Musical Learning and Discipline - discourses on discipline and social mobility of immigrant parents and their children/ at University of Cambridge

Internationell postdoc, finansierad av Svenska vetenskapsrådet, 1 100 000 SEK.

This study will investigate discourses of music learning in immigrant families in the United Kingdom (UK), and study how notions of discipline evolve in this area. The study will also examine music ́s function for minority groups and their perceptions of social mobility. Parents with immigrant backgrounds, and their children, aged 13-19, who participate in an after-school activity involving musical learning, will be interviewed separately using an open ended design. Analyses will be based on discourse theory. Earlier research in various disciplines has documented music ́s positive impact on children ́s health and creativity, including its effects on learning in other areas. However, recruitment to music and arts schools is biased and only 10% of these students in Sweden have an immigrant background. In Ylva Hofvander Trulssons dissertation, immigrant parents of children participating in various types of musical learning were interviewed. The results highlighted the importance of musical learning in these families strive to recover lost social, cultural and economic capital, a process of class remobility, with the child as a key player. This project will further our knowledge on the role of discipline and self-regulation in the context of recreational learning. When public policies stress the responsibility of the family and the child, in terms of education and life choices, and income differences are increasing, it ́s vital that researchers investigate these questions.