Striving for Democracy in the Nordic Context: Possibilities for Change through Innovative Cases of Activist Music Practices

The institutional frames for music education in the Nordic context were developed after the Second World War alongside the development of the Nordic welfare society, which has equality and democracy at the heart of its legislation. This meant the establishment of the municipal music schools, with the purpose of providing music tuition to all, regardless of economic, cultural or social background. In Sweden and Finland, the now over 50 year old tradition of music schools was founded on the idea of offering high quality music education to all children as a separate system apart from basic school education. Today, almost 100 music schools are spread across Finland, providing goal-oriented music tuition to approximately 67 000 students. Whilst this institutional frame may ensure high musical quality in Finland, the system has been increasingly criticized for its elitism as it serves only part of the population. In both Sweden and Finland the municipal schools have long struggled to represent the multicultural diversity within the population. In Finland, around 80 percent of the music school students are female and usually from middle class families who can afford the fees. In addition, the students are often selected for the program through entry exams based on testing the applicant’s musical aptitude and learning potential or motivation.

In this roundtable we will present three cases of activist music education, in other words innovative and inclusive practices of music education initiated by courageous institutional leaders and teachers in the Finnish and Swedish context. By activism we mean professional thinking and action that strives toward new ways of making change inside and outside educational institutions through four characteristics identified as the catalysts of teacher activism in music education contexts: High motivation; Communicative capacity; Ethical commitment; and Imaginative adaptation. As a whole this roundtable argues that the presented cases can be seen as social investments that pave the way for larger structural changes within music education.