The panel was faced with one central question: how do you teach music in an intercultural environment? There is no single answer to this. It is multi-layered. The panel tried to peel off some of these layers. As could be expected, each of the layers exposed new questions that do not have a single answer. But they do direct towards certain strategies of learning. The session aimed at developing a flexible model that will show a broadness of as many educational methodologies as possible, and make explicit the consequences of some of the choices involved.

The working group consisted of the following members: - Mark Lockett, Birmingham Conservatoire - Sylvia Schwarzenbach, Musikhochschule Bern - Evert Bisschop Boele, Conservatory of Groningen - Bart Gruson, Rotterdam Conservatory - Dirk de Vreede, Alkmaar polytechnic - Trevor Wiggins, Dartington College of Arts - Hilde Gams, Conservatory of Amsterdam (student) - Huib Schippers, Rotterdam Conservatory (chair)

In the discussions, four crucial issues were addressed:

Context, authenticity, tradition and place of musics in society

In the fragmented societies of today, there is no single reference. Cultures, subcultures and individuals build up their own musical identities and aesthetics. Sometimes reference to (or even deep understanding of) a previous context is useful or even essential, sometimes it is irrelevant. Music moves in place and time, is recontextualised, and takes on new significance.

Each individual creates his own context. Many students now live in a multicultural musical environment where they pick out the strands of what they hear. The wider, surrounding context consists of a number of cultures. As a consequence each student is different and would require an individual teaching method, depending on his wishes and/or needs. Since context is so important, there is no right or wrong method. This approach has two important implications:  One needs to keep in mind the goals of each teaching method  One needs to be flexible in order to respond to students’ needs

When music is taken into a new context, e.g. Turkish music is brought into a Dutch conservatory, it takes time to chose the methods and teaching strategies. In Rotterdam the programmes are built around masters in various traditions. The master brings with him a certain teaching method, the curriculum is built around this. The student can then chose his own path through the conservatory by means of different teachers and teaching styles. This – also in relation to exams – means that students need to make choices. However, to maintain a quality standard in a certain field, you need to make clear from the start what you think the musicians that come from your institution should learn and be able to do.

Many musics are in their form connected with their cultures of origin and e.g. language. It is essential that students learn to make a certain musical language their own. In practice this means that of course you have to connect the study of music with the culture of origin, but you should also keep in mind that ultimately the students will play and teach in a new context.

The role of the teacher and the student

In relation to the above, we have to look at the role of the participants in the educational process. For instance: is the teacher directive, or ‘ferrying meaning’, a coach, an older brother in the art? And what are the ambitions of the student in relation to the realities of the present day cultural labour market?

We need to make the students aware of the benefits of various teaching methods, so they have the possibility to chose. And what is offered needs to be presented so that students can make choices, and construct their own path through education. This system may not always work in all organisational contexts; for many students, making choices is not a habit.

The corset of the classical conservatoire model and possible ways out

Rotterdam Conservatory has trouble reaching immigrants, and immigrant youth. This may have to do with the image of the conservatoire, with a curriculum that is still modelled in the 19th century classical way. Even in a conservatory with a jazz, pop & world music department that is as big as the classical department, we find that the curriculum gravitates toward the model of classical western music, with a heavy emphasis on one-on-one teaching, a great deal of theory, and relatively little weight on constant exchange with the outside world. How do we break that within the constraints of curriculum requirements, based on skills on a single instrument?  In Birmingham the world music elements are mostly taken up by students who want to create their own musical reality. As a consequence, cultural diversity is found mostly in the composition department. In Rotterdam this connection, considered by many as fertile ground, did not succeed at all.  Rotterdam Conservatory does not have a ready answer. Currently it is experimenting and adjusting various approaches, e.g. in the latin and pop music programmes where group learning an ensemble-based courses are more common. However, with the exception of the pop section, it has not changed the image of the conservatoire; it is still an academic setting.

The question is how we make music relevant to people. It is important to find the added value, but without using world music as a tool for other purposes or as an extra.

The challenges of teaching children

What holds true for music students at higher education level is even more pressing in the context of teaching children. Their music learning should be based much more on the vast knowledge and understanding they bring in from informal sources; children bring in many musical influences from their surroundings. If this is taken into account, the balance and variety of notation-based and aural learning, analytical and holistic approaches may shift radically.

Conclusions:

There is no single correct way to teach music in an intercultural environment. In fact, what we have been discussing in the context of world music holds true for teaching music in general: present-day societies with all their diversity require much more conscious choices and flexibility on the part of the learners and organisers of education.

In various situations, this will result in a winding path along the continuums of tradition and innovation, reconstructed authenticity or new identities, monocultural and transcultural, notation-based and aural, analytic and holistic. There is no right and wrong in these choices. Each tradition, each culture, each subgroup, each individual, each stage in the learning process and even each moment in a lesson may benefit from a shift towards one or the other at various times. The challenge to music education is to create this awareness and flexibility in the teachers of the present, and in the training of the teachers of the future.

Examples of continuums in approaches to teaching music in an intercultural environment: Tradition - - - Innovation ; Reconstructed authenticity - - - New identities ; Monocultural - - - Transcultural ; Notation-based - - - Aural ; Analytical - - - Holistic