This study examines knowledge and knowers, here students, in higher music education. In recent years, the professional landscape of artists has undergone transformation, prompting critical questions for higher education. It has been argued that traditional knowledge in music education is not sufficient for future society (Gaunt & Westerlund, 2021; López-Íñiguez & Bennett, 2020), since the future of classical musicians is uncertain, and employment conditions are changing (Moberg & Georgii-Hemming, 2019). Additionally, the pressure toward academization has increased questions about knowledge and knowledge practices in higher music education, particularly in the European context (Johansson & Georgii-Hemming, 2021). Therefore, higher music education institutions are required to redefine their curriculum to support students in responding to societal changes (Gaunt & Westerlund, 2021). 

The aim of this study is to explore the question of knowledge and knowers from the perspective of teachers in higher music education, for which a university-wide curriculum reform in a Finnish higher education institution provided an excellent opportunity.

Knowledge of music is often differentiated into theory and craft or technique (e.g., McPhail 2022). Futhermore, knowledge in the arts has been claimed to be embodied, encultured, embedded (Orr & Shreeve 2018, 35) and where knowers as individuals count. Knowledge is intertwined with individuals and their bodies (Orr & Shreeve, 2018; Georgii-Hemming, 2013), communities, networks, objects (Orr & Shreeve, 2018) and with tools and materials (Addison, 2014; Sennett, 2008). Knowledge is constructed in artistic processes in which communication with others is often non-verbal (Anttila 2010, 167; Rouhiainen 2010, 78). However, there is scant research on what qualities and knowledge making practices make a student a legitimate knower in the contemporary higher music education. Therefore, in this study we focus on the teachers' perceptions of students as knowers in the context of university education.

The research questions are:

1. How do university teachers perceive knowledge and knowers in higher music education?
2. How do university teachers in music education perceive the relationship between knowledge and knowers?

The theoretical and methodological framework in the study is based on Karl Maton’s (2014) Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) that offers a multidimensional conceptual toolkit for analysing knowledge claims, knowledge-building practices, and the legitimacy of knowers. This places the study within the framework of social realism. LCT has its foundation on Bernstein’s (2000) theory of knowledge structures, where knowledge is classified as either hierarchical or horizontal. In the arts, knowledge is claimed to be horizontally structured. Even so, Maton (2024) says that knowledge structures oversimplify certain fields, such as the arts, and suggested focusing on knowers.

This sub-study is part of larger data collection and is a part of doctoral research concentrating on higher music education, mainly classical music. The data for this qualitative study are drawn from ten (N= 10) semi-structured interviews. The rationale for selecting interview as data collection method relies on the claims that curriculum making is based on process where knowledge practices are negotiated in the academic community (see e.g., Annala, 2022; Bovill & Woolmer, 2019). The criteria for interviewees were a position of professor, lecturer or program leader, and they had to be an active member in the curriculum renewal process. The interviews lasted 57–99 minutes and they were recorded, transcribed, and the data were encoded using the Atlas.ti software. For coding we used translation device (Maton & Chen, 2015) that we designed for the study. In the analysis, we employed social plane of LCT (Maton 2014), which is an analytical tool to explore knower attributes and way of knowing. Social plane provides dimensions to study strengths of two kinds of social relations: subjective relations (SubR±) emphasis on who they are as knowers and interactional relations (IR±) emphasising how they know (Maton 2014). When the dimensions are combined, they form a four quadrant model that generates four types of gazes: born, social, cultivated and trained gaze. In the analysis, the coded data were placed within this quadrant model of gazes, known as the social plane.

The analysis of the data is ready but writing the results and conclusions are in progress. Nonetheless, the results reveal the academization of higher music education and the generic working life demands challenge the traditional knowledge structures, way of knowing and conceptions of an ideal knower. Solutions to the situation are sought by focusing on the (new) qualities of potential knowers in entrance examinations or making some small changes in cultivating them into the field. Even though, the notion of an ideal knower is relatively clear. Furthermore, teachers’ perceptions of knowledge and their necessity in higher music education varied revealing different conceptions of what knowledge should be in higher music education curricula. The results of the study are valuable for curriculum reforms and development processes in higher music education in a changing context. Furthermore, the study contributes to the debate on what makes education ‘highest’ within the field of music.

Key references Angelo, E. (2019) Notions of Mandate, Knowledge and Research in Norwegian Classical Music Performance Studies. Journal for Research in Arts and Sports Education, 3(1), 78-100. Annala, J. (2022) Disciplinary knowledge practices and powerful knowledge: a study on knowledge and curriculum structures in regions, Teaching in Higher Education, 27:8, 1084-1102. Bernstein, B. (2000). Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity: Theory, Research, Critique. Revised edition. Roman & Littlefield. Carroll, C. (2019). ‘Illiterate’ musicians: An historic review of curriculum and practice for student popular musicians in Australian senior secondary classrooms. British Journal of Music Education, 36(2), 155–171. Gaunt, H. & Westerlund, H. (2021). Invitation. In H. Westerlund, & H. Gaunt (Eds.), (2021). Expanding Professionalism in Music and Higher Music Education: A Changing Game (pp. xiii-xxxiii Routledge. Georgii-Hemming, E. (2013). Music as Knowledge in an Educational Context. In E. Georgii-Hemming, P. Burnard, & S.-E. Holgersen (Eds.), Professional Knowledge in Music Teacher Education. Routledge. Johansson, K., & Georgii-Hemming, E. (2021). Processes of academisation in higher music education: The case of Sweden. British Journal of Music Education, 38(2), 173–186. Maton, K. (2014). Knowledge and knowers: Towards a realist sociology of education. Routledge. Maton, C. & Chen, R. (2015). LCT in qualitative research. Creating a translation device for studying constructivist pedagogy. In K. Maton, S. Hood, & S. Shay (Eds.), (2015). Knowledge-building: Educational studies in Legitimation Code Theory. Routledge. McPhail, G. (2022). Knowledge and Music Education: A social realist account. Routledge. Orr, S. & Shreeve, A. (2018). Art and Design Pedagogy in Higher Education: Knowledge, Values and Ambiguity in the Creative Curriculum. Routledge.