What is on offer within Norwegian extracurricular schools of music and performing arts? Findings from a national survey

© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis GroupThis article presents the results of a survey among rectors of schools of music and performing arts in Norway. The aim was to map the schools’ offerings in terms of musical genres and related instruments and ensembles, and to determine how the availability of different genres was distributed demographically and geographically. A questionnaire including structured and open-ended questions was sent electronically to all rectors in August 2019 (response rate 58.4%, or 227 out of 389 rectors). The rectors were selected for the survey because they were the ones that had the complete overview of their school’s offerings. The data were analysed statistically and qualitatively. The results show that popular music and Western classical music occupy almost equal space in the schools; popular music is slightly more available. Norwegian folk music and other genres have more marginalised positions. The distribution correlates with patterns of social class and local, regional, and assumed cultural-musical identities, but no unequivocal governing logic of access was found. The findings were interpreted against a Bourdieusian-inspired framework that highlights the symbolic meanings of music.publishedVersio

Selecting repertoire for music teaching: Findings from Norwegian schools of music and arts

In 1997, Norway became the first country to make statutory provision for schools of music and arts requiring every municipality to run such a school. Based on an explicit vision of “schools of music and arts for everyone,” the aim is to provide music education for all children, regardless of social and economic background. Despite their statutory status, there are no official documents regulating the teaching content. The schools have an advisory curriculum framework, but as this framework barely mentions musical genres, teachers are free to choose content and modes of instruction. In this article, we address the following research questions: What kinds of music are used as teaching content in the schools of music and arts? Who, and what, decide which music is used? We report the findings from a survey of music teachers (N=151) working in schools of music and arts that were selected using a quota sampling strategy. The survey questionnaire comprised both structured and open-ended questions. We found that while the teaching content encompasses a wide range of musical genres and styles, various styles of popular music predominate. Moreover, the teachers’ own choice of music was altogether the most prominent option, along with other categories involving teacher-led decisions. Our findings also suggest that the teachers’ own preferences and taste in music had a certain impact on the content used. However, the students’ and teachers’ influence on the teaching content seems to vary with the musical style/genre being taught. Students’ preferences were emphasized to a higher degree when teaching popular music, while the teachers decided what music to play more often when teaching art music/classical music. The findings are discussed against Kallio’s ideas of the school censorship frame, and the authors argue that the wider cultural-musical heritage seems to be a strong force when making decisions about teaching content.publishedVersio

Exploring the Sociology of Music Education

This is an Open Access article originally published in the journal Action, criticism, & theory for music education. The article can be accessed at the following location: http://act.maydaygroup.org/articles/DyndahlKarlsenWright13_1.pd

Cultural omnivorousness and musical gentrification. An outline of a sociological framework and its applications for music education research

This is an Open Access scientific, peer-reviewed article originally published in the journal Action, criticism, & theory for music education. The article can be accessed at the following location: http://act.maydaygroup.org/articles/DyndahlKarlsenSkårbergNielsen13_1.pdfIn this article, we aim to develop a theoretical model to understand what we refer to as ‘musical gentrification’ and to explore how this model might be applied to and inform music education research. We start from a Bourdieusian point of view, elaborating on the connections between social class and cultural capital, and then move on to discuss more recent contributions concerning cultural omnivorousness and musical gentrification. Furthermore, we show, through describing an ongoing research project, how the notion of musical gentrification can be utilised in music education empirical research, and we also discuss its possible applications in future efforts of mapping and understanding the present-day complexity of the culturalmusical landscape

The music festival as an arena for learning : Festspel i Pite Älvdal and matters of identity

The aim of the present study was to explore the music festival Festspel i Pite Älvdal as a source of informal learning with implications for the identity of the audiences and the host communities. The main research question focussed on how the Festspel i Pite Älvdal affected the development of the audience's musical identity and influenced their relation to their local community. The research sub-questions were concerned with how the festival 1) affected the audience's construction of musical self-narratives; 2) contributed to the audience's development and maintenance of parallel musical identities; and 3) contributed to the development of local identity in the festival's host-municipalities. The study was grounded in earlier festival research as well as music educational research concerning informal arenas for learning. The study's theoretical framework was built on theories of modernity, which make it possible to put into perspective identity development in contemporary societies. The sociology of music provided theoretical perspectives on the close connection between music and identity. Also, theories of situated learning were employed as a basis for the discussion of how learning might come through audiences' peripheral participation in the festival community of practice. This research was designed as a case study, combining observations of festival events, surveys of members of the festival audience and interviews with survey participants and official representatives of the festival's host-municipalities. Due to its theoretical points of departure, the study came to carry strong features of narrative research. The study's findings showed that the festival affected construction of musical self-narratives by delivering contextual frames in which experiences, understood as material for construction of such narratives, were developed. Despite the festival offering good preconditions for maintenance and development of parallel musical identities, the majority of the audience chose maintenance, and the festival worked as a device for identity development only for those few who preferred to use it that way. The festival contributed to development of local identity by telling the audiences the stories of who they were, by deepening, re-telling and prolonging pre-existing municipality narratives. In discussing the study's findings, four identity dimensions of music festivals were brought to the fore: On the individual level, a music festival may function as an arena for lifestyle choices as well as a basis for individuals' self-regulatory strategies in connection with music. On the municipal level, the festival may be an outward manifestation of community identity and an occasion for reinforcement of social and cultural identity. The audiences' festival-related learning can be expressed in terms of learning music, learning about music and learning via music. Viewed in relation to theories of musical knowledge, it became evident that the total learning outcome was similar to expected outcome from other informal as well as formal music educational settings.Målet med denne studien var å utforske musikkfestivalen Festspel i Pite Älvdal som en uformell kilde til læring med virkning på publikums og vertssamfunnenes identitet. Hovedproblemstillingen fokuserte på hvordan Festspel i Pite Älvdal innvirket på utviklingen av publikums musikalske identitet og på deres relasjon til sitt eget lokalsamfunn. Delproblemstillingene angikk hvordan festivalen 1) innvirket på publikums konstruksjon av musikalske selvbiografier; 2) bidro til at publikum utviklet og opprettholdt parallelle musikalske identiteter; og 3) bidro til utvikling av lokal identitet i festivalens vertssamfunn. Studien var grunnet i tidligere festivalforskning og musikkpedagogisk forskning omkringuformelle læringsarenaer. Det teoretiske rammeverket var hentet fra modernitetsteori. Dette gjorde det mulig å perspektivere identitetsutvikling i nåtidige samfunn. Den nære sammenhengen mellom musikk og identitet ble belyst ved hjelp av musikksosiologisk teori, og teorier omkring sosiokulturell læring ble brakt inn for å diskutere hvordan læring kan skje gjennom publikums perifere deltakelse i et festivalrelatert praksisfellesskap. Studien ble designet som en casestudie, og kombinerte observasjon av festivalarrangementer og en spørreundersøkelse blant medlemmer av festivalpublikummet med intervjuer med deltakere i spørreundersøkelsen og offisielle representanter fra festivalens vertssamfunn. Studiens teoretiske utgangspunkt gjorde at den fikk tydelige trekk av narrativ forskning. Funnene visteat festivalen innvirket på konstruksjon av musikalske selvbiografier ved å etablere kontekstuelle rammer der publikum kunne tilegne seg opplevelser og erfaringer som utgjorde materialet for konstruksjon av slike biografier. Til tross for at festivalen tilbød gode forutsetninger for utvikling så vel som opprettholdelse av parallelle musikalske identiteter,valgte majoriteten av publikum opprettholdelse. Festivalen fungerte bare som arena for utvikling av nye, parallelle musikalske identiteter for de få som aktivt valgte å benytte den på denne måten. Når det gjaldt lokal identitet, bidro festivalen til utvikling av denne ved å fortelle publikum historiene om hvem de var ved å fordype, gjenfortelle og forlenge allerede eksisterende fortellinger om lokalsamfunnene. I en diskusjon av studiens funn, blir musikkfestivalens fire identitetsdimensjoner trukket fram: På individplan kan en musikkfestival fungere som en arena for livsstilsvalg samt som en base for individets selvregulerende, musikkrelaterte strategier. På samfunnsplan kan en festival innebære en utadrettet manifestasjon av et lokalsamfunns identitet samt fungere som en anledning til åforsterke innbyggernes sosiale og kulturelle identitet. Publikums festivalrelaterte læring kan uttrykkes i termer av å lære musikk, å lære om musikk og å lære via musikk. Når læringen ses i relasjon til teorier om musikalsk kunnskap, blir det tydelig at læringsutbyttet som helhet har store likheter med læringsresultater som forventes i andre formelle og uformelle musikkpedagogiske praksiser.Godkänd; 2007; 20071201 (ysko)</p

What are the 'rules of sustainability' for festivals in the nothern periphery?

Godkänd; 2006; 20071031 (johsod)</p

Barents festivals and the development of local identity

The aim of the present study was to investigate how three specific music festivals, situated in the Barents region, contributed to development of local identity in their respective host municipalities. The aim was further explored through three research questions focussing on 1) how the festivals cooperated with local agents; 2) how the festivals participated in and contributed to processes of glocalisation; and 3) what kinds of stories that were told through the festivals about their respective host municipalities. The festivals investigated was the Festspel i Pite Älvdal (Sweden), the Festspillene i Nord-Norge (Norway) and the Jutajaiset Folklorefestivaali (Finland). The study was grounded in modernity theory as well as previous research on festivals' contribution to development of local identity. Concerning the methodological aspects of the study, it was designed using an embedded multiple case-design, in which each of the festivals constituted one case and the three research questions functioned as the cases' units of analysis. Hence, within-case as well as cross-case analysis was enabled. The empirical data consisted of field notes from participant observation of in all 58 festival events; interviews with the festivals' directors and official representatives of the festivals' host municipalities; and documentation in the form of festival programmes. The findings showed that all three festivals had extensive cooperation with a wide selection of local agents or stakeholders but also that the range and profoundness of this coopera tion seemed to depend on the festival management's awareness of and focus towards the necessity of building and maintaining stakeholder relationships. This awareness seemed further to depend on the festival's perceived self-identity, its degree of professionalism and institutional status. Regarding the participation in and contribution to processes of glocalisation, 17 aspects were found that were divided into the categories of reaching out; letting in; facilitating for meetings; and musical glocalisation. The festivals were seen to be narrators of history as well as telling meta-narratives about their host municipalities and thereby producing and reproducing collective self-images. The latter was exemplified in the Festspel i Pite Älvdal emphasising the local municipality as a centre in its own reality; the Festspillene i Nord-Norge strengthening the urban and displaying strong, international bonds; and the Jutajaiset Folklorefestivaali emphasising connections towards other peripheral and rural communities.Godkänd; 2008; 20080828 (ysko)</p

Festspel i Pite Älvdal : a study on the festival's impact on identity development

Godkänd; 2005; 20070111 (johsod)</p