Music Teacher Profession on a Scientific Foundation
Short description
Doctoral thesis by Christer Larsson.
According to the Swedish Education Act, education in Sweden shall rest on a scientific foundation. In his dissertation project, Christer Larsson examines how enactment of policy for education on a scientific foundation in three policy arenas within the Swedish educational context have influence on the music teaching profession.
The study takes the form of a compilation thesis consisting of four articles and a comprehensive summary (kappa).
The first article, published in the Australian Journal of Music Education1, discusses the theoretical and methodological framework of the doctoral project.
The second article analyzes how research-based teacher identities are constructed in policy texts produced by the Swedish National Agency for Education. This article is published in the Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy2.
The third article3 examines how policy work related to research-based practice in Swedish schools is recontextualized in texts produced by the Swedish Teachers’ Union, the National Union of Teachers, and the Swedish Association of Music Teachers. The article is published in the North American journal Arts Education Policy Review.
The fourth article has been submitted to a Nordic peer-reviewed journal and is currently under review. This article analyses how local policy for research-based music teacher professionalism is enacted in collegial conversations at three Swedish upper secondary schools.
In the comprehensive summary (kappa), I discuss how the articles fulfil the overarching aim of the thesis: to investigate and discuss policy work for a scientific foundation in Swedish schools, using the music teaching profession as a case study. Two research questions guide the study: (1) How is policy for education on a scientific foundation enacted for music teachers in three Swedish educational policy arenas? (2) How do such enactments contribute to the construction of the music teaching profession?
The research interest emerged from Christer Larsson’s experience of working as a music teacher and through conversations with music teacher colleagues and students. The doctoral project is conducted within the subject area of Arts Education, and the completed thesis will be publicly defended in June 2026.
1 Larsson, C. (2023). Researching research-based professionalisation of music teachers—A Swedish framework to explore policy enactments in three contexts through a (critical) policy sociological lens. Australian Journal of Music Education, 55(2), 39–46.
2 Larsson, C., & Sjöberg, L. (2021). Academized or deprofessionalized?– policy discourses of teacher professionalism in relation to research-based education. Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy, 7(1), 3–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/20020317.2021.1877448
3 Larsson, C. (2025). The Swedish “problem” of evidence-resistant policymakers—music teacher organizations enacting policy for research-based education into legitimation work. Arts Education Policy Review, 0(0), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/10632913.2025.2525261
