How could we nourish a situated educational environment where students have space to discover their own generative themes?

There are questions that need to be continually asked about what we value and why. What are the qualities that we wish to nourish? If we acknowledge that nothing is permanent, we need to also recognise that to value something that does not change will lead to reactionary thinking. We live in process, but we have choices about what kind of process that is. 

In the workshop we chose to create an alternative canon that might act as a locus for dialogue. Le Guin’s Carrier bag theory supports a reading of our current situation where we can acknowledge the potential violence connected with the creation of the Western art music canon. Furthermore, it offers an alternative environment where we can gather musics that inspire and sustain us; that opens up dialogues about other forms of situatedness. Within this carrier bag, or ‘curiosity box’, as one participant called it, we are invited to think about the role of racism and sexism, musical colonisation, acculturation, unheard global art music, our relationship with the other-than human, embodied music, alternative composition methods, Western exceptionalism, de-centering and much more.

As we consider the relationship between the student and the curriculum I suggest that this approach of embracing the cultural carrier bag that students hold when they enter the conservatoire, might prove a fruitful departure point for creating dynamic dialogues with the curriculum and also support students in their process of developing their own authentic musical voice. This research was focussed on the Composition, Sonology and Art/Science Department but I would suggest that this approach can be of great benefit for all students, both theoretically and practically.

What if there is space in the curriculum for students to develop their own canon? Should students entering the conservatoire be encouraged to share their personal canon as part of the process of identifying their own voices, creating connections and inspiring each other? What if students are supported in reflecting on their personal canon during their studies, with the understanding that this is an ongoing process influenced by and influencing both official and unofficial sources of education?

And how might this process influence how we position ourselves in the conservatoire in relation to other art music traditions and support an awareness of the potential danger of (unwittingly) promoting Western (white) exceptionalism?

I suggest that by creating space, for students to develop their own canon, and for the discussion of topics such as re-acculturation, decolonisation and the hidden curriculum, we encourage a recognition of context and issues of situatedness. These are processes that require responsiveness and response-ability from both students and the institution alike and that demand that we remain open to the possibility of change. 

As Freire notes ‘Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world and with each other.’¹