Graduate Research Colloquia: Dr Esther Cavett (KCL, University of Oxford) and Javier Rivas (King's College London)
‘It’s like you’re an activist’: Sustainable teaching practices in a music outreach project in London
Abstract
This colloquium contributes to current conversations on the potential for participatory music-making to promote sustainable human coexistence. We attend to the experiences and collaborative learning practices of teachers working in a community music school and outreach initiative known as the King’s Music Academy, based in Southwark, London. In order to interrogate how teachers make sense of their experience at the Academy, qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed through interpretative phenomenological analysis. Findings suggest that participation in the Academy facilitates processes of self-reflection, personal growth and cultural exchange among teachers. Teachers become part of an organic network where innovative pedagogical practices are discussed and adopted. We conclude that the development of certain ‘rhizomatic’ attitudes and structures in the context of the classroom can contribute to imagining alternative ways of thinking about the self, music-making and society at large.
Biographies
Esther Cavett is a senior research fellow in Music at King’s College London and college lecturer in Music at Somerville, Jesus and Lincoln Colleges, where she specializes in teaching the analysis of western classical music from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries. Her research interests are music theory and analysis, widening access to music education, music pedagogy and music psychology (especially qualitative interviewing). As a pianist, she performs and works with various musical charities dedicated to improving access to and broadening appreciation of music.
E-mail: esther.cavett@kcl.ac.uk
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4842-4641
Javier Rivas is a writer, teacher, musician, researcher and Ph.D. candidate in the Music Department at King’s College London. His doctoral research explores ideas of academic reform and culture change in higher music education, through field and archival work at ESMUC (Catalonia School of Music). Javier has researched and taught music, anthropology, and social theory at King’s College London, University College London, and ESMUC. His work has appeared in Ethnomusicology Forum and the International Journal of Community Music. As a cultural organiser, Javier serves as the project manager for the King's Music Academy and as a trustee of the national charity Water City Music. Javier’s research, teaching and outreach work address current debates in music studies to imagine and bring about new spaces and practices grounded on radical care, inclusion, equality and diversity.
E-mail: javier.rivas_rodriguez@kcl.ac.uk
