Session Information
04 SES 02 A, The Role of Music and Maths in Inclusion or Segregation.
Paper Session
Contribution
The Western culture of performing music is traditionally very selective and separating the roles of performers and audience. Also in schools, often only those considered to have special skills and talent are allowed to perform publicly. Though the musical performances and school festivities are expected to contribute to the sense of belonging in the community, this kind of practice may even enhance segregation by strengthening the division of pupils into those good enough for performing on the stage and those not worth showing publicly.
This paper is based on an ethnographic case study on the practice of festivities and musical performances in a primary school with a 25-year history of developing inclusive and collaborative education. In the course of change, also the tradition of school festivities have been reconstructed. In the current practice, all the pupils participate in producing public musical performances several times a year, and festivities and performances are considered "a tool of education". While many schools quit organizing festivities claiming that they take too much time from "the proper" school work, in this school festivities and performances are regarded as a special tool not only to express but also to construct collaboration, inclusion, and sense of community in the curriculum. Studying the praxis of this school, I will ask whether festivities and musical performances could be used more intentionally and holistically to contribute to school education.
In my doctoral thesis, I examine musical performances as part of the educational culture of the school. I take a socio-cultural view on musical performances and school festivities as rituals of school (Wulf 2001, 2002, 2008a, 2008b), as interaction between individual and community, and between tradition and renewal (Dewey 1916/1997). Rituals articulate the most important values of culture because through festivities a community usually wishes to be seen at its best and brings to the stage what is seen as good and valuable (Wulf 2002). Small (1987/1998) suggests that the relationships created during a musical performance are modelling the ideal relationships of that society.
From this point of view, producing musical performances as part of school work deals not only with reproduction of musical culture but also with social structures of the community. Furthermore, rituals meet the core task of school in society, to balance between transmitting the tradition and constantly renewing it aiming at contributing to a better future. It is worth asking what kind of social structures are promoted by school festivities and musical performances.
In this paper I describe the change in the practice of producing seasonal festivities and musical performances modelling the change of educational ideals during the 25 years of developing inclusion, collaboration and sense of community in one Finnish school. Basing on this description I discuss the role of festivities and particularly musical performances in creating the educational culture of the school, focusing on possibilities to support individual growth and participatory democracy in school community.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Dewey, J. 1916/1997. Democracy and Education: an Introduction to the Philosophy of Education. New York: The Free Press. Harré, R. & van Langenhove, L. (ed.) 1999. Positioning Theory. Moral Contexts of Intentional Action. Oxford; Malden, Mass.: Blackwell. Harré, R. & Moghaddam, F. (ed.) 2003. The Self and Others. Positioning Individuals and Groups in Personal, Political, and Cultural Contexts. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger. Small, C. 1987/1998. Music of the Common Tongue. Survival and Celebration in African American Music. Hanover (N.H.). London: Wesleyan University Press. Westerlund, H. 2002. Bridging Experience, Action, and Culture in Music Education. Studia Musica 16. Helsinki: Sibelius Academy. Wulf, C. 2001. Rituelles Handeln als mimetisches Wissen. In Wulf, C.& al. Das Soziale als Ritual: zur performativen Bildung von Gemeinschaften. Opladen: Leske und Budrich, 325-338. Wulf, C. 2002. Anthropology of Education. Munster: LIT. Wulf, C. 2008a. Anthropological Research in Education. Towards a Historical-cultural Anthropology of Education. In Siljander, P. & Kivelä, A. (eds.) Kasvatustieteiden tila ja tutkimuskäytännöt. Paradigmat katosivat, mitä jäljellä? [The State and Practices of Educational Research. Paradigms lost, what is left?] Helsinki: Finnish Educational Research Association, 33-49. Wulf, C. 2008b. Producing the Social in Rituals. Education and Learning, Mimesis and Performativity. In Siljander, P. & Kivelä, A. (eds.) Kasvatustieteiden tila ja tutkimuskäytännöt. Paradigmat katosivat, mitä jäljellä? [The State and Practices of Educational Research. Paradigms lost, what is left?] Helsinki: Finnish Educational Research Association, 51-71.
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.