Exploring cultural differences within a pattern of teaching ‘musics’: An international comparative study of two music lessons on video

Abstract

This paper outlines a praxiological perspective on classroom practice with the subject matter music, in order to understand two music lessons that were recorded on video, one in Sweden and one in Germany. It introduces a procedure and its methodological implications, in order to reconstruct and compare the characteristics of and the cultural differences between the lessons. The focus of this research was on the teaching structures used along with non-verbal and verbal teacher and pupil actions and interactions. As a first step, the cases were reconstructed by combining thick description, the documentary method and videography analysis. After identifying both cases as a certain type of a music educational practice (making music in the classroom), the teaching structures were compared as a second step. The process was guided by contrasting different practices and forms of interaction, and examining certain aims and functions of the lessons. Both these interests served as a basis for a comparative discussion. The results of the study (1) are derived from the compressed teaching structures in both the cases based on the thick descriptions, and through the comparison (2) of a hypothesis relating to a pattern of teaching ‘musics’, which involves (3) a hypothesis of the aim and function of these lessons. The study concludes with considerations relating to the re-interpretation of the results in the context of specific pedagogical cultural traditions.