This article explores the significance of context and discourse from a gender perspective within three different studies of the Swedish music classroom, conducted in lower secondary school, upper secondary school and higher music education respectively. The theoretical point of departure is that gender performances as well as the music classroom are discursively constructed within a specific context. The result suggests that if discourse and context are directed towards music as identity and skill, gender is performed in music, but if the music classroom is constructed as educational, gender is performed beside music. A conclusion is therefore that the impact of gender in the music classroom has to be understood as a matter of school discourse and school context in close relationship. It is argued that studying the interplay between context and discourse can be a way ahead for understanding the complexity in the relationship between music education and gender.
This chapter explores work experiences of female full professors in music education. By targeting this group, positions for music education as a discipline in the field of academia in conjunction with gender are being highlighted and discussed. The objective is to problematize constructions of expertise and excellence in relation to gender equality and consecrated positions within the departments where the professors in focus are working. As a theoretical framework Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory combined with Raewyn Connell’s gender theory is applied. The empirical data that underpin the study in focus consist of three focus group interviews conducted in 2018 with eight full professors in the Nordic countries. The study is inspired by narrative as a method for re-telling, and thematized collective and compiled stories from the participants’ utterances constructed for the presentation of the data. In order to handle ethical demands a meta-method-meeting was developed for the study in focus, i.e. all participants were invited to collaborate on the design of the study, keeping transparency, ethics and anonymity in focus. The findings suggest that the professors’ agency for claiming a core position at their departments, respectively, is dependent on what local gatekeepers consecrate as symbolic capital for the acknowledgement of expertise and excellence.
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