Societies worldwide are becoming more aware of the educational challenges that come with increased cultural diversity derived from ethnic, linguistic, religious, socioeconomic and educational differences and their intersections. In many countries, teacher education programmes are expected to prepare teachers for this reality and develop their intercultural competences. This instrumental case study is based on a project that aims to initiate mobilizing networks between two music teacher programmes to explore intercultural music teacher education. In this study, we map the intercultural competences that are required of music teacher educators and that are provided in the music education programmes at two higher music education institutions in Israel and Finland. The data consists of 11 focus group interviews with music teacher educators at the Levinsky College of Education in Tel Aviv and the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, conducted by a multinational research team. The data was analysed abductively, using content analysis as a method. While the interviewed teacher educators could articulate many aspects of their own intercultural competences or the lack of them, the findings indicate that in musical diversity and teaching students from different musical backgrounds the teacher educators
In a study conducted in kindergartens in Israel, three ‘cultures' converge: the kindergarten, the community, and the home. The differences among the two kindergartens in this study do not reside solely in the urban vs. non-urban and Jewish vs. Arab. They also reside in the contexts created by the adults as a result of their beliefs about childhood, music, play, and education, and how these beliefs are expressed in their behaviours. This account draws on a larger ethnographic study conducted in a number of kindergarten settings. The aim of this larger study was to describe and understand the self-initiated musical expressions of children aged four to five years, who bring various cultural identities to the early years setting. The sites under scrutiny in this article were two kindergartens in Israel: a non-urban state-sponsored Jewish kindergarten, and an urban Arab kindergarten in a church-operated school. The evidence showed that the musical expressions of the children in the study shared many characteristics. It also showed that differences reside, not only in the culture of the community they belong to, but also in the culture of the kindergarten. This included the physical environment, the degree of structure in the timetable, and the attitudes and rationale of the staff. This article suggests that each kindergarten develops a particular style of musical play, and that inter-cultural issues can include those that are idiosyncratic to specific peer cultures.
The study of children's music as a distinct genre of its own rather than as adult, mainly Western 'art' music in the process of development, is still rare. This article provides a brief summary of what has been done and aims to identify the characteristics of young children's musical style, as presented in the instrumental (only percussion) compositions of several 5-year-old children. They created these compositions while engaged in free play, without guidance from adults, in the music corners of two Israeli kindergartens. It is argued here that, within the natural constraints typical of children, a common musical style may be found to be present in both the kindergartens studied, while allowing for individual differences among the various children. The analytic tool employed in this study is based on the framework proposed by Cohen (D. Cohen, East and West in Music, Jerusalem, The Magnes Press, The Hebrew University, 1986; On comparing musical styles: East and West, Israel Studies in Musicology, 4, pp. 73-92, 1987; Directionality and complexity in music, in: M. Boroda (Ed.) Units, Text and Language: An Interdisciplinary Approach, Bochum, Brockmeyer, This framework for the analysis of a musical composition makes it possible to de ne any musical style in any culture. It allows for a descriptive analysis within a qualitative research perspective. This method has not been used previously in the study of young children's compositions. The ndings show a style characterised by an original and highly diverse use and choice of timbre. These are very different from the conventions presented by adults. The level of complexity in all the productions in this study is primarily low and momentary. The directionality ranges from clear and momentary to less clear but moving towards some sort of de nite conclusion.
Researchers have suggested that higher education institutions need to be re-thought as 'imagining universities' that continually engage in re-imagining themselves, in order to be able to justify their own existence in a fast-changing world. It can be expected that music teacher education programs, as part of higher education, would benefit from envisioning their shared future from the same starting point. This chapter presents the second-stage inquiry of "Co-creating visions for intercultural music teacher education in Finland and Israel," an ongoing collaborative research project between the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki and the Levinsky College of Education in Israel. The study is based on the constructionist pre-understanding that music teacher education programs ought to be developed by conversations and collective reflections, and that it is through these reflections that we narrate change. As an overall methodological framework, the study draws from Appreciative Inquiry (AI), emphasizing the positive as the basis from which to envision together what the future of intercultural music teacher education would look like. The data was collected through four workshop discussions, two at each site, totaling 24 participating teacher educators. The forward-looking themes of these second-stage discussions were developed from the groundwork of the first-stage focus group interview inquiry that mapped the present situation. This study suggests that there is an increasing need to create spaces where music teacher candidates and music teacher educators creatively face uncertainty rather than security, and where risk-taking can be encouraged and practiced safely. There is also a need to increase flexibility and openness, and to continue working more collaboratively within the institutions.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.