual practice to have a central role within the officially organized Biophilia Educational Project, but it is still a document that reflects many of the principles and teaching suggestions provided through the teacher workshops. The first part of Learnteach works as a statement, or manifesto, of Björk’s pedagogical “creed”, where some ideological and pedagogical principles are established. This included the rationale for the term Learnteach, suggesting that learning and teaching are inextricably interwoven, and Learnteach can be understood as a tool for teaching that has been conceived through a learning process encompassing the world tour workshops and the primary school trials (Biophilia Educational Project, 2014, p. 1). The introduction also highlights that Biophilia has a “strong multisensory aspect”. Additionally, it is meant to provide a “welcome change from the heavily verbal focus of traditional education” (pp. 1–2). Interestingly, it further suggests that those preferring nonverbal methods of learning respond powerfully to Biophilia (p. 2). Learnteach also states that Western art music in the 20th century is one of the sources of inspiration (p. 2). This is something rarely mentioned in interviews and observations, but can be recognized by such elements as the scores that accompany the songapps. Education, like art, music and love, is a contested field. Opposed forces collide and infectious ideas invade the core of the operation, while a huge number of people seem to enter and leave without notice like the dark matter of the universe. Biophilia forms part of one such force, or possibly maybe more an infection, a seed that may be planted, find its kin and possibly spread out through large parts of the system, meeting resistance, adapting and maybe finally metamorphosing into something unrecognisable. We’ll see. (Biophilia Educational Project, 2014) This segment of the Learnteach deserves some attention as there are some central ideas that may be extracted from it. First, it openly acknowledges that Biophilia is likely to meet opposition from “the establishment”. Second, there is an ambition of spreading the teaching ideas to schools everywhere and reaching those who are inclined to adopting such principles, and, finally, changing education as we know it. Although not directly based on any official subject curricula, Learnteach incorporates some of the principles in the most recent Icelandic curriculum. In the second interview with Sigmundur (2016), he stressed that the Biophilia project developed out of a practice-based approach and that the Learnteach reflects this in being mainly inspired by the work and ideas “from the floor” and not from a national curriculum. “It’s been an essential part of [the educational project] that the process has been an extra-curricular thing, outside
238 Bård Vågsholm Husby and David G. Hebert Table 13.1 Overview of themes in the Biophilia Educational Project Songapp
Music theme
Natural science theme
Emotional/human theme
Cosmogony
Harmony Intervals Song structure Chorus-verse relations Sequences Sequencers
Music of the spheres Planetary orbits Crystal formations Minerals
Religion and big bang theory Confinement vs freedom Perception and memory Emotional rebirth Mistakes and new chances Dependency on others Attraction Patriarchy and male domination in Western music Emotionality of music
Crystalline Moon
Human biorhythms Moon phases, tide, etc. Viruses Parasitic symbiosis
Virus
Generative music Dynamic music
Sacrifice
Musical notation
Sexual reproduction Evolution
Dark Matter
Dark matter
Solstice
Scales Atonal and arhythmic music Rhythm Meters/time signatures Counterpoint
Mutual Core
Chords
Thunderbolt
Arpeggios/ arpeggiators Broken chords
Hollow
DNA/genetic Nature vs nurture heritage Evolution Gravity Earth orbit Tectonic plates Volcanic eruptions Lightning and thunder The Tesla coil
Human kind as lightbearers Tension/release Tension between lovers Miracles and religion
of the brick and mortar of the school”, said Sigmundur “and therefore it doesn’t make a good case in consolidating against the curriculum”. Still, he emphasized that the “general part” of Learnteach advocates values like ethics, equality and democracy, which are shared with the latest Icelandic curriculum revision (see Ministry of Education Science and Culture, 2012). The following table provides the reader with a quick overview of the songapps in terms of their suggested themes within musicology, natural sciences and themes of humanity and emotions. The key words within are taken from the Learnteach and the previously mentioned essays by Nicola Dibben within the appsuite (Table 13.1).
Discussion How might we now interpret the significance of the Biophilia project in terms of the broader objectives of music education in the Nordic countries and beyond? Teachers who use Biophilia for music education may qualify
Integrated learning of music and science 239 as what Radio Cremata calls “facilitators in popular music education contexts” (Cremata, 2017, p. 69), who “make use of blended learning spaces to maximise class time” (p. 73). Facilitation as a pedagogy is compatible with the common theme of “democracy” commonly encountered in Nordic music education, including a major project of the NNME, for as Cremata notes, “The central idea to facilitation is that facilitators empower students to be agents of their own learning” (Cremata, 2017, p. 76). Biophilia and the educational project have an aura of being something unique and special. Objectively, it arguably is, for avant-garde concept albums by world-renowned alternative rock musicians, originally released for iPad and with intentions of teaching children about science, music and technology are not one’s everyday app purchase or teaching tool. Subjectively, looking for the building blocks of this aura has proven difficult, as is usually the case with art programs in education. However, when analyzing interview material from informants close to the project, there seems to be a strong sense of community in the project development. Further, it would appear that informants think of the project as an extension of an Icelandic punk-rock mind-set, praising non-conformity and revolutionary thoughts, in this case challenging and changing general conceptions of teaching in schools as well as how music is made. This is a significant contribution to the attraction of Biophilia, as problems with community and interinstitutional collaboration seem to be the project’s main obstacle besides technical issues. The technical issues are not only noticeable, but seem to significantly reduce songapp functionality in modern iPads with 64-bit architecture, while the software bugs are less noticeable on older units. The Android version suffers from low fidelity audio. Interestingly, this did not seem to be a problem in the observations, and according to the steering group members interviewed, this is mostly an issue for teachers, for children tend to “just restart the app”. Teachers who had participated in an official Biophilia workshop were likely to demonstrate more enthusiasm, find more relevant teaching ideas and show a higher degree of appreciation for the Biophilia Educational Project than those who did not share their workshop experiences. Criticism from “workshoppers” was mostly about technical problems with the app or tablets, as well as difficulties with reorganizing teaching practices within the physical limitations of their school environment. Teachers who were unfamiliar with the educational project discussed the app in terms of its usefulness for existing practices, fulfilling learning objectives in their national curriculum, and seemed especially concerned with what they found to be promotional objectives of Björk and her music. The teachers who were positive toward Biophilia demonstrated views that Biophilia harmonized with their personal ideology of teaching, representing a welcome change from conventional teaching practices based around “Western traditional” music and education traditions in which music tends to be viewed as having no relationship to science.
240 Bård Vågsholm Husby and David G. Hebert One major discussion topic in the clinical trial was the financial backing the project has received from the Nordic Council of Ministers, which the five participants found provoking based on a presumption that the educational system would best spend resources on other areas, in addition to them finding it problematic that the project is so heavily based on Björk and her music. However, these participants were not familiar with Learnteach, and thus made their judgment based on a perspective of the app as an e nd-to-end learning environment rather than in the context of a broader educational program. But why did Biophilia attract government support rather than other music-related projects? Another potentially significant factor that calls for consideration here is Bjork’s status as avant-garde musician as well as popular music performer. Throughout much of her career, Bjork has shown deep affection toward contemporary art music, including such influences in her popular albums. This tendency led to her being invited by the BBC to host a documentary film on contemporary composers that was widely broadcast on television, Modern Minimalists (BBC, 1997). Bjork’s affiliation with contemporary art music and such institutions as the BBC most likely enhanced public perception such that government agencies ultimately were more comfortable with sponsoring her project, rather than similar projects that might conceivably be proposed by rock musicians without such affiliations. Nevertheless, we must consider how relations between rock music and the avant-garde also have a history of their own, as seen, for instance, in George Martin’s legendary role as the “fifth Beatle” who added avantgarde artistry to such pioneering recordings as “Tomorrow Never Knows”, from The Beatles’ Revolver album (1966) and “A Day in the Life”, from the Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, to name but a few prominent examples. Moreover, we must also consider Frank Zappa’s art music compositions, including “Dog Breath Variations”, “Revised Music for Guitar and Low Budget Ensemble” and other projects that garnered the respect of accomplished art music composers. Brian Eno (as seen in his atmospheric effects for U2 albums), Pink Floyd and, more recently, Sonic Youth (e.g. Demonlover soundtrack) may be seen as more recent examples. Popular music is increasingly institutionalized, particularly in the Nordic region (Hebert, Abramo and Smith, 2017), but it nevertheless appears likely that affiliations beyond popular music – to contemporary art music – may have been a factor in favor of the Biophilia project when it came to the matter of government sponsorship.
Conclusion This study sought to describe the Biophilia Educational Project and its artifacts, provide examples of how it has been used in schools and suggest ways of understanding the Biophilia concept, including both its successes
Integrated learning of music and science 241 and shortcomings. We hope thus to demonstrate the potential usefulness that Biophilia and its teaching principles might have for compulsory education, as well as how it may serve as a useful model of inspiration for future projects that proceed with a similar vision. From the outside, the Educational Project is at risk of being thought of as built around the Björk: Biophilia iPad/Android app, presumably allowing the app itself to serve as the complete learning environment. The limited literature on Biophilia and its potential for learning seem based on this presumption, which leads to conclusions of incoherency and a lack of usefulness in education. In media, the app is commonly referred to as a “game”, but there are also suggestions that one might learn some musicology through playing it. Data from the present study indicate it is likely this “closed package” was envisioned with such an ambition in the early developmental stages. However, as the educational concept developed, the app was seen more as a tool or medium for creative work within a larger and more complex learning environment. Thus, evaluating the Biophilia app based on its capabilities as a stand-alone music teaching tool, or comparing it to music technology learning platforms leads to disappointing results, and frankly, it makes little sense if one is willing to accept the perspective of Björk’s larger concept: the unification of music, nature and technology. Failure to recognize or accept this intention is connected to much, if not most, criticism of Biophilia’s potential as a learning tool, and in particular negativity regarding its potential as a promotional tool for Björk. Interview data and observations suggest that Biophilia is able to engage children on a deep level, and despite technical flaws of the app, it is able to hold their concentration and focus for long durations of time. Children demonstrate an interest in working with the songapps, and do not seem bothered by the fact that the songapps may not offer much actual manipulation of samples or original sounds. In creating short musical phrases in Biophilia, they still appear to find pride in having made a piece of music, even when the qualities of this music may not be recognized as such by others. The multimodality and rich stimuli of a Biophilia classroom setting are also likely to be a good environment for children with learning difficulties. Biophilia is an example of a project that encourages omitting time schedules and conventions about subject and classroom organization, which at the same time is one of the stated main objectives of the project. By deviating from this practice, there is a change in the learning environment that allows for a different approach to classroom activities, but is also more challenging in terms of management and organization. Our findings suggest that Biophilia is not suitable as an end-to-end learning tool, but this is also fully understood among the project’s management. The app is aging quickly, not having seen much updates since 2011. While the app is technically flawed, the idea of using an app interface with touch-screen control, having original, unconventional musical
242 Bård Vågsholm Husby and David G. Hebert input and being designed for educational purposes, is something that had yet to be designed and implemented and should be a welcome addition to music education. Many appear to appreciate what Björk tried to do with Biophilia, and despite some technical flaws its vision seems both noble and innovative. Biophilia is a vast concept, both a milestone in Björk’s artistic career, introducing a new approach for consumption and interaction with music, and an innovative and elaborate educational project that has seen significant support and praise in the Nordic countries. However, the actual classroom practice of Biophilia teaching appears to vary significantly between different settings. The fact that the project has been granted much attention both in mainstream media and with politicians suggests that the “halo effect” of Björk’s celebrity status is a significant contribution to the project’s attraction. The next generation of arts education projects based on unique technology will improve upon current solutions and designs: bringing multimodality and rich learning environments to mobile units globally and evoke even larger discussions about compulsory music education, learning, aesthetics, benefits and financial interests. Music education needs a greater diversity of approaches that take advantage of the latest technologies, and as more projects of this kind are developed it seems likely that someday we will look back and see how Biophilia helped to pave the way.
Notes 1 Consider the albums Start the Now by One Like Son and Phone It In by Nuclear O’Reilly which were both recorded, edited and mixed in GarageBand for iOS. 2 Tablet computer from Apple, released in 2010 that arguably started a new wave of popularity for touch-screen devices. 3 The one-word composite spellings “songapp”, “appalbum” and “appsuite” are used in all official documents of the Biophilia apps, and will therefore be used in this chapter. 4 No family relation to Björk Guðmundsdóttir. Icelandic last names are typically patronymic, thus rarely indicating family. 5 The manuscript was obtained directly from the author, who requested that the manuscript was kept from circulation until its publication in 2016. Please refer to www.ludomusicology.org for further information. 6 Here we sincerely thank Helga Rut Guðmundsdóttir for her generous guidance. She offered invaluable local support in Iceland as a host of this Nordplus exchange via the Nordic Network for Music Education. 7 Based on the “metascore” from Metacritic, compiling several newspaper, magazine and user reviews (www.metacritic.com/music/volta/bjork). 8 The gameleste is a bespoke instrument built for Björk by Matt Nolan that can be described as a lovechild between a gamelan and a celeste. 9 See www.metacritic.com/music/biophilia/bjork 10 “Freemium” is a term used in general media to describe software that is initially free upon download but requires the purchase of extra content to utilize its full features.
Integrated learning of music and science 243 11 Kickstarter is a major online crowd-funding platform. Björk’s campaign can be found at www.kickstarter.com/projects/501402653/bjork-biophilia-app-forandroid-and-windows-8 12 GBP: Pound sterling. 13 Harpa is a modern concert hall and conference center located in downtown Reykjavík which houses major concerts, operas and art projects. It was completed in 2011 after being temporarily halted by a lack of financing in 2008 during the financial crisis.
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244 Bård Vågsholm Husby and David G. Hebert Engberg, M. (2013). Performing apps touch and gesture as aesthetic experience. Performance Research, 18(5), 20–27. doi:10.1080/13528165.2013.828932 Fenton, N., & Strickland, P. (Writers). (2014). Björk: Biophilia Live [Concert film]: Cinema Purgatorio. Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. Chicago, IL: Aldine. Golden-Perschbacher, S. (2014). Icelandic nationalism, difference feminism and Björk’s maternal aesthetic. Women and Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture, 18, 48–81. Gouzouasis, P. (2005). Fluency in general music and arts technologies: Is the future of music a garage band mentality? Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, 4, #2 (September 2005). Retrieved from http://act.maydaygroup.org/articles/ Gouzouasis4_2.pdf Gracyk, T. (1996). Rhythm and Noise: Aesthetics of Rock. London: I. B. Tauris. Graham, F. (2011, September 21). Björk: I Was Always A Bit of a Nerd. NewScientist. Retrieved from www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2011/09/bjork-i-wasalways-a-bit-of-a-nerd.html Gregory, J. (2011, October 11). Bjork Defends Releasing ‘Biophilia’ iPad App. G igwise. Retrieved from www.gigwise.com/news/67830/Bjork-Defends-ReleasingBiophilia-iPad-App Guðmundsdóttir, H. R. (2014). Framsýnt listaverk en býður upp á litla sköpun notandans. Uppeldi og menntun/Icelandic Journal of Music Education, 23(2), 107–110. Hauge, T. B. (2014). Rhythmic music pedagogy: A Scandinavian approach to music education. Journal of Pedagogy and Psychology “Signum Temporis”, 5(1), 4–22. Hebert, D. G. (2011a). Originality and institutionalization: Factors engendering resistance to popular music pedagogy in the USA. Music Education Research International, 5, 12–21. Hebert, D. G. (2011b). Jazz and Rock Music. In W. M. Anderson & P. S. Campbell (Eds.), Multicultural Perspectives in Music Education, Vol. 1 (3rd ed., pp. 112–127). Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. Hebert, D. G. (2016). Technology and arts education policy. Arts Education Policy Review, 117(3), 141–145 (Editorial Introduction, “Technology” Special Issue). Hebert, D. G., Abramo, J., & Smith, G. D. (2017). Epistemological and Sociological Issues in Popular Music Education. In G. D. Smith, et al. (Eds.), Routledge Research Companion to Popular Music Education (pp. 451–477). New York: Routledge. Hebert, D. G., & McCollum, J. (2014). Philosophy of History and Theory in Historical Ethnomusicology. In J. McCollum & D. G. Hebert (Ed.), Theory and Method in Historical Ethnomusicology (pp. 85–148). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. Hilmarsdottir, H. R. (2015). Biophilia í Reykjavík 2011–2014. Retrieved from http:// reykjavik.is/sites/default/files/ymis_skjol/skjol_utgefid_efni/greinargerd_vegna_ biophilia_i_reykjavik_2011-2014-lokautgafa.pdf Hooper, L. (Writer). (2013). When Björk Met Attenborough [Documentary film]: Pulse Films. International Federation of the Phonographic Industry [IFPI]. (2015). IFPI Digital Music Report 2015: Charting the Path to Sustainable Growth. Retrieved from http://ifpi.org/downloads/Digital-Music-Report-2015.pdf Johnson, B. (2010, January 27). Apple iPad: The First Review. The G uardian. Retrieved from www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/jan/27/apple-ipad-tabletfirst-review
Integrated learning of music and science 245 The Knowledge Train and Biophilia Travel Overseas. (2015). University of Iceland. Retrieved from http://english.hi.is/frettir/knowledge_train_and_bophilia_travel_ overseas Michaels, S. (2012, August 16). YouTube is Teens’ First Choice for Music. The Guardian. Retrieved from www.theguardian.com/music/2012/aug/16/youtube-teens-firstchoice-music Ministry of Education Science and Culture. (2012). The Icelandic National Curriculum Guide for Compulsory Schools: General Section. Reykjavik: Mennta-og menningarmálaráðuneytið Retrieved from http://brunnur.stjr.is/mrn/utgafuskra/ utgafa.nsf/RSSPage.xsp?documentId=C590D16CBC8439C500257A240030A E7F&action=openDocument Museum of Modern Art. (2015). Exhibitions: Björk. Retrieved from www.moma. org/calendar/exhibitions/1458?locale=en Nilsson, B., & Folkestad, G. (2005). Children’s Practice of Computer-Based Composition. Music Education Research, 7(1), 21–37. doi:10.1080/14613800500042042 Olivarez-Giles, N. (2013, July 17). Björk’s ‘Biophilia’ App Now Available on Android. The Verge. Retrieved from www.theverge.com/2013/7/17/4529964/bjork-biophiliahits-google-play-android Perry, K. E. G. (2011, July 29). Björk Trusts Pirates Will Crack Biophilia. Drowned In Sound. Retrieved from http://drownedinsound.com/news/4143233-björk-trustspirates-will-crack-biophilia Pignato, J. (2013). Angelica gets the spirit out: Improvisation, epiphany and transformation. Research Studies in Music Education, 35(1), 21–38. Powell, B., Krikun, A., & Pignato, J. M. (2015). “Something’s happening here!”: Popular music education in the United States. IASPM Journal, 5(1), 4–22. Rosenberg, N. (2011). Popular Music in the College Music Theory Class: Rhythm and Meter. In N. Biamonte (Ed.), Pop-Culture Pedagogy in the Music Classroom (pp. 47–71). Lanham: Scarecrow Press. Ruthmann, S. A., & Hebert, D. G. (2012). Music Learning and New Media in Virtual and Online Environments. In G. E. McPherson & G. F. Welch (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Music Education: Volume 2 (pp. 567–583). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Savage, J. (2012). Moving beyond subject boundaries: Four case studies of cross- curricular pedagogy in secondary schools. International Journal of Educational Research, 55, 79–88. doi:10.1016/j.ijer.2012.07.004 Second Wind Apps, & RelativeWare. (2011). Björk: Biophilia (Version 1.5) [iPad app]: One Little Indian & Wellhart Ltd. Smith, G. D. (2013). Seeking “success” in popular music. Music Education Research International, 6, 26–37. Väkevä, L. (2010). Garage band or GarageBand®: Remixing musical futures. British Journal of Music Education, 27(1), 59–70. doi:10.1017/S0265051709990209 Williams, D. A. (2014). Another perspective: The iPad is a REAL musical instrument. Music Educators Journal, 101(1), 93–98. doi:10.1177/0027432114540476 Wilson, E. O. (1984). Biophilia. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Wise, S., Greenwood, J., & Davis, N. (2011). Teachers’ use of digital technology in secondary music education: Illustrations of changing classrooms. British Journal of Music Education, 28(2), 117–134. doi:10.1017/S0265051711000039 Yarow, J. (2010, January 27). The iPad Starts At $499. Business Insider. Retrieved from www.businessinsider.com/the-ipad-price-499-2010-1?IR=T
246 Bård Vågsholm Husby and David G. Hebert Interviews Birkir. (2015, October 7) Personal communication. Dagmar. (2015, September 30) Personal communication. Helgi. (2015, October 13) Personal communication. Iðunn. (2015, September 28) Personal communication. Ingibjörg. (2016, January 26) Personal communication. Ragnar. (2015, September 29) Personal communication. Sigmundur. (2015, September 28) Personal communication. Sigmundur. (2016, February 16) Personal communication.
14 Conclusion Learning from two decades of music education leadership David G. Hebert and Torunn Bakken Hauge
Ultimately, as we better understand the educational traditions of other societies and cultures, we will also be forced to reexamine and to reflect on our own tradition in somewhat different ways, and this will be immensely beneficial to our understanding of our own traditions. (Reagan, 2018, p. 4)
Timothy Reagan’s prescient observations prompt us to reconsider the u ltimate purpose of any inherently international-comparative book in the field of education. We seek through this volume not only to document the current situation (and recent history) of music education in Northern Europe, as well as the critical role that a state-funded network has played in these developments, but also to stimulate reflection on what can be learned from the similarities and differences in how music is taught and learned within various institutions and national systems. In this c o-authored Conclusion chapter, we summarize central points from the entire book and reflect on the three overarching themes and four network projects described in the book’s Introduction. Additionally, we consider other themes that appear in various chapters contributed to this book, and reflect on similarities and differences seen between the various nations discussed, as well as between Nordic and Baltic regions. We include several comparative tables with new data collected from contributors through the course of making the book. We also include discussion of such topics as “artistic research” (arts-based research in the fields of music performance and composition), the use of new technologies in music programs, perceived effects of the public “Culture School” model, and the changing role of research in Nordic higher education institutions. Finally, we discuss the challenges and responsibilities of leadership within an international network of this kind, and conclude with discussion of lessons learned and actual recommendations for educators who would consider developing similar networks in other parts of the world.
248 David G. Hebert and Torunn Bakken Hauge
Reflection on the book’s central themes National differences profoundly affect the nature of music learning, the content of music teaching, the research problems that are addressed (if any) and the methodologies that are used in doing so. (Hargreaves & North, 2001, p. xii) National differences matter in music education primarily for two reasons: (1) music is a profoundly meaningful and emblematic aspect of cultural heritage, and (2) educational systems tend to be structured at the level of nation-state. However, as David Hargreaves and Adrian North observed (above), national differences resonate across many different domains in our field. In the case of this book, regional differences are also worth careful consideration. We note that some contemporary scholars appear to downplay what is shared in common between Nordic and Baltic countries: Scandinavians differ from the Balts culturally, historically, and politically. Especially in areas where there could be some hidden meanings, such as language, there is nothing in common. The languages of Lithuanians and Latvians differ radically from their Scandinavian neighbors, and only Estonian has some similarity to Finnish. (Dvorak, 2016, p. 159) Yes, such linguistic differences are undeniable, yet we find from our experience of cooperation in music education that, despite some differences, we actually have very much in common and collaborate effectively, with mutual respect and recognition of distinctive strengths in the Nordic and Baltic countries. In fact, our work in this regard seems to parallel some broader geopolitical developments. We mentioned in Chapter 1 that the Nordic Network for Music Education (NNME) is funded by Nordplus, a program of the Nordic Council of Ministers. Founded in 1971, the Nordic Council of Ministers is a state forum that supports the Nordic Council (founded in 1952), and is responsible for intergovernmental cooperation of benefit to approximately 26 million people who live in the Nordic countries. However, another relevant development is what is called Nordic-Baltic Eight (or NB8), which is a cooperation framework between the five Nordic and three Baltic nations. The NB8 was formalized between the Nordic Council and Baltic Assembly in 1992. Even now, in a time of “Brexit” (the UK’s departure from the European Union) and the nationalistic “anti-globalist” ideology espoused by US President Donald Trump and others, there appears to still be strong interest in further deepening, rather than weakening, various forms of cooperation and partnership across Northern Europe. That said, there are valid arguments for reflecting on what may still remain from Soviet times of any Russian traditions within the music education practices in Baltic nations, and even whether nations like Iceland and Latvia happen
Learning from music education leadership 249 to show similarities without any obvious historical explanation. In the field of classical art music, Russia is undeniably important for having been a prominent producer of outstanding composers and virtuoso performers in the 19th and early 20th centuries, including in such specialized fields as opera and ballet. Still, there is surprisingly little information in the English- speaking world regarding current music education practices in the world’s largest nation. One of the few recent reports on music education in Russia has described typical schools with music lessons offered 35–45 minutes 1 time per week from 1 to 8 grade. Music lessons in the first half of the day are, in fact, compulsory and include the widest range of activities, such as singing, listening to music, musical and rhythmic movements. (Toropova et al., 2018) Also according to that report, a major project of recent years was promoted under the slogan “Music for All (Everyone)”, while in Russian school music programs diversity is encouraged by a broad system of circles, creative studios and groups. The most common forms of additional creative activities of students are: choral singing; folklore ensemble, musical theatre, individual piano studies, synthesiser, and guitar (duration of lessons from 35 minutes to 1.5 hours, 1–3 times a week). (Toropova et al., 2018) In many ways these descriptions appear to resemble what is found in the NB8 nations, in terms of both structure and rhetoric. However, there may also be highly significant differences when viewed from a perspective that takes a higher level of detail into account, including in terms of the kinds of repertoire used (for instance, patriotic songs, original songs composed by students themselves, non-Western music, improvisation “jams”, etc.), and the assumptions made by teachers and students regarding their respective roles and relative degree of autonomy within the educational setting. At the risk of oversimplification, we may note that in Russia and East Asia there is still a strong tendency for teachers to be deeply respected and carefully followed by students, while in Scandinavia the teacher is expected to nurture a milieu that is perceived as more “democratic,” acting as a facilitator of learning while student voices contribute greatly to the directions taken in any educational context. Critics of the former approach would argue that such a strict Master/Apprentice relationship discourages individuality and creativity while socializing students into acceptance of excessive severity, harsh competition, and authoritarianism, whereas critics of the latter might argue that some Scandinavian teachers value a
250 David G. Hebert and Torunn Bakken Hauge classroom performance of “democracy” more highly than actual learning, and emphasize an ideology of egalitarianism partly to mask the fact that they lack the deep knowledge and skills necessary to be naturally recognized as a “master” teacher. Music teaching can be shaped not only by different philosophies of education, but also by different beliefs regarding the conditions necessary for the cultivation of artistry. Consider, for instance, some fundamental assumptions about artistic creativity revealed in the following statement from a conversation between Japan’s most accomplished orchestra conductor (Seiji Ozawa) and the nation’s most renowned novelist (Haruki Murakami): Creative people have to be fundamentally egoistic. This may sound pompous but it happens to be the truth. People who live their lives watching what goes on around them, trying not to make waves, and looking for the easy compromise are not going to be able to do creative work, whatever their field. To build something where there was nothing requires deep individual concentration, and in most cases that kind of concentration occurs in a place unrelated to cooperation with others. (Murakami, 2017, p. xiv) Of course, an extreme approach in either direction can be problematic, albeit in rather different ways, and it is our impression that most music teachers do not strongly resemble either of the kinds of negative stereotypes discussed here, yet it is still rather useful to be aware of general tendencies and critiques from opposing perspectives. Finland and, increasingly, the Baltic countries seem to be ideally positioned to recognize and benefit from the strengths and weaknesses of such different ideologies and approaches. While comparisons of mere structures do little to illustrate such substantial differences, they still matter in that institutional forms inevitably to some extent shape the content of instruction, which is why in the next section we have decided to offer some factual data regarding the structures in which we seek to make international comparisons. Current practices and background In the Introduction chapter, we described the NNME that, upon its 20th anniversary, served as the platform for development of these writings, along with three major themes addressed across the book: (1) current practices and background, (2) higher education reforms, and (3) professional networks. We also offered some personal reflections and historical background for the 20 years of NNME network activity and its impact, as well as a brief introduction to the theoretical background of the aforementioned three major themes. As we considered how best to develop a meaningful Conclusion for this book, we reflected on basic points from all of the chapters and realized
Learning from music education leadership 251 it would be helpful to first produce some tables that communicate certain aspects of the “bigger picture” of music education in Northern Europe. Compiling even basic information of this kind was not an easy task, and we regret that some of our tables are incomplete; rather than confirmable counts, the best we could do in the case of some numbers was to provide reasonably accurate estimates by leading experts. Still, we sensed this could nevertheless be useful in terms of enabling at least general comparisons with other regions, and as a baseline for assessing the extent to which the situation for our field changes in the future. In Table 14.1, we offer a comparison of basic facts about each of the eight Northern European nations discussed in this book, including relative size, per capita GDP (purchasing power parity) in US dollars, total population, and the population of students in compulsory schooling. Note that these numbers were obtained from authoritative sources (government websites, etc.), but may be from slightly different years, 2015–2018. Sweden is by far the largest of the eight countries in Northern Europe, while Denmark and Estonia are the smallest. Norway is the wealthiest, but the most notable economic gap is between Nordic and Baltic countries, the latter having economies that continue to be less robust. Iceland has a much smaller population than all the other nations in this group, while Sweden certainly has the largest. The three remaining Nordic states have a similar population, but among the Baltic states, Lithuania contains twice as many people as Estonia. Although the above chart does not illustrate change across time, we should note that Lithuania is currently a special case in terms of student numbers, which have dramatically declined for more than a decade, creating very serious challenges for schools unlike anything encountered in the other NB8 nations. According to popular media, the number of “school students declined by nearly a half in Lithuania over the past 16 years”, and “there were 604,000 students enrolled in schools of general education in Lithuania in 2001, as compared to merely 330,800 attending schools in 2017” (Baltic Course, 2017). A recent scholarly publication is more reserved in its claims, Table 14.1 Comparison of NB8 nations Nation
Size (km 2)
GDP per capita (US$)
Total population
Compulsory school population
Iceland Norway Denmark Sweden Finland Estonia Latvia Lithuania
103,000 323,802 43,094 450,295 338,145 45,228 64,589 65,300
52,100 70,600 49,600 51,300 44,000 31,500 27,300 31,900
339,747 5,320,045 5,605,948 9,960,487 5,518,371 1,251,581 1,944,643 2,823,859
44,527 623,755 713,000 985,620 540,000 122,282 213,357 330,800
252 David G. Hebert and Torunn Bakken Hauge Table 14.2 Music education degree programs Nation
Iceland Norway Denmark Sweden Finland Estonia Latvia Lithuania
Total population
339,747 5,320,045 5,605,948 9,960,487 5,518,371 1,251,581 1,944,643 2,823,859
Music education bachelor’s degree programs
Music education master’s degree programs
Univ.
Univ.
2 3 3 5 3 2 1 4
Coll.
Acad.
3
1 4 2 1 1 1
1 0 3 3 3 1 1 2
Coll.
Acad.
3
1 4 1 1 1 1
noting that “Analysis of the statistical data provided by the Ministry of Education and Science [since the mid-1990s] shows that the number of schoolaged children has decreased by one-third” (Pranevičienė & Margevičiūtė, 2015, p. 118). This remarkable decrease was predicted by reports from a decade earlier by the Ministry of Education, which warned that In Lithuania, the number of children and youth decreased by 6.1% in 1990–1995, by 8.5% in 1995–2000, and by 21% in 2001–2005. According to the data of EUROSTAT, the birthrate in Lithuania was one of the most negative in Europe in 2005, and the variation in the population was the most negative (–7%, of which 3% was due to emigration). (Lithuania Ministry of Education, 2006, p. 14) In Table 14.2, we indicate the categories of notable public-sector music teacher training programs in each nation: bachelor’s and master’s programs at public universities, colleges, and music academies. From Table 14.2, it is clear that, as one might expect, the number of institutions with programs roughly corresponds to population size, but Lithuania (presumably for the aforementioned reasons) appears to be institutionally structured for a larger population. Several chapters of this book at least briefly mentioned the important role of music instruction in publicly funded arts institutions that are separate from compulsory schooling yet open to the majority of interested students. As we discuss more deeply later in this chapter, such state-funded community Culture Schools are common across all of the NB8 nations. In Table 14.3, we compare the state Culture School systems in terms of total numbers of schools and music students. In Table 14.4, we compare participation rates in major community ensembles: choirs and bands (wind bands and brass bands). We should note that in some cases, this information may best be regarded as reasonably accurate estimates from experts rather than actual counts. It was obtained from each nation via a combination of government websites and national
Learning from music education leadership 253 Table 14.3 Culture schools in NB8 nations Nation
Total population
Culture Schools
CS music students
Iceland Norway Denmark Sweden Finland Estonia Latvia Lithuania
339,747 5,320,045 5,605,948 9,960,487 5,518,371 1,251,581 1,944,643 2,823,859
90 398 92 283 393 94 112 88
15,000 78,346 71,000 400,000* 126,000* 11,016 16,600 25,358
* Note that the figures from Sweden and Finland are relatively inflated and not truly comparable here, since the number from Sweden includes all occasional participants in any kind of Culture School-affiliated ensemble (while the numbers from other countries do not), and the figure from Finland includes every student of any age participating in any Music and Arts School program (painting, for instance). Unfortunately, we have not yet managed to obtain more comparable numbers in these cases, but we will continue to seek this in the future for publication on the NNME website. The other figures appear to be rather accurate.
Table 14.4 M ajor ensembles in NB8 nations Nation
Total population
Choirs
Wind/Brass bands
Iceland Norway Denmark Sweden Finland Estonia Latvia Lithuania
339,747 5,320,045 5,605,948 9,960,487 5,518,371 1,251,581 1,944,643 2,823,859
170 3000* 308 500* 3000* 1417 525 200*
13 1656 110 220 170 105 70 90
* Note that some of these figures are reasonable estimates (±10%) rather than precise counts, and in some cases we only include the ensembles that are current members of the national organizations. We will continue to seek more accurate figures for publication on the NNME website.
organizations for each kind of ensemble, as well as discussions with contributing authors regarding the accuracy of various figures. Please keep in mind that folk music ensembles, orchestras, jazz bands, and popular music ensembles (which especially in Scandinavia are highly popular) could not be included here due to the lack of coherent organization and information gathering. There may also be a few ensembles – even of the kinds listed here – that are not members of the national associations, and therefore their numbers remain unknown and subject to estimates. Relative to their size, Estonia and Iceland clearly have a remarkable number of choirs, while Denmark and Lithuania appear to be less impressive, but we must note here that Lithuania has a very large number of folk music ensembles (some of which emphasize singing) that are regarded as distinct from the kinds of choruses typically categorized as a “choir” in
254 David G. Hebert and Torunn Bakken Hauge such surveys. Moreover, Finland, Norway, and Sweden are also very significant internationally in the field of choral music, with many renowned choirs, conductors, festivals, and contests. Norway, along with Sweden, is especially important in the field of wind bands and brass bands. This table appears to suggest that Denmark has relatively fewer ensembles of all kinds, but it is our impression that Denmark actually has a very large number of small bands performing various forms of popular music and jazz, which due to their size and lack of formal organization tend to not be included in such surveys. We are hopeful that future studies will enable a clearer and more accurate picture, and intend to use the full potential of NNME as a platform to support such comparative research in the future. Higher education reforms International meetings of higher education professionals inevitably lead to sharing of information regarding the latest developments at various institutions and in various national systems. Colleagues are naturally curious about the experiences of their peers in other contexts, particularly in places they have had an opportunity to visit. In the course of writing this book, we found an unexpected common thread in many of our discussions across recent years. Namely, institutional restructuring and mergers seemed to be happening virtually everywhere. While changes to the configuration of departments in higher education might seem to be a mundane topic, there are valid reasons for serious concern regarding the ultimate effects such restructuring can have, particularly if used as a rationale for downsizing already marginalized fields of study or even for cutting of academic jobs. Relative to previous eras, it is our impression that restructuring of higher education has created an unusually volatile environment across the past two decades in Northern Europe, but thus far, although the musical requirements of some programs have been weakened, there is only little evidence of actual music teaching jobs being eliminated at the national level. One of the most obvious examples of the impact of restructuring and mergers was at our own institution in Bergen, where various professional faculties – in teaching, engineering, and health sciences – had recently been consolidated into the Bergen University College and moved together into a new campus, in the Kronstad area of Bergen, but as soon as that campus opened there was vigorous discussion about merging with much larger and older universities. At first we were told we would probably merge with University of Bergen, and then we were told it would most definitely be University of Stavanger, but neither merger actually happened. In fact, the campus in Bergen would later merge with institutions in Stord/Haugesund and Sogndal, eventually having the name Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. While there may be many valid arguments in favor of such larger institutional structures, particularly to support PhD programs, it tends to take decades for a new name to stick in the minds of people at other institutions
Learning from music education leadership 255 and in other countries, and meanwhile there are difficult adjustments. For instance, budgets for research funding and PhD stipend allocations have remained unclear after restructuring, and there is no policy or procedures for awarding of sabbatical leave to professors, the conditions of which had been clear for years prior to the merger. There are other amusing results, including even publications associated with phantom institutions. At one point, David had been told by senior administrators that the new name of their institution would be Bergen University of Applied Sciences, and that name was even announced on the website for a conference of the Grieg Research School. Naturally, David immediately adjusted by using this new name at international conferences, and contacted the editor of an academic press to have the name of his institution updated just prior to publication (Jensen & Hebert, 2016), but it later turned out that the real name had not actually been fully decided. Colleagues were able to easily make further adjustments to websites as needed, but it was too late for publications. We found that similar restructuring has recently been common throughout the NB8 nations. In Finland, for instance, the leading music university Sibelius Academy was recently brought into the new University of the Arts Helsinki, along with other arts colleges. In Chapter 8, Marja Heimonen and David Hebert also describe another form of restructuring in Finland’s higher education, with the new Finnish Music Campus in Jyväskylä and Tampere3 consortium in Tampere, which entail clustering of arts studies in a single location. As Lars Brinck explains (in Chapter 7), recent developments in Denmark are very concerning. While restructuring of higher education began earlier in Denmark than other parts of Europe, in some ways it has also moved at a slower pace, and led to an unusual situation in which universities are fragmented and spread across the country in various conglomerates of branch campuses. For instance, the main college of education is located in Copenhagen, but it is actually part of a university on the other side of the country, while in a small city such as Esbjerg one finds branch campuses clustered together in a single location that are actually administered by major universities in distant cities. Meanwhile, music has been greatly reduced in the school curriculum. Still, Brinck’s unique institution has managed to maintain its independence, in a strategic urban location beside other major arts schools, which fits the pattern also seen in clustering arts schools of Finland in one location. As mentioned earlier in the present chapter, Lithuania is currently facing a crisis of sorts, with insufficient student numbers to support institutional structures, which has created difficult circumstances for lecturers and professors in the field of music education. Increasingly, attracting international students – especially from China – is seen as an important opportunity, enabling the survival of programs that might otherwise be eliminated due merely to a dip in student numbers rather than issues of quality. In Latvia, the field of music teacher education recently faced a complex challenge with
256 David G. Hebert and Torunn Bakken Hauge restructuring of the teacher college, most of which was brought into the university while the music programs were placed within the music academy (as described by Marnauza and Madalane in Chapter 10). However, there are also many very positive developments, and it is possible that many of the aforementioned mergers may in the long term be seen as beneficial even if adjustments have been difficult in the short term. Additionally, it is our impression that Nordic and Baltic music lecturers have generally taken a proactive stance toward the threats associated with restructuring by directly challenging institutions and policy-makers to acknowledge the unique value of artistic creativity and cultural heritage, even while technocratic forces push for a greater emphasis on vocational studies that directly benefit national economies. Beyond the issue of restructuring and mergers, we note that higher education in Northern Europe seems to especially benefit from programs for research and collaboration developed via the Nordic Council of Ministers (such as Nordplus and Nordforsk) as well as the Erasmus program for mobility across the European Union and affiliated nation states. In Chapter 13, Husby and Hebert demonstrate how even beyond the sphere of higher education, governmental organizations, such as the Nordic Council of Ministers, are funding initiatives that impact school education, typically in ways that are beneficial by supporting teachers in innovative approaches and professional development. Professional networks Many chapters in this book describe in vivid detail how the NNME has contributed to strengthening the field of music education across Northern Europe. Ferm Almqvist (Chapter 2) reminds us that, for the sake of a healthy profession, we need spaces in which we are expected to – in the words of philosopher Hannah Arendt – “think, imagine, value and reflect – activities that constitute Vita Contemplativa”. As her anecdotes confirm, these activities have been an important part of the mission of the NNME, establishing its central role for professional development in our field in the Nordic and Baltic countries across the past two decades. Her discussion strongly emphasizes the unique value of professional networks. Helga Rut Gudmundsdottir (in Chapter 6) reports that One of my fellow NNME colleagues once stated that these intensive master courses are what makes doctoral students. Indeed, it is possible to trace the personal history of several current professional academics in Scandinavia who began their careers as student participants in the NNME intensive courses or had their careers boosted by NNME related activities. This view is also echoed by Tiri Bergesen Schei (Chapter 4) and others. Chapter 13, by Bård Husby and David Hebert, arguably embodies a good
Learning from music education leadership 257 example of the kinds of research that are developed through the network. Nordplus funding from NNME enabled Husby to travel to Iceland in order to conduct the research for his master’s thesis, which was not only mentored by David Hebert alone, but also through the suggestions of other senior researchers in the NNME intensive courses, including Helga Rut Gudmundsdottir, who helped to host Husby in Iceland. Husby and Hebert later developed their coauthored chapter from revisions to material in the master’s thesis. Lolita Navickiene and her colleagues in the Baltic nations (Chapter 12) also confirm that Participation in Nordplus-NNME activities contributes to our educational goal to keep pace with rapid changes occurring in scientific progress and society’s life, encouraging the search for untried niches in education, innovative strategies, as well as alternative forms and methods of music education. The network enables information sharing regarding the latest developments in music education research, which is coordinated through its multiyear projects organized around a central theme of interest. Democracy, universality, and sustainability: network projects The major themes addressed by NNME’s multiyear projects were democracy, universality, and sustainability, and these topics were also touched upon in various ways across several of this book’s chapters. The theme of democracy has been quite evident in how much of the pedagogical approaches and research studies associated with the network – both among the teachers and master’s students – have emphasized gender equity, popular music, cultural minorities, students with disabilities, and other themes that embody contemporary democratic values. The network’s activities have clearly shown how music teachers can do more to ensure equality and a sense of collective participation in their classrooms and studios. In Scandinavian education, “democratic” values tend to suggest that the teacher must be a strong yet sensitive leader, with sufficient competence and flexibility to offer an egalitarian approach to gender, social inclusion, and social justice, all while ensuring learning objectives are reached through a high-quality education (Hauge, Paulsen, & Ødemotland, 2016). Ideally, this form of teaching in the field of music requires that stereotypical gender roles from the pop music industry are challenged and substituted with ideas based on equality, and that every pupil’s “voice” or personal concern is acknowledged and valued, not only the voices of the strongest pupils in school classrooms. Such teachers also use instructional methods that are inclusive (based on the idea of equality), giving everyone a fair chance to be included and to develop their talents regardless of the level from which they begin. Scandinavian “rhythmic music pedagogy” (RMP), in particular, includes
258 David G. Hebert and Torunn Bakken Hauge working strategies with pupils in classrooms where most of the children are not familiar with reading music – having imitation and improvisation as its basic tools (Hauge, 2014). RMP commonly uses an approach called “band rotation”, whereby pupils take turns playing each different instrumental part, with a chance to develop a collective repertoire entailing different kinds of skills before settling into their roles in “co-performance” with instruments, not as fixed roles for every classroom situation but that vary according to each situation. Educational quality, in this tradition, should also be based on achieving the artistic aims associated with the musical material’s inner properties, to include and challenge everyone in the classroom for effective and inspiring co-performance. Even with students in higher education, the teacher should be a strong leader, but an authoritarian or condescending approach is unnecessary. A recent article demonstrates the dilemmas that Nordic teachers are met with when trying to apply more democratic working methods, wanting to include the voices of the students in artistic processes (Hauge, Paulsen, & Ødemotland, 2016). Instead of seeing the teachers as an experienced facilitator or a resource for the group collaboration, some overconfident students assume that their teachers are “unnecessary” in such creative projects with democratic approaches. They want to work independently, or be leaders themselves, even if not actually ready for that particular task, which can be a challenge. Referring to the pioneering feminist writings of philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, Ferm Almqvist (Chapter 2) notes that Becoming the musical “other”, or the second musical sex in the setting of ensemble education, often entails becoming the one who organizes the arrangement, who has to play the less important guitar part, and who gets no credit for her work. However, she also acknowledges that Scandinavian music educators have “made great strides” in their efforts to become more “inclusive and democratic”, particularly in terms of gender equity. In the Nordic countries there has long been an interest in discussion of power relations and social justice in music education, often taking the writings of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu as a reference point (Söderman, Burnard, & Hofvander-Trulsson, 2015). The prominent themes of equity and equality in Finnish education are described in Chapter 8, both of which, along with gender issues, are important foundational concepts in any contemporary understanding of democracy. Another factor related to the emphasis on democracy and related concepts, especially in Scandinavia, has been the remarkable strength of the field of music therapy in this region, particularly a specialization known as community music therapy, which especially tends to serve marginalized groups. Research and practice in this field receives much state support in Scandinavia, where many of its most well-known proponents are located,
Learning from music education leadership 259 including most notably the Norwegians Even Ruud and Brynjulf Stige. There are especially large research centers for music therapy in Bergen (GAMUT: Grieg Academy Music Therapy) and Oslo (CREMAH: Center for Research in Music and Health), which train therapists and support research and interventions in a vast array of contexts, from hospitals to retirement homes, community centers, schools for those with special needs, and even prisons. Their orientation and methods are as close to social work as to traditional psychotherapy, and emphasize cooperation and interaction through live musical activities. Having such prominent music therapy programs has greatly benefited the field of music teacher education through shared knowledge regarding effective ways of including all kinds of students, with sensitivity to special physical and psychological needs. RMP has been one such approach, along with others (Hauge, 2014). A tendency for broader awareness of our social responsibility, rather than simply instilling of musical skills and knowledge, is consequently emphasized in music education in Scandinavia. Universality is a concept that in music education implies that everyone has the potential to develop musical skills and understandings, but also that music is a worldwide and remarkably diverse cultural phenomenon. Indeed, we are born with certain basic dispositions that are universal, but we are also very much shaped by culture, and understanding such a complex human activity as music entails unraveling the eternal dialectic of “nature versus nurture”. The connotations of universality would at first glance suggest that music is everywhere, and in fact it has been part of all known human societies worldwide and seems increasingly ubiquitous in our lives especially due to recent technological developments. However, music is often misunderstood and underappreciated in new contexts, so many musical understandings are not universal and require the support of education. The notion of universality builds on a long tradition of music scholarship in Scandinavia. One of the first Nordic professors of music education, Bertil Sundin, actually called music “a language for fantasy and imaginations” (1982, p. 15), and suggested that this language is a basic prerequisite for thinking, valuing, and acting, even a basic tool to organize creative fantasies and feelings (Sundin, 1963). The spontaneous musicking seen in preschool age was also demonstrated by Norwegian professor Jon-Roar Bjørkvold to be a profoundly meaningful form of developmental experience. Bjørkvold (1985) demonstrated how children use music as a tool to master “everyday life” (hverdagen) and to reflect on life generally. Children sing about what concerns them in the moment (“øyeblikket”) and may for example articulate their thoughts in a juicy (“saftig”) and to the point (“treffende”) melodic reply (“replikk”). According to this way of viewing child development (traceable to both Sundin and Bjørkvold), infants react to and use musical elements long before they can speak. However, music can also be understood as the final language before death. Studies of Alzheimer patients show that while they may not understand or remember many details of their own lives, or
260 David G. Hebert and Torunn Bakken Hauge current situation, they still remember many songs and music, including song lyrics. Maybe in some sense one can legitimately say that music is a universal language, for it is a form of powerful communication for which all humans are born with innate abilities. This theme of universality is especially discussed by Geir Johansen in Chapter 5, with Norway and the Nordic countries as a reference point. Johansen points out in his chapter that music is also cultural heritage, developed within particular contexts and languages, and these specific circumstances are not universal. Globalization and the preservation of cultural heritage (sustainability) in conditions of intense intercultural interaction are topics related to universality that are discussed in a few chapters. For instance, in Chapter 8 Marja Heimonen and David Hebert note that Finland has accepted a significant number of foreign teachers and students, is engaged in international projects, and is making a global contribution to research in the field of music education. However, the authors also acknowledge some threats commonly attributed to globalization, including neoliberal and policy making that emphasizes profitability to bolster the competitiveness of national economies. Sustainability is a concept that implies innovation and responsiveness to new social developments for the sake of ensuring the field of music education has a strong future. Specifically, pluralism and lifelong learning are seen as relevant pathways toward a broadening of the field for new horizons of practice, with stronger connections between music studies and society at large. Lolita Navickiene and her colleagues (Chapter 12) write much about the historical background of school music education in Lithuania, and ultimately focus on a specific method that has been popularized there. They note that for “music education in Lithuania, which encountered influences from many different epochs and regimes … it is important that our pedagogy has retained original and long-established traditions as well as uniqueness based on ethical values”. According to Sæther and Di Lorenzo Tillborg (Chapter 3), Sweden has adopted innovative approaches from abroad, such as Venezuela’s El Sistema, and pioneered new approaches of its own, in order to better meet the needs of diverse students in music education, particularly as it has accepted more new migrants per capita (mostly refugees from the Middle East and Central Asia) than any other European nation in recent years. How such social changes contribute to the sustainability of music education, and the extent to which music traditions change as a result, remains to be seen.
Other topics arising from the chapters Several other themes appeared in various chapters contributed to this book, and offer a fruitful opportunity to reflect on similarities and differences seen among the various nations discussed, as well as between Nordic and Baltic regions. This includes discussion of such topics as “artistic research” (arts-based research in the fields of music performance and composition),
Learning from music education leadership 261 the use of new technologies in music programs, perceived effects of the public “Culture School” model, and the changing role of research in Nordic higher education institutions. Philosophy, empirical research, and artistic research In each of the Nordic countries, at least one major scholar has focused on philosophical approaches to scholarship, including, for instance, Frede Nielsen (Denmark), Øivind Varkøy (Norway), Eva Georgii-Hemming (Sweden), Cecilia Ferm Almqvist (Sweden), and Marja Heimonen (Finland). As Heimonen describes in Chapter 8, Finland has especially been important for pragmatist approaches to music education philosophy. Each of the Nordic and Baltic countries has been producing empirical research as well, but as Helga Rut notes in Chapter 6, there has been a strong preference for qualitative research in Scandinavia, while Iceland and the Baltic countries tend to have more quantitative studies. There is also a small amount of historical research on music education in Norway, Sweden, and Estonia, but even less elsewhere. Across recent decades, each Northern European nation has seen new initiatives that seek to have both school education and teacher education use approaches that are more convincingly bolstered by research findings. In general, academic research has become more highly valued and emphasized than ever before (and often tied to funding), which is certainly evident in the field of music education, particularly in terms of what is almost an exponential increase of research outputs in English language. Within the disproportionately large corpus of qualitative studies in Scandinavia, there tends to be a strong emphasis on analyses of interview data with reference to philosophical theory, which might even be regarded as having become a typical Scandinavian approach to music education research during the first two decades of the 21st century. As Chapter 6 demonstrates, we should reflect on not only the distinctive strengths of this approach, but also what may inevitably be missed by not more frequently using the array of other research methods potentially available for advancement of knowledge in our field. In addition to philosophical scholarship and empirical research in the field of music education, another academic development calls for discussion. Namely, especially in Scandinavia, a practice known as “artistic research” (or arts-based research) has rapidly grown in popularity, and is now influencing the field of music education in various ways. Artistic research occupies a kind of middle ground between traditional academic research and artistic practice, in that according to artistic research new knowledge can be produced through systematic reflection on one’s own artistic work. This means that performers and composers who carefully reflect on their goals and achievements in a musical project, particularly one that requires development of new musical techniques, are capable of developing new insights of value to music educators.
262 David G. Hebert and Torunn Bakken Hauge For various reasons, some music educators have been resistant to the notion of artistic research, and in some cases their concerns may be legitimate. For instance, one of the reasons for the development of artistic research is that composers and performers often sense that their creative activity is insufficiently recognized by academic institutions, and that it is politically to their advantage to call what they do “research” even if they actually intend to continue composing and performing as always before without developing or sharing any systematic reflection on their creative work. Also, some of what has been called “artistic research” e ither consists of very simple reflections (from which very little is learned) or is based on work that is artistically insignificant, with minimal technical proficiency, insufficient originality, or potential for impact. Some empirical researchers and philosophers in music education also fear that if students are permitted to do “artistic research” instead of more standard academic forms of scholarship, they may see “artistic research” as an easier way to complete their degrees without ever learning to appreciate the value of academic research. We would like to stress that although there may be legitimacy to such concerns, nevertheless, theoretically, if done well, artistic research may potentially offer a special contribution to the field of music education. In fact, this seems to a lready be happening in Northern Europe, where there are now several fine examples of this kind of contribution (Einarsson, 2017; Frisk & Östersjö, 2013; Poutiainen, 2009). Still, especially at the master’s level, it remains important for students to learn to appreciate the value of academic research, and we are hopeful that artistic research and academic research can attain a balanced role in the curriculum. Changing terms and ensembles: from large / classical to small / popular Change has been so rapid in our field that music teachers from the Nordic countries who visit international conferences often face misunderstandings when they try to explain what they actually teach. For instance, when a teacher from Scandinavia explains to an Australian that at her school in Copenhagen she teaches courses in “didactics” and “band rotation”, the Australian may wonder, “Why on earth would she actually want to teach in a didactic way?” (thinking that didactic means a pedantic and condescending approach rather than deeply reflective pedagogy), or “I wonder what band rotation looks like in Northern Europe” (assuming that band rotation is a way of configuring the movements of a marching band comprised of brass and percussion instruments, rather than having students take turns playing their parts on different rock band instruments: guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, voice). From these examples, it is clear that “band” now usually means something very different in Northern European music education, as does the term didaktik. However, that is just the beginning. Professors from North America, upon visiting a Nordic music education conference,
Learning from music education leadership 263 have reportedly mused, when they heard numerous references to the term “Bildung”, that the speakers might mean “bull dung” or the excrement of a male cow (cf. Heimonen, 2014; Kertz-Welzel, 2017; Nielsen, 2007; Varkøy, 2015). This naturally made them wonder whether the speakers were rather bluntly dismissing someone else’s claims as “bullshit”. Actually, the concept Bildung is of enormous importance in contemporary European education, traceable to the philosophy of Hegel, and is recently starting to receive serious attention in North America and elsewhere. There are many amusing misunderstandings of this kind, which are due to the rapid development of new concepts and practices as well as widespread popularization of English as the preferred language for international scholarship (as discussed by Helga Rut Gudmundsdottir, in Chapter 6). In the chapter on Sweden by Eva Sæther and Adriana Di Lorenzo Tillborg (Chapter 3), it becomes quite clear that popular music has across recent decades become dominant in Swedish music education, an observation that confirms what is reported earlier by Cecilia Ferm Almqvist (Chapter 2). In Denmark, Lars Brinck (Chapter 7) acknowledges that his entire institution in Denmark specializes in popular music, so their music education master’s program emphasizes training of teachers in rock music and related genres. From the perspectives of some in the field of music education research this is a commendable development, and many regard the Nordic region to be on the “cutting edge” internationally in terms of popular music education (Smith et al., 2017). For a few generations it has been almost impossible for Scandinavians to be accused of teaching music that is completely out of touch with the preferences of their students, which is something that cannot be said about many other parts of the world. However, there are also strong and compelling arguments for including a substantial amount of other kinds of music, beyond popular music, in schools. For instance, students could benefit greatly from rich lessons in traditional folk genres, classical art music, non-Western traditions, and so on, and arguably miss out if these kinds of universally valued cultural heritage are not meaningfully included in curriculum. With the shift from classical to popular music emphases also comes new forms of teaching and different institutional needs, since the most high-profile classical music ensembles are rather large, while rock bands are often much smaller. This requires not only different kinds of instruments, but also sound-proofed rooms and recording studios typically in multiple smaller spaces than that required by orchestras and large choirs. New institutions and music technologies One very widespread and critically important phenomenon for our field – seen in both Nordic and Baltic countries – is the public Culture Schools (see Table 14.3), a system of state-sponsored institutions available in most communities that offer supplemental education on musical instruments, singing, and other forms of music learning, mostly for children and adolescents as a
264 David G. Hebert and Torunn Bakken Hauge free after-school activity. Previous studies have demonstrated how these institutions play a critically important role for music education in the Nordic nations (Heimonen, 2003). In the 1990s, there was a widespread expansion of “music schools to become ‘culture schools’, including other art forms as well. This is a tendency throughout Scandinavia” (Jørgensen, 2004, p. 295). Such institutions are also important in the Baltic countries, and seem to be an important characteristic feature that sets Northern Europe apart from many other parts of the world in which extracurricular music learning is less formalized and more reliant on the private sector. There is strong evidence that Northern Europe produces a disproportionately large number of prominent musicians across an array of genres – classical, jazz, folk music, popular music – and much of the credit for this achievement must go to the region’s Culture School systems, which offer practical training to many musicians from beginning to advanced levels. Technological developments associated with digitization have had a profound impact on how music is created and consumed in the c ontemporary world, with important implications for both musical artists and consumers (Hebert, 2018a; Hebert & Williams, in press; Rykowski & Hebert, 2018). Researchers based in the Nordic countries were relatively early to note the relevance of music technology, and social media, for innovations in music education (Folkestad, 1996; Salavuo, 2006), and have continued to do work that expands this field into new directions (Hebert, 2016; Partti, 2014; Ruthmann & Hebert, 2018). In Chapter 13, Bård Husby and David Hebert demonstrate how new technologies are rapidly changing the landscape of music education in Northern Europe, which is home to some particularly innovative initiatives in this field. Specifically, they describe how “Biophilia is able to engage children on a deep level”, and they appear to find pride in having made a piece of music, even when the qualities of this music may not be recognized as such by others. The multimodality and rich stimuli of a Biophilia classroom setting is also likely to be a good environment for children with learning difficulties. The authors even predict that “someday we will look back and see how Biophilia helped to pave the way”, as the field of music education seeks to develop evermore innovative approaches that fully harness the potential of new technological developments. Social media and music technologies have certainly improved the efficiency and effectiveness of what we are able to achieve through music education, and hold great promise for the future, but there still remains something profoundly meaningful about the interactive and acoustic experience of live performance that we suspect can never be fully replaced. Despite such developments, students will continue to need teachers who can directly apprehend their challenges, instill knowledge and inspire growth, and teacher networks will continue to need face-to-face meetings that cultivate higher levels of professionalism.
Learning from music education leadership 265 Indigenous peoples, minorities, and recent immigrants At several points during the development of this book, we encouraged our contributors from each Northern European nation to discuss Sami and other Indigenous and minority peoples wherever possible, but very few were able to come up with anything to write on this topic in their chapters. The minimal space offered to Indigenous traditions may be due to an array of issues, including the fact that in some nations there are only a small number of entirely separate schools for Sami that have their own educational practices (Todal, 2003). Moreover, minimal awareness of Indigenous music traditions among teacher educators is an undeniable problem in North America and other continents – a widespread, even global, challenge to educators – but excellent resources are increasingly available that promise to diminish this issue (Burton & Dunbar-Hall, 2002; Hilder, 2014; Locke & Prentice, 2016). It is also worth noting that Sami joiks (traditional songs) tend to be among the more challenging music traditions for culturally unfamiliar listeners to appreciate, yet even joiks contain much material that is intelligible and rather easy to learn as one accepts that they rely on a very different musical system with different rules (Krumhansl, 2000; Krumhansl et al., 2000). An article by Olle Edström describes two Sami contemporary musicians in particular, Nils-Aslak Valkeapää and Mari Boine Persen, as having attained “superstar” status (2003, p. 278). It seems particularly relevant for music teacher educators to note that Boine (Persen) reportedly pursued her studies “at a teacher training college”, where “she mostly tried to disassociate herself from her Samish background” (p. 278). However, later Boine achieved great success by emphasizing her Sami heritage in musical performance, ultimately attaining recognition as “the first truly international artist of Sami origin” (Edström, 2003, p. 280). In 2018, she was awarded the Norwegian “Prize of Honour” (Spellemansprisen), a prestigious recognition that goes every year to just one world-class musician in Norway. Clearly, Boine is an example of a Sami artist whose work may be relevant to schools, and educators should regard her approach to musical fusion as something provocative and worth classroom discussion rather than as artistry that is so transcultural as to be too problematic for educational use. Most creative musicians eschew a dogmatic approach to genres and traditions, so arguably whatever kind of music Sami musicians make and call “Sami music” is exactly that, and authentic in some way even if it is fused with various kinds of jazz or popular music influences. In 2017, music education students in Bergen, for instance, performed a large work, the Sami Mass composed by Frode Fjellheim, with Trine Daviknes as conductor. From the perspective of some Northern Europeans, it is very surprising to see significant numbers of Arabic-speaking people immigrating to this region in the 21st century. However, we should not forget that Arabic explorers from the 10th century, such as Ahmad ibn Fadlan and Ibrahim ibn Yakub, produced some of the very earliest written accounts of Viking rituals, as
266 David G. Hebert and Torunn Bakken Hauge well as of life among Jewish citizens in Central and Eastern Europe more than 1000 years ago. Moreover, some of the earliest European philosophers regarded as central to Christian theology, including St. Augustine (354–430) and Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) – discussed in relation to Lithuania in Chapter 12 – were deeply influenced by Arabic thought. Europeans tend to recognize Augustine’s influence on the development of scholarship among monks, as well as later educational philosophies and research methodologies that would follow (such as phenomenology and hermeneutics), but often forget that he was actually a Berber from North Africa. Similarly, Thomas Aquinas, the other scholar commonly credited as the first Christian academic philosopher, carefully read the work of Arabic philosophers, including Avicenna (Ibn Sinna), Al Kindi, Al Ghazali, and most notably Averroes (who he respectfully called “The Commentator”). Even the first French pope, Sylvester II, read Arabic, and most likely studied in the libraries in Cordoba and Toledo (possibly even in Morocco), since during his time – around the year 1000 – these cities offered scholarly resources that were far superior to any libraries in Europe. Later, when music was first established as an academic subject at the universities in Oxford and Paris, students were required to read Latin translations of the work of Arabic scholar Al Farabi (known in Latin as Alpharabius), which at the time was the most advanced musicological treatise available. Cultural diversity is certainly not new to Northern Europe, but the extent to which it intensified up to the year 2015 represents entirely new challenges for educational policy and practice. Such minorities as the Roma and Sami have lived in the Nordic countries for many generations, but migration from the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia has only recently intensified. In the field of music education, due to the arrival of large numbers of refugees, there is recently a fairly widespread concern regarding how to most appropriately offer music to students from families that subscribe to various branches of Islamic faith, in which it is assumed that music and dance are very sensitive matters (Harris, 2006; Larsson, 2009). Still, previous studies have described the work of world-class Syrian musicians that continues even while living as refugees in Europe and North America (Hebert, 2018b; Hebert et al., 2018). Moreover, Islam is arguably as diverse as Christianity, and often defies common stereotypes. In some Muslim-majority countries, such as Uzbekistan for instance, it is not unusual for adult women to sing, dance, and even drink alcohol in public with their heads uncovered, all of which are behaviors that some Europeans assume to be completely forbid erglund has documented the array of complex den. Research by Jenny B issues that arose when a teacher used music as part of her teaching for a Muslim school in Sweden (Berglund, 2008), but studies of this kind are needed in many other contexts. It follows that one should not assume such students are entirely unfamiliar with European heritage nor expect they will be able to change European customs. Rather, refugees and other recent migrants simply want to live in
Learning from music education leadership 267 safety with dignity, and to keep their own customs to the extent possible in the new context. Still, this is clearly a topic that calls for more research in our field, with developments that continue to challenge educators to determine the most appropriate and effective approaches. In her latest book, Alexandra Kertz-Welzel, a keynote speaker for our 2017 NNME intensive course, argues “for music education as facilitating lifelong musical engagement and learning to value diversity in different parts of professional and individual lives” (Kertz-Welzel, 2018, p. 12). Such valuing of diversity can entail a genuine appreciation for completely different ways of understanding musical expression and even the very foundational principles of education (Reagan, 2018). Adopting such a broad and open view toward our field enables the kind of creative thinking that is most likely to lead to development of new innovations and effective methods. Next, based on the experience of 20 years managing the NNME, we offer some practical recommendations for educators who may consider developing similar networks in other parts of the world.
Lessons learned from 20 years of leadership: what are the challenges? For a leader to have success with an international higher education network like NNME, it is prerequisite that one establishes a very clear idea of what one wants to achieve with the organization. The purpose of the network must be well founded, and frequently communicated through concrete and understandable goals and agreed upon across the network, at least among the group of institutional coordinators (ICs). At the very first meeting of NNME representatives in 1997, Torunn was the only woman. She was a relatively young lecturer at a teacher training college, having no experience of international work other than her own studies abroad, but she had a great interest in international cooperation. The other ICs were well-known authorities, authors of important curricula and books in music pedagogy, coming from the largest and most prominent music academies in the Nordic countries, and all were men at least ten years older than Torunn. However, this did not cause any major problems. During the two-day-long meeting in Bergen in 1997, the ICs found the network concept to be innovative and beneficial for their own institutions, and there seemed to be no obstacles. Still, the network nearly collapsed several times across the years, mostly due to lack of communication. One example was in 2001, when Kai Karma was not replying about the NNME course that he was supposed to organize in Finland that year. It was to be the third course in the four-year project Music pedagogy in a Nordic perspective. For a while, his colleague Marjut Laitinen was recruited instead, but she also turned out to be too busy. Finally, Eiliv Olsen and Torunn decided to travel from Bergen to Helsinki to talk with them. To their big surprise, Kai Karma met them at the airport
268 David G. Hebert and Torunn Bakken Hauge and was very positive about organizing the course. Karma had rich experience with quantitative research methods, but he was also very interested in brain research at that time. He invited some Swedish specialist researchers within medicine to the course, which turned out to be a successful decision. However, Eiliv and Torunn found that they had to repeat the same procedure for the fourth course in Stockholm. They went to Stockholm to talk with the responsible persons at Royal Academy of Music, and after this meeting a very successful course was organized and implemented. In conclusion, it is important in a network of this kind that the leader should stay in touch with people, speak with them frequently, meet faceto-face, and also have informal contact. It does not work to rely only on formal strategies through mail. Communication and empathy are generally very important – trying to learn from others, both their strengths and shortcomings, rather than judging them. One must try to see the positive side of others even though things are never completely perfect, and keep the lines of communication open. Goals for interpersonal interaction should include empathy combined with persistence. Frequent communication is quite important to keep a network going. One should never write angry e-mails even when people for various reasons are unresponsive or show a lack of commitment to quality, honoring procedures, or timeliness. Even closely neighboring countries have cultural differences. One must be very careful about communication so as not to offend, since misunderstandings are common in international projects due to cultural differences. Leadership competence – including the skills of analyzing, diagnosing, reflecting, planning, organizing, evaluating, reporting, and administering at all levels – is critically important for network success. The visions and strategy of the network must be in accordance with the financing sources – the overall goals of the Nordplus program as well as the strategy of one’s own institution. Criteria and procedures for participation in the activities must be clear and repeatedly communicated to the ICs. One has to be patient and persistent, and must insist on following the established criteria and proper procedures. Planning takes time, and normally a year from the first initiative is necessary. Since there is great competition in achieving financial support from Nordplus, each year demands a solid proposal. For some, it can also be a great challenge to obtain financial support from one’s own institution. For some courses, especially in the early years, we managed to receive a positive result with solid funding from Nordplus in June, but when it became time for implementing the course in the Autumn some partner institutions had to withdraw, either fully or partly, due to other plans having been made or due to financial problems with the 50% self-financing. A lot of energy was used to include more students and teachers so that all of the grants could be spent. We even included more institutions, some of which have later withdrawn, while others have stayed. One must be as inclusive as possible in planning so no ICs feel left out of decisions. At the same time, one has to be efficient and decisive. At the
Learning from music education leadership 269 network meetings one mainly discusses and evaluates long-term strategies with the activities and makes plans for coming applications, deciding upon the procedures being implemented. During the first eight years, it was mainly the coordinator and host who wrote the applications. Later, Torunn decided to also to include ICs from other institutions and countries, in addition to the host and the coordinator, making a project committee with three to four representatives. The effect of this decision was not only more solid and thorough applications and planning. The ICs and their institutions also showed more responsibility and did not withdraw as easily. With this new strategy, we managed already a year ahead of the course to decide which teachers should participate in the course – which teachers would have a keynote or workshop, and which teachers would chair and comment on student sessions. With the expansion of the project proposal committee, it was also possible to find keynote speakers from more partner institutions. This more fully fits the spirit of the network since it enabled sharing of resources across all institutions. Selecting the right institutions and ICs is crucial. Each IC must have a fundamental understanding of the purpose of the network and also of its own role. Also, the ICs must be good and responsible leaders and organizers, genuinely interested in doing a good job for the network. In NNME we are quite fortunate to have mostly had very responsible and well-functioning ICs. In other networks that Torunn has either participated in or led, there have been some rather difficult or even manipulative people. Torunn struggled at first to remind the accomplished professors in NNME in 1997 that the purpose of the network had to stay in focus, that they were ICs organizing student learning, and that they did not only represent themselves or their own research. We already had a research network in the Nordic countries: NNMPF – Nordisk Nettverk for Musikkpedagogisk Forskning – including inland, some of the same institutions in the Nordic countries such as F Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. That network, which appears to have never attained government funding, was designed to serve the needs of doctoral students, but NNME was supposed to be a different kind of network, with a stronger focus on teaching. It was a great challenge to include the Baltic countries in 2008. At that time, there was still little interaction between the Baltic and Nordic countries, while Baltic institutions had few well-developed websites in English. It was not easy to find suitable partners, but through connections and word of mouth, we were able to develop some contacts. Some committee members had a few contacts, and they provided names and addresses, so Torunn started sending invitations in an effort to include some new Baltic partners and develop good relations in Baltic countries. In the beginning, this cooperation was a bit difficult because some Baltic members could only write in German or Russian, rather than English. Some institutional contacts in the Baltic countries turned out to be noncommunicative and unable to participate, so in some cases it did not work well. We are very happy now to have
270 David G. Hebert and Torunn Bakken Hauge four Baltic institutions from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania included, and these institutions are now fully integrated. In the beginning, most courses were offered in Scandinavian languages, as was done in NNMPF, the aforementioned music education research network. Since music pedagogy in the Nordic countries was a relatively young field, the Scandinavian music professors wanted to develop a scholarly legacy of music pedagogy in their own language. They were also skeptical about their own students’ ability to use and communicate at a satisfactory level in English. As in NNMPF, the IC from Sibelius Academy in Finland and his student participants were unhappy with this situation. They felt handicapped with having to use their second language while all the other participants could use their first language. For me as a leader this was a great dilemma, and for several years this topic was raised at our annual network meetings. Having parallel sessions for student presentations was not a good solution. The Finnish participants did not feel that they participated on equal conditions as the other students who could present in their native tongue. The Icelandic IC, Helga Rut Gudmundsdottir, who joined the network in 2002, also discusses this issue in her chapter. For some years we had an unsatisfactory mixture of Scandinavian and English until 2008 in Finland when we included Estonia and Latvia, and decided then it was necessary to only use English as the NNME course language. Music teacher education at master’s level in preparation for general compulsory education in the Nordic and Baltic countries takes place within different types of institutions with different types of infrastructure. In some locations, these courses are within a music academy or music conservatorium, or a music faculty at a university, while in other places the music course is an integrated part of a teacher education faculty or a teacher training college along with other subjects in teacher education. The need for self-financing of some network activities tends to cause various challenges. One of these challenges is to obtain financial support from one’s own institution. Since the inherent value of our field is underappreciated, music educators are often marginalized in relatively less prestigious departments or higher education institutions – teachers colleges or education faculties – and tend to face a greater struggle for institutional support than educators in the favored disciplines. When Torunn started the network in 1997 she had no financial support from her own institution, only verbal encouragement from a couple of colleagues who worked with the music hovedfag (study line) and who saw the importance of the activity, not only for their students, but also for their teachers or academic staff and for the academic field as a whole. One of these colleagues was lecturer Eiliv Olsen who at that time was the project leader of the music pedagogy hovedfag. He encouraged Torunn to apply for financial support at the Faculty of Education, and after some struggles, she finally attained the needed financial support. There have been particular financial challenges for the Baltic countries, especially for the intensive courses. Nordplus for several years has demanded
Learning from music education leadership 271 that the institutions provide at least 50% self-financing for travel and board costs in addition to the working hours. The Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences (LUES) belonged to a faculty of education, which was not willing to provide the 50% self-financing part of these courses. For some years, NNME tried to offer mobility grants for the Baltic countries, for which there was not such a “rule” requiring 50% self-financing. It worked to some degree; however, due to their low salaries most teachers and students could not afford any private self-financing for the NNME intensive courses. However, Erasmus exchange (an EU program) was fully financed from LUES, so for several years, bilateral Erasmus agreements made it possible for teachers at LUES to take part in the NNME intensive courses or visit partner institutions in the network. Baltic teachers who have come to Bergen on a Nordplus grant have often stayed in Torunn’s house during that week so the grant from Nordplus could go entirely to travel costs. In 2017, Nordplus removed the requirement for 50% self-financing of travel costs for intensive courses since the institutions are also supposed to contribute with working hours for their own teachers. Very often in the past, teachers for ideological reasons have volunteered these working hours themselves, which is not ideal, so removal of this barrier is an important new development for NNME.
Concluding remarks As this book reaches its conclusion, it may be helpful to recall a few distinctive features of social life and governance in Northern Europe. Specifically, it is important to note that for decades, the Nordic countries have been consistently rated highest in the world for gender equity in international surveys. They were among the first nations in the world to grant women the right to vote, and women presently hold many powerful jobs as CEOs and government officials. This may help to explain why in the Nordic states, such essential services as education (including university), healthcare, and childcare are mostly free of charge, at enormous government expense. Moreover, generous family leave policies (for both mothers and fathers) require that employers support parenthood, keeping jobs available until parents are ready to return to work. The Baltic countries, since independence from R ussia, have tended to look toward the Nordic countries as their main models for development of social institutions at the same time that Baltic societies remain committed to sustaining their rich and distinctive cultural heritage. With this background in mind, we can meaningfully review some essential points about music education in this region. It is evident from many publications, in both local languages and English, that music education across much of Northern Europe is shaped by notions of ‘democracy’ as well as two key concepts borrowed from Germany: Bildung and Didaktik. This orientation tends to result in learner-centered approaches in which students have considerable control over the direction taken in their education. Nordic and
272 David G. Hebert and Torunn Bakken Hauge Baltic state policies that support free or heavily subsidized extracurricular music training in Culture Schools play an essential role toward strengthening music education, especially in childhood and adolescence. Popular music education is embraced in Nordic music education more than in many other parts of the world, playing a prominent role in schools. Upon visiting a school music program in Scandinavia, one is even more likely to see students playing in a rock band with electric instruments than in an orchestra with traditional acoustic instruments, and this has been the situation for a few decades. Choirs are also very widespread in schools and communities across all of Northern Europe, and along with popular music and folk music there is a permissive attitude toward singing of sacred music in the public sphere partly due to the legacy of State churches in the Nordic countries and Orthodox and Catholic traditions in Baltic states. In Norway, the enormous “Cultural Rucksack” program employs hundreds of professional artists and exposes thousands of schoolchildren to professional arts performances each year. Professional music ensembles in the other Nordic and Baltic states also have many outreach projects in schools and communities. Migration, refugees, and students from non-European backgrounds are widely regarded as entailing an especially important recent challenge for the field of music education in Northern Europe. Particularly in Finland and Estonia, teaching is viewed as a relatively elite profession, and music teacher education programs are highly selective, admitting only a small proportion of applicants. Music education research in Northern Europe tends to emphasize qualitative and philosophical approaches (including phenomenological studies, discourse analyses, and arts-based reflexive studies), but there are also some robust quantitative and historical studies on selected topics, especially music in early childhood. What did we discover through the course of developing this book? Reflecting on their role as editors of another book in comparative music education from nearly 20 years ago, David Hargreaves and Adrian North mentioned that their intention was to maintain an acceptable balance between, on the one hand, the inevitable diversity of approaches and salient national issues and, on the other, the need to ‘steer’ each contributor in order to ensure that the book possessed an acceptable level of coherence. (Hargreaves & North, 2000, p. xiii) Similarly, we have sought to cultivate a collection of provocative chapters to enable meaningful national and regional comparisons, while still allowing for sufficient freedom on the part of individual authors. We sense that the authors’ unique voices have been maintained, even while nudged toward addressing a set of unifying themes to make the volume sufficiently cohesive. This is our first book to be formally developed through this network, and it offers a general introduction to the field of music education in Northern
Learning from music education leadership 273 Europe, but there is certainly a strong rationale to produce further books that more systematically explore specific topics at a deeper level. Production of such books can be coordinated through the leadership structure of the NNME, and might include the writings of selected master’s students in collaboration with professors. Future books from the network could benefit from using such approaches as historical ethnomusicology (McCollum & Hebert, 2014), or might use philosophical strategies to clarify concepts that are prominent in contemporary European education (Heimonen, 2014; Nielsen, 2007; Varkøy, 2015), or the kinds of quantitative methods discussed in Chapter 6. Such books could develop new knowledge to extend on such themes as how national identity is constructed through music education (Hebert & Kertz-Welzel, 2016), how public rituals are sustained through music traditions (Hebert, Kallio, & Odendaal, 2012), effects of global forces on local musical practices and policies (Hebert, 2018a, 2018b; Hebert & Heimonen, 2013), responses to human migration and minorities (Hebert & Karlsen, 2010; Hebert & Saether, 2014; Hofvander-Trulsson, 2010; Mansikka, Westvall, & Heimonen, 2018), and educational responses to new technologies and developments in popular culture (Brinck, 2014; Christophersen & Gullberg, 2017; Hauge, 2014; Hebert et al., 2017; Hebert & Williams, in press). Human institutions and systems of governance are invariably complex phenomena, and in the case of this book, they are considered in relation to the subject area of music, a most profoundly evocative yet often underappreciated art. The fact that music is such an important feature of virtually all notable public rituals and mass movements is compelling testimony to its importance, and we find throughout Northern Europe a strong interest in sustaining cultural heritage while also saving space for the cultivation of new artistic innovations. We are hopeful that this book offers a unique perspective on music education from a dynamic part of the world, while also documenting changes across a particular period of recent history and vividly demonstrating the unique value of international partnerships.
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Index
art and music schools see culture schools artistic research (arts-based research) 32, 112, 115, 247, 260, 261–262 arts integration 195–196, 199, 205, 209–219; see also curriculum audience(s) 8, 20, 40, 60, 67–69, 71–77, 103, 122, 166 band rotation 17, 258, 262 bands see music ensembles Bildung 15, 19, 59, 103, 128–129, 263, 271 Biophilia 32, 102, 222–246, 264 Björk 32, 102, 223–243 Bologna Process 180; see also European Union; see also restructuring Brexit 3, 248; see also European Union China 115, 184, 255 choirs see music ensembles Christianity 142, 193, 201, 266, 272; Catholic 194, 272; Nordic state church (Lutheran/Protestant) 194, 272; Orthodox 272; sacred music 272 classical music (art music) 3, 53–54, 66, 70, 84, 85, 88, 99, 107–109, 115, 128, 148, 151, 212, 227, 237, 240, 249, 262–263, 264; see also music ensembles collaborative learning 4, 54, 55, 57 collective practice 115 creativity 3, 12, 14, 41, 46, 59, 60, 108, 110, 112, 115, 121, 123, 126, 128, 132, 149, 164–166, 170–172, 177, 183, 184, 196–198, 201, 217–220, 222–227, 235–236, 241, 249–250, 256–259, 262, 265, 267 critical friendship 20, 39, 43, 58
cultural diversity 15, 18, 25, 27, 50–63, 65, 67, 81, 95, 122, 123, 127, 133, 147, 148, 227, 260, 266–267, 272 culture schools 252–253, 263, 264, 272 curriculum: reform to 13, 14, 132, 237– 238; marginalization of arts subjects 54, 59, 222, 254, 270; multiculturalism in 18, 227, 263; national curriculum 13, 14, 100, 102, 123, 126, 141–154, 158, 179, 180, 184, 186, 193, 237, 239, 255; integrated arts 195–196, 199, 205, 209–219; integration with science and technology 225, 234; justification of 83, 108, 115, 177, 199, 201, 203; universality of 87, 115 democracy 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 22, 24, 25, 26, 28–30, 38–47, 50, 51, 53, 56, 58–60, 65, 87, 99, 108, 111, 114, 123–125, 131, 141, 144, 146, 176, 177, 197, 198, 204, 238–239, 249–250, 257–258, 271 dichotomies 29, 88, 181 didaktik (didactic) 262, 271 educational reforms 4, 5, 53, 54, 132, 144, 155, 179–181, 186, 223, 254 El Sistema 28, 51–59, 84, 260 Emotional Imitation Method 31, 192–221 Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre 12, 23, 26, 30, 141, 145, 156, 168, 176 European Union (EU) 3, 6, 144, 175, 248, 256 evaluation 15, 19, 24, 26, 50, 67, 68, 69, 75, 96, 103, 110, 120, 148, 165, 178, 179, 183, 204, 205, 209, 225, 241, 268, 269 extracurricular activities 25, 52, 100, 115, 120, 185, 203, 216, 218, 237, 264, 272; see also culture schools
278 Index GDP (gross domestic product) 2, 251 gender: (in)equity of 16, 27, 44, 45, 88, 124–125, 129–131, 257–258, 271; theories of 45–46, 124–125, 258 globalization 7, 24, 30, 50, 57, 60, 65, 67, 81–91, 121, 132, 141, 144, 248, 260 glocalization 51, 87–88 grounded theory 228–229; see also research habitus 55 heritage 3, 96, 145, 147, 166, 176, 238, 248, 256, 260, 263, 265, 266, 271, 273; see also tradition higher education 1, 3, 4–6, 11–12, 26, 30, 31, 32, 108, 121, 132, 158–163, 165, 179–181, 183–188, 195, 224, 247, 250, 254–256, 258, 270 history 2, 3, 7, 8, 14, 15, 27–31, 33, 41, 45, 46, 67, 73, 74, 94, 98–100, 102, 107, 112, 113, 115, 119, 124, 131, 132, 141–144, 145, 157, 166, 169, 175, 193–195, 205, 213, 219, 220, 223, 229, 240, 247–249, 260, 261, 272, 273 human development 108–111 Iceland 1–3, 7, 12, 16, 19–22, 26, 27, 29, 32, 65, 66, 92–106, 112–113, 176, 180, 181, 224, 225, 227–229, 234, 235, 237–239, 242, 248, 251–253, 257, 261, 270 Icelandic School Band Association 101 Icelandic Symphony Orchestra (ISO) 100, 102 identity 95, 111, 128, 146, 175–176, 235; construction of 111, 141, 143, 147, 181, 273; ‘Identitation’ 65–66 immigrants/immigration see cultural diversity improvisation 29, 66, 69, 99, 108, 110, 112, 146, 149, 170, 172, 211, 219, 249, 258 inclusion 7, 18, 24, 25, 27–29, 39–49, 51, 53, 55, 56–59, 81, 94, 93, 97, 99, 111, 114, 121, 141, 257–258, 268; see also cultural diversity Indigenous peoples see Sami innovation 1, 10, 28, 33, 128, 132, 144, 146, 148, 160, 183, 192, 193, 230, 235, 236, 260, 264, 267, 273 Institutional Coordinator (IC) 11, 92, 155, 192, 267–271 integrated arts see arts integration
intensive course 5, 7, 9, 10, 14–27, 29, 57, 58, 64, 92, 94, 95, 97–99, 107, 111–113, 122, 155, 163, 166, 168, 170, 176, 177, 178, 256, 257, 267, 270, 271 interculturalism see cultural diversity international comparison 1, 2, 5, 15, 31, 84, 87, 99, 104, 115, 121, 130, 131– 133, 151, 156, 176–179, 183, 185–186, 194, 197, 247–254, 269, 271–272 iPad (electronic tablet) 32, 102, 223–226, 229, 231–235, 239, 241 Japan 250 jazz 3, 12, 29, 66, 68, 69, 70, 72, 73, 107, 108, 109, 111, 115, 148, 157, 169–172, 185, 212, 253, 254, 264, 265; see also rhythmic music justification arguments see music advocacy Kindergarten 30, 108, 115, 119, 143, 144, 145, 147, 148, 152, 157, 159 Kodály Method 99–100, 102, 145–147, 153 marginalization of arts subjects 54, 59, 222, 254, 270; see also curriculum mergers see restructuring midnight sun 32 modernity 2, 7, 23, 30, 59, 67, 71–72, 87, 108, 151, 156, 187, 193, 232, 239, 240, 243 multiculturalism see cultural diversity multimodality 241–242, 264 music advocacy; see also marginalization of arts music ensembles 2, 7, 44–46, 52, 54, 98, 99, 145, 169–173, 183–185, 218, 226, 240, 249, 252–254, 258, 262–263, 272; bands 2, 17, 68, 69, 77, 98, 101, 102, 111, 114, 115, 145, 177, 226, 240, 252–254, 258, 262–263, 272; choirs 2, 3, 30, 51, 52, 98, 100–102, 129, 142, 143, 145, 146, 149, 153, 158, 164, 166–167, 169–173, 183, 184, 185, 249, 252–254, 263, 272 music schools see culture schools music therapy 13, 123, 258–259 musical literacy 7, 29, 146, 149, 151, 223 national curriculum see curriculum national differences see international comparison
Index 279 NNME: Nordic Network for Music Education 1–33, 38–47, 50–51, 57–58, 60, 64–66, 77, 92–98, 103, 104, 107–109, 111, 113–114, 122, 130–132, 141, 155–157, 160, 161, 163, 166, 168, 170, 172–173, 176, 177–178, 192, 219, 222, 228, 239, 248, 250–260, 267–273; research collaborations in 6–7, 57–58, 113–114, 119–140, 122, 132, 156, 172–173 NOMU: Nordisk Orkestermusk Union 101 non-western music 3, 54, 88, 99, 123, 126, 249 Norbusang: Nordic choral association 100 Nordic cooperation see Nordic Council of Ministers Nordic Council of Ministers 10, 32, 96, 225, 235, 240, 248, 256; see also Nordplus Nordplus 4, 8, 9–11, 22, 24–26, 32, 39, 64, 77, 93, 96, 104, 141, 156, 170, 192, 219, 229, 242, 248, 256, 257, 268, 270, 271 Orff Approach 100, 102, 145–147, 153 performance 2, 9, 13, 15, 28, 32, 52, 54, 55, 60, 65–77, 100, 102, 107, 110, 114, 116, 123, 149, 157, 165, 170, 172, 173, 182, 183, 185, 186, 197, 203–205, 211, 212, 214–217, 226, 227, 231, 240, 247, 249, 250, 254, 258, 260–262, 264, 265, 272 philosophy 2, 13–15, 17, 27, 29, 31, 38–45, 65, 70, 71, 81, 83–85, 99, 103, 104, 122, 133, 151, 177–178, 198–201, 250, 256, 258, 261–263, 266, 272, 273; existentialist 15, 199; feminist 45, 258; phenomenology in 65, 103, 272; pragmatist 15, 200; romanticist 83–85 PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) 60, 178 pluralism 27, 40, 43, 133, 260; see also cultural diversity policy 4, 18, 28, 51, 56–57, 59, 121, 124–126, 130, 131, 143, 147, 148, 151, 160, 175, 176, 179, 187, 225, 255, 256, 260, 266; welfare state 3, 125 popular music education/pedagogy see rhythmic music professionalism/professionalization 6, 7, 68, 142, 151, 163, 166, 177, 264;
networks for 4, 5–6, 95, 151, 250, 256–257, degrees qualifications 8–9, 14, 52, 94, 98, 101, 102, 116, 120, 145, 158–159, 180–188, 252, 262 qualitative see research quantitative see research reflective pedagogy 60, 161; see also Bildung refugees see cultural diversity research: collaborations in 6–7, 57–58, 113–114, 119–140, 122, 132, 156, 172–173; international comparative 15, 131–133, 247–254, 271–273; qualitative 2, 18, 29, 103, 104, 123, 133, 261, 272; quantitative 18, 23, 29, 95, 103, 104, 123, 261, 268, 272, 273; Scandinavian approach to 15, 103–104, 261, 272 restructuring of institutions 5, 12, 31, 254–256 Reykjavik 2, 29, 65, 77, 93, 100, 101, 178, 225, 228, 234, 235, 243, rhythmic music 8, 12, 14–15, 17, 29, 68, 107–108, 110, 111, 115, 145; rhythmic music pedagogy (RMP) 14–15, 17, 68, 107–108, 157, 257; co-performance 15, 258; see also music ensembles Russia 2, 5, 99, 131, 142, 143, 145, 146, 175, 177, 179, 183, 186, 194, 197, 248–249, 269, 271 Sami 265–266 Scandinavia 2, 13, 14, 19, 23, 53, 56, 95–97, 99, 100, 124, 141, 157, 176, 177, 248, 249, 253, 256, 257–259, 261–264, 270, 272 scholarship see research science 14, 23, 52, 109, 143, 151, 157, 182, 185, 195, 199, 222–246, 254 self-criticism 81; self-staging 66, 67, 69, 73, 76, 77, self-censorship 66, 68, 70, 73–76 self-regulation 70, 76–77 sight-reading 102 singing/vocal 1, 12, 17, 22, 23, 28, 54, 66, 69–76, 100, 102, 108, 129, 142–147, 149, 153, 158, 166–172, 183–185, 193, 196, 197, 204, 208, 213, 217, 218, 233, 249, 253, 263, 272; see also choirs situated learning 112 social media 15, 57, 131, 264
280 Index social practice theory 67, 112 Song and Dance Festivals (Baltic) 3, 30, 143, 149, 152, 166, 176 Soviet Union (USSR), see Russia Stanislavski, Konstantin 197–198 sustainability 6, 7, 9, 11, 24–26, 28, 50, 51, 53–55, 57, 59, 65, 83, 87, 112, 127, 141, 147, 148, 151, 152, 155, 156, 222, 257, 260 talent and giftedness 72, 115, 124–126, 207, 257 technology: 8, 14, 27, 32, 39, 72, 102, 123, 128, 133, 157, 222–246, 264; social media 15, 57, 131, 264; Biophilia 32, 102, 222–246, 264 tradition 2, 3, 7, 20, 25, 27, 29–31, 41, 42, 46, 53, 54, 57, 66, 67, 84, 88, 95,
98–101, 104, 111, 120, 123–125, 131, 142–144, 146–148, 151–153, 158, 166, 175–178, 185, 186, 192–195, 197, 209, 218, 219, 222, 223, 226, 227, 236, 237, 239, 247, 248, 258–260, 261, 263, 265, 272, 273; see also heritage UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) 3, 166, 176 universality 6–9, 26–27, 65, 81–91, 222, 257, 259–260 Vikings 32, 265 vita activa 40–42 vita contemplativa 40–42, 256 world music see non-western music