Openness and awareness—roles and demands of music teachers

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present and discuss the background to and the result of my thesis Openness and awareness—a phenomenological study of music teaching and learning interaction, which studies music teachers in Swedish ordinary schools teaching pupils aged from 10 to 12. The aim of the study was to describe, analyse and try to understand music teaching and learning interactions between teachers and pupils in music lessons in Years 4–6 of compulsory school. The focus was on the teacher's words, actions and reflections. In what ways do teachers interact with pupils in musical learning processes? What aspects of teaching and learning interactions are important when the aim is to offer the pupils, musical experience? I present the results from my methodological standpoints, which belong to a life-world-phenomenological way of thinking. This implies that the world is around us and in us, we are in the world, but experience it in different ways depending on our earlier experiences. I present my view of learning music, which among other things emphasises that learning is not constituted in a vacuum, but is instead found in a complex context. These presumptions made me choose observation and written reflections as methods to capture the music teaching and learning interactions. The answers to the research questions, themes and aspects of music teaching and learning interactions, are presented in two separate parts. The first part is based on the observations with themes focusing on how the teachers related to the incorporated musical knowledge of the pupils; in which ways were the teachers open to the initiatives of the pupils; how musical experience was made possible; how the acts of the pupils were handled; and finally, which symbols were used in the interactions. The second part is based on the teachers’ reflections and is presented in two themes; conditions that influence the quality of the interaction; and balance. I make clear how the themes relate to each other, and describe the phenomenon of teaching and learning interaction as a whole. I also attempt to illuminate the roles and demands of the teachers through a close look at one of the themes: making further musical experience possible.