Teacher habitus as/at the nexus of practice: Musical Futures and Irish primary schools

ABSTRACTMusical Futures approaches, with their roots in informal learning, have been the subject of much research internationally, with studies showing their significant impact on music education policy and practice.Within a theoretical framework drawn from the work of the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, this paper examines the manifestation of habitus as both the nexus at teacher practice (connecting its discrete elements), and the nexus as teacher practice (the focal point of teacher practice). Using Participatory Case Study Research, generalist primary teachers (n = 7) and students (n = 137) from six primary schools in the Republic of Ireland engaged with Musical Futures from a period of ten to thirty weeks.The findings situate teachers’ conceptualisations of self, using habitus as a lens to interpret how these elements mediate and are mediated by practice. These findings illustrate how teachers draw considerably on their personal musical experiences to inform their professional practice. In this research, engagement in Musical Futures generally brought about a renaissance of personal music making for teachers in this study, proffering unique insights into informal and non-formal music teaching and learning within the Irish primary generalist context.KEYWORDS: Musical Futuresinformal learningnon-formal teachingprimary music educationIrish generalist teacherscase study research AcknowledgementsThe author wishes to thank Dr Gwen Moore for her input at every stage of this project. The author also wishes to thank Fran Hannan, Managing Director of Musical Futures UK for her support throughout the project and Professor Thomas Garavan for his advice and support in the publication of this paper.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Funding detailsThis work was supported by the Irish Research Council under Grant Number GOIPG/2020/374.The author would also like to acknowledge that this research has also received funding from the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation and Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, Ireland.Declaration of interest statementNo potential competing interest was reported by the author.Notes1 Dabbledoo is an Irish company that has produced an interactive music program for primary schools. More information can be found here: https://dabbledoomusic.com/p/about-us2 DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools), which is the Irish word for ‘opportunity’, is a national programme to support schools who have a high concentration of disadvantage. This programme facilitates supports such as lower pupil-teacher ratios, increased funding, home and family links, and early intervention classes. More information can be found here: https://www.gov.ie/en/policy-information/4018ea-deis-delivering-equality-of-opportunity-in-schools/Additional informationNotes on contributorsEdmond GubbinsDr Edmond Gubbins is currently a lecturer in music education at the Marino Institute of Education in Dublin, Ireland and a visiting research fellow in Trinity College Dublin. He has completed his Bachelor of Education (Primary Teaching) at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, Ireland; his Master of Education in Applied Studies in Teaching and Learning at West Chester University, Pennsylvania, USA; and his PhD in Education at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick. He is an Irish Research Council Scholar and the recipient of the Eda Sagarra Medal of Excellence for postgraduate students in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences under the Irish Research Council Government of Ireland funding programme.