Musical genre and gender as factors in higher education learning in music

Abstract

Educational and psychological research suggests that gender and musical genre can influence musical learning and the development of musical identities, particularly during adolescence. However, there is a relative paucity of educational studies in higher education (HE) concerning the possible impact on musical learning of gender and musical genre, either individually or collectively. As part of a two-year comparative study funded under the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)'s Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP) that is focused on musical learning in HE, we investigated the effect of musicians' gender and chosen musical performance genre (embracing Western classical, jazz, popular, and Scottish traditional music) on undergraduate and postgraduate (career-based) learning. Data were gathered through a web-based survey of participants (n=244) drawn from four HE institutions (HEIs) in Glasgow, York, Leeds and London and the wider workplace, supplemented by semistructured case study interview data from a sub-set (n=27) of these participants. Statistical and qualitative analyses indicate that gender and genre can impact individually on some aspects of participants' psychological and socio-psychological make-up and in their attitudes to learning. However, there was no evidence statistically or qualitatively of any major interaction between the variables of genre and gender in the data from the chosen measures. Furthermore, irrespective of musical genre, skilled musicians had many aspects in common in terms of their core musical identities and behaviours, implying that the requirements for highly skilled musical performance can transcend particular group characteristics.

Learning pre-played solos: Self-regulated learning strategies in jazz/improvised music

“…Sandgren, 2009;Welch et al, 2008). Welch et al even claim that, "the requirements for highly skilled musical performance can transcend particular group characteristics" (p. 203).…”

Early career challenges in secondary school music teaching

“…All musicians, irrespective of genre, have a very strong musical identity, with their ‘musician self’ forming a core component of their overall sense of identity ( cf. Welch et al , 2008). Nevertheless, each of the groups of participants in our research, whether undergraduate music students, post‐graduate intending music teachers or newly qualified teachers, recognised that the teaching of music requires more than musical knowledge and skills, of being an excellent musician.…”

Musical Styles as Communities of Practice Challenges for learning, teaching and assessment of music in higher education

“…My own research suggests that this is too simplistic. Second, empirical research into a range of cognitive and social psychological constructs with music students lends limited support to the notion that students who specialise in different musical genres are significantly different on these constructs (Welch, et al, 2008), though the same team have identified some significant differences in terms of what is valued in a performance (Creech, et al, 2008). It has not been my argument in this paper that students are Ôsingle styleÕ musicians, nor that specialising in a particular musical style gives rise to a defined set of distinctive psychological characteristics (though see Rentfrow & Gosling, 2003).…”