Skolmusikalen: om möten, makt och musik i två skolmusikalprojekt i årskurs nio

Abstract in English

The two school musical theatre projects in this case study were carried out in 2011-2012 in Year 9 at two Swedish secondary schools, Annebäckskolan and Bäråskolan, as a part of the subject “Elevens val” (Student’s Elective). The purpose of the study was to analyse how pedagogy, power and control appeared in the projects, based on the following research questions: How can the influence of the local community and leisure discourses on education be understood through the two school musical theatre projects? What pedagogical codes appear in the projects and how do they relate to time and space? What power relations are produced and why? The study was conducted through participatory observations and interviews and dialogues with participating students and teachers. The analysis had a hermeneutical approach, and the theoretical starting points were Basil Bernstein’s theory and concepts, such as recontextualisation, code, classification, framing, and singular, regional and generic discourses. These theories were supplemented by a space perspective based on David Harvey and his concept of the absolute, relative and relational space. The study showed that educational traditions and relations with the local community were of importance for the production of the school musical theatre discourses. The Annebäck project was characterised by teaching in relation to the pop and rock music and theatre discourse of the municipal youth centre and a local aerobics and dance discourse. These relations provided the prerequisites for a school musical theatre project with an integrated code, open to most of the students in Year 9. The Bärå project had a collection code and was characterised by teaching related to the school’s music class, as well as to the municipal music school discourse and a local theatre and dance discourse. These relations provided the prerequisites for a project mainly open to students in the school’s music class, or to students who had chosen theatre or dance as an elective subject. The activities of the Annebäck project strengthened social cooperation between the municipal youth centre and the secondary school, while the Bärå project, as a result of its collaboration with aesthetic institutions in the local community where most of the musical students were already enrolled, broadened the school’s music profile. Both projects strengthened the existing orientation of the two schools’ activities, thus contributing to and reinforcing the focus and the ideas on which they were based.