ABSTRACT. My goal in this talk is to introduce an analytic strategy or thinking tool I call: “What’s the Problem Represented to be?”, and to suggest its usefulness for reflecting on key issues of debate in music education.

The “What’s the Problem Represented to be?” approach is commonly referred to as the WPR approach. First developed for use in public policy, it has since been adopted in many fields and topic areas. Its uptake can be explained in part by its usefulness in studying how we are governed, how governing take place. Governing here is understood in the broad sense of general societal administration rather than through conventional political institutions.

The WPR approach consists of seven forms of questioning and analysis that target modes of governing and governing knowledges, their presuppositions, their genealogy and their effects. It is best described as a problematization approach that studies how issues are problematized or conceptualized. The talk will explore what this description means and the implications that flow from deploying this thinking tool in music education.

The recent (June 2022) National Plan for Music Education, titled “The Power of Music to Change Lives”, provides a focus for illustrating how to apply WPR. The task, as I hope to illustrate, involves seeking out “proposals” in the Plan and indicating how these proposed solutions represent (or produce, or constitute) the “problem” of “music education”. Themes to be explored include: progression/development, inclusion and diversity, talent and creativity, teacher training and professionalism, and evidence-based policy. The goal is to open up a novel approach to debates that have engaged the field for decades. I rely on your judgement as to its utility.

ABSTRACT. Expert performers create a ‘theatre of performance’ to enthral their audiences on the concert stage. They understand the power of sight to sway audiences’ responses and choreograph and rehearse their stage behaviour. Music performance students are eager to learn about experts’ strategies for performativity and gain autonomy over their performance preparation. This study reports emerging music professionals’ self-evaluations of their performances following a series of performance workshops, where they experimented with stage entrance, stage presence and peak performance strategies. Roleplaying activities encouraged music students to consider performance by sight as well as sound.

Five early-career performers (M=4, F=1) took part in a two-hour Zoom workshop about evaluating their performances. Participants were asked to watch short excerpts of themselves performing in workshops, and rated the excerpts from most to least favourite. Participants discussed their impressions with the group and reflected on their developing performance personas, and identified their most successful strategies to achieve optimal performativity.

Participants welcomed the opportunity to self-critique their performances for performativity with trusted peers. They observed the audience’s viewpoint of their performances firsthand, and realised the effect of stage persona on the perception of performer. They were captivated by performances with visible passion, conviction and compelling stage demeanour. Participants were intrigued by how easily they could discern performers’ mindsets visually and praised the positive effect of confidence on body language. In group discussions, they reflected critically on their performance mastery and this novel experience encouraged self-directed learning for future performances. Results confirmed the importance of harnessing sight in performance and the value of self-evaluating effective strategies for the concert stage. This experiential learning opportunity facilitated critical thinking about the perception of music performance and promoted the transition from music student to emerging music professional.

ABSTRACT. Intervention studies are common in research, and the field of music education is no exception. However, most of these studies usually report an evaluation of the intervention, while the process of how the intervention was developed is rarely reported in detail. An intervention development study is a study that describes the process of turning an initial idea for an intervention into something that is ready for preliminary testing (e.g. a pilot study). Reporting this development process allows the intervention to be more transparent and reproducible, while potentially providing useful guidance for other researchers looking to develop interventions.

This paper describes and discusses the process that was undertaken to develop an online intervention that aims to help conservatoire piano students practise and prepare for performance effectively. Several studies were conducted to gather the information necessary to design the intervention including a systematic review of existing interventions for effective music practice; an interview study with conservatoire piano teachers; a questionnaire study with tertiary music students about their preferences; and a questionnaire study with conservatoires about modules addressing effective practice. Furthermore, I reviewed the literature on music practice, self-regulated learning, effective design of online interventions, and self-regulated learning interventions in other domains.

The paper will present key findings from these studies and reviews, and discuss how they informed the content and design of the intervention. I will discuss the factors that need to be taken into consideration when designing an intervention for music students and the challenges that can arise. It is hoped that this paper will be of use to researchers wishing to design interventions for music students, and encourage more publications of intervention development studies in the future.

ABSTRACT. This paper presents the initial findings of a recent survey carried out by Sheffield Performer and Audience Research Centre in collaboration with the music education charity, Peterborough Sings! The survey sought to investigate factors affecting and supporting the development of musical education and ambition within amateur choirs. It was administered online during 2022, and collected data from participants in lower- and upper-voice choirs across the United Kingdom, including choir members (n=362), choir directors (n=78), and choir committee members (n=137) representing approximately 114 lower- and 93 upper-voice choirs.

In this paper, we focus upon choir members’ perceptions of musical education and ambition in lower- and upper-voice choirs. First, we outline different choirs’ demographic characteristics, comparing the more recent spread of upper-voice choirs with the longstanding establishment of lower-voice choirs. Second, we discuss participants’ perceptions of the aims of their choirs and their motivations for involvement. Although almost half of surveyed choir members (n=176) considered the main aim of their choir to be to improve performance quality, members of lower-voice choirs typically rated performance-related aspects (such as concerts and tours) of greater importance than their upper-voice counterparts. In contrast, members of upper-voice choirs attributed greater importance to sociomusical factors such as opportunities provided by rehearsals to forget life’s demands and enjoy music-making. We explore the possible reasons behind these divergent perceptions, drawing on sociohistorical evidence for the different roles of amateur choirs in their local communities and national heritage.

Finally, we address the challenges facing these choirs, including those resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. We outline members’ perceived difficulties relating to the recruitment of younger singers, from more diverse backgrounds, and across voice parts. We conclude with preliminary recommendations for how amateur choirs may develop further opportunities for musical education and ambition while protecting their heritage and promoting greater diversity.

ABSTRACT. This study contributes toward a body of research investigating how music teaching and learning unfolds across the lifespan by exploring participants’ experiences in a choral camp specifically intended for adult music learners. Attendees spent one week away from their everyday lives to fully immerse themselves in singing. The camp was therefore an ideal focal point for an intrinsic case study, providing a bounded system in which the phenomenon of adult amateur singing manifested intensely. Social capital theory and adult learning theory provided lenses through which adult amateurs’ perspectives on and experiences with singing were described and interpreted. Participants included the camp’s arts administrator, the choral conductor, and 15 singers. Data sources included three semi-structured interviews with each participant (totaling 30 hours), ethnographic field notes composed during observations of the week’s social and musical activities (totaling 28.5 hours), and supporting documents. I analyzed the data through an inductive, iterative process featuring the constant comparative method and Creswell’s data analysis spiral. Participants characterized their singing experiences as mentally stimulating, socially engaging, musically challenging, and simply, “fun.” They perceived the following benefits of participation: intellectual challenge of learning new skills, satisfaction derived from the rehearsal process, sustained vocal technique during the process of aging, and peak aesthetic experiences. One theme revolved around participants’ value for collaborative effort and social connection, which was particularly salient in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Another primary theme involved singers’ awareness of the passage of time and desire to derive meaning from life experiences. They frequently referenced ineffable musical experiences that they perceived as improving the quality of their lives. Participant views gleaned in this study support theorization about the distinctive needs of adult amateur musicians, and are rich with implications for arts administrators, conductors, or educators who aim to engage this population of music learners.

ABSTRACT. Australian youth justice systems are in crisis: marred by entrenched inequity and bleak recidivism statistics, alongside recurring accounts of abuse and even torture. Almost all states and territories are engaged in extensive reviews and inquiries, seeking new and innovative ways to address entrenched disadvantage and injustice. As part of this, music programs have proliferated in both custodial youth justice settings, seen to offer youth transformative opportunities for exercising agency and voice. International research has noted that music programs support youth to process trauma; build confidence, self-esteem, and a sense of competence; learn professional skills; develop a sense of autonomy and agency; improve their self-control and emotional regulation; enhance their capacity to engage in and persist with learning; generate a sense of hope and goals for the future; and establish trust between peers and authority figures (as analysed in Kallio 2022). However, as definitions of youth justice oscillate between the ideals of ‘tough on crime’ penal populism and rising concerns for child welfare, musicians are required to navigate complex and shifting notions of purpose and responsibility, with significant ethical implications.

In this presentation, I share the findings of a poststructural analysis of youth justice policy in Australia, examining how the ‘problems’ of youth justice are produced through strategic plans, and how music facilitators might disrupt these representations to support a more child-centered and ethical response to youth crime. Through this analysis, music programs can be seen as arenas in which multiple, dynamic, and highly contextualized moral and political discourses are articulated and negotiated, with the music facilitator positioned as both an agent of social control and social change.

Kallio, A.A. (2022). The transformative potentials and politics of music in juvenile justice settings. Music Education Research, 24(4), 405-416. DOI: 10.1080/14613808.2022.2046719

ABSTRACT. How do we look after the wellbeing of musicians working in education and community contexts where the focus of work is looking after the wellbeing of others?

While there is a growing body of research demonstrating that participation in artistic and creative programmes can lead to an improvement in mental health and wellbeing, for many who work in secure settings, promoting the mental health and wellbeing of those they work with may come at the cost of maintaining personal mental health and wellbeing. Professions registered with professional councils have requirements for providing supervision and care, however there are no such requirements for musicians who work in similar contexts. The Artists’ Care project has developed from an established collaboration of researchers and practitioners with the aim of exploring how supervision and care can be structured, funded, and embedded within organisational structures to ensure that musicians are appropriately supported in their work.

This paper presents the findings of a Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) carried out to provide a rigorous and systematic critical understanding of current evidence as to best practice in supervision and care within registered professions with a view to developing Artists’ Care programmes for musicians working in education and community contexts.

Using a matrix of search terms relating to registered healthcare professions, contexts, and support types, 15,840 individual literature searches were carried out across 12 databases. 8677 abstracts were reviewed, inclusion criteria applied and 36 publications meeting our criteria were identified. A quality framework was then applied to ensure the quality of the evidence before conducting a critical analysis.

We present the findings of the REA and, in light of the paucity of research found on the quality of supervision for registered profession, consider the implications of this research for the wider artistic and healthcare professions.

ABSTRACT. Imposter phenomenon (IP) is the psychological construct describing potentially harmful feelings of fraudulence and fear of exposure as an intellectual phony in generally successful individuals. The purpose of this study was to investigate the IP feelings of undergraduate music education students. A total of 411 undergraduate students completed a survey that included the Graduate Music Student Scale and demographic items. Results indicated that imposter feelings were present in a substantial majority of participants. Participants’ imposter feelings were more frequent and severe than reported in most recent studies. Demographic variables had minimal effect on reported imposter feelings. Based on the potential harm caused by strong imposter feelings, these findings should concern students, faculty, and program leaders. Keywords: imposter phenomenon, undergraduate students, music education

ABSTRACT. The current state of knowledge indicates that music teachers do not always receive the support they need to carry out their teaching duties according to the curriculum. Several interacting factors affect the conditions for teaching music, such as the time allocated for instruction, the availability of musical instruments, and the suitability of the premises. However, studies have shown that there are also differences in the opportunities student teachers are given to develop their professional competence.

The certification requirements school music teachers vary from country to country. In Sweden, for example, there are several educational pathways for becoming a qualified music teacher in grades 1–6. The scope of music teacher training varies, depending on the programme and the university. This raises the question of whether a discrepancy in educational tracks results in different professional identities and unequal preparation for teaching music.

The present sub-study examines the state regulations and policy documents of music teacher education programmes in Swedish universities and university colleges. The policy analysis focuses on the selection of educational content, i.e., what is considered essential for student teachers to learn with regard to teaching music in grades 1–6. In addition, we analyse the relationship between those state regulations and their interpretations by institutions.

Our findings demonstrate that teacher education programmes differ markedly as to what is considered necessary professional knowledge for teaching music. The variety of interpretations results in inconsistency among higher learning institutions. Moreover, student teachers are given unequal opportunities to prepare themselves for a career as music teachers. Thus, there is a disparity in the quality of music education courses provided by elementary schools – a consequence of the lack of uniformity in teacher training programmes and the varying opportunities provided for those who wish to become professional music teachers.

ABSTRACT. Poster Presentation Many American educators are inadequately prepared to teach Asian, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Pacific Islander students despite rising diversity in schools. Lack of preparation extends to choral educators, who are often taught that the Eurocentric paradigm of centering Western classical music and bel canto technique will benefit their students. However, students identifying with different musical cultures may experience this paradigm as cultural assimilation, silencing, and exclusion. Choral educators with multiple musical-cultural competencies who employ a multi-centric music teaching paradigm can support and expand students’ musical-cultural identities rather than silence and alienate students. Therefore, such choral educators could be particularly well-prepared to enact pedagogy focused on cultural and linguistic plurality, described as culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) by the theorist Paris (2012). This poster presentation imparts preliminary findings from a multiple case study of three American high schools with choral educators skilled in multiple musical cultures. Students’ perceptions of their educators’ teaching were the focus of the study. Data collection consisted of field notes from classroom observations and interviews of teachers and students over a seven-week period. Preliminary findings suggest that the students find that teachers’ multi-centric epistemologies expand and support their musical-cultural identities. The educator with the greatest number of musical-cultural competencies employed the most aspects of CSP (Paris, 2012), including utilization of students’ ways of knowing, critical consciousness, emphasis on community and relationships, cultural dexterity, and both supporting and expanding students’ cultures. The potential implications for music teacher education may include promoting a deep understanding of multiple musical cultures to facilitate multi-centricity in the choral classroom, preparing educators to enact CSP for all students.

References Paris, D. (2012). Culturally sustaining pedagogy: A needed change in stance, terminology, and practice. Educational Researcher, 41(3), 93–97. https://doi.org/gcv663

ABSTRACT. Schulpraktisches Klavierspiel, which can roughly be translated as applied piano, is a subject taught to students of music education in Germany. From improvising and accompanying songs in various styles to score reading applied piano comprises a broad spectrum of playing the piano. In Germany, applied piano is usually taught in one on one tuition. Existing studies on this subject matter mostly shed light on graduates’ perspective, findings on students’ perspective and practices in situ are missing. Therefore, this project aims to reconstruct the students' perspective, their understanding of applied piano and their learning practice in higher education. On this empirical basis concrete learning and teaching designs as well as general design principles that help to create blended learning environments for one to one tuition in applied piano are developed. Therefore, the study is conceptualized as documentary design research. An iterative design research format allows the development of innovative educational formats. In this setting the documentary method is used to investigate the participants’ knowledge that guides everyday practice. The presentation will give reconstructive insights into the students’ explicit and implicit knowledge that guides actions while ‚doing’ applied piano.

This article will also be submitted to the journal for review.

ABSTRACT. Music improvisation scholars have suggested that group free improvisation is not a skill to be taught through the transmission of knowledge but rather a process to be facilitated. Specifically, some scholars have conceived of free improvisation as a dialogic process wherein musicians meet the challenge to pursue freedom and to forge social relationships by authoring musical responses. Yet, in many European and North American K-collegiate music programs, free improvisation is either absent, included to support musical skill-building, or seen to support the development of 21st Century skills of collaboration and product creation. In this session, I examine what happens in a music education setting when young people explore the possibilities of making meaning and communicating through collective free improvisation. Drawing from a study in which I facilitated free improvisation workshops with secondary school chamber musicians trying out free improvisation for the first time, I examine learner responses to and perceptions of developing individual voice and creating meaning together with others. While several themes emerged from this work, for the purposes of this presentation, I focus on the following: aspects and forms of listening, connections between self-expression (voice) and listening, and the relationships the improvisers forged as they improvised. Learner responses, experiences, and perceptions yield implications regarding the process and importance of listening, the relationship of self to other, and the development of relationships to individuals and to the group in education settings.

ABSTRACT. Music and language are naturally intertwined in singing, however, in ordinary choirs language is often subordinated to musical expression. In this study, we will examine Learn-Finnish-by-Singing (LFBS) choirs in Finland in which the “subordinated perspective” of language is turned into an “equal and reciprocal” approach highlighting the non-hierarchical, transprofessional and interdisciplinary approach to musical practice. The LFBS-choir practice is constantly reconstructed through an ongoing triadic dialogue between the choir participants, the choir conductor/music educator, as well as the Finnish as a second-language teachers reflecting the emerging needs, wishes, and experiences of the choir participants. The equal approach to both music and language expression emphasises holistic experience dismantling the still-prevalent dichotomous view of musical versus non-musical ends of music and music education by blurring the boundaries between the disciplines.

This presentation explores the changes that the culturally and linguistically diverse choir participants experience and demonstrate in their second language expression during the LFBS-choir practice where the focus of musical activity is intertwined with language production. The first author is also the conductor of the LFBS-choirs. The data consists of individual interviews and language/phonological tests conducted with the volunteer choir participants in a one-year choir timeline in 2019-2020. The data is analysed through thematic and SPSS-statistical analyses. The early findings indicate positive changes at diverse levels of phonetic expression and perception. Theoretically, the study draws on the concept of change through activity theory and systems thinking. The equal focus on music and language expression in the LFBS-choir practice is discussed in relation to the findings of the interviews and language/phonological tests. As a whole, the LFBS-choirs reflect the change due to the rapid growth of immigration in Finland and the subsequent new needs also in music education.

ABSTRACT. Exposure to physical and/or sexual trauma can have lasting psychological ramifications, impacting the development of brain architecture. Changes after trauma (sequelae) may require that students receive specialized support and may lead to misdiagnoses of emotional/behavioral special education needs. Students recovering from trauma have been found to benefit from the establishment of safety and community, which music classrooms could potentially provide. In this study, I examined how an elementary general music teacher perceived, identified, and responded to displays of trauma-influenced sequelae, behaviors, and potential triggers, and how these reactions impacted the classroom environment.

Conducted in a special education setting for students with advanced behavioral health needs, my instrumental case study included two phases of data collection, framed within the principles of Trauma-Informed Care. To establish a profile of the classroom environment and to determine the extent in which trauma history might influence the behaviors of the students, biopsychosocial evaluations, special education documents, and intake documents were archived in phase one of the study. Interviews with school personnel were also conducted. In phase two of the study, classroom observations, interviews, and journaling were used to better understand the abilities of the music teacher to identify potential trauma triggers and reactions, and to document the teacher’s response to trauma and potential barriers present within the music classroom.

My thematic analysis revealed moments of shared connection or disconnection between the music teacher, students, staff members, classroom environment, and school community. Hallmarks of trauma responses including hyperarousal, intrusion, constriction, dissociation, doublethink, and disempowerment were present. Responses made in moments of connectedness de-escalated trauma responses and moments of disconnectedness pointed to a need for specialized pre-/in-service teacher training, trauma-informed communication, removal of barriers to instruction, and additional research surrounding trauma responses in the field of music education. Implications for music educators and researchers are discussed.

ABSTRACT. Contemporary urban music (hip-hop, grime, contemporary R&B and more) is arguably the most listened to music in the world. However, despite an estimated global audience of 1.5 billion for dance/electronic music, hip-hop is frequently excluded from even popular music education as well as most mainstream music curricula. Drawing on findings from an AHRC-funded network CUMiN (Contemporary Urban Music for Inclusion Network), this presentation will report on three workshops and development of an edited book project where a multiplicity of voices exchange ideas on contemporary urban music practices. The first CUMiN workshop (hosted by the University of Cambridge), enabled theorisation of the factors which allow high levels of inclusivity and social engagement in schools and beyond. We asked how projects using contemporary urban music impact significantly on educational/social inclusion? If so, how can we best measure this impact? The second CUMIN workshop (hosted by the University of York) addressed how music engagement is a pathway to healing and wellness across a spectrum of Urban musics. The third CUMIN workshop (hosted by the University of Leeds) asked the question of what is the value of having ‘urban musics’ represented in the classroom at primary, secondary and tertiary levels and what skills can be developed through this engagement. This presentation offers a wealth of compelling research evidence and practices which bridge the spaces between education, community, industry and the academy. We also explore whether and which musics are valuable for mainstream education.

ABSTRACT. The impact of a specific learning difficulty (SpLD), like dyslexia and/or dyscalculia, on the experiences of university music students is yet to be fully explored. This research aims to understand possible music-related difficulties and compensatory strategies used by SpLD students, and any influencing factors affecting learning outcomes, such as related to instruments and musical genres studied. A mixed-method approach was used. An exploratory online survey was followed by two semi-structured interview case studies. This approach provided both a broad view and a deeper insight into the lived experiences of music students with these SpLD’s. Results indicate those with a SpLD do experience more difficulties and utilise several compensatory strategies in their music learning and skill development. However, what the data analyses also indicate is that there are similarities between those with and without a learning difficulty, such as a preference for performing from a musical score. In analysing the case studies lived experiences, a multi (prism) theory approach has been developed, enabling different theoretical perspectives to be applied when assessing the same musical experience. This has helped to offer explanations of why the case studies answered in the way they did. Analyses indicates, for example, how influential their musical environment is, including the social interaction with their peers to support their learning of rhythm notation. There are many positive findings emerging from the research, indicating how participants have utilised their strengths and their environment to ascertain suitable strategies, thus enabling them to continue progressing the development of their musicianship. The implications for education of this research suggests there needs to be greater educational support for such students. Also, the study will hopefully be a source of inspiration for other SpLD students by illustrating, for example, how work-around strategies can support success in higher music education.

ABSTRACT. This paper explores the autoethnography of a music educator. Autoethnography as method examines Kierkegaard’s apocryphal assertion that although life is lived forwards it can only be understood backwards. Using the self as a lens can shed light on the making of a music educator from what might appear a serendipitous professional life.

The paper will: • Undertake a brief critical appraisal of autoethnography as method, which is not without its controversies surrounding its relationship to ‘the truth’ and where the methodology looks to the arts rather the sciences for its ‘rigour’ • Present a personalised autoethnographical case study of a music educator. This will be undertaken by examining snapshots of biography which uncover values (for advocacy and social justice), tensions (such as intuition versus analysis) and iterative resolutions. It will be argued that these values, tensions and resolutions are inextricably entwined in relationships made with institutions, ideas and people from birth onwards. The analysis mirrors key issues that have challenged music education over the last 60 years with a central binary of ‘meaning’ versus ‘concepts’ as powerful musical knowledge. • Finally, it will be argued that autoethnography as method has epistemological resonances with themes emerging in the personal case study.

Autoethnography is not simply about uncovering what makes us, why we believe what we do or how we justify those beliefs. It is also about how those beliefs are iteratively confronted by life and ideas, and the ongoing impact of this confrontation on us. The process can be messy, uncomfortable and challenging, but with the promise of transient resolution, the adaptation of values and agency.

If we are to understand our relationship to and act upon crucial themes such as decolonisation and social justice in music education, then we first need to understand ourselves as music educators.

ABSTRACT. A skilled music education workforce is essential to ensure longevity of music-making for future generations of young learners, and access to high-quality instrumental music tuition remains crucial for school-aged pupils. Yet, there is currently no compulsion for conservatoires and other Higher Education Music Institutions in England to play their part in providing high-quality pedagogical training in order that their graduates are best equipped to support musical learning in children and young people. Perspectives on instrumental teacher education obtained through interviews with academics at six English conservatoires were triangulated with questionnaire responses from senior leaders of 66 music services (regional organisations involved in the day-to-day delivery of instrumental/vocal lessons and ensemble provision in and outside schools across England). Findings revealed perceived challenges pertaining to the privileging of performance activity in conservatoires; inconsistencies in undergraduate-level pedagogical training across the conservatoire sector, and a mismatch between employer expectations and conservatoire graduates’ preparedness for and commitment to a career involving instrumental teaching. Closer collaboration and dialogue between institutions and employers is recommended to ensure that instrumental teachers are trained appropriately before, during and after their transition into employment, to meet the needs of the modern music education sector.

ABSTRACT. Gender equal accessibility to a diverse musical learning in schools is a well-recognized problem in western music education. A body of research, from a range of theoretical and methodological perspectives, shows that stereotyped gender patterns still affect musical performances in the contemporary music classroom. So far, efforts to solve this problem in practice have been deficient. As there is a lack of studies with a post-human perspective within the area, the aim of this presentation is to focus on gender imbalance in music education from this approach. Based on an ongoing study, we explore practitioners’ visions of a future gender equal classroom from a post-human perspective. More specifically, the presentation focuses on a pilot study, where participants were asked to imagine a future music classroom, offering new possible becomings for gender equal music education. The music classroom was viewed as actor-networks, existing of human-, socio-cultural - and non-human actors. Visual ethnography and arts-based research constituted the methodological approach. The explorative design implied involving participants in reflection-based interviews and collaborative creative activities. Visions of gender equal future music classrooms were envisioned by music practitioners, via an online communication tool. The findings reveal that new possibilities for gender equal musical becomings depend on diverse socio-material, material- and human entanglements in the music classroom, implying that actors, such as rooms, spaces, instruments, furniture, humans and computers, impact on gender imbalance. In conclusion, gender equality in music education practices might be improved by a post-human approach.

ABSTRACT. The professional field of Western art music composers continues to be one of the most gender-segregated occupational fields in the arts. For example, in the UK, the number of women shortlisted for a British Composers Awards every year (26% women in 2018), or receiving BBC Proms commissions (18% women in 2019) discloses that women continue to be underrepresented in the profession. Barriers to the professional composing field are multifaceted and experiences of discrimination are intersectional. Research has repeatedly found socio-economic background to be a key factor in access to the creative industries, and access to ongoing high-quality music education is becoming the preserve of those who can afford it. The multiple forms of inequality, discrimination, and exclusion can and must be addressed in all the domains of society by advancing attitudes, language, policies, and practices that further equal opportunities for all. Addressing these concerns around equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) is also a matter of significant concern for music education, as music conservatoires and higher education institutions, in particular, act as gatekeepers to the professional music industry. In this study, we explore the phenomenon of gender-based segregation in the composing field from the viewpoint of occupational choices. The qualitative multicase study contains two recent educational projects, Equity in Composing in Finland and Young Composers Project in the UK, both of which had an explicit aim of advancing EDI in composing. Based on the analysis of participant interviews, we examine the perceptions from young people on what it is to be a composer, and how the two projects offered diverse and alternative narratives of composing practices and pedagogies. We suggest that a broader understanding of the growth of musical expertise and the focus on the participatory processes of learning are vital in our efforts of advancing EDI in the composing field.

ABSTRACT. Little is known about the pathways and motivations that lead multi-instrumentalists to pursue a teaching career. Most studies profiling instrument teachers employ quantitative methods, using large scale surveys to encapsulate characteristics of their target participants. There is a gap in qualitative research exploring the lived experiences of the pathways and motivations of these teachers. Furthermore, to date, no such research has been conducted in Ireland. Therefore, this study aimed to increase understanding of the lived experience and professional needs of multi-instrument teachers in Ireland. Six teacher-participants participated in semi-structured interviews. The interviews were designed to present individual narrative accounts of the pathways that lead multi-instrumentalists to a career in teaching, how those pathways shaped their conceptions of teaching, and how they engage in professional development for their second study instrument, the piano. The different pathways to teaching described by the study participants reflect a professional landscape where there is no set route. Most participants declared piano teaching to be an unintentional career path. In addition, they reported teaching piano to beginner students easier than teaching beginners on their principal instruments. Professional development for their piano teaching is most likely determined by what they can achieve autonomously. Findings conclude that multi-instrument teachers in Ireland are a unique teacher population that struggle to find engaging, relevant, and inclusive professional development opportunities in the Irish market. Implications and recommendations for professional development providers and music school employers of multi-instrument teachers are discussed.

ABSTRACT. Earlier research has stated that there is a gap between conservatory education and the kind of musical work needed in society. This points to the need for problematization of musicians’ competency and skills and how conservatory education can/should contribute to developing the same. Based on a phenomenological way of thinking, human beings’ becoming takes place through action and interaction with and within the world. In music educational situations students interact with other human beings and things in specific historical, spatial, and social contexts. What actions that are possible to undertake with what music, instruments, and traditions, influence students’ future competencies, skills, and visions. In this paper we want to explore how conservatory students experience their being and becoming as musicians in today’s Europe. The aim of the study is to describe and analyse the phenomenon of being and becoming musicians from a European conservatory students’ perspective; How do students describe musicians’ knowledge and practice? How do students describe learning of musicians’ competence? How do students describe connections to society and an imagined future as musicians? To come close to musicians’ lived experiences and visions, interviews with twenty-four conservatory students studying vocals, strings, piano, percussion, and flute were conducted. Ten of the interviews were performed via Zoom (Fall 2021), and fourteen at site in respectively country (Spring 2022); Finland, Estonia and Hungary. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed in a phenomenological manner. The phenomenon may fully be described through the themes interaction in conservatory educational situations, self-esteem, spaces for interaction and reflection, and interaction with society. It became clear that interaction within and between various educational situations and contexts influence students’ visions about and their professional future. Why learning paths varies between instrument departments and to some extent gender will be discussed.

ABSTRACT. Throughout North America, Universities are being held accountable for their commitment (or lack thereof) toward Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and in the case of Canada, Decolonization (EDI-D). Schools of Music in particular are being called to attend to entrance requirements (required repertoire, traditional western orchestral instruments), diverse musical offerings and coursework, representation, and support.

Many students entering schools of music come with an understanding of institutionalized racism and systemic inequities and the need to address and name privilege. Many recognize problematic positions of power, elitism throughout curricula and teaching pedagogies, interrogate the ethics of inclusion, and come to us from multiple traditions of musicking. And while this last has always been the case, students are now demanding change and recognizing that the power to do so is in their ability to walk away.

During the years of 2020-2022 three students and I worked on two projects: one addressing the EDI-D policies in schools of music at four large Canadian Universities and a publication for a journal edition dedicated to racial and cultural diversity in music education, with a special focus on Black Music in Music Education. This work, as well as their multiple commitments to university committees and work with underserved community youth, offered them positions of leadership where they experienced spaces that realized voice and autonomy, something the school of music not only did not offer, but when it did, exploited.

Narratives of three students of colour, two of which are first year graduate students and one in their final undergraduate year, each who were on the path to be public school music educators, but who have since set aside those plans, will be presented through their own negotiation of these discussions. What could have been done differently to keep these powerful role models and nascent pedagogues in music education?

ABSTRACT. In times of big changes and challenges for societies around the world, there is a need to ask how to educate under such conditions. Concerning music teacher education it can be relevant to consider how to adjust the music subject to big challenges such as climate change, migration, war and pandemics. Another relevant question is how music teacher education can prepare for an unknown future. We have been part of a research project investigating the status of music teacher education in Norway, and looking for the possibilities for future music teaching. In this presentation we report from a part-study of this project investigating local plans and job advertisements from the ten institutions offering music in the new five-year generalist teacher education in Norway. The aim has been to identify values and ideologies constituting the music subject locally in how content, learning outcome, activities and assessment forms are prioritized, and how working staff are recruited. By using elements from Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis, we find that since several ideological processes are simultaneously at play within the new genealist teacher education, different tensions appear in the music subject. We discuss five discursive tensions, which we identify as 1) musical skills versus pedagogical skills, 2) activity-orientation versus reflection-orientation, 3) academic orientation versus artistic orientation, 4) research-focus versus teaching-focus, and 5) future-orientation versus tradition-orientation. We find that despite preserving traditions and values through concepts such as cultural heritage, cultural diversity, youth culture, and music as an activity subject, the national framework for the music subject in generalist teacher education is quite open and flexible for changing conserved traditions in the music subject and adjusting for contemporary and future needs.

ABSTRACT. This paper is drawn from a PhD in progress studying the identities and lived experience of educators and the young people they work with. Studies show that in the secondary school music curriculum there is generally a focus on technical development, musical skills and reproduction, rather than the more creative activities such as improvisation and composition. One of the perennial problems of music education is building music teachers’ skills and confidence to include more creative as opposed to recreative music making in their classrooms. The researcher facilitated professional learning sessions focusing on creative music making and thereafter jazz musicians and music teachers co-devised projects in a secondary school, designated as a case study. This paper will discuss the results of this collaborative musical project in the case study secondary school based on exploration and curiosity, using ideas from jazz and improvisation. The paper will report on attitudes, experiences and impacts on practice for both jazz musicians (n = 3) and music teachers (n = 4) as well as data from a learner focus group. Semi-structured interviews were analysed using inductive thematic analysis following guidelines for Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Evidence has shown that participating in the project led to music teachers feeling more confident at embedding creative activities in their teaching. There were a mixture of positives and negatives for jazz musicians and learners. The data collection period was during and coming out of COVID-19 and this impact needs to be considered on the learner. Implications for rebuilding confidence in music making with young people post-COVID will be discussed.

ABSTRACT. Zoltan Kodály’s efforts towards improving Hungarian music education in the first half of the 20th century were deeply nationalistic and rooted in the European socio-political climate of the time. Despite the non-prescriptive nature of much of Kodály’s original writings, his name is now associated with a specific and codified teaching method that has been preserved in pedagogical literature and professional learning courses internationally. Up to 10% of surveyed Australian classroom music teachers employ the approach, despite recent criticism that it is often employed in an overzealous manner without consideration or response to contexts and classrooms far from its place of origin. Despite these tensions, and almost a hundred years since Kodály was working in Hungary, there is a lack of research that describes what Kodály-inspired practice looks like today, and what impact Kodály-inspired professional learning programs have on educators.

This presentation will report on a doctoral project designed to address this gap in the literature. Narrative inquiry methodology has been employed (using interview and lesson observation methods) to depict five Australian secondary music teachers’ interpretations and translations of the Kodály approach following their participation in Kodály-inspired professional learning. Enactment theory has been used to provide a framework for exploring the individuality of teachers’ interpretations, and the contextually situated nature of their classroom translations. Like a common melodic line running through the data, there are commonalities and shared beliefs amongst the participants. However, each individual teacher emphasises differing aspects of the approach and represents a subtly distinct variation of Kodály-inspired practice. Thus, individual enactments of the Kodály approach in the classroom are heterophonic in nature, and often personal and contextual. This research provides a small-scale example of how teachers can be impacted by professional learning, and how personal and professional context can influence what teachers take away from these experiences.

ABSTRACT. Based on interviews with fourteen Finnish cisgender female classical musicians, this paper sheds light on the under-researched subject of emotional abuse in classical music education. Emotional abuse is defined as patterned deliberate non-contact behavior, such as verbal abuse and emotional neglect (Stirling & Kerr 2008). In this research material classical music teachers’ emotionally abusive behavior included rejection, neglect, humiliation, unwarranted anger, cruel comments, vindictive behavior, altering between affection and ignorance, and intentionally setting up a student for failure. I explore what kind of social imaginaries (Gatens 1996) – beliefs, representations, images, symbols and narratives emerge from the interviewees’ experiences of emotional abuse. I argue that emotional abuse in classical music education is associated with the beliefs that classical music and the quest for excellence is more important than the student’s well-being. Based on the findings of the interview material, I suggest that individuals are valued in accordance with their musical skills. Further, emotional abuse is even normalized, as it in some cases is seen as justifiable behavior that emerge from these beliefs. Lastly, I outline what are the actions that a researcher can do to facilitate change. The consequences of allowing emotional abuse continue to be unaddressed leaves individuals at risk of long-term harmful and devastating effects that such behaviors can have on their mental and physical health and well-being.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this study was to explore the personal and professional life experiences of select LGBTQ+ music faculty in various university schools of music within the United States. A modified version of Seidman’s three-stage phenomenological interview design was utilized to explore the personal and professional life experiences of five LGBTQ music faculty from five different universities across four states in the United States. While most participants’ professional responsibilities primarily involve teaching courses in music education, other teaching responsibilities include teaching courses in conducting and chamber music. Participants also fulfil various administrative/service roles in differing capacities. Findings include having a self-proclaimed awareness of personal privilege and increased efforts to advocate for other marginalized voices, personal versus professional identities (including disclosure decisions, identity management, and potential professional backlash), acting as role model for both students and faculty, and the role of music toward acceptance within their university settings. Other emergent aspects include influences on music teaching via specific curricular decisions and interpersonal efforts toward reducing power structures, personal and professional decisions, the role of geography, policy protections, and tenure, and advice for others.

Discussion will connect findings to a growing body of literature surrounding LGBTQ+ voices in music education broadly as well as be situated in the need for increased policy protections for LGBTQ+ faculty. Individual and systemic implications will be shared alongside suggestions for future research.

ABSTRACT. Inspired by Sheldrake’s study of fungi in ‘Entangled Life’ (2020) and Barad’s ideas of entanglement (2007) this conceptual paper explores music-sound-play with young children, caregivers, educators and artists as a mycelial embodiment of polyphony. Each human, a hypha (filament-strand of a system), steering towards appealing sound-movement-play prospects, embodying the communicative system that flows through them and intermingles with all matter on earth. Musical utterances, expressions and movements are constituted by, and entwine with material, human, acoustics, and the environment. Music as a relationship with the world, intra-acting (Barad, 2007) and commingling (Sheldrake, 2020). As an embedded researcher within an early years arts organisation, I will put to work ideas and findings from a number of recent research projects to explore a paradigm of posthuman new materialism as a framework to interrogate music education pedagogies for very young children. By expanding ways of understanding through entanglement, young children’s playfulness and music-making is rich, situated, dynamic material for gaining insight about music as sustenance for, and expression of life - a complex, intra-active, wild system that communicates through, and within, living and non-living matter, with visible ‘fruits’ emerging in various forms. Ages, phases and stages of development are less useful here, rather this view of music asks for a pedagogy that focuses on the creation of opportunities and affordances for musical play to understand how children create and embody sound. This requires the teacher to ‘do’ and say less, watch more, and to hold the space for the bursting forth of ripe and ready musical expressions. Through this pedagogical approach children and adults can experience a sense of becoming-with music, with the world. This brings early childhood music pedagogy into the spotlight as an important area to theorise about the purposes of music, education, and music education practice and research.

ABSTRACT. Posthumanist perspectives decenter the human in our epistemological and analytical approaches and suggest blurrier relationships of social and material worlds. These perspectives offer possibilities for showing material forces in the emergence of new music, new music education practices. The assumption that human adults are central to what it takes for children and young people to become musically literate creators and consumers of new music not only overlooks children’s deep entanglement with places, things, objects and atmospheres, it also assumes a particular kind of sanitized adult, capable themselves of being extracted from place and community. In this assemblage of diverse creativities in music, I share a new posthumanist analysis which suggests best practices for the cultivation of diverse and creativities in music education. Illustrative samples at the nexus of industry and education where interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary creativities play an especially pronounced role are enacted from diffractive analyses and shared as enactments that emerge in the event of doing research itself. The audience will be offered an insight into re-reading data in ways which are specific to the materiality of making-with. Drawing from both school settings and industry (real-world) practices, and thinking with posthumanism, I argue and illustrate how young people can be ‘practice-ers’ of emergent creativities, as filled with yet-to-be-fulfilled potential and in young children’s attunement to the already-here creativities of adult humans. This presentation also draws on post-qualitative and new materialist scholarship which presents a number of interesting shifts and dilemmas in conducting music education research. The study, conducted over a decade, combines the diffractive analyses of video recordings, photographs, fieldnotes, interviews, with a post-qualitative focus on affect, sensation and relations among human and nonhuman participants.

‘this article will also be submitted to the journal for review’

ABSTRACT. The benefits of music education are well known, particularly in special schools, which are educational providers for those with additional needs. Although there is wide-spread agreement that access to music should be an equitable opportunity, this is not always the case. Musical opportunities are often mediated via generalist classroom teachers in special schools and this continues to be an area for development, particularly in better understanding classroom teachers’ knowledge, understanding and confidence in this area.

The 'Inspiring Sounds' research is an evaluation of a three-year Youth Music funded project in special schools. The project brought together specialist music teachers from the local Music Education Hub with generalist school teachers to explore their perceptions, their perceptions of success and the challenges they experienced. Findings are based on semi-structured interviews with three generalist classroom teachers, two specialist music teachers and the project lead. These interviews were analysed thematically, to enable the research to delve beneath the surface and bring previously hidden understandings to light.

Research findings reveal the differing educational perceptions that exist in these stakeholder groups and this is developed into a discussion of educational cross-cultural perspectives. The impact of the manner in which these different groups regard music-making and learning is explored, along with their potential significance for music education in special schools. A model of teacher interactions for musical development is presented, considering the location of musical learning within this model and how it might be further facilitated. Recommendations are made for the development of special school music curriculum guidance, music partnership interactions and school connections in further enabling special school music experiences for young people.

ABSTRACT. Music educators in the U.S. and around the world receive very little training and virtually no support in how to teach students with disabilities and diagnoses, and/or students who simply learn differently. Even the most dedicated music educators often find themselves at a loss as to how best to reach these students, and feeling disappointed that they are not better equipped to provide them with meaningful music learning and music making opportunities. As a result, there is a strong need for effective professional development for pre-service and in-service music educators, to better prepare and support them in their efforts to reach every student. Over the last 15 years, the author and their organization have sought to address this need by providing various forms of professional development, courses, and programs to pre-service and in-service music educators on teaching students with disabilities and diagnoses, as well as students who simply learn differently. Recently, an independent evaluator completed a multi-year evaluation of these professional development offerings. This paper shares the lessons learned from that evaluation - lessons that have important implications for theory and practice in music teacher education and music education. For example, the evaluation revealed a number of best practices for music educator professional development in this area that can contribute to theory and practice in music teacher education. In addition, the evaluation identified the most effective strategies, approaches, and frameworks for teaching music to students with disabilities, and sharing these can directly affect educational practice in music education for all students. In order to teach all of our children well, the teachers themselves must be taught well. This paper provides powerful information and insights into some of the ways that we can better prepare and support our music teachers, so that they can better teach all of their children well.

ABSTRACT. As momentum builds towards a Voice to Parliament for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, annual reporting on the Closing the Gap Agreement continues to expose significant inequities in relation to school completion, entry to tertiary education and youth employment. This paper documents the narratives of five recent high school graduates from Western Sydney, each taking their own pathway into the arts industry guided and supported by First Nations leaders within the Solid Ground Program. Through yarning-as-method, the graduates initially share influential moments in their schooling with the non-Indigenous researcher, outlining how cultural safety was supported and at times hampered by their teachers, peers and wellbeing programs. As the conversation shifts towards transition to further education and employment, the persistence, care and ongoing support of Solid Ground mentors grows ever more apparent. Here students discuss commencing, delaying, withdrawing and transferring from undergraduate music and arts-based courses, balancing cultural and economic pressures with their education. Augmenting the voices of school graduates are the Solid Ground mentors themselves who share strategies for building trusting relationships and the importance of economic security and goal-focused employment to complement further study for First Nations students. Collectively, the participants reflect on the impact of internships with First Nations arts organisations, revealing the possibilities of decolonial initiatives that inspire, employ and motivate. While centred on an Australian case study, this study endeavours to provide educational providers with insights into addressing systemic global inequities, outlining the importance of an integrated approach to engagement ultimately driven through First Nations voices.

ABSTRACT. Church worship is a form of community music-making that is situated within a broader religious social field, characterized by issues of relationality, struggle and power. In religious fields, as in any social field, agents confront each other and contribute to the conserving or transforming of its structure. Particular elements of worship, such as music, prayer, and gestures, position religious communities in the overall social field, while also contributing to agents’ religious habitus formation. Through strategic practices such as music-making, the social field is shaped while structuring the habitus of “social agents”, who occupy certain positions determined by religious capital. Within church worship, behaviours can be musically enacted through repertoire, modes of performance, and participative choices. Music-making practices have the ability to perpetuate issues of hegemony, exclusion, and elitism. The worship leader, as a facilitator, has a role in directing music-making processes and enacting “thoughtful disruption” to perceptions of value, excellence, and legitimate musical knowledge in response to the specific religious field in which they are located. This presentation explores two churches’ music-making practices and how they may reflect and respond to the theological and musical fields through case study research. Using Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice as a theoretical framework, I consider how worship leaders and musicians might strategize their musical behaviours and “disrupt” traditional norms of music-making that may be present in each setting. I further explore how such musical behaviours may reflect and shape habitus both institutionally and individually. Implications for a dialogical conception of habitus will be proposed, encouraging intentional conversational practice between acting agents as musicians in formal, informal, and nonformal music-making environments. I examine how intentional, dialogical practices may have the potential to interrupt cycles of reproduction, and hegemonic practices, leading toward futural transformation.

ABSTRACT. National identity in Hong Kong has been a contested and complicated issue since the British colonisation in 1842. After the handover to its motherland, the Republic of China in 1997, the ongoing political debates over the development of national identity for Hong Kong inhabitants has been one of the top priorities, especially in the education sector. Music, as one of the core and compulsory subjects under the arts education in primary level, mirrored the English music education system. However, with the emphasis of cultivating pupils’ sense of national identity through music in the past 25 years, there has been an increasing demand to include more Chinese music in school music lessons, teaching the Chinese national anthem and compulsory Chinese national flag raising ceremony at school. This multiple in-depth case study explores how national identity in Hong Kong is being fostered (or otherwise) by school music education in primary level. Through interviews and lesson observations with six Hong Kong primary music specialists, the data reveals diverse definitions and understandings of national identity in Hong Kong, teachers’ views on fostering the concept of national identity through school music and how they deliver the idea of national identity through teaching Chinese music. Since all music specialists in Hong Kong are educated and trained through a Western centric model, primary music specialists are facing challenges in teaching Chinese music. If there is an increasing need to foster a sense of national identity to China through teaching and learning Chinese music, a reform in initial teacher education and further in-service education are needed to support primary music specialists in Hong Kong.

ABSTRACT. While music education research is rich in social-constructivist and learner-centred philosophy, Western Classical instrumental teaching is considered an instructivist and teacher-led domain. To support musical agency in young musicians, there is a need to synthesise existing literature, allowing practical strategies to be explored which bring theory into practice. This research aimed to explore learner perceptions of an existing strategy, known as the Termly Review, to support musical agency in one-to-one piano lessons.

A pragmatic, case study approach was adopted. Piano students aged 9-15, used to working with the Termly Review in my own teaching practice, participated. Data collection took place in two phases, at the beginning and end of the Spring term. In each phase, quantitative data were collected from 28 participants through an online, Likert scale questionnaire. Termly Review sheets provided qualitative data analysis in Phase 1, and further qualitative data were collected in Phase 2 through semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of eight participants.

Findings suggest that participants working with the Termly Review process tend to perceive themselves as competent and autonomous. Aspects of competence and autonomy emerge from the qualitative data within four common themes: i) the learning environment, ii) personal response to goals and challenges, iii) metacognition, goal setting and time management, and iv) perception of technical and musical skill. A framework of musical agency in one-to-one piano lessons is proposed, synthesising literature and practice. When aspects of competence and autonomy emerging from the data are viewed through this framework, they can be considered to represent support of musical agency within the one-to-one instrumental lesson, indicating that the Termly Review offers one possible effective strategy. Key findings offer insight into broader aspects of musical agency and the benefits of monitoring and supporting self-regulation and self-determination.

ABSTRACT. The shift to online learning due to COVID-19 found many post-secondary music instructors adding online music assessments to their teaching. This immediate transition caught many instructors with a limited knowledge of technology tools to use for assessment, and overall online music assessment activities. Given this context, identification and classification of online music assessments for associated student learning outcomes is necessary for program quality. However, to date, meta-analysis of studies that identify the extent to which music assessments can be effectively completed as online music assessments is not available. Therefore, this project used systematic review methodology to identify research-informed online music assessments available for tertiary-level music performance teaching.

The project searched three research databases (i.e., ERIC, JSTOR and ProQuest) for articles with the keyword string that fit within specific inclusion parameters (i.e., English, research study, performance-based disciplines, no location restriction, not conference presentation nor white paper). This presentation will address: method phases (i.e., development of the protocol with key words, gathering data inter-rater reliability, etc.) and categorization of outcomes.

There is limited research that specifically addresses online music assessment and its implementation. The overall results of the systematic review supports the development of a research-informed decision-making process to assist tertiary music instructors in determining online music assessments appropriateness. Finally, we highlight visualized results of the completed systematic review across the three databases to identify the types of online music assessment identified from the study, as well as underscore trends in research dissemination regarding online music assessment. Suggestions of implications as well as recommendations for future research will be presented.

ABSTRACT. Assessment in United States instrumental music instruction typically prioritizes group performance. Much emphasis is given to festival or contest scores that do not measure individualized, standards-based learning and achievement. This is problematic in context of ongoing efforts to prioritize individual student musicianship as defined by four artistic processes of performing, creating, responding, and connecting. An additional challenge is curricula firmly ensconced in Western European repertoire, leading to lack of student awareness of and exposure to musics of diverse ethnic and cultural identities.

To improve assessment, we have developed a web application to enhance instruction through activities that promote individual student assessment and alignment with learning standards and repertoire students are learning. Conceived as a community of practice drawing from expertise in disability studies, human-computer interaction, and music teacher education, students who use the web application are invited to (a) learn melodies and bass lines extracted from repertoire they are learning, (b) engage in musical creativity, (c) reflect (respond) on their progress, and (d) draw connections between the repertoire they are learning and their experiences both in and out of music.

To improve student access to diverse musics, we are expanding content in the web application to provide access to new music from composers representing various races, ethnicities, gender identities, and cultural traditions. In Fall 2022, we premiered a flex arrangement for intermediate band and orchestra by an underrepresented composer. We are currently striving to develop a sustainable commission model for more new music.

In this presentation, we will share findings from our current study: documentation of approximately 300 students learning diverse repertoire through use of the web application, including the recently commissioned piece. We will also share our experiences commissioning and premiering the new piece with two high school ensembles. We conclude with current initiatives and plans for future research.

ABSTRACT. Project-based learning (PBL) is a frequently used curricular approach in U.S. music education. In PBL, the focus is on a topic or provocative question rooted in real-world events or activities that guides multiple possible pathways for the development of artistic processes in the music classroom. This can lead to classroom cultures designed to support critical engagement, questioning, and connections between school life and out-of-school experience. In recent years, however, growing neoliberal reforms and a rhetoric of career preparation has led to an increase in for-profit corporation curricular initiatives in PBL. These initiatives are often driven by a focus on efficiency as well as predictable outcomes. This focus can result in a narrow definition of PBL that ultimately aims to serve corporate interests. Given the considerable use of PBL within music education classrooms in the United States, it is important to examine how such practices may reinforce neoliberal aims.

In this presentation, I explore connections between PBL and neoliberalism in music education. After considering the historical underpinnings of this curricular approach, I draw from PBL frameworks provided by several non-profit educational corporations in the United States aimed at promoting PBL in schools to demonstrate three areas of alignment with neoliberalism. First, I suggest that proponents of PBL from these organizations highlight career readiness, retooling skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity to focus on employability. Then, I consider the ways in which self-surveillance is used within PBL to create more productive workers, and finally, I explore how the use of outside-of-school “experts” to facilitate PBL pedagogies may deprofessionalize the work of educators. I then counter these shifts by highlighting examples of music educators engaging with project-based practices that offer counternarratives to neoliberal goals.

ABSTRACT. In recent years, arts partnerships have gained increased popularity as a means of delivering arts education in schools. Creating opportunities for both teachers and artists alike, arts partnerships can enhance a shared sense of purpose and mutual respect, while also developing creative skills, knowledge and expertise. Although many studies on both a national and international level, have identified the successes and challenges of arts partnerships in schools, a gap in how these partnerships can support primary teachers in their teaching of arts education, still exists. Therefore, this study sought to investigate whether an Irish arts partnership - the Creative Schools Initiative-Scoileanna Íldánacha (CS) - could have the potential to support primary teachers in their teaching of arts education. A mixed-methods, multi-site case study design was selected for this research project. Drawing on data from semi-structured interviews and surveys, this study explored and analysed the perspectives of teachers, principals, CS co-ordinators and Creative Associates in eight primary schools, regarding the impact of an arts partnership on the teaching of arts education. Key findings from this study indicated that participation in an arts partnership, can provide rich opportunities for transformational learning to occur, through engagement in collaborative practice, facilitating agency and empowering all stakeholders. However, for a sustainable future in classroom-based arts education and to avoid arts partnerships becoming a support measure, this article argues that teacher professional development in arts education needs to become an integral part of future initiatives. Results from this study could inform both policy and practice approaches to arts partnerships in schools and could enable the CS to further develop its programme. This could have an impact on schools, principals, teachers and children and highlight the significance of pre-service teacher training, in-service and teacher professional development in arts education, on both a national and international level.

ABSTRACT. Ever since the 1980s, European music institutions, such as concert halls and orchestras, have been establishing comprehensive learning and participation activities. Initially, the aim of these activities was, on the one hand, to provide access to the cultural heritage for social groups that had previously been under-represented in concert life and, on the other, to reach out to new audiences. This has resulted in formats such as children’s concerts, moderated concerts for adults, and concert-accompanying formats, all of which are still employed today. They fulfill an affirmative function and are intended to introduce people to the core programme of music institutions, which itself remains untouched. Facing comprehensive societal transformation and decolonial, power-critical and discrimination-critical discourses, especially in the wake of the #metoo and Black Lives Matter movements, classical concert life has increasingly come under criticism in recent years as classist, racist, sexist and eurocentric. As a reaction, this has led to new collaborative, transcultural and inclusive formats, which are centrally driven by the learning and participation departments and their staff. The new formats are intended to address a diverse audience and to recognise, in the sense of cultural democracy, the fundamental plurality of culture and music. This increasingly places learning and participation managers in a field of tension between, on the one hand, affirmative audience development that aims at institutional stabilisation, and, on the other hand, social engagement that has a potentially transformative effect on the institution. In my paper I will present findings from an interview study that I conducted with learning and participation managers from music institutions in Austria and England. I will show how they position themselves and their work between audience development and social responsibility and which strategies they develop to mediate between individual convictions and organisational goals.

ABSTRACT. Conservatoires sit at the intersection of music education, higher education and the music profession. The past ten years have seen a rise in music education research and practice in conservatoires, with education researchers taking key roles in conservatoire leadership and management. The education, higher education and cultural policy environment is creating opportunities for driving change in conservatories, but there are key risks.

By nature, music education researchers in conservatoires sit across sectors and occupy an interesting peripheral position that provides a unique vantage point from which to view policy, steer practice, and contribute to institutional strategy. Taking the concept of ‘boundary walkers’ from Community Music, this symposium explores the position, the purpose and the place of education research and music education researchers in conservatoires. We explore the challenges of education research in the conservatoire alongside the opportunities presented to develop research-led strategy that will (slowly) enact change.

Format of symposium

The chair will contextualise the discussion within the current policy environment, outlining the opportunities, the key risks and raising key questions for discussion (10 mins).

Each panel member will present a quick-fire provocation, relating to how their research can/does/should impact institutional strategy (5 mins each = 30-40 mins, allowing for transition between speakers).

The floor will open and a discussion will be chaired between the panel and participants.

Throughout the symposium, participants will be encouraged to share their thoughts on listening to each provocation via a menti. The chair will then put these thoughts to the panel as the starting point for discussion.