Music and Democracy: Leadership Positioning in Relation to Policy Enacting and Inclusion of Children and Adolescents with (Dis)abilities in Sweden’s Art and Music Schools

• This paper exposes and problematises the situation of children and adolescents with (dis)abilities in relation to Sweden’s Art and Music Schools during the time period of a national policy process.Many researchers in the Nordic countries have raised aspects of democracy in music education, as a path toward the inclusion of all children. The inclusion of children and adolescents with (dis)abilities is the aspect of democracy in music education in focus for this paper. In order to actively work towards focusing on their abilities to promote inclusion, I choose to add parenthesis when applying the concept (dis)abilities.The data consists of questions from a national survey sent to all Art and Music School leaders, three focus group conversations with a total of eighteen Art and Music School leaders and individual telephone interviews with four other Art and Music School leaders.The aim of this paper is to investigate, from leadership perspectives, whether children and adolescents with (dis)abilities are included in Art and Music Schools.The research questions are:• How do Art and Music School leaders talk about childrenand adolescents with (dis)abilities?• How do Art and Music School leaders position themselvesregarding inclusion of children and adolescents with (dis)abilities in Art and Music School activities?17A social constructionist framework makes it possible to refer to the concept of disability as socially constructed, focusing on the responsibility of society – or specifically Art and Music Schools – in making changes to include individuals with disabilities. Exposing the repressed and excluded discourses can be a way to counteract marginalisation and promote democracy.The results reveal that even though most Art and Music Schools work towards inclusion of children and adolescents with (dis)abilitites, there still are Art and Music Schools in Sweden where children and adolescents with (dis)abilities are not included in the activities.

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