Heidi Westerlund
1. Expanding professionalism through social innovations: Towards wider participation in and through music schools in France, Sweden and Finland
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Moreover, the cases that we will present can be seen as attempts to create institutional resilience. It has been argued that institutional resilience is needed in modern service systems as a counterforce to the organizational ‘silo effect’, in which the institutional system blindly pursues its purpose and social reproduction, favouring some and excluding others (e.g. Tett 2015). Social scientists today argue, therefore, that in current rapidly changing conditions it is vitally important to find ways to avoid the detrimental effects of an overly narrow, specialized, and self-serving focus of organizations—the so-called silo effect. Here we suggest that one way to create institutional resilience is collaboration with other service systems—in other words, a rethinking of the institutional boundaries of the social system (Westerlund, Väkevä & Ilmola-Sheppard, in print).
We will explore how the balance between changing societal needs and increasing inequality has been addressed through the four cases in France, Sweden, and Finland. The cases arise from the current situation in Europe, where policy makers expect inclusion from all institutions, and where for instance rapidly increasing migration has already increased cultural segregation and inequality. Music schools and conservatories that enjoy public financial support cannot hide themselves from these demands, but can be expected to develop a heightened sense of responsibility towards the various groups comprising society. For instance, the European Union is now calling for action focused on integration, and urges the whole of society to “move away from narrow concepts of integration and community cohesion … towards a richer and more inclusive, yet perhaps more realistic, objective in which a constantly changing ‘we’ creates ever more robust and resilient communities” (Vision Europe Summit, 2016, 14). In light of this vision, it can be argued that a heightened sense of social responsibility will be the precondition for European music schools to continue flourishing in the 21st century.
Within this context, we will position music professionals and researchers as key players in political decision-making and creators of alternative futures. The cases presented by this symposium not only challenge the self-serving goals and insular values of music schools that stem from the prevalent institutional silo-thinking, but also illustrate how multi-professional cross-sector collaboration can be beneficial to inclusion. Through
collaboration, it may be possible to open new spaces, develop novel practices, and reach students who would not otherwise find their way into instrumental lessons. As a whole, this symposium will encourage music practitioners to use their imagination to envision new social innovations, and to take the risk of breaking with institutional path-dependency and moving towards novel collaborations between different professional groups and disciplines, stakeholders, and sectors when tackling social challenges.
Martin Galmiche
2. The AÏCO system: social innovation inducing a new approach to musical instrument learning in a French conservatory
Preliminary description of the situation
yon (France) has a large conservatory (including music, dance, and theatre), with education ranging from initiation to pre-professionalization. The children generally enter the conservatory starting with a two-year discovery course. The conservatory has one main building on the Fourviere Hill, and eight smaller buildings in other areas of the city, including Lyon 8, an area associated with lower socioeconomic status. Most of the families living there immigrated more or less recently from North Africa. In this area, the conservatory courses take place inside the building of a primary school, the “Jean Giono school” (but of course on extracurricular time). Unfortunately, the children coming to these conservatory courses come from other areas of the city. There is no connection between the conservatory and the primary school, even though they are located in the same building. One of the reasons for this is that the discovery course is expensive and difficult to attend for the children living in this area (some of the lessons must be attended at Fourviere, on the other side of the city). Moreover, for many reasons, the children in this area have the strong feeling that the conservatory is “not for them”.
The so-called ‘silo effect’ seems to actually have two faces: a practical, financial one, and a psychological one.
The musicians in schools
At the Lyon conservatory, in addition to the instrumental departments, there is a department dedicated to music in primary schools. This department is mainly composed of musicians in schools who have been trained at CFMI, the French training center for musicians in schools. The CFMI has a two-year training program including singing, playing, musical creation, and improvisation with children in primary schools (Stumpfögger 2017, 245; Galmiche 2013). The training emphasizes pedagogy and an artistic project that takes place within the class as a whole, during the scheduled day, in partnership with the class teacher. This partnership with the teacher is crucial. In the eyes of the children, the involvement of the teacher in the practice of music or related practices adds real value to the project.
Four professions meet each other
The AÏCO system (Apprentissage Instrumental et Invention Collective, i.e. instrument learning and collective invention) was born when the musicians working at the Jean Giono school met three instrument professors from the conservatory who wanted to work on social innovation. They decided to work together to change the situation, and allow the children from the primary school to attend conservatory instrument lessons. This obviously had to be done in collaboration with the primary school and, in particular, with the school teachers. First, a two-year discovery course was organized on school time (free, for all, “here and now”), for children aged from 6 to 7. After attending this discovery
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course, the motivated children can attend an instrument lesson (on extracurricular time) that has been conceived in such a way that it is very simple to attend: only one, lengthy, weekly course held at only one, well-identified place (the primary school). The tuition fee is very low (from 25 euros per year, according to the family situation) and the instruments are provided. In addition, an administrative and social coordinator helps in communi-cating with the families. The course is therefore given by five adults, all working together with a group of 18 children: three instrument professors (harp, violin, and flute), one administrative and social coordinator, and one artistic and pedagogical coordinator, who is also a musician at the Jean Giono school on school time, and therefore acts as a bridge between the class teachers (primary school) and the instrument professors (conservatory).
Pedagogical innovation
The multi-professional interaction is very beneficial in this system. First, it makes it possible to improve the connection between the primary school and the conservatory, between the instrument professors and the school teachers, and between the professors and the parents. But the collaboration between the instrument professors and the musicians in schools has also generated a new pedagogical approach: because the musicians in schools know how to drive an artistic project with a large group, and the instrument teachers know how to teach technical skills, they decided to work together on technical learning based on collective invention. During the long weekly course (2h15 with a pause), the five adults and eighteen children play and sing together. They work on an artistic project including songs, inventions, improvisation, and staging. They learn the musical notions necessary within the frame of their musical practice. This nicely
symbolizes the junction of so-called elitist teaching and the social role of musicians in schools. Of course, the adults also learn a lot from each other.
The AÏCO course started in September 2017. All the children have been present every week. They gave a concert in June 2018 that included a semi-improvised piece created collectively, songs accompanied by the children themselves, and pieces chosen and played by them.
Why can social innovations induce pedagogical evolutions?
The AÏCO course is therefore characterized by two main features: (i) social innovation (accessibility to children living in areas associated with lower socioeconomic status) and (ii) pedagogical innovation (based on a collective and inventive artistic project). Is it necessary for a conservatory to change its pedagogy to be accessible in such an area?
Perhaps not, but one may ask the question why it happens that pedagogical changes often occur when social questions are addressed. Is it because the people asking questions on social matters and the people asking questions on pedagogical matters are often the same?
A more realistic reason is that social innovations need professional collaboration in order to be effectively addressed. But professional collaboration not only induces social innovation. It also induces other positive (secondary, but not negligible) changes, such as pedagogical advances. Therefore, social issues may be seen as opportunities to improve our pedagogy, because they require us to work together. The AÏCO system is a good example showing how this mechanism can operate. The need for social innovation acts as a catalyst: it drives professionals to meet each other and to give birth to new pedagogical ideas. The induced pedagogical innovation may also have some positive effects on the pedagogical evolution in the rest of the conservatory.
Institutional resilience
The AÏCO course has been discussed extensively inside the conservatory from a pedagogical point of view, as well as from a “political” point of view, including by professors who do not work in the AÏCO system. But it has also been presented in various meetings and congresses in France and abroad. It has been identified as initiating research activity in the conservatory, and has had a real institutional consequence—the
management team has decided that a pedagogical and artistic research group would be created in the conservatory, called “Le Cluster”, starting in September 2018. This shows how a project initially motivated by social innovations can allow a conservatory to question its own pedagogy and social action, and can have consequences for research at the institutional level. This mechanism may be further analysed in terms of dynamical systems (Väkevä, Westerlund & Ilmola-Sheppard 2017).
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Eva Sæther