In the Swedish compulsory school system there is a trend towards increased student influence. School ideologists have for at least ten years strongly emphasised this issue. This tendency is in line with a more general direction in Western societies, which in many aspects has moved toward individualisation. Based on these developments, the main reason for undertaking the presents study was to contribute to the discussion about different aspects of learning, which have as their starting point the issue of how adolescents experience musical learning. The study moves in and between the two fields of musical learning in school and in leisure time, and the data consists of seven group conversations carried out with eighth and ninth graders in secondary school. The analysis is undertaken in three steps, each one of which represents a gradually increasing level of abstraction. The theory is grounded on two different areas which have some common aspects, namely theories of modernity and philosophy of music education. The results show that value related issues such as preference and interpretation in the greatest possible extent should be left to the students, and the teacher should instead provide help to students by giving them tools for expression, such as training skills and providing a suitable milieu for musicing. Adolescents give expression to an apprehension that an important task of the school subject music is to expose musical genres and activities, whereupon the students can then choose what suits them. This way of acquiring music does not correspond to the way in which students assimilate music in everyday contexts and highlights a contradiction between how they legitimise musical learning in school and in leisure time. In their leisure time, students acquire preferences for music in an unsystematic and random manner. Their discussions strongly emphasise a search for music “to call their own”. Furthermore, the study shows that learning often occurs in situations where it is not intentional, for example when music listening is a background activity, but still an analysis of musical parameters takes place in an unconscious matter. Some of the adolescents consider ability to collaborate as the most important knowledge that comes out of music education in school. This attitude can be seen as a move from content to form. Two main discourses were identified: the discourse music and the discourse the school subject music. The discourse music is wide and embraces music in leisure time as well as in school. It consists of listening and musicing. The discourse the school subject music is narrow and legitimised only through its position as a school subject. The study also shows that musical learning has a therapeutical dimension and can be considered as a means to strengthen the self. This function seems to be an important end in musical activities. Finally, modern aesthetical values were applied to a post modern context, which implies that the aesthetics of modernity is still alive, and occupying a new body. Music educators in schools ought to consider the above outlined modernised conditions for musical learning, and thereby reflect upon the implications they might bring for music education.

Swedish teacher education has undergone several reforms in recent decades aimed at incorporating teacher education into the university setting and strengthening the teaching profession. In view of earlier research that has shown how arts education in schools is ruled by dominant knowledge ideologies, the purpose of the project is to critically scrutinize current discourses related to arts learning and arts education in teacher education. The study is based on social constructionist theory and data were collected by various means, including 19 focus group interviews with teachers and students at 10 Swedish teacher education institutes.Our analysis shows that an academic discourse focusing on theory, reflection and textual production has pushed aside skills-based practice. A second discourse, characterized by subjectivity and relativism vis-à-vis the concept of quality, is also found in the material. Finally, a therapeutic discourse is articulated and legitimized based on an idea that student teachers should be emotionally balanced.

En start för tänket, en bit på väg beskriver och analyserar ett utvecklingsprojekt kring kultur och estetiska lärprocesser. Några skolor i Värmland deltog under tre års tid i det så kallade pilotskoleprojektet, vars huvudsyfte var att ta fram modeller för hur en estetisk dimension skulle kunna genomsyra verksamheten i skolan. Boken har både ett teoretiskt och ett praktiskt anslag. Det teoretiska yttrar sig dels i en genomgång av forskningsläget i Sverige, dels i en diskussion av undersökningsdeltagarnas sätt att definiera en estetisk lärprocess och den kunskapsbildning som kommer till stånd i en sådan. Det praktiska yttrar sig i att de respektive skolornas konkreta arbete skildras. Förutom att boken kan betraktas som en utvärdering av arbetet och sålunda kan utgöra ett underlag för diskussion och reflektion vid de deltagande skolorna, kan den ses som en kunskapsbank för andra skolor som vill fördjupa arbetet med kultur och estetik. Den torde också med fördel kunna användas inom lärarutbildningar där dess dubbla fokus på teori och praktik svarar mot den målsättning som uttrycks i styrdokumenten. Författarna Claes Ericsson och Monica Lindgren har lång erfarenhet av såväl undervisning i estetiska uttrycksmedel i skola och lärarutbildning som av forskning kring kultur och estetik i skolan.

The point of departure of this study is an interest in discussing how the aesthetics of the market and the music culture of the pupils are expressed in music teaching in Swedish schools, and how these factors are transformed or whether any ideological dilemma arises when we strive to put the music culture of the pupils into practice in the everyday music teaching. In four previous projects with different foci, we have studied aesthetic activities in the school environment. Those studies were a source of inspiration for and a backdrop to this study.

The theoretical framework consists of poststructuralist and social constructionist theory as well as theories of late modernity, while our methodological point of departure is a combination of continental and Anglo-Saxon approaches to discourse analysis, modified to suit our purposes.

The empirical material consists of video recordings of classroom activities in secondary school settings in Sweden, and the data has been thoroughly analysed using analytical tools developed in accordance with our methodological approaches. Some important analytical concepts used here are identity, dominance, governance and knowledge formation.

Our findings indicate that:

- There are three different strategies for incorporating market aesthetics and the music culture of the pupils into everyday music teaching: learning about, reflecting on and putting into practice.

- The only ideological dilemma occurred when the pupils´music culture was put into practice in everyday music teaching .The problem was that one of the teachers had what might be considered as an over-determined identity. He found it difficult to establish a balance between the need of the pupils for freedom of expression and the teachers’ opinions regarding what was appropriate in the school environment.

- Music making activities in small groups was unsuccessful because the pupils were not yet good enough at the skills needed for composing music and playing together unsupervised.

- Schools are "task-oriented" in a way that is counterproductive to creativity in music making.

- Six different strategies of governance in the classrooms could be identified: through charisma and competence, through delegating responsibility, through making mantras of instructions and examination strategies, through creating solidarity or polarization, through disciplining the body and organisation of time and space and through ignoring problematic situations.

- Popular music was presented as a canon similar to the canon of art music that is predominant in the teaching of music history at school.

I dagens skola dominerar populärmusik som genre i musikundervisningen. Det kan röra sig om både obligatoriska och frivilliga utbildnings- och bildningsformer. På senare tid har även sociala medier etablerat sig som arena för undervisning och lärande med fokus på populärmusik. Boken bygger på de senaste årens musikpedagogiska forskning och syftar till att på ett lättillgängligt sätt förmedla en översiktlig bild såväl av den problematik som uppstår i mötet mellan populärmusik och skola, som den utvecklingspotential ett sådant möte har. Boken har en bred ingång med kapitel som ger uttryck för olika perspektiv:- identitets- och genusfrågor - standardiserade undervisningsformer i förhållande till kreativitet - populärmusik i kulturskolan - internet som konkurrent till traditionella utbildningsformer - kvalitet i undervisning - hiphop som arbetsområde i skolan - frågan om det är elevernas eller lärarnas populärmusik som behandlas i skolan. Boken riktar sig i första hand till studerande inom högre utbildning med fokus på musik, kultur, media och samhällsvetenskap, men också till verksamma lärare som är intresserade av att få ett grepp om populärmusikaliskt lärande.

This article presents an analysis of video documentation of music teaching in Swedish schools. The article is based on a larger research project, funded by The Swedish Research Council, the purpose of which has been to study how market aesthetics and students’ everyday culture are applied to the teaching of music. The introduction presents a background for the study's focus on music teaching in relation to issues of student influence. Next, the theoretical and methodological starting points are presented. With discourse psychological microanalysis as a point of departure, the ideological dilemma that has emerged in the analysis of the videos is then identified and discussed. In addition, the different types of subject positions contained in the studied discursive practice are problematized. The article concludes with a discussion of a number of factors that contribute to the establishment of ideological dilemmas in school practitioners of music education.

De senaste decennierna har successivt en medvetenhet och insikt om att skolan inte har monopol på kunskapsbildning växt fram. Skolan konkurrensutsätts i ständigt ökande utsträckning från andra kunskapsbildningsinstanser, exempelvis via sofistikerad informations- och kommunikationsteknologi, men även från institutioner som bildningsförbund och föreningar av olika slag. Detta tillsammans med en mera allmän tendens i samhället att nedmontera traditioner och auktoritetsförhållanden skapar möjlighet för elever att i högre utsträckning än tidigare ifrågasätta skolan med utgångspunkt i ett vetande som är tillägnat utanför skolan. En av de verksamheter som i hög grad berörs är den som bedrivs inom ramen för de så kallade estetiska ämnena. Detta för att barn och ungdomar har ett gediget kunnande och en distinkt preferens inom området, som de tillägnar sig i ofta informella lärsituationer i vardagslivet, parallellt med lärandet i skolan. Ett antagande är därvid att de estetiska ämnena kan uppfattas som ”mer än skolämnen”, vilket kan innebära en distorsion mellan skolans och elevernas förväntningar på dessa ämnen. Detta bekräftas av två av våra tidigare studier. Syftet med studien är: 1. Att undersöka vilka dominansförhållanden och identitetsförhandlingar som kommer till uttryck när elevers vardagskultur omsätts i skolan. 2. Att beskriva kunskapsbildningens karaktär i undervisningskontexter präglade av skilda strukturella förutsättningar, exempelvis sociala, kulturella, ekonomiska, utbildningsmässiga samt demografiska. Vid tre skolor, där skilda bakgrundsförutsättningar råder, kommer undervisningen i musik att dokumenteras med hjälp av videokamera. En undervisningsgrupp (år 9) vid varje skola kommer att väljas ut och följas kontinuerligt under ett läsår. Interaktionen mellan lärare och elever och mellan elever sinsemellan kommer att analyseras med avseende på verbal och visuell kommunikation. Resultaten kommer att diskuteras med utgångspunkt i ett samhälls- och kulturteoretiskt perspektiv. Projektet är tänkt att löpa under tre år och ny kunskap bör kunna avsättas under 2009. Att studera makt- och dominansförhållanden i skolan får ses som angeläget. Dels kan det initiera till reflektion, vilket i en förlängning kan leda till förändring inom de pedagogiska praktikerna, dels är det ett led i kvalitetssäkringen av skolan. Att studera identitetsförhandling i mötet mellan elevers vardagskultur och skola är också betydelsefullt, eftersom skolans fostransuppdrag kan komma i konflikt med den strävan som finns att bejaka ungdomars identitetsbildning. Det är viktigt att dessa i systemet ingående motsättningar belyses, inte minst med avseende på genusproblematik. Att studera kunskapsbildningens karaktär i pedagogiska kontexter där bakgrundsförutsättningarna varierar, framstår också som angeläget. Sådan forskning kan ses som betydelsefull både för realiserandet av en likvärdig skola och som diskussionsunderlag vid utarbetande av olika typer av undervisningsreglerande texter. Forskningsspridningen kommer att ske på olika sätt. Rapporten ges ut i bokform, vilket ökar tillgängligheten. Resultaten kommer också att kommuniceras via seminarier på skolor och lärarutbildningar. Slutligen kommer resultaten att återföras till de i undersökningen deltagande skolorna, där lärarna kommer att beredas möjlighet till reflektion i diskussionsgrupper, exempelvis i anslutning till studiedagar

This article is based on a larger research project with the purpose to study how market aesthetics and student’s music culture are expressed in the Swedish music classroom. The empirical material consists of video observations of classroom activities in secondary school settings in Sweden. The theoretical framework consists of poststructuralist and social constructionist theory combined with theories of late modernity, while our methodological point of departure is discourse analysis. Some important analytical concepts are identity, dominance, governance and knowledge formation. Three different strategies for incorporating market aesthetics and students’ music culture into music education were identified: learning about, reflecting on and applying. An ideological dilemma occurred when the fostering mission of school was confronted with the will to meet the students’ demands for freedom of expression. The results of the project also suggest that standardised and regulated forms of activity were counterproductive to creativity in music making. Six different strategies of gentle governance in the music classroom were identified. Popular music was presented by the teachers in a way analogous to the canon of art music that is predominant in the teaching of music history at school.

In the last decade different forms of discourse analysis have emerged in research on Arts education in Sweden. It includes macro- as well as micro oriented studies and embraces perspectives such as discursive psychology, critical discourse analysis, discourse theory and Foucault inspired analysis. The application is spread to a wide range of educational contexts from pre- and elementary school to higher education at universities as well as to schools of music and art. The purpose of this paper is two-folded: i) to give some examples on how discourse analysis have been used in Swedish research on Arts education and ii) discuss this in a meta-perspective focusing on similarities and differences according to empirical material and results. Data consists of four larger research projects completed during the last five years, all conducted by the authors. In a meta-perspective, all four studies enclosed, two kinds of approaches are shown: Word-level analysis, identified as rhetorical actions in group-conversations, and practice-oriented analysis, identified as rhetorical actions in classroom praxis. Both approaches aim to identify hegemony and antagonistic discourses, and also to problematize the subject agency and what possible subject positions they open up for. The relation discourse-subject also contributes to the analysis of the over-determined subject and ideological dilemmas. According to the results, the area of Arts education in Sweden seems to be a battlefield of different discoursers. For example, this is shown by different ideological dilemmas related to activities in the music classroom and in the questions of democracy and pupil influence that rises in the studies. Among teacher educators in arts education two prominent discourses are shown: The first is a relativization of the concept of quality, and the second is that lack of subject knowledge is articulated as a teacher quality. With Foucaultian discourse analysis, questions of power and control in arts education are handled. In line with this, democracy and knowledge formation are then put into focus, something that is also discussed in this presentation.

The aim of this article is to re-think the results of four larger studies conducted by the authors during the last decade, all with a discourse analytical approach. The studies are empirical and concern the Swedish field of arts in education and deal with a comprehensive material consisting of interviews, observations and field notes. In the results of these studies three prominent discourses emerges. A Curriculum discourse, where content knowledge is connected to traditions, norms and values of educational institutions, a Feel-good discourse that deals with content knowledge where social and personal aspects are essential, and a Snacking on knowledge discourse where content knowledge is portrayed as something students are able to pick and choose according to their own preference. Ideas of late modern society and arts in education are then used as a basis to carry out a critical discussion about the emerging discourses. Also different teacher and student positions are problematized.

Swedish teacher training has, during the last decades, gone through several reforms. The purpose has been toadopt teacher training into the university; to strengthen the teaching profession; and to bridge different traditionswhile including modern society. The discussions in these contexts have often shown a tension between scientificbased knowledge and knowledge grounded in other types of practice. Considering these discussions andchanges and in view of our earlier research studies, which show how the concept of ‘aesthetic learning’ (usedboth as a dimension within arts education and as a field within general teacher training) in school contexts isruled by dominating ideologies of knowledge, the purpose of the project is to identify, describe and criticallyscrutinize current discourses related to aesthetic learning and arts education within the teacher training.

The study takes its point of departure in post-structuralist and social constructionist theory and an assumption,therefore, that different kinds of knowledge are classified and created from a variety of specific preconceptionsabout the human being and the world. The data-collection includes 19 focus group interviews with teachers andstudents from 10 different Swedish teacher-training institutes. Our analysis shows that the aesthetic didactic fieldhas been challenged by more general pedagogical discourses. An academic discourse, with a focus on theory,reflection and textual production, has pushed out the musical skill based practice. A second discourse, which ischaracterised by subjectivity and relativism towards the conception of quality, is also found in the material.Finally, a therapeutic discourse, which marks out an affiliation to the teacher student’s inner personaldevelopment, is articulated and legitimised from an idea of emotionally balanced student teachers. The two latterdiscourses show similar features in teacher students’ personal development as well as in their didacticcompetence in relation to school and children. An assumption is that both educational ideologies andnondiscursive factors, like economic resources and the specific characters of different artistic expressions withinthe aesthetic field, contribute to the construction of the discourses.

This study investigates prevailing discourses on music in the field of creative arts in Swedish teacher education for primary school and preschool, following the programme based on the 1999 teacher education reform. The data were collected from 19 focus group interviews with teacher educators and student teachers from ten higher education institutions that offer such teacher education programmes. Theories related to language as action and the consequences of linguistic actions were taken as central to the study. To identify and discuss the discursive formations, analytical tools inspired by discourse psychology and discourse theory were used in the analysis. The analysis demonstrated that an academic discourse focusing on theory, reflection, and textual production has pushed aside skills-based practice. A second discourse, characterized by subjectivity and relativism vis-á-vis the concept of quality, was also found in the material. Finally, a therapeutic discourse was articulated and legitimized based on the idea that student teachers should be emotionally balanced. The constructions may be regarded as strategies that legitimize the creative arts, which no longer have a clear identity in this teacher education context. The discourse on technical skills in music, which previously occupied a hegemonic position in the discursive field, has fallen apart, allowing other discourses to take root.

The purpose of this article is to discuss current discourses inscribed in the practice of aesthetic courses in Swedish teacher training for compulsory school. The discussion is based on data including 19 focus group interviews with teachers and students at 10 Swedish teacher education institutes. Our analysis shows that an academic discourse focusing on theory, reflection and textual production exists alongside a discourse of skills-based practice. A third discourse, characterized by subjectivity and relativism vis à-vis the concept of quality, is also found in the material. Finally, a therapeutic discourse is articulated and legitimized based on an idea that student teachers should be emotionally balanced. In the article, contextual and ideological factors, as well as techniques of governance, are discussed in relation to the constructions found in the empirical material.

Our analysis shows that an academic discourse focusing on theory, reflection and textual production has pushed aside skills-based practice. Music is represented as something other than singing and playing instruments; practical work in music is arranged under titles like "leadership" or "group processes". A second discourse, characterized by subjectivity and relativism vis-á-vis the concept of quality, is also found in the material. Finally, a therapeutic discourse is articulated and legitimized based on an idea that teacher students should be emotionally balanced. The constructions may be regarded as strategies that legitimize aesthetic subjects that no longer have a clear identity in the primary teacher education context. The discourse on technical skills in music that previously took a hegemonic position in the discursive field has fallen apart, allowing other discourses to take root.

I lärarutbildningsreformen från 1999 (SOU 1999:63) lyfts den estetiska kunskapen fram som ett viktigt område för alla lärare oavsett ämne och skolform. Mot bakgrund av detta har forskarna i detta projekt studerat lärarutbildningens framställningar av estetisk kunskap/estetiskt lärande. Under 2009 medverkade lärare och studenter vid 10 av landets lärarutbildningar i fokusgruppsamtal. Resultatet visar att personlig utveckling, ledarskapsförmåga och kommunikativ kompetens lyfts fram på bekostnad av ämneskunskaper.

During 2013, an evaluation of all the research conducted at Halmstad University was carried out. The purpose was to assess the quality of the research, coproduction, and collaboration in research, as well as the impact of the research. The evaluation was dubbed the Assessment of Research and Coproduction 2013, or ARC13. (Extract from Executive Summary)

This article is based on a larger research project where the overall ambition is to critically discuss the encounter between students with intellectual disabilities and the Academy of Music. The aim of the article is to study the subject positions that are offered to the students, and how identity is constructed in interaction between the participants in teaching situations. The aim is also to describe the knowledge formation in a broad sense. The theoretical points of departure are the poststructuralist and the social constructionist theories, where the subject is considered as an agent that constructs reality in social interaction, but also as restricted by prevailing discourses. Discourse analysis is being used, with the aid of analytic tools developed within discursive psychology. Two different promi- nent discourses in rhythmics are identified: the protective therapeutic discourse, and the reproductive musical discourse. As a final conclusion, subject positions as well as knowledge formations contained in these discourses are discussed. 

In this study, based on a larger research project, the ambition is to problematize the first appointment between persons with intellectual disabilities and Swedish Higher Music Education. The aim of the study is to investigate subject positions that are constructed in eurhythmics related to the appointment between a group of students with intellectual disabilities and a group of student teachers, and to study how identity is constructed in interaction between the actors. Also, the aim is to describe the knowledge formation that is materialized. The theoretical framework is built on post-structuralist and social constructionist theory. Discursive psychology has been useful in the micro analysis of the situations in the classroom. A Foucault inspired analysis has contributed with an overarching view on the concept of discourse as well as a point of departure to reveal the silent discourse. Finally, Discourse theory as it is formulated by Laclau and Mouffe is suitable for discussing different available subject positions and a so called overdetermined identity. Inspired by an ethnografic approach, video observations were made for an extended period of one term in order to develop an understanding of the culture constructed in the practice. The results show that the silenced discourse, the unspeakable, is constructed from the fact that the students with intellectual disabilities both are insufficiently skilled for the task as leaders in eurhythmics, and less skilled than the student teachers. When the teachers feel awkwardness spreading among the visiting students, they use verbal and bodily strategies trying to cover up the fact that the disabled students do not possess adequate skills. Finally, the silenced discourse is discussed in addition to a hegemonic discourse in the Swedish politics of education.

In this article, based on a larger research project, the ambition is to critically discuss the first collaboration between students with intellectual disabilities and the Academy of Music in Sweden. The article presents an analysis of video observations of lessons in rhythmics, related to an encounter between the students with intellectual disabilities and a group of student teachers. The theoretical and methodological framework emanates from post-structuralist and social constructionist theories. The results show that the silenced discourse, the unspoken, is constructed from the fact that the students with disabilities both are insufficiently skilled for the task as leaders in rhythmics, and less skilled than the student teachers. Finally, the silenced discourse is discussed, where assumptions of normality and issues of inclusion are addressed as well as a hegemonic discourse in the Swedish politics of education.