To Örebro University

Music performance programmes and higher music education (HME) in Europe are currently in a phase of change. Until the 21^stcentury, the higher education of instrumental musicians and composers has been framed by fairly stable conceptions of craftsmanship and artistic skill, and by straight-forward connections with the professional field. Today, however, the future is unclear.Changing conditions for employability and processes of academization are challenging traditional notions of knowledge and competence in the expert culture. 

The DAPHME project (Discourses of Academization and Professionalisation in Higher Music Education)[1] explores contrasting perspectives on performing musicians’ expertise and societal mandate in Sweden, Norway and Germany. Data are gathered through official documents and interviews with institutional leaders and teachers in HME. The concept of academization can be understood as the process of placing art into a university system and an academic discourse. Following this, fundamental ideas about artistic competence, knowledge and research are challenged and conflicts are likely to arise. In order to grasp and make visible such tensions, the DAPHME project employs a methodology inspired by critical discourse studies.

In the context of results from the Swedish part study, that comprises seventeen leaders and teachers at four academies of music, this senior research paper discusses the development of HME from two perspectives: a) the articulation and negotiation of ‘reflection’ as part of the education of performing musicians and the music profession, b) the role of artistic research in the process of transforming traditional conservatoires into institutions of education and research.

Reflection, and more specifically critical reflection, is often pointed out as contributing to successful lifelong learning. Reflective practice is seen as a method for professional growth and lasting learning outcomes, but what this implies in the context of HME has not been given much attention.  Findings from this study demonstrate how leaders and teachers negotiate interrelated conceptions of reflection; as based on language and cognition; as embodied, and as ‘purely’ musical. These positions relate to views on the content and organisation of teaching in HME, to epistemological questions on how artistic knowledge is formed and transferred and to how reflection is legitimized. 

Following the Bologna process, all higher education programmes are to be research based. In Sweden, artistic research is by now implemented in the university system with an academic degree and governmental funding initiatives. What a research based higher education means in the 1^stand 2^ndcycle education of musicians is, however, a matter of debate. Findings indicate that ‘artistic research’ is acknowledged as the main way of enquiry and knowledge development in HME but also point to significant negotiations and renegotiations within and between different institutions. As part of this process, the conceptualisation and organisation of the degree project at bachelor and master levels will be discussed as an important tool not only for individual professional learning but for the implementation of institutional profiles and for the future development of HME.

[1]https://www.oru.se/english/research/research-projects/rp/?rdb=p1032