In this section, I want to shift the focus from the individual music teacher educators - their characteristics and competence, and the relationships between the music teacher educator and the students, and in a wider respect within music teacher education programmes – to the relationships between music teacher educators and her/his colleagues and the administrative staff of their programmes. Since the aim of this study, supported with the chosen methodology and design, concerned the development of the two involved music teacher education programmes in terms of interculturality, the process of collaborative knowledge creation is discussed.
In Article I, we argued that only by interacting with other experts at different levels of a programme is it possible to challenge the social structures that often act as barriers when striving for institutional change; the change in the context of this research being the interculturalization of music teacher education. Focusing on the quality of relationships and interactions within a programme may enable
knowledge communities that “rely on social practices, knowledge practices tailored to promoting continuous innovation and change” (Hakkarainen et al., 2011, p. 71).
Collaboration between the music teacher educators in the programmes acted as a catalyst for the sharing of experiences and ideas about the intercultural situations and contexts in which they had taught. Although working in teams might have been a familiar method to some of them, articulating one’s thoughts in a group, and interacting with colleagues in search of common understandings of issues related to interculturality in their institutions, was perceived as challenging, but at the same time necessary. As presented in section 3.1, the theoretical framework that informed this research consisted of the following notions related to collaboration in institutional settings: learning institutions as mobilizing networks (Davidson &
Goldberg, 2010), and networked expertise and knowledge creation (Hakkarainen, 2013). The implementation of the cyclical methodological design of this study aimed at the co-construction of new knowledge about different aspects of cultural diversity and interculturality in music teacher education, and mobilizing networks were created between the participants and researchers alike in the course of the study. These networks promised of an emerging knowledge community among the participants where the expertise of individual practitioner emerged as collective, networked expertise. Although, within the frame of this study, this promise was seen to blossom only briefly in the form of group interviews, conversations and workshops, the process and results of collaborative developmental work were captured in the research articles and the summary of this dissertation thus providing new knowledge to the global music education community. In addition, using the notion of ‘learning from each other’ (Darling-Hammond & Lieberman, 2012) as the guiding principle helped direct our intentions toward intra- and cross-institutional sharing and trans-national reflexivity with a ‘listening attitude’.
When considering the different phases and aspects of the study, I see that the process of creating new knowledge resonates in many ways with the holistically understood process of intercultural competence that I have discussed in the previous sections. Indeed, as Deardorff (2015) asks when mapping the future research agenda of intercultural competence, what does having an interculturally competent organization really mean? (p. 4) In contemplating the emotional and relational aspects of the development of collective intercultural competence in a learning organization, the features discussed in section 6.1 may also apply in the process of co-creating new knowledge within the frame of this study. For instance,
sharing one’s thoughts and ideas with colleagues and other experts predisposes the individual to vulnerability (Hakkarainen, 2013, p. 23), and that is why the space in which the co-creation takes place has to feel safe. According to organizational researcher Amy Edmondson, caring about psychological safety in the organization has several benefits with regard to collaboration and learning, such as the encouragement to speak up, support for productive conflict, mitigation of failure, and promotion of innovation (2012, p. 126). A feeling of being psychologically safe builds up trust between the team members who are to collaborate and learn together. Indeed, according to Peter Renshaw, “For collaborative learning to
‘work’ in practice and to be a catalyst for development, it is essential to create conditions that are based on shared trust” (2013, p. 237). In collaborative projects, such as in the study outlined in this doctoral dissertation, there has to be a person or persons, in this case the researchers, who initiate the collaboration; and through this, given that the initiative is welcomed, the building up of the environment of trust begins. This, in turn, may enable collaboration and innovation. Thus, in addition to the initiating forces, there needs to exist an institutional climate that supports the initiative in the first place. When these conditions are fulfilled, the outcome can be rich: intercultural practice can turn into research, and research can be turned into intercultural practice, as suggested in Article V. However, trust between the collaborators is crucial, since without it the multifaceted and meaningful outcome cannot be achieved. The participants who have confidence that the research process is carried out following an ethical framework (see Article V) can feel psychologically safe and trustful. This means, for instance, that their integrity and protection are ensured, both at the individual and institutional level.
In discussing the ethical and political characters of diversity in the context of organizational development, Ahonen and Tienari (2015) refer to the views taken in that discussion as often “ocularcentric”, i.e. one-sided. In an attempt to avoid such one-sidedness of perspectives in the context of music teacher education and music education research on issues of diversity, Westerlund and Karlsen (2017) call for the development of a “wide-ranging form of reflexivity” (p. 81) through engaging in multiple frameworks, diverse contexts, and institutional and trans-national collaboration. Indeed, in this study, and also in the whole Global Visions project, the aim has been to facilitate the processes of institutional and trans-national knowledge production, and at the same time to develop “a heterogeneous, ethically, politically and future-oriented reflexivity” (p. 85) through which to examine different aspects of these knowledge-creation processes and evaluate the
outcomes of the project, including the organizational development of the involved music teacher education programmes.
The involvement of the two different and diverse contexts within this study has provided me with opportunities to develop the above-mentioned wider reflexivity in many ways. For instance, examining the intersections of religious identities and worldviews within music teacher education in Israel (see Article II) enhanced my own reflexivity on how religiousness is and has been expressed in music educational contexts also in Finland, and how the discussion on the assumed religious neutrality of Finnish public schooling actually consists of a complex entanglement of opposing views and arguments on the matter (see Väkevä, 2019).
Indeed, one of the contributions of this study is the enhancement of reflexivity regarding the issue of diversity in global music teacher education.
6.4 Continuous envisioning as a goal of reflexive intercultural music