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- Bohman, Karin, 1983-
(författare)
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What is music education? : discursive construction and legitimisation of theory and practice in a Swedish upper secondary school
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall purpose of this thesis is to describe and discuss the discursive constructions and legitimisations of Music and Music theory in Swedish upper secondary school context. Thereby, this thesis is part of the construction and debate concerning theory vs practice in Music education. The study is based on classroom observations and interviews with teachers and students. The study is conducted during two consecutive autumn semesters, where the first autumn observations are conducted in the Music subject Ensemble, and the second semester in the Music theory subject Aural skills and music theory as well as Ensemble. The results and analysis show that Music and Music theory are predominantly differently constructed, through the discourses permeating the courses within the subjects. Ensemble, as a Music subject, is constructed through musical practice, and only activities that are not directly related to playing – as an activity – need legitimisation, whereas Music theory as a subject appear as continuously legitimised through its connotations to the Music subject. The Ensemble course is constructed as the nucleus around which other parts of the education pivots, including courses in Music theory. Through the analysis of events, event series, regularities and condition of possibility (Foucault, 1970), present thesis demonstrates that expressions of resistance and challenge for the regulatory discourses within the two subjects endure. However, discourse flexes and bends though continue to permeate the regular events and thus also the condition of possibility. External context and professional culture (Ball et al., 2012), is viewed as entailing discursive rooms and views that construct both theory and practice. External context, such as genres of music outside of ensemble education, and the teachers’ professional cultures as musicians permeates the discursive construction of the ensemble subject as well as teacher identity. In conclusion, Music and Music theory as subjects in upper secondary education, as they appear in the context of this study, can hence be viewed as two points on a balance-board, where the weight of discursive power vii shifts from one side to the other dependent on within which discursive (class)room they are taught.
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| 2. |
- Moberg, Nadia, 1986-
(författare)
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Dis/harmoni : (Re)konstruktionen av högre musikerutbildning i klassisk musik
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This compilation thesis is positioned as a critical discourse study on higher music education in Sweden. The overall aim is to critically examine and explain how higher music performance education with a classical musicstudy orientation is discursively (re)constructed. Higher music education sits at a unique juncture between conservatoire traditions and university ideals, and the study discusses conditions for educational reproduction and transformation. The theoretical framework assumes that discourse bears marks of social structures whilst constituting a site for struggle. This implies that the (re)construction of music performance education includes conflicts of interest and power relations. Included in the thesis are four empirical substudies that draw on various texts which emanate from institutions for higher music education. The empirical material consists of interviews, multimodal web texts, and master’s theses.Results show how (re)construction centres around musical craftsmanship. Conservatoire ideals are reproduced through constructions of a traditional belief and knowledge system together with harmonising subject positions. The study confirms an individualistic education and discloses how an introspective focus excludes critical, ethical, and collectivist perspectives. Contrary to expectations, the study finds that there is limited explicit resistance towards the education being influenced by neoliberal thinking and university practices. Whilst market principles are incorporated in (re)construction as immutable conditions, university practices such as research and writing are constructed as alien to music performance education. Despite a lack of antagonism, discursive struggles and contradictions arise. Concepts and practices previously foreign to education are recontextualised in ways that favour a reproduction of institutional traditions. Inequalities, in relation to classical music, are disregarded through constructions which highlight diversity and openness. Findings indicate how and why formal power, exercised through for example laws and regulations, is delegitimised and institutional traditions prevail, at the same time exposing resistance and potential seeds of change.
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