«Den som i dag utdanner seg til musikklærer må samtidig skolere seg som fagpolitiker» – om profesjonsutøvelse i spennet mellom fag, pedagogikk og politikk

Abstract

Signe Kalsnes’s contribution to this anthology takes, as its point of departure, the author’s personal experiences of political activism on behalf of the music subject. Kalsnes employs an autoethnographic approach to convey narratives about how direct intervention at the highest political level can lead to big changes in music teacher education, and also how political initiatives can be redirected to work more fruitfully with respect to the standing of the school music subject. The chapter’s main message is that music teacher students also need to learn how to be advocates – politically – on behalf of the subject they teach, and part of their professionalism is developed through studying, understanding and impacting political processes. From such a perspective, music teacher professionalism involves, not only interacting with the world, but also having the mandate and agency to change the world, even on the structural level of society. Kalsnes also emphasises that how, and through what means, such endeavours should be conducted will vary according to the societal and political situation at hand.