In active dialogue with the outside world – perspectives on subject and educational policy work in a teacher education context

In NMH's strategy for the period 2015 - 2025, one of the main objectives is that NMH fulfills its social mission in active dialogue with the outside world. This intention is continued in Strategy 2035, which emphasizes that NMH will utilize its strong position in political work to secure and strengthen resources and frameworks for the arts subjects in higher education, together with the competence of teachers at all levels to ensure children and young people's access to music and a broader recruitment to a professional life with music.

The starting point for this project is the strong politicization of school and teacher education, which has consequences for the work of (music) teachers. The project explores current subject and educational policy perspectives, trends and guidelines of importance for the field of music education, and how music teacher students and music teachers can develop their professional competence through studying, understanding and influencing political processes.

Subprojects:

1. The project "Those who train as music teachers today must also train as subject politicians" discusses experiences with subject political work in light of the theory of hard and soft policy/power and the question of how music teacher education can contribute to teachers' competence for participation and influence in political processes.
2. The book project "Music in play - political, didactic and historical perspectives" focuses on the design and role of the music subject in the field of tension between professional idealism and political control.
3. The project "Teacher education in music" is based on new political guidelines for more overall management of teacher education and a more practical school. A central research question is related to what frameworks and measures could lead to different teacher education programs in music recruiting more and thereby contributing to a greater extent to meeting the need for teacher competence in different types of schools.

• Kalsnes, S. (2021): «Den som i dag utdanner seg til musikklærer må samtidig skolere seg som fagpolitiker» – om profesjonsutøvelse i spennet mellom fag, pedagogikk og politikk. In Nielsen, S.G. and Karlsen, S. (eds.): The world into music education: Challenges, responsibilities and opportunities. Educational research in music - series of papers from CERM, vol.3. Oslo: Norwegian Academy of Music 2020:9
• Kalsnes, S. (2021): Developing music education crafts in a Palestinian Refugee Camp and in Lebanese Schools. In Holdhus, K. Murphy, R. and Espeland, M. (eds): The craft of music education. (pp.133-150) Springer.
• Kalsnes, S. og Espeland, M. (2025): Musikkfaget i spel. Fagpolitiske, fagdidaktiske og historiske perspektiv. Skapia Forlag AS (384 sider); www.skapiaforlag.no