EXCERPT FROM FINN HOLST’S REPORT: DIVERSITY& COMMUNITY – FROM PEACE ORCHESTRA TO MUSIC SCHOOL
- Summary
Goldschmidt’s Music Academy (GMA) is a private music school that offers free voice and music training to children and youth… with emphasis on those who would otherwise be unable to receive this music education due to social or economic reasons.
Goldschmidt’s Music Academy strives to give free music education to as many children and youth as possible, with special focus on those who would otherwise not have this chance. The driving force behind Goldschmidt’s Music Academy… according to their homepage… is their commitment and desire to involve each and every student in music’s professional and social milieu. “Music creates a community and safety zone that crosses boundaries of religion, culture, ethnic differences and potential conflict zones. It elevates the individual student and hones skills that will be in use long after one’s time in The Music Academy. It further prepares the ground for a society with fewer conflicts: To create peace, one must keep the peace. And to keep the peace must one know each other.”
This study’s purpose, in the frame of Goldschmidt Music Academy’s special offer, is to investigate the meaning of this meeting between music itself and the active participation in music for children who would typically not have an opportunity to experience music education. Furthermore, the study will examine how this age group experiences the meaning of active participation in music plus examine the after-effects of learning to play an instrument.
The Study’s design is based on investigating children’s perceived values and their bearing on the music education that they receive. The design of the study uses 50 students and 12 instructors for interviews, observations, teacher evaluation of the education, along with interviews of the instructors and Academy’s leadership.
All students in the Study will be observed, individually and collectively. This will be followed up with interviews. Questions will focus on the meaning of music and the participation in a musical community for these youth.
On the didactic level, the instructors have worked out a the baselines of each student as of the beginning of the Study and will repeat the process after six to nine months… thereby producing some of the results on which our conclusions will be based. In addition, the results of planned focus group interviews involving instructors and leadership add a dimension to our conclusions, which will be quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed. These results will be organized into a series of central themes where the research data will be set into perspective alongside relevant theory.
The heart of this process is to give the children and youth a voice. It’s important to recognize their values and perspective as meaningful, thereby acknowledging “the meaning of music” as experienced in “the first person” and not… as occurs so frequently… limiting our perception to what music is good for or not.
The Study is organized in to four thematic dimensions of “values” developed in earlier research: joy, companionship, meaning and mastery. In addition, its “meaning to one’s family unit” is explored.
In general, one can speak in terms of the highest quality feedback from students. This can be condensed and as summarized as follows: Students experience a high degree of joy, companionship and sense of mastery through their participation in GMA.
According to the students, they say that music makes them happy, that there is a joy in creating music as well as in bringing joy to others through the music. The music gives joy in the form of energy or contentment. Moreover, the joy that music brings can come forth with an experience of “flow” or “oneness”, often in the context of performing with others. More than 80% of the students assess “joy” as the highest or next highest on our scale (4 or 5 on the scale).
Students say that creating music with others means much to them, to have friends and others to share the experience with and to make new friends. Fellowship is assessed even higher than joy… with 84% on the two highest levels.
An important value for students is to be good at something in music, to master something. Mastery is seen as an expression of engagement, positive self-esteem and is part of a good presentation. Mastery is the area with the highest average overall. The distribution curve here is even more extreme. This is to say that an even higher percentage of points are given to this category… placing it on the highest or next highest step, namely a whole 90%!
Students express “meaningfulness” as musical imagination and narrative. Musical imagination can be defined as being touched emotionally and with the ability to express feelings musically. The results suggest that there are individual differences in how musical imagination is experienced, which can be related to both age and education.
A large percentage of the students find that their participation in music education means much to their parents and they enjoy strong support and motivation from home. Support and motivation from home is often goes hand in hand with the family’s values and music culture.
Instruction at GMA includes instruction on instruments such as goblet drum, trap set, electric bass, guitar, saz, piano, cello, violin, viola, trumpet, saxophone, flute, clarinet, accordion and choir along with the various ensemble forms. These instruments are taught by instructors using various educational traditions and instrument-specific traditions.
At GMA you find many music education traditions, some relating to classical tradition, rhythmic tradition, folk music/world music tradition and choir. The collective tendency to find many music education traditions in GMA’s curriculum generally points to the sense that each has value and opens possibilities, but each is different and through their differences contribute to Goldschmidt Academy’s purpose and goals.
I present to you a list of central questions that have led to theoretical analysis, which on the one hand illuminate the value of current practice and on the other hand illuminate the potential for future development. These questions concern:
- The students’ opportunities for cross-cultural meetings in the framework of GMA
- The education’s content and form of teaching as a part of the intercultural music education practice
- The students’ opportunities to be active co-creators of their own culture and communities
- The possibility for the meeting of different educational traditions and music cultures as a part of the institution’s intercultural practices
Results of the theoretical analysis of these four questions follow here: Multicultural music education can be seen as an answer, ensuring equal access to and participation in music for everyone. UNESCO’s guidelines for intercultural education (UNESCO 2006) point to intercultural education that promotes dialogue between students from different cultural backgrounds, beliefs and religions… can be an important and meaningful way to contribute to the creation of sustainable, tolerant communities and differentiate between multicultural and intercultural approaches.
In music education, we can differentiate between a) multicultural music education, where focus is on the opportunity for varieties of music forms, repertoire and teaching approaches. These ensure diversity and multiple opportunities for participation out from cultural differences and b) intercultural music education as an active co-existing partner in a dialogue space where differences are seen as a resource in intercultural meetings, which build bridges and create synthesis.
The basic vision of GMA is related to the founding principles behind the Middle East Peace Orchestra, namely an intercultural vision that is expressed through many opportunities for intercultural encounters, which together constitute intercultural potential. Moreover, children have the opportunity to observe themselves, their cultural background and traditions through the school’s content…all in a context of multicultural understanding.
This multi-cultural access can be understood as an embracive strategy in relation to access for all, while the intercultural access can be understood as an inclusive strategy in relation to participation in the community.
In the frame of an intercultural music education practice, it’s been very interesting to observe the relationship between private lessons and interaction… where this interaction creates opportunities for these intercultural meetings. You will find variations in GMA’s teaching practices; the beneficial effect of this is supported by the students’ very positive evaluation ratings, not least of which is the students’ positive experience of attaining mastery.
Out from the observation of intercultural education as a dynamic process, it becomes essential to create opportunity for students to become active co-creators of musical practices and musical communities. This can clearly be seen as a guiding principle in
“Det Nodeløse Orkester”, where one works with exactly this principle of developing a common musical narrative through a process of dialogue.
A meaningful bid on an access to instruction that will promote the students’ independent activity is dialogical instruction. You see dialogic instruction in a number of areas, for example in Suzuki-based rhythmic guitar instruction, but there are also examples of mono-logical instructional teaching.
It is thoroughly obvious that GMA’s teaching approach is mastery oriented, in contrast to a performance approach. Thus, through research, there are examples where students have been shielded from inappropriate performance requirements. This is, according to instructors involved, one of the features of GMA’s atmosphere.
GMA’s pedagogic atmosphere is characterized by security and caring as central principles, including moreover, trust, community and commitment. That there is talk of a student body that includes students from troubled backgrounds, among which are refugees… creates the necessity of an environment characterized by security and caring as essential conditions for GMA’s intercultural music practice.
On an institutional level, one can refer back to a vision of the Middle East Peace Orchestra, as an intercultural vision which at the student level implements a variety of possibilities for cultural meetings which together constitute the intercultural potential. It is therefore a short leap of thought to point to the pedagogic and didactic potential in having teachers experienced in various instructional-traditions, meeting and developing as part of the GMA’s intercultural practice. In summary, the possibility for meetings between different educational traditions and music cultures becomes a part of the institution’s intercultural praxis.
It is recommended that GMA undergo an evaluations process in the future. This would be in the form of a development evaluation and should include three levels: student level, instruction level and the institutional level.
3.3 Summary – student values
Joy
According to the students, they say that music makes them happy, that there is a joy in creating music as well as in bringing joy to others through the music. The music gives joy in the form of energy or contentment. Moreover, the joy that music brings can come forth with an experience of “flow” or “oneness”, often in the context of performing with others. More than 80% of the students assess “joy” as the highest or next highest on our scale (4 or 5 on the scale).
Community
Students say that creating music with others means much to them, to have friends and others to share the experience with and to make new friends. Fellowship is assessed even higher than joy… with 84% on the two highest levels.
Musical Meaning
Students express “meaningfulness” as musical imagination and narrative. Musical imagination can be defined as being touched emotionally and with the ability to express feelings musically. In the sub-category “feelings”, 75% assess it on the two highest levels (scale levels 4 and 5). There is a little group of 7% who claim to have not experienced this value. The sub-category of “musical imagination” is assessed by 70% on the two highest levels while a smaller group of 17% say that they have not experienced this value (scale levels 1 and 2). The results suggest that there are individual differences in how musical imagination is experienced, which can be related to both age and education.
Mastery
An important value for students is to be good at something in music, to master something. Mastery is seen as an expression of engagement, positive self-esteem and is part of a good presentation. Mastery is the area with the highest average overall. The distribution curve here is even more extreme. This is to say that an even higher percentage of points are given to this category… placing it on the highest or next highest step, namely a whole 90%!
Importance to Family
A large percentage of the students find that their participation in music education means much to their parents and they enjoy strong support and motivation from home. Support and motivation from home is often goes hand in hand with the family’s values and music culture.