The purpose of this seminar is to share the benefits and challenges of engaging in collaborative intercultural research in music teacher education. The presentations are based on an ongoing research project, “Global visions through mobilizing networks: Co-developing intercultural music teacher education in Finland, Israel and Nepal”, funded by the Academy of Finland in 2015-2019 and involving over 15 researchers worldwide. The presenters will shed light on the multifarious opportunities for individual, collective and institutional learning in work that aims to develop intercultural music teacher education by creating mobilizing networks beyond our local and national contexts. So far, the experiences from the ongoing project can be briefly summed up like this: “If you prefer your status quo, we don’t suggest you do the ‘co-’”!
The overall purpose of the “Global visions through mobilizing networks” project is to develop visions for intercultural music teacher education through collaborative intercultural research involving three different institutions, namely the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki (Finland), the Nepal Music Center (Nepal) and the Levinsky College of Education (Israel). At the present we are more than halfway through the project, which runs from 2015-2019, and have already learnt some valuable lessons. One of the main overarching experiences and findings so far has been the insight that, in order to develop interculturally sensitive educational programs and research approaches we need to adhere to theoretical and ideological lenses that allow for heterogeneous and kaleidoscopic reflexivity and avoid panoptical and ocularcentric conceptions of diversity. Moreover, if intercultural knowledge production should happen in fruitful and sound ways, we also need to include the ethico-political dimensions of such interaction. In this presentation, we will highlight these dimensions while also give examples from the ongoing program.
Heidi Westerlund (Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland) & Sidsel Karlsen (Norwegian Academy of Music, Norway)
