Engaging Practitioners as Inquirers: Co-constructing Visions for Music Teacher Education in Nepal

Abstract

This chapter explores how co-constructing visions might engage teachers as inquirers in a 'majority world' context by reflecting on a series of 16 Appreciative Inquiry workshops involving over 50 musician-teachers in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal in 2016. It extends the concept of teachers' visions (Hammerness, Teach Educ Q 31(Fall):33-43, 2004) through socio-cultural anthropologist Arjun Appadurai's notions of the imagination (Modernity at large: Cultural dimensions of globalization. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1996) and the social and cultural capacity to aspire (Culture and public action. Stanford University Press, Stanford, 2004). The chapter reflects on the processes that took place when co-constructing visions, including the ways co-constructing visions may have been the fuel for action, and analyzes the implications of the resulting co-constructed visions. The findings highlight the importance of developing and supporting collaborative learning for the development of both preservice and inservice music teacher education.Keywords Teachers' visions · Co-constructed visions · Imagination · Capacity to aspire · Appreciative inquiry · Majority world · Nepal Music teacher education today is faced with the challenge of preparing professionals for an uncertain future; teachers who are capable of ethically engaging in intercultural settings, and continuously and systematically inquiring to increase their professional knowledge (see e.g. Cochran-Smith and Lytle 2009; Holgersen and Burnard 2013). One possible way of engaging with such an uncertain future is through envisioning. In the field of education, Karen Hammerness defines teachers' visions as the

Visions for intercultural music teacher education in complex societies

“…• • Examine how issues of power, values and ethics intersect with intercultural work (Ehrlich & Badarne, 2020;Miettinen et al, 2018;Timonen, 2020;Treacy, 2020b), entailing a continuous interrogation of the fundamental values of music teacher education programs themselves (Ehrlich, 2016;Kallio & Heimonen, 2018;Kallio & Westerlund, 2020;Timonen et al, 2021) and the ongoing revision of assessment to facilitate mutual exchange and learning; • • Invite discussions on the tensions that exist between an openness to diversity and resistance to change (Miettinen et al, 2020) in ways that recognize the emotional dimensions of such learning (Kallio & Westerlund, 2020;Miettinen, 2020Miettinen, , 2021Timonen, 2020;Timonen et al, 2020); • • Consider the concept of intercultural competence critically and more holistically, including its social, relational and emotional (Miettinen, 2020(Miettinen, , 2021Miettinen et al, 2018;Timonen, 2020), and political and historical aspects, and construe intercultural competence as "perpetually unfinished business" and necessarily uncomfortable (Kallio & Westerlund, 2020;Miettinen, 2020Miettinen, , 2021Timonen, 2020;, thus preparing music education professionals for a lifelong engagement with uncertainty and inquiry; • • Provide the necessary support to establish shared spaces for intercultural music learning, reflection, and reflexivity (Miettinen, 2019(Miettinen, , 2020(Miettinen, , 2021Timonen, 2021;Treacy, 2020a), such as intercultural outreach projects (Kansakar & Tuladhar, 2020; and professional learning communities (Timonen, 2021;Treacy, 2020a) where student teachers and teacher educators can practice taking risks and dealing with uncertainty…”

“…• • Practise the related capacities of imagining, envisioning, aspiring, and taking action (Treacy, 2020a(Treacy, , 2020bTreacy et al, 2021); • • Encourage ongoing reflection and re-imagination regarding the visions, missions, and values that guide music (teacher) education and the taken-for-granted practices and rituals (long-standing or recent) in classrooms and schools (Treacy, 2020b;Treacy & Westerlund, 2019 see also, Miettinen, 2020); • • Understand the value of co-constructing shared visions while engaging in critical reflection regarding whose visions shape the shared visions and whose remain absent, unspoken, or silenced, and whose differences are deemed "diversity-relevant" (Kallio et al, 2021;Treacy, 2019);…”

“…• • Account for situational ethical and political challenges that are part of all research relationships and contexts (Kallio, 2020(Kallio, , 2021Kallio & Länsman, 2018;Karlsen et al, 2016;Timonen, 2020;Timonen et al, 2020;Treacy, 2020aTreacy, , 2020b); • • Approach consensus-seeking research approaches critically (Treacy, 2019(Treacy, , 2020b, taking into account the inherent diversity of any social grouping and individuals' different identities and hopes within these (Kallio, 2021;Westerlund, 2019); • • Balance critical and appreciative approaches, and reflect on the ethics of inquiry as intervention (Treacy, 2020b;Treacy & Westerlund, 2019); • • Consider collaborative research as an ethical stance (Treacy, 2020b).…”

“Because I’m a girl”: Troubling shared visions for music education

“…These workshops involved 53 musician-teachers in three different groups: Group A had eight 3-hour workshops, the first two of which were repeated on two separated days in an attempt to widen participation; Group B had four 2-hour workshops; and Group C had two workshops ranging from 1.5–2 hours long with the intention of Group C participants continuing with Group B. The processes that took place during these workshops (henceforth main workshops) have been described in detail elsewhere (see Treacy, 2020).…”

“…The starting point for this inquiry was a set of shared visions (see Table 1) for music education in Nepal that were co-constructed with musician-teachers 1 working in the Kathmandu Valley during a series of Appreciative Inquiry workshops I facilitated in 2016 (see Treacy, 2020). More specifically, the inquiry attends to the absence of the vision alluded to in the poem that opened this article, for a woman to “be a musician just like any guy.” Following Carducci, Pasque, Kuntz, and Contreras-McGavin (2013) who argue that “it remains vital that critical scholars continually investigate the absences, blind spots, and invisibilities inherent in research designed to interrogate, disrupt, and ultimately upend educational inequities” (p. 6), I investigate the absence of this vision in two parts.…”