Course content

Course content

This course seeks to explore and critically investigate different perspectives from, and understandings of, community music and collective-oriented music practices. The students are challenged to explore what the notion of 'community' in the arts is, and to create activities that strengthen a sense of community and inclusion in formal, informal, and non-formal learning environments. Students learn about artistic approaches and pedagogical strategies that seek to facilitate and animate participation in music and the arts, where ethics of practices are carefully considered. The starting point for the course is the view that music and the arts are social practices in a multicultural and diverse society, where cultural relevance and cultural responsiveness is significant and where difference is seen as a value. Knowledge about music, dance, and drama as inclusive and exclusive practices, creative, performing, and transformative activities are emphasized. Relevant themes are music and social justice and change, sustainability of community activities, local-global perspectives on music, music and well-being, music and identity, entrepreneurship and project management, aesthetic learning processes and bodily learning, and interdisciplinary arts activities.

Learning outcome

Knowledge

the student

• has thorough research-based knowledge about different perspectives on community, and community music
• has advanced knowledge about questions in community music, and how to connect these to aesthetic learning processes and bodily learning in diverse contexts
• has in-depth understanding of music, dance and drama as inclusive and exclusive practices, as well as difference and diversity as resources for art-making

Skills

the student

• can, on an advanced level, collaborate with different learners and teachers and other stakeholders plan and carry out a community music project with the purpose of strengthening a sense of community and inclusion in a way that is culturally relevant and responsive
• can on advanced level use own professional skills in music to design music activities that combine artistic qualities with a view on difference as a value, while also considering sustainability, power, and privilege within the community encounter
• can critically evaluate and discuss their own and others community music projects, with the help of relevant academic and professional questions from the field and research

General competence

the student

• can use and present perspectives from community music to contribute with new perspectives on quality in music and the arts more broadly and maintain inclusion and diversity in educational settings.
• has reflective and explorative perspectives on their own professional knowledge in music, pedagogy, and artistic approaches

Learning methods and activities

Learning methods and activities

Learning methods:

Workshops, seminars, lectures, presentations, developing and working in communities of practice, self-directed learning.

Compulsory activities.

There are three compulsory activities in this course.

Compulsory assignments

• Written reflection
• Idea for a community music project
• Presentation

Further on evaluation

Compulsory activities:

These compulsory activities must be approved to be able to deliver the examination assignments. They are as follows:

1: An individually prepared 2-page written reflection on the question: What is community? This reflection is to be grounded in the students own experience and in the reading of and engagement with scholarly literature.

2: The creation of a clear idea for a community music project in collaboration with a group of fellow students. The idea must be presented in writing through a 1-page statement as well as verbally to the class.

3: The in-progress presentation of one session within the small group community music project outlined in work requirement 2. Delivering a written lesson plan for this session is compulsory.

To pass the compulsory activities, on campus participation in the classes is necessary.

Other relevant information: Self-directed learning though independent projects in this course will require collaboration with self-chosen institutions relevant for arts education. The organization of collaboration with and research at these institutions must be arranged by the students themselves.

Form of assessment and grading scale

There is one assessment as the examination for this course. To submit the assessment, the compulsory activities must be passed.

The assessment is as follows:

1. In a small group of fellow students: Deliver a workshop. The workshop shall be designed s and built over work requirements 2 and 3 and is positioned to be a session inside or outside a formal education setting. Following the delivery of the workshop, each student is asked to verbally discuss a particular aspect of the design, development, and delivery of the workshop.

The assessment scale will be through the letter grade scale A-F, where the grades A-E means pass, and F means failed.

Specific conditions

Required previous knowledge

In order to take the assessment, the course must be taken in the same semester. Compulsory activities from previous semesters can be approved by the Department of Teacher Education. The student must have passed music 1 and completed music 2 in order to start on courses in cycle 2. Passing is understood as the student having completed and passed the exam in the course. Completed is understood as that all compulsory work requirements in the course have been approved, in other words that the student is ready for the exam.

Course materials

Course materials

The teaching materials required for this course are as follows:

• Curriculum summary.
• Course reading list including current local and global theories associated with community, community music and arts with literature choices in English and Nordic languages. A preliminary reading list will be posted on NTNUs digital learning platform blackboard prior to the start of the course.
• Different arts materials as required and as available at ILU, NTNU. ILU will not cover the costs of other materials.

Credit reductions