The voice plays a paradoxical role -- it is inclusive because everyone has one, and it is exclusive as it is used to falsely separate 'singers' and 'non-singers'. A new choral movement has emerged, with a low threshold for participation and inclusive practices, where one of the early offerings was "Everyone Can Sing" (ECS) in Norway. As…

This article reports on a survey of Norwegian compulsory school music teachers, in which 293 teachers from 239 schools participated. In addition to providing demographic information, the teachers were asked what kinds of music their students listened to, sang, played, and created during lessons, and what activities this music was part of. We…

Institutional change is being called for to renew higher music education (HME). But what institutional pressures, specifically, are driving these calls, and how are HME organisations responding to pressures to change? By turning to institutional theory, we lean on the concept of institutional isomorphism to shed light on how HME organisations may…

The Norwegian schools of music and arts are publicly funded institutions which offer extra-curricular activities for children and adolescents in music and other art forms. According to Norwegian legislation, each municipality is required to provide such education for its inhabitants. By parliamentary decision the schools are expected to be for all…

In this article, I explore the theoretical and analytical potential of the concept of genring, which here refers to productive acts of temporary interpretation and signification, wherein existing classification systems and genre categories in the social are operationalized and (re)negotiated. Foucault and Butler's theories of discursive subjection…

Music is deeply entangled with human activity and can play various roles in our lives, also in the lives of children. A large part of children's day-to-day life in Norway takes place within a school context. However, research on children's musical lives within a primary school context is scarce, and there is little knowledge of how pupils engage…

Curious as to why conducting gesture are both acknowledged and ignored by choral singers, this article investigates the enigmatic nature of the act of conducting. Education and research are biased toward gestural aspects of the choral conductor role. At the same time, research shows that gestural skills rank strikingly low compared with other…

This article explores musical parenting in Norwegian schools of music and arts. These schools aim to provide extra-curricular activities in music and other art forms to "all" children and adolescents regardless of their social and economic background, but the schools reveal traits of social and cultural exclusion, serving mainly the…

The 2020 Norwegian national curriculum for primary, lower secondary, and upper secondary education includes a "competence aim" after Year 7 that expects pupils to be able to "investigate how gender, gender roles, and sexuality are presented in music and dance in the public sphere and create expressions that challenge…

This study explores change processes in higher music education by following the development of the Centre for Excellence in Music Performance Education (CEMPE) at the Norwegian Academy of Music (NMH) over the period 2014-2023. The following research question is addressed: How has institutional change been enabled in a higher music education…

Based on narratives on six choral conductors' unfolding careers, the article investigates significant moments in professional trajectories -- "turning points" -- and how these shaped ongoing practices. The empirical material comprises interviews with conductors that represent different pre-conducting platforms -- musicologist, music…

There has been demand in many countries for the establishment of small campuses in more rural locations to spread the benefits of higher education both through the provision of university courses and through the positive economic spill-overs for these communities. Evaluations of the impacts of these universities according to current models show…

This article investigates local curricular plans and job advertisements of institutions offering music in generalist teacher education (GTE) in Norway. The aim is to identify the values and ideologies represented locally in the music subject in terms of how content, learning outcomes, activities and assessment forms are prioritised and how working…

As society changes, new challenges arise for education. Major social upheavals have led to increasing awareness of social justice issues and critical reflection within the field of music education, as well as calls for social and educational change. In this article, five music teacher educators discuss how music teacher educators and pre-service…

The aim of this study is to explore how aspects of dialogic teaching are concretized in classrooms to fill the gap between educational rhetoric and classroom practices. A central competency needed in our time is the ability to participate in democratic dialogue. Education for democratic citizenship can be connected to the notion of "becoming…