Session Information
19 SES 06 A, Parallel Paper Session 6A
Paper Session
Contribution
My ethnographic data is analyzed as ‘a work of identity creation’ in a specific learning practice and organization building process.
The oldest girls’ choir MidWest Girls’ choir (‘MidtVest Pigekor’) at The Song school of Jutland, which was the choir I observed the most, had members who had being in the choir from the start. MidWest Girls' choir is the second choir at The Song school of Jutland. Herning Church Boys’ choir has a longer and more institutionalized tradition, and is famous in the domain of classical and church singing for their voices and singing skills.During the years the MidWest Girls’ choir has created a more and more unique way of performing, inspired by dramatic elements from dance to reinforce the atmosphere and lyrics of their songs. Girls from the choir express that their interest in the choir are in becoming a different type of choir than a traditional church choir. “It should be cool being a choir singer”. This girl refers to that her class mates for many years have associated ‘a choir girl’ with being ‘the little nice girl’. When MidWest Girls' choir became known in Herning and the nearby surroundings for performing a very different repertoire than the boys’ choir, and in other types of context, the understanding of ‘a choir girl’ has changed.
The girl choir participants’ work of identity creation and expression is in this example becoming very explicit because of their urge to find a position as ‘something else’. Creativity is taking place in connections between individuals, domain, and field (Csikzentmihalyi 1996). My approach to creativity stresses the formational processes more that the products (Saltofte 2013). And in understanding creative processes I use tradition not as the opposite to creativity, but as forming an interactional space together: a space relating convention and novelty. (Ingold & Hallam 2007)
I will analyze empirical examples from the practice of learning and performing choir songs. Examples of how the members of the choir define themselves by differentiating socially towards the established boy choir at the Song school. The concept of communities of practice (Wenger 1998) is being used as the analytical term to focus on the interactional processes of becoming a choir and forming a specific identity in creation of their shared repertoire. It is a creative process as the expression is singing and community forming.
Identities are formed as a social process both as being a singer and as being part of a choir community. Individual and collective identification can only come into being within interaction. The most significant contrast between individual and collective identification is that the former emphasizes differences and the latter similarity. But each emerges out of the interplay of similarity and difference. (Jenkins 2004)
The performance of MidWest Girls' choir is identity forming towards a general identity positioning toward the domain of choir song. It is a structural oppositional creation at a practice level too; as an informal competition towards the recognized boys’ choir.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1997). Creativity – flow and the psychology of discovery and invention. New York: Harper Hallam, E. & Ingold, T. (2007). Creativity and Cultural Improvisation: An Introduction. In Hallam, E. & Ingold, T. (ed.) Creativity and Cultural Improvisation. Oxford: Berg Jenkins, R. (2004). Social Identity. London: Routledge Saltofte, M. (2013). Challenging Institutional Convention and Power through Creativity. In Thinking Skills and Creativity. To be published Wenger, E. (1998) Communities of Practice. Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge: The Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge
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