Reflection in Higher Music Education : What, Why, Wherefore?

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Reflection in higher music education: what, why,

wherefore?

Eva Georgii-Hemming, Karin Johansson & Nadia Moberg

To cite this article: Eva Georgii-Hemming, Karin Johansson & Nadia Moberg (2020):

Reflection in higher music education: what, why, wherefore?, Music Education Research, DOI: 10.1080/14613808.2020.1766006

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Re

ﬂection in higher music education: what, why, wherefore?

Eva Georgii-Hemming a, Karin Johansson band Nadia Moberg a

a

School of Music, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden;bMalmö Academy of Music, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

ABSTRACT

Reflective practice is seen as a method for professional growth and lasting learning outcomes, but what this means in the context of Higher Music Education (HME) has not received sufficient attention. This paper explores how reflection is ontologised and justified as part of performing musicians’ education. The data utilised derive from a comprehensive project investigating how processes of academisation affect HME across Europe. Findings from the Swedish sub-study, comprised of fourteen leaders and teachers at four academies of music, demonstrate how reflection is discursively constructed; as based on language and cognition; as embodied, and as‘purely’ musical. These ideas concerning the qualities and characteristics of reflection interact and provide basis for three forms of justification: reflection for artistic knowledge development; reflection for individual success in the profession; and reflection over the role of musicianship in relation to society.

ARTICLE HISTORY

Received 6 August 2019 Accepted 4 May 2020

KEYWORDS

Reﬂection; performing arts education; educational actors and orders of justiﬁcation; music profession; academisation; discursive constructions

Introduction

Music performance programmes and Higher Music Education (HME) in Europe are undergoing substantial changes. Firstly, research show that ideals from the corporate world– in terms of how to measure results, organise and manage institutions– have become the new reality of higher edu-cation (see e.g. Fairclough1993; Ek et al.2013; Ball2004). Secondly, HME face speciﬁc challenges

concerning their field of knowledge as demands on research activities and entrepreneurial com-ponents increase (Johansson and Georgii-Hemming, in review; Tønsberg 2013). Before the twenty-first century, instrumental musicians and composers’ higher education was framed by fairly stable conceptions of craftsmanship and artistic skill, and by straight-forward connections with the professionalfield. Today, however, the future is unclear. Changing employment conditions and pro-cesses of academisation are challenging traditional notions of knowledge and competence in expert culture (Johansson2013, Moberg and Georgii-Hemming2019).

Alignment with the Bologna process1means that higher arts education across Europe must be not only research related but research based (Dyndahl et al. 2017; Hansmann et al. 2017). The implementation of this varies across national curricula, but a key issue is to stimulate critical reﬂec-tion within the context of artistic practice (Tønsberg2013). Students within music performance pro-grammes are expected to develop critical and reﬂective abilities, in order to acquire the competence to assess and use new knowledge throughout their careers (Swedish Code of Statues2009:1037).

The ability to make critical assessments is a required learning outcome for degrees at all study programmes in Sweden (Swedish Code of Statutes 2006:173; Swedish Code of Statutes

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.

CONTACT Eva Georgii-Hemming eva.georgii-hemming@oru.se School of Music, Örebro University, Örebro SE 701 82, Sweden

MUSIC EDUCATION RESEARCH

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2009:1037). Even though education systems vary across nations and disciplines, critical thinking is an expected learning outcome in educational policy documents in many parts of the western world (cp. for example CODARTS2019–2020).

Widespread agreement on the value of reflection is indicated by existing research (Gaunt2016; Hickson2011). Yet different interpretations of the theoretical concept are under constant discussion (Brodin and Frick2011). In addition to issues on definitions, this raises questions about how and why reflection should be implemented in higher (music) education. This paper investigates what, in particular, ‘reflection’ and ‘critical reflection’ might imply in relation to professional growth and practice within the higher education of musicians. Based on empirical data from a study of insti-tutional leaders and teachers we explore how reflection is ontologised and justified as part of the edu-cation of performing musicians.

Below we seek to give a brief overview of literature discussing these issues.

(Critical)#reﬂection

Reflection is often viewed as an important tool for interpreting, recognising and understanding pro-fessional experience, knowledge and interaction (Kandlbinder and Peseta2009; Pollard2002) as well as a key issue in transformative and successful learning, for teachers as well as for learners (Ryan and Ryan2013). Therefore, it is considered essential in order to teach and learn reflection in teacher edu-cation (Clarke2004; Khan, Fazal, and Amin2014; Van Manen1977), as well as within conservatoires (Esslin-Peard, Shorrocks, and Welch2016; Gaunt2016; Gaunt and Papageorgi2010). Our literature review, however, reveals that most research focuses on‘reflection’ and ‘reflective skills’, while there are just a few studies discussing‘critical reflection’ (Brookfield1987; Thompson and Pascal2012).

Deﬁning reﬂection – a brief overview

The terminology of reflection is complex, and the literature is extensive (Calderhead and Gates1993; Daniel2001; Ghaye2011; Ryan and Ryan2013). Definitions as well as the concepts used for describ-ing reflective processes vary from reflection-in-action, (Schön1983), reflective learning (Boyd and Fales1983) and critical reflection (Mezirow and Taylor2009; Moore2013) to reflective thinking (Dewey 1910). Occasionally, (critical) reflection refers to generic and general competences, and other times to specific contexts (Hickson2011).

In the literature, reflection is described as an explorative, investigative and creative process where experiences transform into knowledge (Dewey1910). Reflection is at the core of lifelong learning and linked to action (Mak2006). Both Dewey, whose main concern was the nature of reflection, and Schön (1983)– known for his work on the ‘reflective practitioner’ – as well as their followers describe reflection as a dialogue between thinking and doing, and as integrating theory and practice.

In addition,‘reflection’ and ‘critical reflection’ are sometimes used interchangeably, even though many suggest that‘critical reflection’ embraces more than ‘reflection’ (Brookfield 1987; Fook and Askeland2006; Ryan and Ryan2013). While‘reflection’ is often described as a continuous cycle of self-observation and self-evaluation, focusing how to develop a particular practice,‘critical reflec-tion’ is pictured as involving thinking about how beliefs and values have developed, and to take larger existential questions about education into account (Van Manen1977; Giroux1988). Critical re flec-tion, in other words, includes social, political, moral and ethical aspects (Calderhead and Gates1993; Mezirow and Taylor2009; Van Manen1977).

The role of reﬂection in musical learning

A large body of work associated with professional learning and higher education, shows that re ﬂec-tion over learning and practice are linked to levels of expertise (Clark, Lisboa, and Williamon2014).

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Yet, less attention is given to reﬂective practice in the context of conservatoire education and one-to-one teaching (Carey, Harrison, and Dwyer2017).

Existing studies of the relationship between reflection and musical learning often focus reflective practice in rehearsal, performance and effective learning (Esslin-Peard, Shorrocks, and Welch

2016) and issues on learning strategies that support independent and self-regulating learning (Kivestu and Leijen2014). It is suggested that reflection can help to make sense of learning experiences (Esslin-Peard, Shorrocks, and Welch2016; Jørgensen and Lehmann1997) and is described as a tool for stu-dents to identify their weaknesses as well asfinding strategies for improvement. Previous studies have, for example, reported the importance of encouraging students to reflect on their instrumental practice to manage, give meaning to, and become aware of their own practice strategies (Nielsen2001).

With regards to conservatoire education, scholars call for approaches to encourage a critical per-spective over learning and education as opposed to students being informed by common-sense and traditions (Carey, Harrison, and Dwyer2017; Triantafyllaki2005). Adopting a critical learning mode means to create a distance (Esslin-Peard, Shorrocks, and Welch2016) not just helping the learner to catch sight of their pre-understandings, but also to unpack other possible perspectives. Thus, re ﬂec-tion can stimulate student autonomy and self-direcﬂec-tion, and in turn contribute to professional growth. In addition, utilising a critical perspective potentially contributes to successful lifelong learn-ing, since it concerns the reasons for, and consequences of what professionals do in their practice (Ryan and Ryan2013).

Research design

This paper presents a sub-study drawing on data from a comprehensive project that examines how processes of academisation and the changing conditions for the classical music profession aﬀect HME across Europe.2The overall purpose of the main project is to investigate performing musicians’ expertise and mandate in society (Georgii-Hemming, Angelo, Gies, Johansson, Rolle, and Varkøy

2016). In the initial analyses of the Swedish material, reflection emerged as a central tenet for artistic development. On account on this, we undertook an in-depth analysis of HME leaders’ and teachers’ interpretations and justifications of ‘reflection’.

Participants and data collection

For this study, we recruited fourteen leaders and teachers (six female and eight male) at each of the four academies of music in Sweden that oﬀer performing classical musician degree programmes at master level. Three of these academies are schools at universities and one is an independent academy with university status. Our criteria for selection included: (i) experienced senior lecturers and pro-fessors (ii) educators teaching performing and composing (iii) experience of working with artistic research and degree projects. We purposefully choose to includeﬁve participants who are assigned as educational/research leaders, part-time or full time.3

The interviews took place at the participants’ workplaces, lasted 60–90 minutes and were audio-recorded. The topics addressed in the interviews concerned notions of competence, knowledge, (artistic) research and views on their functions in education and in the music profession. Interview data were transcribed and imported in the data analysis platform NVivo to facilitate sharing between investigators.

Data analysis

In order to o grasp and make visible ontological assumptions and justifications of reflection, we employed a methodology inspired by critical discourse studies (CDS) (Wodak and Meyer 2016). The discursive constructions of reflection were approached as being in a dialectic relationship with institutions and structures (Fairclough2015). In view of this, discursive acts are embedded in wider

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social contexts which need to be considered (Wodak and Meyer2016). Interpretation of the data thus depend on contextual knowledge concerning the institutions in question and societal conditions.

We therefore undertook an in-depth analysis with a focus on how teachers and leaders ontologise reflection. The coding procedure focused on what characteristics, qualities and features that were attrib-uted to reflection. Our interest then turned to how reflection was justified by participants, both implicitly and explicitly. Analysis of the formal properties of the texts (e.g. vocabulary, grammar, cohe-sion) and its intertextual elements aided us while our main focus was to interpret longer stretches of texts. The in-depth analysis focused on utterances where motives to legitimise or de-legitimise– to cri-ticise– reflective practice were employed (van Leeuwen2007). That is, why is reflection (if it is) impor-tant in music performance education and why should reflective practice be done in ‘this way’ rather than‘that way’. Hereby, we sought to understand how legitimation of reflective practice is mainly con-structed; for example, by reference to authority, to value systems, to the goals and uses of reflective prac-tise or by narratives where the practice is portrayed as for example civilising (van Leeuwen2007).

Findings

Firstly, data from the interviews suggest that issues of reflection lead to institutional tensions. Even if the participants draw attention to different aspects of reflection within HME, the topic is not on the everyday agenda in institutional discussions. For instance, a teacher and supervisor in a meeting with a group of colleagues report that:

Last week, we had a meeting with some teachers at the XX-programme. There were such [critical] questions raised:‘-This with reﬂection. What is it!?’. It led to a fairly long discussion. And I realized … These central con-cepts… we must talk about them.

The quote refers to a lack of consensus and common understanding regarding reflection within the institution. The question reportedly raised can be understood as containing both an implicit critique directed towards the concept of reflection and a sincere query into how it is supposed to be opera-tionalised by actors within the institution. As such, the statement serves as an example of what we reveal to be ongoing negotiations regarding the conceptual understanding and role of reflection as part of the education.

Findings also include critical points of how the concept of reﬂection is understood and used:

We should get rid of the word reflection, that is my strong opinion. But I feel defeated in that area. It refuses to disappear! The problem is that reflection is just reflection. We are always reflecting. It is not possible to play without reflecting. Therefore, I have begun to talk about ‘second-degree reflection’. You can say that it’s reflec-tion over reflection; the questions of ‘why’, located in a broader performing and learning perspective.

In the quote above the concept is referred to critically as without content. It should not be used as descriptive, but instead operate as a kind of meta-reﬂection being on which there is focus throughout the entire educational process.

In the following section, we present discursive constructions of the qualities and characteristics of reflection, thereby showing how reflection is ontologised. After that, we turn to three different kinds of justifications for including reflection in music performance programmes; (i) an assumed potential to contribute to individual musical learning and artistic development, (ii) an assumed ability to promote a future successful career on the market, (iii) an assumed fundamental importance for contextualising oneself as a musician, and (iv) an assumed importance for creating a commonfield of knowledge.

Reﬂection – characteristics, qualities and features

Leaders and teachers ontologise and negotiate reflection; (i) as based on language and cognition, (ii) as embodied, and (iii) as‘purely’ musical. These, often interactive ideas, provide basis for how reflec-tion is subsequently justified.

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The view that reflection first and foremost concerns language use and verbal processes is evident as descriptions of reflection are often characterised by references to the students’ dissertation pro-jects. While these can be written, oral and/or sound-based, reflection is constructed as a cognitive process based on language through which students consider their rehearsals, performances and artis-tic experiences:

… they can document their rehearsals and concerts and lessons. All sorts of stuff. So, it [reflection] is a process where and when you write. Going from documentation, over reflection to analysis.

Expressed in this way, reflection appears to be somewhat decoupled from the act of playing music. The idea of reflection is thus constructed as an ensuing activity which aids the analysis of musical accomplishments. However, there are also examples where reflection is portrayed as a refining prac-tice closely tied to craftmanship:

… the [verbal] reﬂection is a clariﬁcation or extension or deepening.

Reflection is here ascribed meaning as an expansion of one’s practice, where different qualities of knowledge can be attained. Yet, our material also contains evidence of attempts to negotiate the ver-bal characteristics of reflection by illustrating how it is omnipresent and inherent in the actions of musicians; it is‘not possible to play without reflection’. Reflection is thus depicted as embodied, and the act of playing would be impossible without it:

… it is the result of thousands of hours of practice, listening, interaction with your instrument, and with the score. The kind of knowledge, [which is] very speciﬁc for a speciﬁc musician.

In other words, this reflection-in-action is based on knowledge originating from practising, listening and reading, from musical experimentations that together make up the foundation for performing artists’ musical choices. As with Schön’s theory (1983) reflection-in-action is viewed as context dependent, tied to situations that are unique, unsteady and changeable. When reflection-in-action successfully takes place, the reasoning goes, it results in a strong and immediate sense of how to pro-ceed musically. This immediate insight into the direction that the performance will take is viewed as a characteristic feature of reflection.

As illustrated by the quotation below, justifications of reflection based on the ontological view that it goes beyond distinct words and conscious thoughts also occur. In fact, there are different ways to reflect:

Artistic reflection, music as reflection, can’t easily be transformed into a … verbal reflective practice. The crea-tive artists who maybe do not reflect over their performance but mediate artistic expression. […] It is possible to reflect through music.

The statement conveys a belief that the artistic action is reflection. As such, it is not a question of an ensuing activity based on language and cognition, but rather a reflection through music as sounds develop in time. Yet the characteristics of what could be termed‘music-as-reflection’ are hard to ver-balise and entail educational complications:

… it is hard to teach. And also, it is diﬃcult to prove reﬂection without words.

This kind of reﬂection is, in other words, hard to assess. In one statement however, it is argued that this musical reﬂection may be exposed and communicated in a skilful performance, and thereby possible to assess.

Whilst verbal reflection can be considered a commonly deployed practice, this statement empha-sises that students should be made aware of different forms of reflective practice as legitimate modes of reflection within education. It seems there are also attempts to ‘bridge’ the tension between lin-guistic and performing practice:

… what we are trying to counteract – in diﬀerent ways – is the typical traditional, written, thesis. […] We try to push the thesis work into the artistic, the performing practice [direction] and encourage all forms of mixed methods.

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By resisting the‘traditional’ form of producing a thesis, where a written text serves as the final out-come, this statement creates a position of opposition against what might be described as the aca-demic hegemony where written knowledge supersedes all other forms of knowledge communication. We interpret the‘push’ into the artistic, performing practice direction as a resist-ance that demands some force. There seems to be a will to carry forward ‘artistic reflection’ or ‘music as reflection’ as a legitimate means of knowledge production within higher education. Fur-thermore, the statement suggests that distinguishing thefield of artistic practices from others by clar-ifying its specificity and particular forms of reflection is an end in itself. This must be put in the context of the general academisation process in higher arts education. Ostensibly, the complicated transformation creates tensions between for instance the scientific and artistic ideals in HME.

Reﬂection for artistic knowledge development

Reflection is frequently justified as contributing to individual students’ musical learning and artistic development. Through processes ranging from self-observation and self-evaluation to analyses of broader‘artistically interesting issues’ (such as interpretational issues), it is assumed that students will learn to consider repertoire, musical event and performance planning, as well as outcomes. They will learn how to play a passage well, in terms of better and worse choices, improve their stage presence, and in addition become qualified to articulate their visions:

… you practice and develop by choosing a topic yourself: explaining yourself and explaining the topic. […] You will learn to explain something, show someone else how it works. And in that way, you will also learn.

The importance of a self-chosen topic – regardless of whether it concerns playing, composing or writing a thesis– is an important aspect of how reflection is justified in relation to artistic knowledge development. The participants place a high premium on students being encouraged to find the specific issue that challenges their individual learning, music making, instrument and style. Without this personal link, the students might identify the task as‘a homework assignment’, not as a way to develop their artistry.

In statements about reflection for musical learning and artistic development we see a recursive pattern of claims that learning derives from individual experience where the importance of creating a‘personal link’ in educational tasks is emphasised. Reflection to support professional growth is jus-tified in relation to specific issues of musical learning, but also includes arguments concerning reflec-tion as a process in which students can learn about themselves as individuals. This means that the students themselves are encouraged to (and even forced to) independently identify areas of their learning that require further development. The explanation is based both on the changing edu-cational system and a‘new generation’ of students:

The old system… master apprentice, where there were ‘closed doors’. Now, with a changing system we may have to let go of the idea of knowing exactly what our students need. They may even know better. I think we are in a shift where we must dare to say: well, they have a readiness for showing that they actually can handle diﬀerent things and also, how to put it … systematize their knowledge.

In mentioning the old system and‘closed doors’, the statement alludes to an institutional history, here portrayed as a (soon to be) bygone era, where teachers had an unquestionable authority to be able to decide how students should proceed in their efforts to develop as musicians. While this ‘old system’ was founded on imitation and reproduction as ideals, students’ abilities to reflect and thereby systemise their knowledge allows for a shift in power, as they may even‘know better’. To reflect on your own practice is, however, not self-evident. Neither are the use of verbal or written skills in such processes– among students, musicians or teachers – indisputable:

… no, it is not easy to carry through amongst people who always have ‘just’ played. They don’t really under-stand what it means. They have never turned a full circle.

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In this statement, enabling reﬂection is expressed as an individual challenge rather than as a question of educational development.

Based on ourfindings, teachers and leaders view reflection as a method for students’ self-improve-ment as the students develop written and oral skills by which they can docuself-improve-ment and consider their performances and artistic development. However, there are conflicting views concerning the time reflective practice takes from practicing and playing one’s instrument. At the other end of the line, there are teachers who state that reflection has ‘become a substitute for methodology’, some-thing which the institutions should not settle for as an educational norm:

It is simply the method. You make a concert, you think about what kind of concert it was, and how successful you were. And then you write it up. There is nothing more. Case closed. And of course, that works [somewhat ironic in tone].

The statement conveys a trust that the benefits of reflection will increase if a contextual perspective is added in favour of introvert self-reflection. Again, we see an example of what we suggest should be interpreted as a want for more critical reflection within the education.

Reﬂection for individual success in the profession

Concerning reflection for life as a professional musician, the prevailing rationale is based on the rea-lity of a challenging musical labour market. To successfully compete for jobs, it is not enough to have the musical craftsmanship and knowing the tradition. Primarily, there are two main aspects brought forward in justifications for reflection in this area. One is that reflection can be used as a tool for creating a personal and unique image as a musician. The other is that reflection may constitute a basis for one’s ability to talk about and explain musical ideas and performances:

And it’s not just about playing super nice, but you must also be able to explain what you want, what you do, why. So, to explain in words [to the audience] it’s a generic skill.

Here, reﬂection is pictured as part of the process of reaching an audience and potential funders and sponsors by capturing their attention not only through playing, but also through shedding light on one’s thoughts and choices as a musician. However, there are also justiﬁcations based on the idea that it makes you a good entrepreneur, in contrast to a musician or artist:

I absolutely believe you are a better entrepreneur, of course, if you can talk about what you do, in a little more eloquent way.

Here, reﬂection and its subsequent verbalisation is constructed as a complement to craftmanship skills, rather than a necessary basic skill for musicians. The entrepreneurial side of a future career with its associated competences is articulated as desirable, yet not indispensable for succeeding in the profession.

Relatedly, the notion of creating a personal image as the most suitable strategy for a successful career in addition to specialisation comes across strongly:

Students’ skills deepen, and they become more ‘distinct’ and ‘proﬁled’ as musicians.

Whilst the foundation involves knowing the musical tradition and mastering the craft, one should also be recognised as diﬀerent in relation to other musicians in order to successfully compete for jobs. A personal and unique image is portrayed as an important selling point, and as vital for becom-ing a professional musician. Reﬂective activities contribute to this:

… well, it’s important to be able to reﬂect on who am I, what do I want to do, how can I develop that during my study time? Therefore, we work a lot with this kind of reﬂection … And then they will become much more … how should I say,‘employable’ on a freelance market.

Employability is here linked to reﬂection for self-awareness, not to predetermined areas addressed during the education, and thus becomes a general tool for self-discovery and individual development.

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While this idea is recurrent, the risks of such self-reflection are also emphasised. For instance, one might risk becoming introverted through obsessive self-reflection, turning inwards instead of out-wards to the market. Another critical opinion is connected to the marketisation of higher education4 (Fairclough1993; Hemsley-Brown and Oplatka2010). Here, the justification for reflection is posi-tioned against marketisation and based on an argument that reflection should be employed to the development of a common area of knowledge:

I amvery critical of that. That ‘reflection’ often happens in relation to the market; for the student to know who they are; to be able to create a profile; reflection as part of the vocational education. Rather than being part of the creation of professional knowledge. There is a big risk that reflection turns inwards, towards the student him- or herself. Because the market is as it is and not much to reflect on. You don’t need a course in entrepreneurship if you’ve written an essay about your music. Just a course in how to fill in papers.

Here, the concept of entrepreneurship, which has gained primacy in society (Hemsley-Brown and Oplatka 2010), and particularly in education at all levels, is being questioned. At the same time, the market is viewed as an inevitable reality;‘the market is as it is’.

Reﬂection over the role of musicianship in relation to society

As demonstrated above, reflection may serve as a basis for obtaining and establishing a legitimate position, benefitting individual musicians. In addition, we see examples where this is portrayed also as a benefit for musicians as a collective group:

So, there we have something to win. You can get strong players, like musicians who have a voice.

In this sense, reﬂection is justiﬁed by being articulated as a tool for improving individual musicians’ ability to communicate, but also as a tool for contributing to a stronger identity for the profession in general.

A more explicit way of justifying reflection for ‘the common good’, is to challenge what is described as the‘current understanding of reflection’, i.e. a practice that emphasises students’ self-observations, individual learning and ‘thinking about their own experiences’. Reflection for its own sake is not enough, the reasoning goes, but involves situating yourself in relation to society as well as to how certain musical ideas and ideals have developed historically:

… to reﬂect over their role in society, as musicians and so on. It’s that kind of reﬂection I aim at. To make them understand… to see the bigger picture and who they are.

This can be understood as moving beyond reﬂection for individual gain and accounting for under-standing the social role of a musician. Emphasis is still on the individual and‘who they are’, but in relation to a broader context. For instance, as explained by one participant:

When writing a degree project… it’s not about writing a paper on a composer whose music you play at your exams concert. It’s not that. That would be absolutely meaningless to all, including all potential readers. […] It must be about artistic problems […] in context.

Firstly, potential readers of the papers are included as important recipients of new knowledge. Sec-ondly, it is the‘artistic problem’ that is placed at the centre, not the musician. The justification is based on negations which seem to suggest either that these are easier, or more important to articu-late, than to exemplify and develop‘artistic problems’. Underlying the justification of reflective prac-tice in relation to society, is the idea of a need to stand up for artistic knowledge in general:

There is the talk about‘the knowledge society’ and that research is as important and as passable as a ﬁre, so … And it is also true that they and we must be able to demonstrate the knowledge that exists, and the hard work, and the skills that exist. Not to trust others to understand by themselves. We must show that all this work and all this knowledge is here.

The statement assumes that we live in a‘knowledge society’ to which education and its actors need to be held accountable. It accepts the premise that knowledge and skills have to be made visible, perhaps

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even to‘others’ who may not master the specific subject. Within academia, this visibility is primarily achieved verbally, such as in traditional research. The responsibility for realising this is put on the actors within the musicalfield and not on the ‘others’, since they cannot be trusted to understand on their own. Thesefindings support the conclusion of Gaunt (2016), that linking students’ learning to the historical roots of their discipline, contribute to common knowledge development and con-necting to society is parts of the discussions concerning the aims of HME.

Here the polarisation between the non-verbal and verbal, illustrated by the following participant, comes back into play:

Generally, artists can contribute more by creating than by analysing and criticizing. Creative products can be seen as socio-cultural comments just as much as verbal discussion.

Once again, we see the hegemonic position of language against which the statement is positioned. In claiming that‘creative products’ can be viewed as comments ‘just as much as verbal discussion’ we see an attempt to legitimise through an analogy (cf. van Leeuwen2007). By equating‘creative pro-ducts’ with ‘verbal discussion’, something already highly valued, the statement conveys resistance towards this hegemony.

Conclusion: reﬂection in higher music education – goal-oriented constructions

The broader problem which this paper addresses is how processes of academisation affect HME in Europe. This Swedish sub-study confirms that the so called ‘Academic Turn’5(Johansson and Geor-gii-Hemming,in review; Manifesta2010) is a multifaceted project. In the following, we will highlight some of the more significant findings that have emerged from this study on how reflection is discur-sively constructed. These indicate that there are tensions in the way that ontologisation and justi fica-tions are negotiated in relation to the academy as well as to the artistic profession more generally. Three categories of justification are evident in this study: reflection for artistic knowledge devel-opment, reflection for individual success in the profession, and reflection about the role of musician-ship in relation to society. The three categories can mainly be understood as based on legitimation through rationalisation (van Leeuwen2007). In other words, reflective activities have a place, and take the forms they do, in HME based upon goal-oriented thinking. In our study, it is clear that such rationalisations are linked to market demands rather than to musicianship as a professional field of knowledge with mandate and expertise (Angelo, Varkøy, and Georgii-Hemming 2019). We suggest the marketisation of higher education (Ball2004; Ek et al.2013; Fairclough1993) is the reason why explicit reasonings around critical reflection are more or less absent in the material. Social, political, moral and ethical issues, usually involved in critical thinking (Calderhead and Gates

1993; Mezirow and Taylor2009; Van Manen1977) are overridden in favour of reﬂection as self-observation for individual success.

An important finding in this study concerns individual vs collective development. First of all, there is an emphasis on the individual, that is, the individual student’s artistic development, chal-lenges and self-chosen topics in educational tasks. Secondly, there are two kinds of collective devel-opment; one where reflection over musical context is justified as contributing to the creation of an individual image needed for success in the future profession. Another one also concerns reflection over musical context but is justified by its potential to develop the common professional field of knowledge. In the learning situation, these aspects link and interact. Still it is valuable to distinguish them here to highlight the ethical and societal justification in the latter.

The study points to an interesting discrepancy between ontologisation and justification. Findings reveal how reflection is not only ontologised as a cognitive process, but also as a musical process with characteristics and qualities. Additionally, there seems to be a will to negotiate verbal reflection. Despite this, the justifications are constructed in relation to the verbal and cognitive, which in turn leads to goals concerning job competition and the market. By extension, the constructions reflect the market as a site of truth as well as an inevitable reality.

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Notes

1. The Bologna declaration 1999.

2. DAPHME (Discourses of Academization and the Music Profession in Higher Music Education) is conducted by Georgii-Hemming (PI), Angelo, Gies, Johansson, Rolle and Varkøy in Sweden, Norway and Germany. The pro-ject (2016–2020) is funded by the Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences (Riksbankens Jubileumsfond).

3. To provide more information– such as instrumental/vocal expertise – would in combination with other details risk the participants’ anonymity as performing education in Sweden is a small area.

4. The adaption of consumer-oriented attitudes, marketing-led management, market-like ideologies and an increased use of corporate language.

5. The‘Academic Turn’ refers to the academization of art education, where educational politics expect stronger research trajectories. How this will inﬂuence arts institutions, how research will be conducted, the growth of artistic research and what possibilities and challenges it holds is at the center of debate.

Disclosure statement

No potential conﬂict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funding

This work was supported by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond [grant number P15-0255:1].

Notes on contributors

Eva Georgii-Hemming(PhD) is professor in musicology and head of the School of Music, Theatre and Art, Örebro University, Sweden. She is principal investigator of the research project Discourses of Academization and the Music Profession in Higher Music Education (DAPHME), funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (2016–2019), the main editor to the anthology Professional Knowledge in Music Teacher Education (Ashgate, 2013) and has contrib-uted to international anthologies such as Learning, Teaching and Musical identity: Voices across Cultures and Future prospects for music education: Corroborating informal learning pedagogy as well as in international research journals, such as British Journal of Music Education, Research Studies in Music Education, Music Education Research, and Nor-dic Research in Music Education. Her research interests have also led to frequent presentations and keynotes at inter-national conferences in Europe and USA.

Karin Johansson(PhD) is professor of music at Malmö Academy of Music, Lund University, Sweden. Her research interests concern improvisation, choral singing and Higher Music Education (HME). 2009-2015 she was director of the artistic research programme in Music at Malmö Academy of Music. She is part of the research project Discourses of Professionalisation and Academisation in Higher Music Education (DAPHME), which investigates the impact of processes of academisation on European HME. Together with Dr. Phil. Ursula Geisler Karin Johansson headed the international choral research network Choir in Focus 2009-2012 and edited the anthology Choral singing: Histories and practices (2014) as well as the section on choral singing in The Oxford Handbook of Singing (2019). Karin Johans-son has published several studies on HME and one-to-one teaching in international journals, with a particular interest in theoretical and methodological development in the area of artistic education and performance.

Nadia Mobergis a doctoral student of musicology at the school of Music, Theatre and art at Örebro university. Her research interest revolves around education and discourses about music in diﬀerent contexts. In her dissertation she focuses on the academization of higher music education in Sweden. Nadia’s research seeks to analyze discursive struggles surrounding notions of knowledge and teaching within music performance programmes. Previously, she has taken an interest in the way people talk about music, aiming at answering questions about how music is legitimized as a school subject and how young people talk about other people’s music preferences. Nadia is also engaged in edu-cational issues and has previously been active in student politics. She has, for example, been a board member of the Swedish National Union of Students (SFS) and the Swedish Council for Higher Education (UHR).

ORCID

Eva Georgii-Hemming http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3758-7541

Karin Johansson http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4322-8887

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