När musiken står på spel. En genusanalys av gymnasieelevers musikaliska handlingsutrymme

Abstract

The specific aim of this licentiate thesis is to highlight and problematize the way gender is constructed in musical learning, and how these gender constructions contribute to, or restrict, students’ musical actions in a context where music is at stake for the participants. I will discuss gender issues in conjunction with music education based on the empirical findings conducted in two Swedish, upper secondary music schools. Methodologically the study has an ethnographical approach, and data from 54 participants, aged 16 to 19, was produced within a period of one year through observations and interviews. Data has been analyzed from a social constructionist, gender theoretical perspective, where gender is viewed as a continuously ongoing process (Connell). The theoretical framework is also inspired by the positioning theory (Harré & Davies). The results show that construction of gender in musical actions is salient in almost every situation where the participants make music together, but it is performed in different ways depending on the genre context. The results also indicate that the informants, who all had music as their main subject, put gender at stake when it comes to the distribution of tasks and instruments, when symbols in relation to musical actions were constructed, and when access to studios and computers were negotiated. Furthermore the students’ opportunity to choose content seems to contribute to a restricted acting space for both boys and girls since their choices are strictly gendered. The results also imply that gendered musical actions lead to a structure where norms for quality and competence are closely tied to construction of gender. Finally, the result suggests that informal learning in the aspect of intentionality seems to gender the conditions for musical learning, if it is directed towards playing and not towards learning how to play (Folkestad, 2006).