In this article, the author suggests a route for music education research in which the notion of musical agency is proposed as one possible lens for investigating music education practices from the angle of the learner’s experience. A review is made of how the notion of musical agency is used within music education and related fields. Moreover, the phenomenon is described as found within the sociology of music and even more particularly in the works of Small (1998), DeNora (2000), and Batt-Rawden and DeNora (2005). Next, the different aspects of musical agency as found within these works are categorized and explained in more detail. Finally, this sociologically-inspired understanding of musical agency is visualized as a lens and proposed as a tool for ethnographically-inspired music education research.
BarnesB. (2000). Understanding agency: Social theory and responsible action. London: Sage Publications.
2.
Batt-RawdenK.DeNoraT. (2005). Music and informal learning in everyday life. Music Education Research, 7(3), 289–304.
3.
BogdanR. C.BiklenS. K. (2006). Qualitative research for education: An introduction to theories and methods. Boston, MA: Pearson.
4.
BollnowO. F. (1976). Eksistensfilosofi og pedagogikk [Existential philosophy and pedagogy]. Copenhagen: Christian Ejlers’ Forlag.
5.
ClementsA. C. (2008). Escaping the classical canon: Changing methods through a change of paradigm. Visions of Research in Music Education (12). Retrieved 6 February 2011from http://www-usr.rider.edu/~vrme
6.
CrozierW. R. (1997). Music and social influence. In HargreavesD. J.NorthA. C. (Eds.), The social psychology of music (pp. 67–83). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
7.
DeNoraT. (2000). Music in everyday life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
8.
ElliottD. J. (1989). Key concepts in multicultural music education. International Journal of Music Education, 13(1), 11–18.
9.
ElliottD. J. (1995). Music matters: A new philosophy of music education. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
10.
ElliottD. J. (2007). ‘Socializing’ music education. Action, Criticism and Theory for Music Education, 6(4), 60–95.
11.
FolkestadG. (2006). Formal and informal learning situations vs formal and informal ways of learning. British Journal of Music Education, 23(2), 135–145.
12.
FrithS. (1996). Music and identity. In HallS.du GayP. (Eds.), Questions of cultural identity (pp. 108–127). London: Sage Publications.
13.
GiddensA. (1976). New rules of sociological method. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
14.
GiddensA. (1984a). Hermeneutics and social theory. In ShapiroG.SicaA. (Eds.), Hermeneutics (pp. 215–230). Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.
15.
GiddensA. (1984b). The constitution of society: Outline of the theory of structuration. Oxford: Blackwell.
16.
GiddensA. (1991). Modernity and self-identity: Self and society in the late modern age. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
17.
GodlovitchS. (1998). Musical performance: A philosophical study. London: Routledge.
18.
GoldbergF. (1995). The Bonny method of guided imagery and music. In WigramT.SaperstonB.WestR. (Eds.), The art and science of music therapy: A handbook (pp. 112–128). London, UK: Routledge.
19.
GreenL. (1999). Research in the sociology of music education: Some introductory concepts. Music Education Research, 1(2), 159–170.
20.
GreenL. (2008). Music, informal learning and the school: A new classroom pedagogy. Aldershot: Ashgate.
21.
GuneriussenW. (1999). Aktør, handling og struktur. Grunnlagsproblemer i samfunnsvitenskapene [Agent, action and structure. Foundational problems in social studies]. Oslo, Norway: Tano Aschehoug.
22.
JorgensenE. (2007). Concerning justice and music education. Music Education Research, 9(2), 169–189.
23.
KarlsenS. (2007). The music festival as an arena for learning: Festspel i Pite Älvdal and matters of identity. Published doctoral dissertation. Luleå University of Technology, Sweden.
24.
KarlsenS. (2009). Access to the learnable: Music education and the development of strong learners within informal arenas. In GouldE.CountrymanJ.MortonC.RoseL. S. (Eds.), Exploring social justice. How music education might matter (pp. 240–251). Waterloo, ON: Canadian Music Educators’ Association/L’Association canadienne des musiciens éducateurs.
25.
KarlsenS. (2010). Boomtown music education and the need for authenticity. Informal learning put into practice in Swedish post-compulsory music education. British Journal of Music Education, 27(1), 35–46.
26.
KarlsenS. (2011). Music festivals in the Lapland region: Expressing collective identity through musical events. In GreenL. (Ed.), Teaching, learning and musical identity: Voices across cultures (pp. 184–196). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
27.
KarlsenS.WesterlundH. (2010). Immigrant students’ development of musical agency – exploring democracy in music education. British Journal of Music Education, 27(3), 225–239.
28.
LehmanA. C.SlobodaJ. A.WoodyR. H. (2007). Psychology for musicians: Understanding and acquiring the skills. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
29.
MacDonaldR. A. R.HargreavesD. J.MiellD. (2002). Musical identities. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
30.
MarkM. L. (2002). Nonmusical outcomes of music education: Historical considerations. In ColwellR.RichardsonC. (Eds.), The new handbook of research on music teaching and learning: A project of the Music Educators National Conference (pp. 1045–1052). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
31.
MerriamA. P. (1964). The anthropology of music. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
32.
RegelskiT. (2008). Music education for a changing society. Diskussion Musikpädagogik, 38, 34–42.
33.
ReimerB. (2003). A philosophy of music education: Advancing the vision. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
34.
RoschE. (1978). Principles of categorization. In RoschE.LloydsB. B. (Eds.), Cognition and categorization (pp. 27–48). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum.
35.
RuudE. (1997). Musikk og identitet [Music and identity]. Oslo, Norway: Universitetsforlaget.
36.
SlobodaJ. A. (2005). Exploring the musical mind: Cognition, emotion, ability, function. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
37.
SlobodaJ. A.O’NeillS. A. (2001). Emotions in everyday listening to music. In JuslinP. N.SlobodaJ. A. (Eds.), Music and emotion: Theory and research (pp. 415–429). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
38.
SmallC. (1998). Musicking: The meanings of performing and listening. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
39.
SwanwickK. (1994). Musical knowledge: Intuition, analysis and music education. London: Routledge.
40.
VäkeväL. (2010). Garage band or GarageBand®? Remixing musical futures. British Journal of Music Education, 27(1), 59–70.
41.
WesterlundH. (2002). Bridging experience, action, and culture in music education. Published doctoral dissertation. Sibelius Academy, Finland.
42.
WesterlundH. (2008). Justifying music education. A view from the here-and-now value experience. Philosophy of Music Education Review, 16(1), 79–95.
43.
WolffK. L. (2004). The nonmusical outcomes of music education: A review of the literature. Bulletin of the council for research in music education, 159, 74–91.
