Lund University

Faculty Member, Music Education and Performance

Other Affiliations: Lund University, Faculty of Fine and Performing Arts
University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education

PhD in Music Education

Lund University

Thesis Title: Musical upbringing as social reconstruction. Narratives of Parents with Foreign Background.

About

In my PhD thesis I examine the narratives of non-Swedish parents addressing music schools and private teaching, on music, and its role in the upbringing of their children and how they describe their children's musical interest, their own backgrounds, and daily life in Sweden. The study gives prominence to the parents' voice, their view of themselves as parents, their own childhood, which has directly and indirectly impacted on the daily lives of their children, and on decisions large and small (Berg & Johansson, 1999). Results from the interviews indicate that families with foreign backgrounds engaged in musical learning have origins within higher socio-economic groups. However, many of them have not retained their former social position in their new country and therefore put their faith in their children’s future. Several core discourses emerged from the interviews: conflicting cultural identities within the families, acculturation within the child, gender expectations among different ethnic groups and the strive for status and cultivation.
This thesis illustrates first and foremost different perspectives on the practise of music as a decisive tool for social success and integration for the children. The article also illustrates the emotional importance of music to these parents who live and exist in a country away from where they grew up and which shaped them.  Music as a tool for social reconstruction is a theme, which is in focus and also how it can impact on the upbringing of the child. Analysis of the interviews will, with the help of theoretical  concepts, try to demonstrate what can happen within and around individuals and groups which live as  minorities. It is a question of an emotional struggle for survival and rehabilitation both in regard to their own group and relatives, in terms of acceptance, and also seen as an asset by the majority society.
Several central discourses emerged in the interviews; conflicting cultural identities within the families, acculturation within the child,  gender expectations among different ethnical groups, striving for status and cultivation, music as a lingua franca. The thesis discuss how music is used by etnical minorities to bring back memories from childhood by listening and playing. This musical habitus is transfered to the child which creates a trialectical relation between parent - origin – child. Some parents describe their situation in Sweden as a struggle and they are trying to protect their children from the same situation, by educating them. Music has a cental role in this education, to compensate the lack of economical and social capital. Theoretical perspectives: Bourdieu, Foucault, Skeggs, Phinney & Flores.

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