Student-created musical as a community of practice: a case study

Abstract

Research on the improvement of learning shifted from a focus on the learner as individual to the concept of sociocultural learning in communities of learning, communities of practice or learning cultures during the 1990s. A similar shift in the focus of the development of a single construct of individual musical creativity to socially situated multiple creativities challenges traditional conceptions of music creation, performance and education. This study examines a qualitative case study of a student-created extra-curricular musical production for evidence of a community of practice and concurrent development of musical creativities. The professional orientation of the production connects the interactions and structures to a model of a community of practice using the dimensions of mutual engagement, joint enterprise and shared repertoire. Students described and demonstrated creative skills derived from both curricular and teacher-led extra-curricular experiences in instrumental and choral music, acting, dance and technical theatre. The institution, in this case a secondary school, supported the development of multiple creativities through support of both curricular and extra-curricular opportunities. As Perkins suggests in a case study of a conservatoire, higher music education needs to support the shift from individually supported creative spaces to institutional support for the development of multiple creativities (236).