Implementing and sustaining higher education service-learning initiatives: Revisiting Young et al's organizational tactics

Although the value of service-learning opportunities has long been aligned to student engagement, global citizenship, and employability, the rhetoric can be far removed from the reality of coordinating such activities within higher education. This article stems from arts-based service-learning initiatives with Indigenous communities in Australia. It highlights challenges encountered by the projects and the tactics used to overcome them. These are considered in relation to Young, Shinnar, Ackerman, Carruthers, and Young’s four tactics for starting and sustaining service-learning initiatives. The article explores the realities of service-learning initiatives that exist at the edge of institutional funding and rely on the commitment of key individuals. The research revises Young et al.’s four tactics and adds the fifth tactic of organizational commitment, which emerged as a distinct strategy used to prompt new commitment, enact existing commitment, and extend limited commitment at the organizational level

Group Singing as a Resource for the Development of a Healthy Public

A growing body of evidence points to a wide range of benefits arising from participation in group singing. Group singing requires participants to engage with each other in a simultaneous musical dialogue in a pluralistic and emergent context, creating a coherent cultural expression through the reflexive negotiation of (musical) meaning manifest in the collective power of the human voice. As such, group singing might be taken – both literally and figuratively – as a potent form of ‘healthy public’, creating an ‘ideal’ community which participants can subsequently mobilise as a positive resource for everyday life. The experiences of a group of singers (n=78) who had participated in an outdoor singing project were collected and analysed using a three-layer research design consisting of: distributed data generation and interpretation, considered against comparative data from other singing groups (n=88); a focus group workshop (n=11); an unstructured interview (n=2). The study confirmed an expected perception of the social bonding effect of group singing, highlighting affordances for interpersonal attunement and attachment alongside a powerful individual sense of feeling ‘uplifted’. This study presents a novel perspective on group singing, highlighting the importance of participant experience as a means of understanding music as a holistic and complex adaptive system. It validates findings about group singing from previous studies - in particular the stability of the social bonding effect as a less variant characteristic in the face of environmental and other situational influences, alongside its capacity for mental health recovery. It establishes a subjective sociocultural and musical understanding of group singing, by expanding on these findings to centralise the importance of individual experience, and the consciousness of that experience as descriptive self-awareness. The ways in which participants describe and discuss their experiences of group singing and its benefits points to a complex interdependence between a number of musical, neurobiological and psychosocial mechanisms which might be independently and objectively analysed. An emerging theory is that at least some of the potency of group singing is as a resource where people can rehearse and perform ‘healthy’ relationships, further emphasising its potential as a resource for healthy publics

The PERMA well-being model and music facilitation practice: Preliminary documentation for well-being through music provision in Australian schools

The aim of this study was to consider how we can invest in music-making to promote well-being in school contexts. Web-based data collection was conducted where researchers identified 17 case studies that describe successful music programs in schools in Australia. The researchers aligned content from these case studies into the five categories of the PERMA well-being model: Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment, in order to understand how each well-being element was realised through the music programs. The results indicate that the element of the PERMA well-being model that relates to relationships was described most often. Collaboration and partnership between students, teachers, and staff in schools, and local people in the community such as parents, local entrepreneurs, and musicians were repeatedly identified as a highly significant contributing factor in the success of the music program. The school leaders? roles in providing opportunities for students to experience musical participation and related activities (engagement) and valuing these experiences (meaning) were also crucial in the facilitation of the music programs. The findings of this study indicate that tailored music and relationship-centred music programs in schools not only increase skills and abilities of the students, but also improve the psychosocial well-being of the students and the community

Tura Tracks: An evaluation of Tura New Music's regional and remote residencies and touring in 2019

This report presents an evaluation framework created for Tura New Music’s programs in regional and remote Australia and the findings of a summative evaluation of its work in the remote north-west region of Australia known as the Kimberley. Tura New Music has worked in the Kimberley since 2003, bringing cross-genre, contemporary live music and sound art to remote communities through an annual program of concerts, workshops and residencies, presented in partnership with local organisations

Introduction: An Overview of Community Music in the Twenty-First Century

A documented history of almost fifty years and a growing internationalization and interculturalisation of community music invites a revisiting of some of the field’s approaches, ideologies, and contexts. This chapter critically reflects on historical developments and current realities of how the field is conceptualized around the globe. It also touches on the role of community music facilitators in bringing about social change and outlines some of the key skills, working methods, values and ethics that are commonly associated with work in this field. It provides a snapshot of what has become a truly global phenomenon, and critically discusses the recurring question of whether community music needs a new defitinion or (re)definition in the twenty-first century.Arts, Education & Law Group, Queensland ConservatoriumNo Full Tex

Building social connection and inclusion through rock music in the Western Balkans: Fostering the art of small changes

This article explores community-based rock music education as a site for strengthening social cohesion in a context of postwar, interethnic divisions. Focusing on small and incremental changes, it examines the practices of Music Connects, a project in the Western Balkans, and its goals of revitalizing rock culture in support of a more inclusive social life and greater freedom of movement in the region. The article explores the ways that an organizational and participant focus on aesthetic practices and artistic goals can still contribute to social goals. It highlights three key tasks connected to rock music education and revitalization, captured in the novel conceptual constructs of rehearsal space, the incubator, and the expansion of normal. Drawing upon qualitative data gathered in 2019 and 2021 from 40 participants, the article tells a story of small social changes through music-making that added up to significant developments in the region, musically and socially

“First of all, be friends”: Rock music, social connection, inclusion and mobility in Kosovo and North Macedonia: An evaluation of Music Connects, a project using culture as a driver for social innovation in former Yugoslavia

Music Connects aims to activate youth (ages 15-24) through state-of-the-art rock music education, production, and promotion programs in Kosovo and Northern Macedonia. Music Connects features a carefully developed approach that seeks to build sustainable social inclusion and participation opportunities with young musicians leading the way. This evaluation has examined the social difference that this program makes to participating youth and their communities. This evaluation has investigated the extent to which inclusion and connection among divided youth in Kosovo and Northern Macedonia have been achieved in the programs delivered in three rock schools. Specifically, it has considered the outcomes of Music Connects in relation to social connections, inclusion, changing of perspectives and mobility, and the practices, values, and strategies that facilitate these. This report identifies factors that influence the depth of bonds that may be created, and it foregrounds the voices and perspectives of the young musicians involved, who are the frontline beneficiaries of the program

Behind the Baton: Exploring Autoethnographic Writing in a Musical Context

In this article, the author considers how music can expand the creative possibilities of autoethnography. Likewise, the author explores how autoethnography can offer musicians a means to reflect on their creative work in culturally insightful ways. To "play out" these disciplinary considerations,the author crafts an autoethnographic narrative that centers on her own creative practice as a conductor. Moving between description and action, dialogue and introspection, the narrative reveals some of the complexities of reflecting and writing about music in this way. While this narrative is grounded in the author's lived experiences, it reveals significant broader issues about the process of doing autoethnography, the conducting profession, and the culture and practice of music-making at large.Arts, Education & Law Group, Queensland ConservatoriumFull Tex

Global mobility in music higher education: Reflections on how intercultural music-making can enhance students’ musical practices and identities

Music higher education institutions are increasingly recognising the educational value of intercultural learning experiences. Delivering such learning experiences in a way that provides music students with a rich cultural and musical learning experience, rather than a superficial one, can be a challenging task, particularly in the case of short-term ‘mobility’ or ‘study-abroad’ programmes. This article explores ways to address this challenge by reflecting on student learnings from a suite of international study experiences, or ‘global mobility programmes’, at one Australian tertiary music institution, run in collaboration with community partners, universities and nongovernmental organisations in the Asia Pacific. Focusing on how intercultural music-making in the context can enhance students’ musical practices and identities, we first outline the sociocultural contexts of our music global mobility programmes in Cambodia, China and India, and explore the different modes of music-making these experiences afforded. We then draw on Coessens’ ‘web of artistic practice’ to explore site-specific examples of the ways in which global mobility programmes can enhance students’ musical practices and identities. These findings hold particular relevance for music educators and higher education institutions in justifying, designing and carrying out such intercultural experiences to maximise student learning and success