Research-Based Music Teacher Professionalisation
Short description
Doctoral thesis by Christer Larsson.
The Swedish Education Act stipulates that education in Swedish schools must be based on scientific evidence and proven experience. This doctoral project, conducted by Christer Larsson within the CUL graduate school, examines how policy work related to this legislation—across three different policy arenas—affects the professionalisation of Swedish music teachers. Published and preliminary findings show that efforts to establish a research-based teaching profession influence music teachers’ professional identities and knowledge base, as well as the rationalities underpinning the legitimation of music education in various policy contexts.
This dissertation is a compilation thesis consisting of four articles and a comprehensive summary (kappa). The first sub-study1 analyses how research-based teacher identities are constructed in policy texts published by the Swedish National Agency for Education and the Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy.
The second sub-study examines how the policy concept of a scientific foundation in Swedish schools is recontextualised in texts published by the Swedish Teachers’ Union, the National Union of Teachers in Sweden, and the Swedish Music Teachers’ Association. This article has been submitted to a North American journal and is currently under review.
The third sub-study, currently in progress, investigates local negotiations of policy for research-based music teaching through collegial conversations among music teachers at three Swedish upper secondary schools.
The fourth article2, published in the Australian Journal of Music Education, discusses the theoretical and methodological framework of this dissertation project.
The comprehensive summary (kappa) will synthesise and discuss how the sub-studies collectively address the project’s overarching aim: to explore how policy work related to the scientific foundation in Swedish schools influences the professionalisation of music teachers. More specifically, the completed dissertation will describe and discuss how research-based music teacher professionalism is discursively enacted in Swedish policy arenas, and what effects this produces.
The research interest stems from Christer Larsson’s 15+ years of experience as a music teacher, as well as from discussions with colleagues and students in music teacher education. The doctoral project is conducted within the CUL graduate school and the subject area Research in Arts Education, and is expected to be completed in the spring of 2026.
1 Larsson, C., & Sjöberg, L. (2021). Academized or deprofessionalized?– policy discourses of teacher professionalism in relation to research-based education. Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy, 7(1), 3–15.
2 Larsson, C. (2023). Researching research-based professionalisation of music teachers—A Swedish framework to explore policy enactments in three contexts through a (critical) policy sociological lens. Australian Journal of Music Education, 55(2), 39–46.
