Fostering Meaningful and Creative Connections in Higher Education: Contributions from Music Education

Abstract

This paper focuses on contributing to the reflection on the importance of providing opportunities to foster meaningful and creative connections in higher education. In a context of growing plurality, heterogeneity and diversity of backgrounds, languages, cultures, identities, roles, and purpose influences the sociocultural relations and professional interactions that occur and are formed within higher education communities of knowledge and learning, which are explored from the perspective of music education. A narrative approach on participant’s views about their participation in an elective music program was developed inside the framework of informal education. Issues that were discussed the most across the datasets by participants individual accounts are expressed through themes that fall into three broad areas: previous musical experiences, significant influences for music participation, and perceptions of the participation in the music program. Results suggest that the informal music program provided participants with a context for a safe emotional, social, cultural, and musical experience, and thus heterogeneity and diversity are seen as enriching factors. Some considerations are made on the ways through which music can help to foster connections and sense of humanity in higher education. This provides some insights into the relevance of fostering musical participation as part of the cultural responsibility of higher education institutions for participants.

The Two-Way Drive in Modern Informational Music Teaching and Traditional Music Culture Inheritance

“…Traditional music culture is the treasure of national culture, maintains the characteristics and essence of the excellent traditional culture on this basis to inherit and innovate in order to create a new glory of Chinese culture [5][6], and colleges and universities in the inheritance of traditional music culture and innovation shoulder an important responsibility [7][8], which requires colleges and universities to actively carry out the construction of the teaching staff, constantly optimize the traditional music curriculum system, innovative teaching methods, pay attention to the dissemination of traditional music culture concepts to students. This requires universities to actively carry out the construction of teachers, constantly optimize the traditional music curriculum system, innovate teaching methods, focus on the dissemination of the concept of traditional music culture to students, and enhance the students' recognition of traditional music culture, so as to promote the inheritance and development of traditional music culture [9][10].…”