This article explores the social stratification of the Swedish Community School of Music and Arts, which offers voluntary extra-curricular arts education to children in Sweden, and children’s experiences of attending the school. A survey was executed where sixth-graders in Sweden were asked about their experiences of the school and about background factors such as their gender, country of birth, parents’ level of education and family involvement in the music and arts. The results show that the typical Swedish Community School of Music and Arts student is a Swedish-born girl with well-educated parents. Children of parents who play an instrument or sing are more likely to find their way to the school, and the level of support that parents provide contributes to the children’s persistence in their studies. In sum, the results largely conform to cultural reproduction theory. © The Author(s) 2018

The aim of this study is to shed light on music teachers’ constructions of legitimacy in response to a political ideal of socially inclusive music education in the Swedish Community Schools of Music and Arts. Eighteen teachers from five such schools participated in focus group discussions. Discursive psychology as well as the perspective of new institutionalism and Bourdieu’s concepts of field and doxa formed the basis for the analysis. In order to legitimize their programs, the teachers cited a range from inclusion in an existing tradition to inclusion through the influence of students and a broad range of offered courses. Through its association with social inclusion, the El Sistema concept is suggested to have the potential to bring legitimacy to the schools in the form of institutionalized myth. Simultaneously as the dissemination of the El Sistema concept in the field of Community Schools of Music and Arts creates isomorphism, these schools also display a strong tendency toward localized variation, which conveys their decoupling capacity. An implication on the policy level is to support programs that are deemed socially inclusive, regardless of whether it adheres to the construct of El Sistema, and, thereby, see through the institutionalized myth of this concept.

This study sheds light on music teachers’ perspectives on their chances to disrupt cultural and social reproduction in music education in the Swedish Community Schools of Music and Arts (kulturskolor, sing. kulturskola). Focus group conversations were carried out involving 18 teachers at five such schools. As a point of departure, the analysis of the conversations applied the theoretical perspective of Bourdieu with an emphasis on the concepts explicit versus implicit pedagogy and Bernstein’s corresponding concepts visible and invisible pedagogy. The analysis discusses explicit versus implicit assumptions interwoven in the teachers’ accounts of their efforts. The teachers describe it as difficult to challenge social structures. Based on marketing efforts vis-á-vis families from immigrant backgrounds, the teachers point to differing understandings of the significance of participation in the programmes. The teachers’ descriptions point to opportunities that stem from efforts to facilitate children taking part in music education in cooperation with compulsory schools, teaching practice habits and more general behaviours, and initiatives to reach parents and children from immigrant backgrounds with information. The descriptions show explicit as well as implicit components,

often in terms of implicit assumptions embedded in an explicit framing. Reflection upon implicit assumptions is suggested as a means to develop more radical strategies to disrupt cultural and social reproduction in the Swedish kulturskolor.

This article sheds light on policy enactment in response to political goals of widening participation in Swedish community schools of music and arts (kulturskola). The data for this article is based on interviews with five principals from five such schools. The principals’ accounts were interpreted in a discourse psycho- logical framework and six different ways to position themselves as leaders were found: The Trend-spotter, The Progressive Enforcer, Friend of Long-term Learning, The Implementer, The Critic and The Chameleon. The position The Trend-spotter and The Progressive Enforcer are associated with a common tendency to pronounce the schools’ mission to reach new target groups and a focus on new marketing and teaching methods. The Friend of Long-term Learning and The Critic guard long-term and in-depth learning and sufficient resources to achieve it. The principals’ policy enactment can be described as a balancing act defined by loyalty to local political goals versus loyalty to learning goals. The principals’ positioning in relation to the teachers express loyalty as well as a marked tendency to urge the teachers to renew the teaching methods. Whether the principals position themselves as Implementer or Critic is interpreted as depending on allocated resources. The Chameleon strives to integrate different positions. These positions are discussed relative to widening participation and institutional discourses such as breadth versus depth discourse and management discourse versus a discourse for learning.