Engaging, exploring, and experiencing multicultural music in Australian music teacher education : the changing landscape of multicultural music education

ln multicultural Australia, the development of positive intercultural attitudes is essential in the creation of a harmonious society. Music education is a powerful medium to address cultural inclusivity. The 2005 National Review of School Music Education challenges Australian higher education institutions to prepare programs that explore multiculturalism to engender tolerance.This research explored how final year teacher education students at Monash University and Deakin University (Victoria, Australia) engage with music of other cultures and how this affects their understanding of cultural diversity in school music. From 2005 to 2008, teacher education students undertaking music methodologies were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews.The data collected from the interviews were transcribed and analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis, and from these data, we developed patterns of meaning that are reported thematically; student teachers' beliefs, attitudes, and understandings of multiculturalism and the classroom realities of multiculturalism.The findings contribute to how we, as tertiary educators, evaluate our role and programs.

Interrupted cadence : the mismatch of the school music curriculum and the intercultural understandings of pre-service teachers in Victoria, Australia

In Victoria, Australia, the curriculum framework for schools, Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) stipulates multiculturalism as an integral part of the education of students. This encompasses knowledge, skills, values and behaviours (Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority, 2009). In this curriculum framework, teachers must consider ‘intercultural understanding’. It seems logical that, to teach this, preservice teacher education students should be able to embrace this idea. VELS addresses multicultural understanding and the development of thinking skills. The Arts domain specifically provides diverse opportunities for students to “develop aesthetic and critical awareness … of arts works from different social, historical and cultural contexts”. In this research, undertaken between 2005 and 2008, semi-structured interviews were completed with final year pre-service music education students about their intercultural understandings in music education. Interpretative phenomenological analysis of the data showed that, although many feel confident including music of other cultures, having had some experience in their tertiary education, some have pursued other ways to inform themselves about music of other cultures. There appears to be a mismatch between curricular expectations and the limited time and resources available in tertiary education programs for music. The disparity between the school music curriculum framework and the preparation of teachers requires attention and resolution.

Experiences of engagement in occupations and assertive outreach services

Aim: The purpose of this study was to describe the experience and meaning of engagement for staff and clients of assertive outreach teams.
Method: Interpretative phenomenological analysis was selected for its flexibility and transparency. Data were collected by semi-structured interviews from a sample of five client and five staff participants (n = 10). The interviews were analysed idiographically, inductively and interrogatively.
Findings: Four themes identified by both staff and client participants emerged: engagement as an interpersonal relationship, engagement in and through time, enabling and disabling factors and engagement in occupation. In addition, clients developed a theme around engagement as a means to self-actualisation. Staff also raised a specific theme around the role of engagement in mental health services.
Conclusion: Staff and clients experienced engagement in broadly similar ways, but with differing emphases. Although all participants described it as both an invisible 'means' and a visible 'end', the staff related engagement only to mental health services whereas the clients experienced it in the context of both mental health services and occupations.
Relevance: This study is relevant to all occupational therapists who work with people experiencing mental health problems.

So much more than just the music : Australian pre-service music teacher education students’ attitudes to artists-in-schools

Contemporary Australia is a country of ongoing migration and increasing cultural diversity which is reflected in its arts practices. This article considers the views held by Australian pre-service music education student teachers and their tertiary music educators about their perceptions concerning artists-in-schools programs in school music. This discussion reports on data collected for a study undertaken in Melbourne, Victoria, Intercultural Understandings of Pre-Service Music Education Students (2005–2009). Fifty-three interviews were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The findings provide insight into teachers’ recognition of the need for artists-in-schools programs. In particular the ways in which teachers can link theory to practice, fill in omissions in their own knowledge, skills and understandings, and heighten student understandings of multicultural musics. The promotion and provision of multicultural music education is essential at all levels of education. This can be achieved by the inclusion of diverse culture bearers, artists-in-schools, and community engagement to work with both teachers and their students.

Three Australian community choirs : ageing, singing and well-being

The promotion of social engagement amongst older Australians is a national priority. Music is a powerful social mechanism that allows individuals and communities to affirm identity, gain a sense of belonging, and share history and culture. Community choir membership offers older people opportunities to connect with others and share a sense of purpose that can enhance their sense of well-being and potentially reduce their experience of social isolation. This paper explores the understandings of well-being, positive ageing and community music making held by members of three choirs in Victoria; Australia. The choirs selected for this discussion are the Coro Furlan, the Skylarkers and the Bosnian Behar Choir. Data have been collected via semi-structured interview with members of the three choirs and analyzed using interpretative Phenomenological Analysis which employs a phenomenological approach that explores personal experience in the participant's life-world. analysis of the combined data identified two broad common themes: First is the personal impact that choir membership has for the individual which includes the building of friendships and opportunities to learn and share music. The second theme concerns the contribution that the choir can make to others in their local community. Thus older singers are provided with a way to be both engaged, validated and appreciated by their contemporary society. Choir participation is an effective way for individuals to express themselves, engage with each other, improve their quality of life, transmit cultural heritage, and build community.

Sharing ownership in multicultural music : a hands-on approach in teacher education in South Africa

South Africa prides itself in a rich and colorful array of the Arts where music plays a significant role in social regeneration, unity and reconciliation. Little research has been undertaken in teacher education courses in South Africa regarding the inclusion of African music within multicultural music practice. Using the theoretical frameworks of understanding multiculturalism, I report on the teaching and learning of multicultural music at Pretoria University. My narrative highlights what I had learned and reports on the interview data with the tertiary music educator in October 2010. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, two themes are discussed: the need for multicultural music and the inclusion of students as indigenous culture bearers. Lessons learnt at Pretoria University can be replicated elsewhere in Australia where the sharing of ownership in multicultural music as a hands-on approach is viewed positively, promoting understanding and respect in a shared space and place.

Community, commitment and the ten 'Commandments's : singing in the Coro Furlan, Melbourne, Australia

Membership of community music groups by older people can enhance quality of life, provide a sense fulfillment, and create a space through which cultural identity may be shared. This case study explores community and cultural engagement by members of the Coro Furlan, an Italian male community choir in Melbourne, Australia. Members were interviewed and data analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Three broad themes were identified: sense of community, maintenance of cultural identity, and sustaining well-being through shared music making. The choir members perform music from Italy and elsewhere and consider themselves to be custodians of Friulan choral music. Singing in this choir has offered members an opportunity to value, learn, and share music in formal and informal settings. This paper identifies how music engagement can facilitate successful ageing through commitment to community, singing and following the ten ‘Commandments’ of the Coro Furlan.

The musical and social benefits of community choir membership in Melbourne (Australia)

Finding a place for personal growth in an Australian community singing group for older people

As in many countries, Australia is faced with an aging population. This creates challenges for the maintenance of well-being which can be enhanced by active engagement in society. Music engagement encompasses a range of social participation and has the potential to recognise the contribution of older people to their local communities. Engagement in music by older people (50+) is positively related to individual and community well-being.  Music participation can contribute to a better quality of life, particularly in relation to health and happiness. The possible forms of music engagement are myriad.

This paper focuses on two members of a mixed voluntary singing group formed by older residents of an outer suburban community in Melbourne, Australia.  This study frames music as a positive way for older people to find a place for personal growth and fulfilment in a singing group. This phenomenological qualitative single case study focuses on two members of a small singing ensemble, the Skylarkers, formed to perform at retirement villages, nursing homes and facilities for senior citizens. In this study, data were gathered by interviews and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis.

Two significant themes emerged. The first concerned the nature of the choir and its fluid membership and notions of self-identity. The second theme concerns the validation offered to individual members by active music participation through which they gained a sense of purpose, fulfilment and personal growth. This emphasis is unusual in discussions of community music engagement that ordinarily identify the importance of social connections. Groups such as the Skylarkers provide a place for members to continue their active engagement with music performance and music learning.

Tertiary educators' voices in Australia and South Africa: experiencing and engaging in African music and culture

Music tertiary educators can foster positive experiences that promote diversity, enhance intercultural and cross-cultural understanding through our teaching. Through findings of interview data of tertiary music educators’ understandings of multicultural music practice at two South African universities and at an Australia university, I used interpretative phenomenological analysis to analyse the data. Two major themes emerged: why is it important to teach multicultural music like that of Africa, and what are some of the effective ways of preparing students to best teach it? The data provides insights into an appreciation of and respect for music and cultural diversity. In multicultural societies educators cannot deliver courses based solely on one’s own identity and cultural perspective. I argue that music education may be seen as an agent of social change where music teaching and learning can occur through exploring, experiencing, expressing and engaging in the music of our own culture and that of others.

Finding the edge : online persona creation by fringe artists

Self-presentation through the creation of profiles and pages on digitally networked spaces is becoming ever more ubiquitous. In order to develop greater depth of understanding of the place of social media in our self-identification practice, my dissertation investigates the experiences of online persona creation by eight artists. Drawing on sociological and cultural studies approaches to understanding identity as performance, I tie current artists’ presentational and representational practices to historically grounded, socio-culturally constructed discourses of ‘artistness’. Through this connection, I argue that the creation of online persona has not radically changed notions of what it means to be an artist, or how artistness is represented and understood by audiences of fans or followers, but rather that digital technology has allowed for renegotiation of the boundaries of artistness that still draws from historical understandings of the role and persona of the artist. This shifting of boundaries, allowing for more inclusivity within the art world, is demonstrated by my focus on ‘fringe’ artists: those whose creative practice places them outside of the traditional art world and its existing structures of representation, distribution and consumption. The eight fringe artists who participated in this study are drawn from street art, performance poetry, craftivism and tattoo.

Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis drives the methodological focus on the experiences of the artists. Rather than a consideration of behaviour and habit, or what the artists do, this phenomenological approach allowed me to instead focus on what it is like for the artists to create persona, what drives particular types of representational practices. Using unstructured interviews, and online listening as an extension of participant observation, the artists’ narratives of experience are expressed through transcript extracts and screenshots: both are necessary to fully explore the nature of online persona creation.

My analysis of the artists experiences has demonstrated that there are three somewhat distinct registers of performance with which an artist’s persona can engage: the professional register, where one demonstrates ones proficiency, experience, popularity, and professionalism; the personal register, where one connects with
wider social and political interests and activities; and the intimate register, where one allows the audience in to one’s private world. These three registers occupy the same performance space, but are implicitly or explicitly for different segments of the digitally networked audience of fans, followers, friends and family. The complexity of the performance and reception of these registers is influenced by the shared nature of the performance space – where previously different roles would be performed for different audiences without reference to one another, the networked nature of online social media influences decisions of how much, and when, to share with whom.

Interpreted here using themes of strategy|happenstance, specialisation|diversification, visibility|self-protection,
self|others and work|play, the professional, personal and intimate registers of performance enable us to see the consideration and care with which each participant creates their artists persona. The experiences of performing the self in these three registers, as presented here, provides an insight into the complexities involved in creating online persona, while also demonstrating that this type of presentation of self is, in itself, no different from the types of role play and performance of self that has arguably always occurred in our physical world. Despite focusing on the role and performance of artistness, this dissertation speaks to the creation and performance of online persona more broadly. 

Violent offending, masculinity and age: exploring the role of developmental processes in adulthood

While the link between violent crime and masculinity is often implicitly assumed, to date, research has not specifically investigated beliefs about violence and masculinity at different stages of the adult life-course. This thesis explored the role of maturational processes in the way beliefs about masculinity and violence may differ in early and middle adulthood. Results of a quantitative study did not uncover statistically significant differences between younger and older adult violent offenders on a measure of criminal thinking. However, results of an interpretative phenomenological analysis indicated that beliefs about masculinity may differentially influence violent crime at different stages of adulthood. The results of these two studies provide a foundation for arguing that beliefs about violence and masculinity change throughout the life-course, and that masculinity in particular may be important treatment target in contemporary rehabilitation programs.

Opportunities and challenges : preparing generalist teacher education students in music education in Australia

The Australian Curriculum ‘the Arts’ will be implemented across Australia from 2014. This curriculum is expected to replace existing State and Territory curricula where educators are given the opportunity to review, renew, and refresh their practice. Music tertiary educators are faced with opportunities and challenges to effectively prepare and engage pre-service teachers (PSTs) as generalist classroom teachers. This paper focuses on PSTs within the Bachelor of Primary Education course at Deakin University (Melbourne, Australia). Within this course PSTs undertake two Arts units as generalist teachers, in Trimester one where they are introduced to music elements and creative music making. In Trimester two they focus on pedagogical issues and classroom implementation. In 2013, I gained ethical permission to undertake a research project titled “Pre-service teacher attitudes and understandings of Music Education”. This case study draws on semi-structured interview data with music lecturers who taught in Trimester two at Deakin University in 2013 (10 x 3 hour workshops). Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis I analyzed and codified the interview data and report on two themes: ways of teaching and creative music making. This paper also highlights the challenges and opportunities sessional staff face when preparing PSTs in music education as generalist teachers.

Spirituality, music, and wellbeing : sharing insights from an Australian setting

The relationship between spirituality, music, health, and wellbeing is gaining much theoretical and research attention globally. These related concepts are complex and involve many facets and challenges. This paper explores the relationship between music and spirituality as a way to communicate actively with God, which interconnects with wellbeing and quality of life. The focus of this paper discusses one case study from my wider research project “Spirituality and Wellbeing: Music in the Community” that started in 2013, in Melbourne (Australia). Having gained ethical clearance, case study methodology (interviews, documents, and observation) was employed. For this paper, I only offer a discussion of semi-structured interviews with volunteer participants from an Anglican Church in the southeastern suburbs of Melbourne (Australia). Using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), I analyzed and codified the interview data to explore the lived experience of the participant’s perception and how they make sense of it. As IPA is phenomenological, it takes into the account my own ideas through a process of interpretation when analyzing the phenomena under study. The interview data are reported under two overarching themes: music and spirituality and music and wellbeing. The data provides insights into the various ways music contributes to participants’ spiritual journey and growth. I argue that music is a powerful vehicle that connects people with God and others as it fosters an enhanced sense of spiritual growth and self-wellbeing.

Singing in La Voce Della Luna Italian women's choir in Melbourne, Australia

Australia is a country of ongoing migration that embraces diversity, creative expression and cultural activity. Membership of community music groups by older people can enhance life quality, and may provide a space through which cultural and linguistic identity may be shared and celebrated. This qualitative phenomenological case study explores engagement by older members of La Voce Della Luna, an Italian women’s community choir based in Melbourne, Victoria. This article presents one case study from a larger ongoing research project, Well-being and ageing: community, diversity and the arts in Victoria. In this study, data were gathered from documentary sources and by individual and focus group semi-structured interviews in 2013. Employing interpretative phenomenological analysis two significant themes emerged: Social connection and combatting isolation; and New horizons: music-making and social justice. This article describes how active music for older women provides opportunities to learn new skills, new ideas, and create for themselves a resilient community.