Music and Music Ethnography as Reflexivity Tools in Adult Learning

Irene Theodosopoulou

doi:10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n3s1p247

Abstract

Music and music ethnography can evoke reflexivity in adult learning. The aim of the text is to highlight -out of two “ethnographic” cases- the ability of using music and ethnographic research as tools of transformative learning in adult education through recollective experiences. Reflexivity, as an analytical and interpretive tool in music ethnography, is used in the design of a research, in the discussion between ethnographers/musicologists and musicians or non musicians -carriers of a “tradition”- or in the composition of an ethnographic “text”. In reality, discussing with the different “other” is posing questions to oneself. Listening to a melody as adults, we associatively re-create memories and older experiences. The research was based on the use of music and musical ethnography as tools of transformative learning in two cases: firstly, in culturalists of the tertiary education of the Hellenic Open University and secondly, in adult students of the secondary education who were carrying out researches in the frame of a project entitled “Narrations about music and dance: Narrations about life”. The research took place in the years 2012-2013 and was based on qualitative methods of analysis (interviews and participatory observation were used). Visual arts are already used as analytical tools in adult learning. This article underlines the necessity of initiating a fertile discussion on the embodiment of music and ethnographic research, as useful reflexivity tools, in adult learning. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n3s1p247

Highlights

In music ethnography, ethno-musicologists and anthropologists often use “reflexivity” in a research (Nettl, 2002)
The identification symbols were strong in her, because they were symbols of “power” and the acceptance of her identity as an Arvanite woman was fortified through the acceptance of the “other” powerful members of society as being Arvanites, too. In both cases, where music and ethnographic reflexivity are put in the service of transformative learning, we could talk about the following stages: Specific stimulus, self-reference, recollection of older experiences, introduction of a new element of subjectivity, doubt, critical reflection, narration of the “other”, speech and “dialogue”, reassessment and self-evaluation of experiences, acceptance of the different way of thinking and acting, re-negotiation of identities, self-knowledge, production of new knowledge
We are discussing about the importance of a) “ethnographic research” and our self-definition through hetero-definition, b) participatory observation and self-knowledge by observing the “other” – the importance of a traumatic experience c) determination of the stages of reflexivity in adult learning d) experience in order to acquire new knowledge through music and the narration of life stories e) music, in the sense of cultural practices and as a cultural product in the procedures of reflexivity

Summary

Introduction

Ethno-musicologists and anthropologists often use “reflexivity” in a research (Nettl, 2002). Reflexivity (Kavouras, 1994; Kavouras, 2002; Geertz, 1973; Gefou – Madianou, 1998; Gefou – Madianou, 1999) as an analytical and interpretive tool is used both during a field-research aiming at the study of e.g. the musical tradition of a geo-cultural area (Chtouris, 1999) and during the interpretation of the research data. It is mainly used during the composition of an “ethnographic text”. This dialogical procedure and polyphony (Bakhtin, 1980) between oneself and the “other” becomes the starting point for the elaboration of self-knowledge and self-definition

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