I otakt med tiden. En genealogi av svensk musiklärarutbildning

Abstract in English

The aim of this thesis is to contribute to knowledge about how Swedish music teacher education today is governed. The theoretical lens is a Foucauldian genealogical approach according to which the educational context is seen as a discursive practice. Questions are raised concerning what kind of discourses are constitutive for music teacher education today, what kind of subject positions are possible for the education´s agents and what kind of power techniques are at play. Another research question is how music teachers are constructed historically. The study consists of two partial studies, the first being focus group interviews with teachers and students respectively at six institutions for music teacher education all over Sweden. The second partial study is an analysis of historical documents between years 1954-2008, mainly governmental official inquiries. Both studies’ material is analyzed using Foucault´s concepts of discourse, governmentality, power/knowledge, and genealogy. Results from the first partial study show three major discourses that are governing music teacher education today, namely a utility discourse, a bildung discourse and a university discourse. Within these discourses there are several subject positions available for the teachers/students such as, for example, guide, generalist, pragmatic, expert or entrepreneur. In the second partial study, the result of the analysis is presented as six constructions of the music teacher: the music teacher as bridge builder, both intellectual, artist and craftsman, competent, flexible, as folkbildare, and as gardener. In the concluding discussion, several discursive discontinuities, as they show themselves in the empirical material, are discussed. Those discontinuities describe discursive breaking points, the first one illustrating the music teachers role shifting from being responsible for cultural and societal wellbeing to becoming an entrepreneur, serving the market. The second breaking point is about the shift in how music education is seen as a mean for bildung towards a utility-discourse and back. The third describes the change in norms and expectations regarding genre and musical context, shifting from orchestra towards pop-band. And lastly, a discontinuity can be detected relating to epistemological aspects: music teachers have moved from being mainly practicians towards becoming more intellectual. Today a practician-discourse can be seen again, mainly concerning a classroom practice.