The carrier bag theory allows us thus to recognise knowledge as something that is in relation with other knowledge, and that is situated. Furthermore, things can be added or withdrawn from the bag, it is not a static situation.

It is perhaps useful to clarify what I mean by situation – and in particular situatedness – being in a situation. I find William J. Clancey’s definition of situatedness a fruitful starting point: ‘Where you are when you do what you do matters.'

I propose expanding this to include the how which seems to me to be essential when discussing education. Thus: Where you are when and how you do, what you do matters.

It is not enough to consider what we are teaching, when we teach it and where we teach it, we must also attend to how we are teaching. In the light of this, Paulo Freire’s book The Pedagogy of the Oppressed presents an alternative approach to teaching which I suggest may be beneficial. Likewise, how feedback is given influences how students experience their agency within the learning process, and thus also their relationship with the curriculum. Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process offers a practical method for supporting a constructive feedback environment.

How do these different theories and methods relate to each other? Donna Haraway suggests an optical metaphor—that of diffraction—as offering a possibility to engage with the complexity of entanglements that may occur between different sources. Barad notes that in quantum physics diffraction exposes some key issues: the fact that light and electrons, in specific circumstances, can act either as particles or as waves. She suggests that ‘diffraction does not fix what is the object and what is the subject in advance, and so, unlike methods of reading one text or set of ideas against another where one set serves as a fixed frame of reference, diffraction involves reading insights through one another in ways that help illuminate differences as they emerge: how different differences get made, what gets excluded, and how those exclusions matter’.¹ During this paper I will endeavour to apply this form of dialogue between the different ideas and methods that are practiced.

In this research I address specific notions relating to the role of the curriculum and discuss concepts of reacculturation and the hidden curriculum. Decolonialism is a complex topic in relation to Western art music with a wide diversity in opinions around this topic. I will consider several aspects, including insights from students during the workshop.

If we are going to question choices that we make in the curriculum and speculate on approaches that might nourish change it makes sense to first situate the role of the curriculum and the canon within the conservatoire.