The present study attempts to explore the field of creative music workshops with the elderly. A growing amount of research has been carried out into running (creative) workshops, and besides we know a lot about the elderly and ageing. The aim of this research is to gather knowledge on the merging of both subjects, creative music workshops with the elderly in the so-called ‘fourth age’. In particular, this research project has been carried out as a study of a potential professional field for musicians and music educators. For this reason the research objective is focused on the position of the workshop leader and what is needed to run creative music workshops with elderly in residential homes for the elderly successfully. We therefore aim to explore aspects connected to this practice such as entrepreneurship, musicianship and leadership.
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This study focuses on the complexity and uniqueness of 45 beginning teachers’ professional identity, an important perspective that is usually not an explicit part of induction programmes. Data were collected in four workshops designed to support beginning teachers in reflecting on personal and contextual aspects that influence (the development of) their professional identity. Based on these reflections, portraits of each teacher were constructed. Five overarching identity themes emerged from these portraits: Classroom management, Students learning, Workload, Collaboration and Standing up for oneself. All themes were visualised into a configuration consisting of personal and contextual aspects, arranged according to three foci: focus on oneself, on students, and on team/organisation. The configurations differ in their magnitude but do justice to the unique and complex nature of each teacher. Constructing configurations is a promising way for understanding what really matters in beginning teachers’ professional identity development and helping them deepen their reflection.
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This essay addresses the relationship of improvisation and identity. Biographicalresearch that was conducted by the author into professional musicians’ lifelong learning showed the huge importance of improvisation for personal expression. Musically, the concept of sound appeared to serve as a strong metaphor for identity. In addition, ethnographic research conducted as part of the project Music for Life in London, and published by Smilde, Page and Alheit in 2014, where musicians work in creative music workshops with people with dementia and their caregivers, shed light on the use of improvisation as an expression of the identity of ‘the other’ (i.e. the person with dementia). Sound again appeared to serve as a metaphor for identity. The essay draws on the work of George Herbert Mead on identity, which distinguishes between the personal ‘I’ and the social ‘Me’, and points out that both aspects are essential for the self. In this sense, improvisation can be conceived as a means of communication thatconnects the personal with the social. Furthermore, drawing on Paul Ricoeur’s Oneself as Another (1992), it is shown that this concept of improvisation in relation to personal and social identity may be transferred to forms of community engagement through music. However, despite its huge importance, improvisation is still often marginalised in specialist higher music education, particularly in conservatoires, and the essay finishes with a strong plea for conservatoires to take up their role in the midst of society and embed improvisation in the core of the curriculum.
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