Challenges to music education research. Reflections from a Swedish perspective

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article is based on selected themes in my keynote at the 20th conference of The Nordic Network of Music Education Research (NNMPF) held at The Royal College of Music in Stockholm, 23 April 2014. Starting from the development of music education as an academic area in Sweden this article discusses challenges to music education research (henceforth referred to as MER) viewed through Swedish glasses. The complexity of MER, still a rather young but by now a well-established multi-disciplinary research area and academic subject/profile, respectively, calls for reconsideration of topics of interest. The maturity of MER also calls for careful navigation in a landscape with changing conditions for music learning and teaching. Challenges, strengths and dilemmas common to MER and to educational science in general are discussed as well as challenges concerning learning and teaching in music, topics that may remain little or differently explored in other academic domains. Keywords: Music education, knowledge formation, learning, teaching, educational sciences