Gaute Storsve: Instrument learning in upper secondary school

Field of study: Music Education

This study examines collaborative music-making, gender diversity, and deep learning within and across formal, informal, and non-formal learning contexts in relation to the music program in Norwegian upper secondary schools. Collaboration is particularly central for students playing instruments commonly linked to popular music, such as electric guitar and bass. These instruments, along with the genres typically associated with them—such as jazz, punk, and metal—are often coded as masculine. However, access to collaborative music-making contexts is unequally distributed and shaped by entrenched gender norms that influence students’ opportunities for participation and self-expression. This study explores how students of varying gender identities experience, navigate, and perform collaborative music-making across these interconnected contexts, and how these experiences influence the potential for deep learning.

The research question

The main research question asks how electric guitar and bass students of different genders in the music program at Norwegian upper secondary schools experience deep learning in collaborative music-making across formal, informal, and non-formal contexts.

The dissertation is titled “I can’t bring the same fuck-you attitude to school.” Collaborative music contexts, gender diversity, and deep learning in Norwegian upper secondary schools.

It comprises three peer-reviewed articles and a precis ("kappe"). The dissertation language is English.

The dissertation will be available from NMH's digital archive two weeks before the defence.