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In this article we highlight and discuss how norm-challenging pedagogy in music education can be encouraged and executed from three different angles. We primarily focus on activities such as democratic learning situations for pupils and teachers, to be explored as safe and brave spaces. With a starting point in norm-critical pedagogy, we explore the possibility of using norm-challenging pedagogy as, through and in music educational settings. Norm-challenging pedagogy as music education can challenge dominant ways of assimilating, processing, and expressing knowledge, whereas norm-challenging pedagogy through music education concerns how traditional views on, for example, gender, race, or disability identities can be challenged through music activities. Norm-challenging pedagogy in music education critically reflects on who has the right to learn and express themselves musically and in what ways, related to gender, race or disability. The article is based on a phenomenological view of aesthetic experience and music education as a life of equal value, where de Beauvoir’s concepts of freedom, facticity, and ambiguity constitute crucial analytical concepts. The author’s own experiences of ambiguous norm-challenging situations as, through and in music education will be used and discussed in relation to the philosophical framework. The results of the exploration will be critically reflected upon in relation to organisational, collegial, didactic and relational aspects of music education.

Global research on the experiences of trans individuals singing within music education is limited and can be considered a blind spot in Scandinavian research. This article investigates two trans individuals' (female-to-male) experiences of singing in higher music education settings during hormone replacement therapy and poses the following questions: How do the participants experience aspects of the singing body in music education settings—as elements they can or cannot change? What impact do these experiences have on the choices made by the participants regarding singing in music education settings? Between 2014 and 2018, four interviews were conducted with one participant and six with the other. These were then analysed using a phenomenological hermeneutical method of researching lived experience. Results show that experiences of gender and/or the singing voice in music education settings exemplify how biological and social aspects are intertwined and in flux, both related to the body's facticity and freedom. These intertwinements do not always align with traditional views of how experienced singers should sound or how singing should be organised in music education settings (such as choirs). Consequently, trans singers in Swedish music education settings might experience gender-affirming treatments such as hormone replacement therapy as impossible to "hide", forcing them to be open about their transition. This could, in a worst-case scenario, be experienced as discriminatory.

Föreliggande rapport handlar om vuxnas medvetenhet om och förhållningssätt till demokrati, genusmedvetenhet och delaktighet i förskolans sångsituationer inom det nationella projektet Rösträtt – sång på förskolan. Studien är delad i två delar, där Del 1 fokuserar på medvetenhet om och förutsättningar för hur förskolans sångsituationer kan förbättras utifrån demokrati, genusmedvetenhet och delaktighet. Del 2 fokuserar på de förutsättningar och metoder som producenter och sångcoacher lyfter som centrala för att lägga till rätta för demokrati, genusmedvetenhet och delaktighet i förskolans sångsituationer. Genom såväl aktionsforskningsinspirerade gruppsamtal med sångcoacher (Del 1) som intervjuer och frågeformulär med sångcoacher och producenter (Del 2) producerades empiri som analyserades med hermeneutisk fenomenologisk analysmetod. Resultatet speglas i perspektiven demokrati, genusmedvetenhet och delaktighet samt i tidigare forskning om sång, demokrati och delaktighet, möjligheter och utmaningar med barnsång, genus, kön och sång, sång i förskolan samt genrebredd och kvalitetskriterier i en tidigare utvärdering av projektet. Resultatet visar att Rösträtt – sång på förskolan genomsyras av ett synsätt som utgörs av att sång som uttryck ses som en rättighet samt en kunskap som alla har, en strävan efter jämlika förutsättningar samt en medvetenhet om att alla deltar i sångsituationerna på olika sätt. Synsättet är ledsagande i deras strävan efter möjligheter till delaktighet i sång på förskolan. Resultatet visar även att förutsättningarna till att delta i projektet i vissa fall framstår som ojämlika, vilket får som konsekvens att möjligheterna till att erbjuda delaktighet i sång ibland blir begränsande. 

Earlier research has stated the need for conservatory education to prepare aspiring musicians more thoroughly for a dynamic and changing society. A project that challenges the conservatory tradition is Sammankonst (TogetherArt) where students at a musical theatre program at folk high school level collaborate with intellectually disabled adults. Based on a phenomenological way of thinking, this article aims to describe and analyze the education of aspiring musicians for professional participation in society based on an analysis of experiences among conservatory students, music theater students and their teachers. Interviews were made with six conservatory students, 15 musical theatre students, and two teachers. The results show ambiguities when it comes to what voice students should be prepared for and how the choice of preparations influence the view of singing and musicians’ quality competence.

This article presents an investigation of how caring can promote sustainable social development, focusing on the caring practices in the musical theater project Togetherart. Led by a culture organization (Kulturverket) in Umeå, Sweden, the project involves members of an activity center for adults with mainly intellectual disabilities and autism spectrum disorders and students from a musical theater artist program at an institution for adult education (folkhögskola/folk high school). Participant observation of rehearsals and performances, transcribed interviews, field notes, SMS conversations created material for analysis which generated the results presented in this article. The analysis was based on Noddings’ (1984/2013) “ethics of care”. The results show that Togetherart can be seen as promoting sustainable social development by using caring practices in relation to provide for a safe and inclusive learning environment, social inclusion and empowered individuals, equal access for all participants as well as fair and inclusive access to quality education, promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all involved. The results align with several targets in Sustainable Development Goals 4 and 10 of the United Nations. We conclude that Togetherart enabled the participants to articulate their lived conditions and experiences, a necessity for developing a sustainable social world. 

Based on a phenomenological way of thinking, this paper aims to describe singing and making in society based on experiences among conservatory students, music theatre students and their teachers. Earlier research has stated the need for conservatory education to more thoroughly prepare becoming musicians for a dynamic and changing society. Ongoing research in European conservatories has found that the preparations for, and student´s thoughts on, future working life vary greatly between departments. For example, percussion students seem to be prepared for and willing to work as musicians in soloistic, chamber music, and orchestral situations, with contemporary improvisation, as well as in NGOs and creative music schools. While voice students, on the other hand, primarily are more directed toward specific soloistic roles in operas and operettas, combined with taking on HME teaching on the side. A reason given for this is an idea of singing, where "more varied" singing activities is seen as affecting the voice instrument negatively. The same view of voice competence traditionally pervades musical theatre education, where different voice characters are developed within the master-apprentice tradition, with specific musical theatre roles in mind. A project that challenges this tradition is Sammankonst (Together Art) driven by a municipal arts organisation in Sweden where students at a musical theatre program at folk high school level collaborate with intellectually disabled adults. Throughout three years the participants collaborated in the creation and performance of their own musical theatre. To come close to the lived worlds of voice students, interviews were made with six conservatory students, 15 musical theatre students, and two of their teachers. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed in a phenomenological manner. The results show ambiguities when it comes to what voice students should be prepared for and how the choice of preparations influence the view of singing and musician quality competence.

Här uppmärksammas fenomenet delaktighet i estetisk verksamhet, något som är aktuellt i lärarutbildningar, såväl allmänna som med inriktning på estetiska ämnen, och i utbildningar som riktar sig mot kulturskola och annan fri verksamhet.

Författarna har fungerat som följeforskare i två Arvsfondsfinansierade konstpedagogiska projekt, Alla har rätt och Sammankonst drivna av Kulturverket. Baserat på forskningen tydliggörs vad delaktighet i estetisk verksamhet kan vara, och vilka krav det ställer på organisation, kollegium och förhållningssätt i sammanhang där konstuttryck och pedagogik möts.

Specifikt belyser författarna delatighetsaspekterna tid, rum och mellanrum liksom det dialogiska förhållningssätt som drivit Kulturverkets arbete.

Cecilia Ferm Almqvist är professor i pedagogik och musikpedagogik vid Södertörns högskola respektive Stockholms musikpedagogiska institut. Linn Hentschel är lektor i pedagogiskt arbete med inriktning mot musik vid Umeå universitet.