Activism within music education: working towards inclusion and policy change in the Finnish music school context

Laes, Tuulikki; Schmidt, Patrick

doi:10.1017/s0265051715000224

Cited by 26 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 31 publications

(39 reference statements)

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“…Second, we want to dispute the complex tensions around performativity that challenge teacher agency and professionalism within teacher education (Ball, 2003; see also Burnard &White, 2008). As discussed in an earlier study in this research project (Laes & Schmidt, 2016), disability in particular has been seen as a threat to school performativity, which over-emphasizes measuring success and valuing presentable (musical) results. In this article we shift the attention from the narrow performativity-oriented focus to the performative aspect of disability as a transformative means to engage with inclusion and diversity within music teacher education.…”

mentioning

confidence: 94%

Performing disability in music teacher education: Moving beyond inclusion through expanded professionalism

Laes

Westerlund

2017

International Journal of Music Education

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Disability is a neglected field of diversity within music education scholarship and practices. The study reported in this article sought alternatives for the hierarchical practice-model and ableist discourses that have thus far pervaded music teacher education, through a reconceptualization of expertise. The focus is on a Finnish university special education course, where musicians with learning disabilities conducted workshops for student music teachers over three consecutive years. Student teachers' written reflections (n = 23) were reflexively analyzed in order to examine how performing disability may disrupt, expand, and regenerate normative discourses and transform inclusive thinking in music teacher education. Performing disability is here seen to generate critical discursive learning, and create third spaces for pedagogical diversity and the co-construction of professional knowledge. It is thus argued that through teaching with, and by, rather than about, we in music education may move beyond normalizing understandings and practices of inclusion, towards an expanded notion of professionalism.

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mentioning

confidence: 94%

Performing disability in music teacher education: Moving beyond inclusion through expanded professionalism

Laes

Westerlund

2017

International Journal of Music Education

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“…If one looks at the over-representation of outside unidirectional policies (the impositions of NCLB, for example), the narrowing of how leadership is conceptualized in schools, the intensification of teachers' labor, and professional formation that gives strong preference to content expertise and behavioral management, the strengthening of schools as highly hierarchical spaces should come as a surprise to no one. Regardless of the effect of political or policy savvy (Laes and Schmidt 2016), research shows that educators acquire leadership and political skills on the job, often through mistakes. Teacher education by-andlarge does not consider policy-directed core practices.…”

Section: Policy Participation and Framing Skillsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visions for Intercultural Music Teacher Education

Westerlund¹,

Karlsen²,

Partti³

2020

Landscapes: The Arts, Aesthetics, and Education

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Scope This series aims to provide conceptual and empirical research in arts education, (including music, visual arts, drama, dance, media, and poetry), in a variety of areas related to the post-modern paradigm shift. The changing cultural, historical, and political contexts of arts education are recognized to be central to learning, experience, knowledge. The books in this series presents theories and methodological approaches used in arts education research as well as related disciplines-including philosophy, sociology, anthropology and psychology of arts education.

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“…Kivijärvi and Kaikkonen (2015), as well as Georgii-Hemming and Kvarnhall (2015), argue for inclusion within the current structures, providing opportunities for meetings between diverse learners. However, in Finland, the case of Resonaari, a Finnish music school for individuals with disabilities, is described as a distinct music school offering the empowerment that other institutions fail to offer (Laes and Schmidt, 2016). For the present article, it is interesting to investigate how leaders talk about inclusion in Sweden’s Art and Music Schools, both regarding current activities/programmes and regarding parallel, specially arranged structures for specific groups.…”

Section: Discourses Of Inclusion In Research Policy and Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Disabilities within Sweden’s Art and Music Schools: Discourses of inclusion, policy and practice

Tillborg

2019

Policy Futures in Education

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The aim of this paper is to investigate the discourses that emerge when Sweden’s Art and Music School leaders talk about the inclusion of pupils with disabilities in relation to policy. A starting point is that both earlier studies and policy documents have revealed inclusion problems within Art and Music Schools. The research question is: how are Art and Music School practice, policy and inclusion of pupils with disabilities connected within and through leaders’ discursive practices? The data are based on three focus group conversations with a total of 16 Art and Music School leaders from northern, central and southern Sweden. Discourse analysis as a social constructionist approach is applied since it provides a means to investigate the connection between social change and discourse. Concepts from both discursive psychology and Foucauldian-inspired discourse analysis are applied in order to investigate connections between rhetorical strategies on a micro level and discourses on an institutional level. The concept of multicentric inclusion is introduced and applied in the analysis. In addition, concepts from educational policy theories are applied in order to analyse how policies are conceptualised and enacted in the context of leaders’ discursive practices. Regarding terminology, the results challenge this researcher when the concept of mixed abilities is introduced by the participants. The analysis exposes three discourses: multicentric inclusion discourse, normality discourse and specialisation discourse. There are tensions between the multicentric inclusion discourse and the normality discourse, as well as between the multicentric inclusion discourse and the specialisation discourse. The analysis leads to the following suggestions in order to achieve justice in music education practices and policies: (a) to enforce a specific national inclusion policy, (b) to challenge the normality discourse and (c) to bring together the multicentric inclusion discourse with the specialisation discourse.

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Activism within music education: working towards inclusion and policy change in the Finnish music school context

Cited by 26 publications

References 31 publications

Performing disability in music teacher education: Moving beyond inclusion through expanded professionalism

Performing disability in music teacher education: Moving beyond inclusion through expanded professionalism

Visions for Intercultural Music Teacher Education

Disabilities within Sweden’s Art and Music Schools: Discourses of inclusion, policy and practice

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