Toward a nuanced understanding of musicians’ professional learning pathways: What does critical reflection contribute?
Publication Date
2022-04Journal Title
Research Studies in Music Education
ISSN
1321-103X
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Volume
44
Issue
1
Pages
127-157
Language
en
Type
Article
This Version
VoR
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
López-Íñiguez, G., & Burnard, P. (2022). Toward a nuanced understanding of musicians’ professional learning pathways: What does critical reflection contribute?. Research Studies in Music Education, 44 (1), 127-157. https://doi.org/10.1177/1321103x211025850
Description
Funder: Center for Educational Research and Academic Development in the Arts (CERADA)
Abstract
<jats:p> Making sense of musicians’ professional learning pathways is of crucial importance to understanding their career progressions, their routes into creative employment, and the relevance of various policies to their professional lives. However, this is a far cry from understanding how critical reflection catalyzes diverse learning routes, especially when considering evidence originating from postgraduate musicians’ own accounts of their journeys into job creation. In this study, we invited five postgraduate classical musicians who were invested in professional learning through performance programs in higher education to contribute these types of personal perspectives. The article explores the value of postgraduate musicians’ own accounts of their journeys and illustrates how a more nuanced understanding of them can be arrived at through the use of visual-based tools, for example, Rivers of Musical Experience and Dixit Cards. This constructivist intervention prompted both group and individual critical reflections, as well as sense-making processes that enabled the participants to become more informed about the (typically overlooked or neglected) critical incidents that differently catalyze professional learning pathways. All of the participants articulated sociocultural influences that were situated along historical, present, and future points of departure and arrival, helping them to create meaning and understanding of themselves and their (at times unsettling) professional learning pathways. From the ensuing thematic analyses, we identified a commonality of themes across life phases with three key influential groups of people (parents, peers, and professionals) that strongly affected their professional learning pathways and learner identity-construction. The results indicate that the relationships between these phases and people are complex. The research illuminates the previously unexplored connection between the meaning-making trajectories that are instantiated through critical reflection, and adds to our understanding of the development of musicians’ professional learning pathways and learner identities. </jats:p>
Keywords
Research Articles, career, critical incident charting, critical reflection, higher education, identity, learner identity, music professional learning, musical futures, professional learning pathways, qualitative methods
Sponsorship
Academy of Finland (315378)
Identifiers
10.1177_1321103x211025850
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1321103x211025850
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/336376
Rights
Licence:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Statistics
Total file downloads (since January 2020). For more information on metrics see the
IRUS guide.
Recommended or similar items
The current recommendation prototype on the Apollo Repository will be turned off on 03 February 2023. Although the pilot has been fruitful for both parties, the service provider IKVA is focusing on horizon scanning products and so the recommender service can no longer be supported. We recognise the importance of recommender services in supporting research discovery and are evaluating offerings from other service providers. If you would like to offer feedback on this decision please contact us on: support@repository.cam.ac.uk