“Going Viral”: Contagious Agency Through Learned Helpfulness in a Choral Ensemble

Abstract

Abstract Through hermeneutic phenomenological study (van Manen, 2015b), I explored the music learning processes of multiage learners in a choral ensemble (aged 6–16) designed as a social constructivist learning environment (Fosnot, 1996; Wiggins, 2015). The multiage structure of the ensemble fostered peer scaffolding, which flourished and became central to the culture of the ensemble. The prevalence of this phenomenon enabled insight into a collaborative learning process and how it supported learners’ construction of musical understanding and musical agency (Wiggins, 2016) of individuals within the group. Emergent themes reflected the presence of phenomena I describe as contagious, “viral,” musical agency, and care/courage, and the key role that emotion played in learning processes. Findings describe a reified community of learned helpfulness (Hogle, 2018), as learners fluidly and dialogically offered their agentive musical selves as teacher-helpers and learner-helpers (Hogle, 2018), focused on shared performance goals within the choral ensemble. Attuned learners provided socially mediated processes of pedagogical tact (van Manen, 2015a) to scaffold individuals’ learning needs, processes, and musical agency. Through this transformative process, ensemble agency, community, and musical performance flourished.