Gränskontroll – pedagogisk diskurs som villkor för deltagande vid svenska folkhögskolors musiklinjer

Abstract

The area of study for this thesis is the music profile courses at Swedish folk high schools. The folk high school is a free education form for adults, and the study departs from the problem area of skewed participation at artistic profile courses at these institutions. The aim of the thesis is to produce knowledge on conditions for participation at music programs at Swedish folk high schools. The thesis’s theoretical point of departure is Bernstein’s theory on social reproduction through education, and specifically the concepts of pedagogic device, pedagogic discourse, classification and framing. Through Bernstein’s theoretical lens, conditions for participation are understood as discursive effects being produced by pedagogic discourse. Data for the project has been produced through audiovisual synchronous focus group interviews with music teachers and students, respectively, at nine different folk high schools. Interviews were transcribed and analysed through critical thematic analysis. The results show that conditions for participation are produced in three ways. Through: 1) external discourses that regulate possibilities for formulation of music program education, 2) principles for identity formation, especially principles centred around strongly classified genre categories and weakly classified conceptions of school and leisure, and 3) admission criteria that are centered around teachers’ conceptions of musical genre and/or applicants’ personalities. Through the analysis, music programs are categorised into three different pedagogic discourses. Although different, the three pedagogic discourses share similarities which means that the conditions for participation are produced in all pedagogic discourses, albeit to varying degrees. The boundary control that operates in the constitution of the pedagogic discourses simultaneously constructs ideals for a student who matches the education. All three pedagogic discourses emphasise personality-centred admission criteria. Furthermore, three external discourses intersect in the construction of these criteria, amplifying their importance.