Las prescripciones y la epistemología práctica de los profesores de música: el caso de la orquesta escolar

Abstract

This study focuses on research into the work of music teachers and visiting musicians in a primary school in France. Their teaching activities are part of the "Orchestre à l'école" scheme. This scheme enables children from working-class and sometimes disadvantaged backgrounds to access and develop instrumental and orchestral practice at different times of the week. The observations were made at the request of the music teachers, who wanted to take stock of their work after several years. The pedagogical quality of these music and music teaching professionals, the institutional framework and the friendly atmosphere of the project enabled this participatory research to take place under the best possible conditions. The study focuses on the effects of the prescriptions set out by the instrument teachers on their practical epistemology. The hypothesis is that the polymorphous nature of the prescription, of the instruction, has as much effect on the pupils as on the teacher's practical epistemology. To verify this hypothesis, the analysis of the documents collected during this participatory research concerns the transcripts of the instrument lessons and the simple self-confrontation interviews conducted with the teachers. How does the practical epistemology of a music teacher evolve through feedback from his or her pupils?
 After reviewing the literature on the notions of prescription and practical epistemology, the article describes the main methodological aspects and develops an analysis of snippets of lessons and interviews selected by the teachers, before proposing a discussion. If the top-down prescription reveals the teacher's practical epistemology, then the students' bottom-up prescriptions should reveal what makes it evolve.