The intention of this article is to explore, challenge and expand our understandings of children's improvised vocalisations, a fundamentally human form of expression. Based on selected examples from observation and recording in non-institutional settings, the article outlines how this phenomenon can be understood as learning and as communication. This is supplemented by suggesting a third possible approach which places these vocal forms within the frame of understanding implied by Foucault's term 'technology of the self'. This theoretical perspective entails recognising improvised vocalisations as tools used to 'act upon the self' in order to attain or reinforce a certain mental state or mood -happiness, satisfaction, anger or longing -in short, as a way in which children learn to know the self as a self. In line with a Foucauldian perspective is also a focus on the negotiation of power and how music serves as an empowering agent in children's everyday social interaction. Finally, informed by Vygotsky's approach to understanding the relationship between language and mental development, the author discusses the gradual disappearance of improvised vocalisations.

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Based on an empirical study in selected Norwegian kindergartens, this article investigates the practice of musically active employees, with or without professional training. The overarching aim is to develop an understanding of early childhood music practitioners that may challenge dominant views of professional identity and provide some new images of what it means to work musically in a kindergarten. Departing from a sociological approach, five different ‘musical pathfinders’ are identified: the disc jockey, the facilitator, the choir leader, the caregiver and the performer. These ‘ideal types’ are discussed in the light of issues concerning cultural diversity, negotiations of professionalism, repertoire selection, the use of music technology, children’s participation, and the relationship between formal and informal learning. The discussion raises critical questions concerning music activity in early childhood institutions, highlighting professionals’ personal cultural experiences, preferences and practices as legitimate points of reference in the development of professional identity.

This chapter examines how a politics of cultural diversity was implemented over a 30-year period in a Norwegian school concert program run by Concerts Norway. Departing from a historical overview, the chapter outlines the shifting agendas, values, and visions of diversity that governed this ambitious cultural effort. A central aim is to examine the ideological positions that influenced the program and the political and educational debates surrounding it. The concert program is discussed with respect to cultural diversity and anti-racism, democracy, tradition, hybridity, and the tensions between educational and artwork-based paradigms. Based on theorizations of cultural difference, the chapter shows how promoting music to children has been understood as an important part of shaping societal attitudes and laying the grounds for an anti-oppressive education. Critical issues regarding representation, influence, and power in the staging of music involving immigrant performers are raised. The chapter relates the concert programs to the political frames and ideals of the nation-state by illustrating how international cooperation effectively made the concert programs a part of Norwegian foreign policy. It points out how changing government policies had a profound impact on programs promoting cultural diversity, eventually leading to their termination as a national cultural strategy.

This article engages with critical discourse analysis to explore how ideological values are represented in the national guidelines for generalist music teacher education in Norway. These curriculum documents are understood as part of a selective tradition which serves to naturalize dominating values in teacher education institutions. The analysis engages with historical and current discourses of music preferences, values, and philosophies. The authors argue that the national guidelines largely contribute to upholding a certain school music ideology and a matching community of music educators. The theoretical thrust is based on writings on curriculum and ideology, hegemony, naturalization and selective tradition.