This chapter begins the journey of reflection on practice by focusing on concepts that underpin learner-centred teaching. This holistic approach to music education sees learning music as an essential element of living a fulfilled life.
Exploring learner-centred thinking in music education
Learner-centredness in education is a prominent discourse that needs ongoing dialogue to foster understanding, especially with regard to the implications of its approach to practice. This evolution of understanding develops through re-framing the ideas about how learning occurs and the role that the teacher might play. Gert Biesta (2013) sees education at the heart of a dialogical process and raises the point that education always involves a risk and therefore has an element of “weakness” in it (pp. 1–9). This unpredictable, indeterminate and in-the-moment nature of a learning situation calls for pedagogical sensitivity (see Van Manen, 1991, 2008) in order to realise the potential of this creative process both from the learner’s and the teacher’s points of view. Sawyer (2011, pp. 1–3) conceives of teaching as an improvisational activity, that attempts to achieve a delicate balance between structure and improvisation. He sees this as the essence of the art of teaching.
Focusing on learners and the pedagogical actions that support learning leads to the concept of pedagogy from the holistic perspective that is embodied in the whole being of the person. Max Van Manen (1991) suggests that teaching viewed through this lens “has the quality of opening up possibilities of being and becoming” (p. 14). Through this lens, teaching could be seen as opening possibilities for learning (see Huhtinen-Hildén, 2017) with a pedagogy that is “willing to engage the beautiful risk” (Biesta, 2013, p. 9).
Learning – seen from this broader perspective – has been re-framed by many in the field of music education. David Elliott and Marissa Silverman (2015, p. 108) highlight humanity’s concern for education being fundamentally aimed at “achieving and living a meaningful and fulfilling personal and social life” or, a good life for all. Learning in music activities can be seen as meaningful in changing how a person perceives themselves and life. Following this trajectory of understanding learning, musical interactions and group musical processes are a way of entering an attuned state in the participatory process, which can lead to constructing meaningful life experiences. With a focus on possibilities for learning, different layers and abilities can be present and nurtured at the same time. The group is engaged in a creative process of learning (see Biesta, 2013, pp. 5–9), and the focus is not on the act of teaching but on learning and scaffolding the growth of individuals and interaction. Learning and knowledge may be seen as co-constructed in a dialogic process between ‘learners’ and ‘teachers’. Learning and teaching form a complex system. Together they lead to growth in knowledge and understanding through practice that has meaning for both the teacher and the learner (Loughran, 2006).
In this book, the term ‘music pedagogue’ is used to refer to someone who educates or teaches music (there are various terms used in different countries for those who work in music education in its broadest sense). Originating from the Greek ped, meaning ‘child’, and agein, ‘to lead’, this allows not only those with teaching qualifications, but also those not formally qualified as teachers, to be included in the title. Thus, music pedagogues work in various contexts and settings, for example with pre-school children and their families, the elderly, those with mental health difficulties, children with special needs and countless other community contexts. The music pedagogue can be seen as a professional facilitator of another’s creative and artistic processes, learning and expression.
By reflecting on the assumptions and values about professional teaching practice, some of the established ways of thinking about music education have been challenged (see Bjö rk, 2016). Deeper articulation, analysis and framing of learner-centred music education are needed to give voice to the practical, pedagogical tacit knowledge (see Polanyi, 1966) that music pedagogues experience. Pedagogical actions that support learning can develop a sense of awe and wonder in what may lie ‘beyond’ (Boyce-Tillman, 2016) and of what remains hidden and intangible when learning or experiencing music.
There are – in both practice and professional discourse and policy – many examples where teaching is referred to in terms that imply giving instructions or focusing on things that are visible and/or audible and where learning is seen as predictable and caused by the controlled delivery of instruction. Although these conceptualisations have been challenged by researchers and practitioners in the field (see e.g. Barnett, 2004; Biesta, 2013; Custodero, 2010; Korthagen, 2004; Loughran, 2006), the need remains for shared enterprise to develop the vocabulary that bridges the research-based theoretical framework and the learner-centred practice in music education.
John Loughran (2006) describes those pursuing what might be considered teacher training as ‘students of teaching’. This expression could also refer to professional practitioners to emphasise the ongoing reflection on practice as a lifelong pursuit. Thus, a professional could be seen as someone who is in the constant process of becoming. With reflection on the experience in practice, combined with theoretical frameworks and notions, a deepening of understanding occurs in collaboration with the professional’s communities of practice (see Wenger, 1998), which includes both colleagues and learners that they work with. In this process, both students of teaching, as well as professionals in the field, are in the process of reflection and “learning for an unknown future” (Barnett, 2004, p. 247). Looked at from this point of view, professional practice is always in a state of ‘becoming’ and not in a state of having arrived. In Korthagen’s ‘onion model’ (Korthagen, 2004, p. 80), which describes levels of change towards new directions in teacher education, he refers to the innermost part of a teacher’s professional identity as the ‘mission level’, where professional reflection is bound up with a deep sense of calling, beliefs and values.
Music education as part of life
For a plant to flourish, certain conditions are needed: suitable soil, a perfect growing position and the right amount of sun and rain at the right time. It needs tending, pruning and feeding in order to perform well year after year. A similar set of conditions may be needed for human flourishing. What do we need to live a good life in and through music?
Elliott and Silverman (2015) suggest ‘Praxis’ as a concept that can be applied to music education. At the heart of the framework is the idea that music education seen through the praxial lens should have the empowerment of people as a central tenet, “to develop the abilities and dispositions required to pursue important life goals and values for themselves and others”, leading to what they call ‘human flourishing’ through creative, participatory music making (or education). This idea of music as a source of human flourishing is a driving thought behind learner-centred music education (pp. 17–18).
Integral to the praxial approach is the concept that musical activities should be “embedded in and creatively responsive to both traditional and ever-changing musical/cultural/social values” (Elliott & Silverman, 2015, p. 17). Achieving a good life for all should surely be a key driver for education and the arts, and music in particular is an effective and suitable vehicle for this.
The lifelong musical learning journey begins before birth with muffled sounds; later, in the first few years of life, music can become an intrinsic part of important relationships. The child’s own artistic world can, with the help of scaffolding from others more expert, be nurtured and flourish. ‘Pruning’ and ‘feeding’ along the way enable continued flourishing and the emergence of unexpected shoots of creative outburst and learning. Year upon year, the love and interest in music can grow and become rooted in the lives of young people as they mature.
Sounds combine in some way with our hearing, thoughts and feelings to produce an internal response. We must therefore acknowledge that “musical experiences are corporeal – located in body” (Custodero, 2010, p. 62). Music connects the learner to their primal humanity, felt in their bodies. This embodiment enables learners to integrate their feelings with their actions, which together provide a foundation for higher-order conceptualisation (Custodero, 2010, p. 84). This is one notion for how we ‘know’ in and through music. Mihály Csikszentmihalyi suggests that a ‘flow’ experience can lead to positive affect and happiness through personal development in order to achieve more than the individual felt was possible. Through observing individuals totally absorbed in a task, it is suggested that they are utterly committed to the present moment – that is referred to as being in a state of flow. This state generates positive emotional feelings or a state of wellbeing (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). Musical activities in a group can lead to a ‘group-flow’ experience, described by Victor Turner as ‘communitas’ (1974).
Elliott and Silverman (2015) base their praxial philosophy of music education upon Aristotle’s conception of Praxis – comprising four distinct parts: theoria, poiesis, techne and phronesis. Each of these has a different role to play in music teaching. Theoria – the theories and research-based knowledge about music, child development and education – is an underpinning to actions in teaching but not all that is required. Poiesis refers to those aspects of music making that rely on what is known about music prior to creating something new – such as familiar compositional structures such as 12-bar blues or rondo form. Techne includes the technical skills required of music making – drills and practise exercises, for example. Phronesis is the dimension that drives the music pedagogue’s thoughts, decisions and actions made in unique practical situations (pp. 44–45). Phronesis is also known as practical reasoning, and this is the aspect that can influence what is taught, how it is taught and when it is taught. The capacity to make ‘right’ choices in a given moment for a particular group of learners carries with it an ethical dimension that can lead to good results and outcomes. Praxis is an embodied integration of the four dimensions, a dynamic and sensitive philosophical view of music education that depends on our sensitivity as pedagogues to effect good decisions based on our knowledge of theory, musical forms and structures, technical skill, and practical wisdom that are all deployed appropriately, in the moment, for the group of learners and their learning needs. Praxis requires an element of caring about the decisions that one takes in terms of others’ wellbeing (Chub...
