EcoPolitics
Music education, professionalism, and eco-politics (EcoPolitics) interrogates the knowledge gap between music educators’ professional self-awareness in music education and their civic responsibilities as professionals in an age of uncertainty, eco-crises, and systemic ‘wicked problems’.
Introduction
Music education, professionalism, and eco-politics (EcoPolitics) interrogates the knowledge gap between music educators’ professional self-awareness in music education and their civic responsibilities as professionals in an age of uncertainty, eco-crises, and systemic ‘wicked problems’. The project proposes a moral shift from the social and political neutrality of an inward-focused discipline-based expertise to an outward-focused relational, environmentally responsible, socially engaged, and imaginative eco-political professionalism.
Specifically, it will 1) reveal the hidden professional mental models that have shaped music teacher education 2) expand professional horizons by engaging music teacher educators in eco-political reflexive processes; and 3) identify ways to strengthen teacher educators’ deep ecological systems awareness, eco-political change agency, and capacity to imagine. Data is generated through workshops, discussions, and individual and group interviews, and analysed through Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) and narrative inquiry. Findings will radically redefine the emancipatory agenda of music education professionalism and create an open-ended reflexive discourse on the ‘civic purpose’ of professional education in music.
The research team in collaboration with Monash University (Australia), North-West University (South Africa), and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (Vienna) is based at the Sibelius Academy and Uniarts CERADA.
Principal investigators
Heidi Westerlund
Heidi Westerlund is a professor at the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland. She has published widely in international journals and books and she is the Editor-in-chief of the Finnish Journal of Music Education. Her research interests include higher arts education, music teacher education, collaborative learning, cultural diversity and democracy in music education. She is the co-editor of Collaborative learning in higher music education (2013, Ashgate), Music, Education, and Religion: Intersections and Entanglements (2019, Indiana University Press), Visions for intercultural music teacher education (2020, Springer), The Politics of Diversity in Music Education (2021, Springer) and Expanding Professionalism in Music and Higher Music Education–A Changing Game (2021, Routledge). She is the PI of Music Education, Professionalism, and Eco-Politics (EcoPolitics, 2021-2025) and the Co-PI in Music for social impact: practitioners’ contexts, work, and beliefs (2020-2022), funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK.
Margaret S. Barrett
Professor Margaret S. Barrett is a leading figure in Australian and international music education. She is currently professor and Head of the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance at Monash University. Among her many achievements Professor Barrett was awarded a Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship in 2018 to undertake preliminary investigations of children’s singing and song-making in the archives of the Smithsonian Institute, and the Library of Congress (Washington DC) and was elected Beaufort Visiting Research Fellow at St John’s College University of Cambridge in 2019. She has held a research residency funded by the Foundation de Maison des Sciences de l’Homme at IRCAM (Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics /Musique) investigating creative pedagogy and transmission practices (2019). She was awarded the Fellowship of the Australian Society for Music Education in 2011. Professor Barrett has held nine ARC grants, seven as lead Chief Investigator, in addition to numerous other funded research projects. She is currently Founding Director of the Pedagogies of Creativity, Collaboration, Expertise and Enterprise (PoCCEE) research focus at Monash.
Professor Barrett holds positions as a Director of the Australian Music Centre, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and the Queensland Music Festival. She has served as President of the International Society for Music Education (2012-2014), Chair of the World Alliance for Arts Education (2013-2015), Chair of the Asia-Pacific Symposium for Music Education Research (2009-2011), board member of the International Society for Music Education (2008-2010), and National President of the Australian Society for Music Education (1999-2001).
In addition, Professor Barrett has been an advisor for arts and educational bodies nationally and internationally, including the Australia Council for the Arts, the Australian Curriculum and Assessment Reporting Authority, and the United Kingdom Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. Her research encompasses the investigation of the role of Music and the Arts in human cognition and social and cultural development. Her research has addressed problems in the areas of aesthetic decision-making, the meaning and value of Arts engagement for young people, young children’s musical thinking, young children’s identity work in and through music, teaching and learning practices in the arts, and the pedagogy and practices of creativity. A key aspect of her work has been the development of innovative arts-based inquiry and expertise in music and music education.
Researchers
Albi Odendaal
Albi Odendaal is Associate Professor of Music Education at the School of Music at the North-West University in Potchefstroom, South Africa. He completed his doctoral studies at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki under Lauri Väkevä and Harald Jørgensen, and has held postdoctoral research fellowships at the University of Cape Town and the University of Stellenbosch. His research interests include musical memory, music teacher education, multicultural education, and professionalism.
Katja Thomson
Katja Thomson is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the project Music Education, Professionalism, and Eco-Politics (EcoPolitics, 2021-2025) and a Lecturer in Music Education at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland. Her spatially oriented research focuses on intercultural music practices as part of social engagement in higher music education institutions. In May 2021 she completed her doctoral dissertation on an ensemble project including musicians with refugee and immigrant background and students from the Sibelius Academy. Thomson has worked extensively in developing and implementing education programmes promoting creative, participatory music practices. Her international experience in this field includes work in Brazil, Nepal, the Philippines and European countries. Originally from Finland, Katja lived in the UK for fifteen years from late 90s until 2011.
Danielle Treacy
Danielle Shannon Treacy is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the project Music Education, Professionalism, and Eco-Politics (EcoPolitics, 2021-2025) at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on the ethical and methodological deliberations involved in intercultural music teacher education policy, practice, and research, and collaborative learning and reflective practice in higher arts education. She has published peer-reviewed international journal articles and book chapters, and is a co-editor of the journal Nordic Research in Music Education. She has also presented her work at numerous international conferences, and coordinated, organised and served on the scientific committee for international music education conferences. At the university level she currently teaches in the Doctoral School of Music Education, Jazz and Folk Music (MuTri) and the Global Music Department.
Leena Ilmola-Sheppard
Leena Ilmola-Sheppard is Emeritus Senior Scientist at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Vienna, Austria. She got her doctoral degree at Aalto University, Finland. Leena’s research focus is methodological, she is developing methods for qualitative systems analysis, especially for decision-making in the situations dominated by uncertainty.
Activities
EcoPolitics researchers visited North-West University and Monash University
EcoPolitics researchers Heidi Westerlund, Danielle Treacy and Katja Thomson visited North-West University in Potschefstroom, South Africa in October 2023 to hold interviews and conduct workshops with music teacher educators.
EcoPolitics researchers Danielle Treacy and Katja Thomson visited Monash University in Melbourne, Australia in June 2023 to hold interviews and conduct workshops with higher music education teachers.
Keynote lectures in May 24-27 and June 12-16, 2023 conferences
The European Association for Music Conference (9th ISME European Regional Conference) will be arranged in Lyon in May 2023. The Conference keynotes are Gert Biesta, Laetitia Pansanel-Garric and Heidi Westerlund. The conference theme is “Liberty – Equity – Creativity: Innovating and Inventing Music in the Classroom”.
Heidi Westerlund`s keynote`s title is “Why should children compose? From ego-logical to eco-logical rationality”. Read more about the keynote speakers for Lyon 2023.
Heidi Westerlund and Sidsel Karlsen will held their keynote “What’s at the bottom of the iceberg? A dialogue on mental models and systems change in music and music education professionalism” at the ISPME Symposium – Philosophy of Music Education, June 12-16, 2023.
Read more: ISPME Symposium – Philosophy of Music Education
Music, Research and Activism conference in Helsinki 10 May 2023
On May 10th, 2023 Tuulikki Laes presented a conference paper co-authored with Danielle Treacy and Katja Thomson titled “Artists for a sustainable future: Art-science activism within higher music education” at the Music, Research and Activism conference organized by the University of the Arts Helsinki, the University of Helsinki and Suoni Ry.
This paper grew out of their work in the project ARSADAPT: Artists for a sustainable future. The project is a transdisciplinary collaboration between higher music education teachers and students at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki and sustainability researchers from the fields of environmental sciences in the Adaptation and Resilience for Sustainable Growth project funded by the Strategic Research Council.
Read more about the project ARSADAPT: Artists for a sustainable future
Communality & the Arts: Place, Sustainability and Heritage seminar in Malmö 8-9 November 2022
EcoPolitics Post-Doctoral Researchers Danielle Treacy and Katja Thomson were invited to participate in the Communality & the Arts: Place, Sustainability and Heritage seminar that took place at the Inter Arts Center in Malmö, Sweden from November 8th to 9th. Together they presented a co-authored paper titled The World in Motion ensemble as a case of imaginative design in music education for transformation.
In addition, Danielle Treacy presented a single-authored paper titled Navigating modernity/coloniality in music education: The case of music in Nepali private schools.
Read more: Communality & the Arts: Place, Sustainability and Heritage seminar
Kick-off seminar 30 September and keynote lecture by Ronald Barnett
Music education, professionalism, and ecopolitics project´s kick-off online seminar was arranged on September 30, 2021, at 9.30 – 10.45 am (EEST)
The keynote lecturer was Ronald Barnett, Emeritus Professor, Institute of Education, University of London.
Adorno was wont to ask whether it was possible to write poetry following the Holocaust. In the realm of music, should we not also be asking if it is legitimate to listen to music in the midst of ecological crises? There are, therefore, awkward notes sounding in the presence of music education. Even that term ‘education’ has to be placed in scare quotes for it has to become a problematic category. Redemption has to lie in coming to be – to live and to act – in an awareness of one’s ecological entanglements, the ways in which music is intertwined with ecosystems of the economy, knowledge, learning, culture, one’s identity, social institutions, the polity and, indeed, the natural environment. Such an eco-political pedagogy will amount to a transdisciplinary critique of musical professionalism and is liable to add to one’s initial disturbance. But yet such a pedagogy may just provide additional resources even for humanity to live with the Armageddon possibly in front of it.
Publications
Books
Barrett, M.S. & Westerlund, H. (2024). Music education, ecopolitical professionalism and public pedagogy: Towards systems transformation. SpringerBriefs in Education.
Laes, T., Biesta, G. & Westerlund, H. (Eds.)(2025). The transformative politics of music education. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003403036
Odendaal, A. & Treacy, D. (Eds.)(2025, in print). Ecological transitions in and through music education. Springer.
Westerlund, H., & Barrett, M. S. (Eds.)(in press). Transforming conservatories and higher music education – The art of systems change. Routledge (SEMPRE).
Peer-previewed articles and chapters
Barrett, M. S. & Westerlund, H. (in print). Generating positive friction for ‘wide-awake’ systems change in music education. In H. Westerlund & M.S. Barrett (Eds.), Transforming music conservatoires and higher music education: The art of systems change. Routledge.
Biesta, G., Laes, T. & Westerlund, H. (2025). A Manifesto for Transformative Politics in Music Education. In T. Laes, G. Biesta & H. Westerlund (Eds.) The transformative politics of music education (pp. 134–136). Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781003403036-9
Biesta, G., Laes, T. & Westerlund, H. (2025). Why music education needs transformative politics: Introduction. In T. Laes, G. Biesta & H. Westerlund (Eds.) The transformative politics of music education (pp. 1–10). Routledge.
Galmiche, M., Westerlund, H. & Laes, T. (in print). “I want to be the teacher I never had”: Towards a relational transition in the conservatoire system. In H. Westerlund & M.S. Barrett (Eds.), Transforming music conservatoires and higher music education: The art of systems change. Routledge.
Galmiche, M., Westerlund, H., Laes, T., & Väkevä, L. (2024). How social innovations can enable socially just spatial politics and collaborative professionalism in music education: The case of AÏCO at the Conservatoire de Lyon. In M. Hahn, C., Björk & H. Westerlund (Eds.), Music schools in changing societies – How collaborative professionalism can transform music education (pp. 113–130). Routledge.
Laes, T., Thomson, K., Treacy, D. & Westerlund, H. (2024). Towards the ‘swampy lowlands’ of professional practice: Higher music education teachers reflecting on arts-science integration in the Artists for a Sustainable Future course. Diskussion Musikpädagogik [Discussion Music Education]102, 3–10. https://www.junker-verlag.com/dmp-102
Laes. T., Treacy, D. S., & Westerlund, H. (2024). Beyond ‘democracy’: Making space for the educational and political in music education. In J. L. Aróstegui, C. Christophersen, J. Nichols, & K. Matsunobu (Eds.). The SAGE Handbook of School Music Education (pp. 457–472). Sage.
Laes, T. & Westerlund, H. (2025). The transformative politics of music education research: Navigating public scholarship. In T. Laes, G. Biesta & H. Westerlund (Eds.) The transformative politics of music education (pp. 119–133). Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781003403036-8
Lamminmäki, N., Saether, E., Treacy, D. & Westerlund, H. (2025, in print). ‘Counterlabelling’ as a political act: Towards ecological sustainability in and of Finnish folk music education. In A. Odendaal & D. Treacy (Eds.) Ecological transitions in and through music education. Springer.
López-Íñiguez, G. & Westerlund, H. (in press). The Conservatoire as a Caring Ecosystem for Children Gifted for Music. In G. López-Íñiguez & G. McPherson (Eds.) Caring for Gifted and Talented Music Learners – Current Perspectives and Future Possibilities. Oxford University Press.
Odendaal, A. & Treacy, D. (2025, in print). Introduction: Ecological transitions in and through music education. In A. Odendaal & D. Treacy (Eds.) Ecological transitions in and through music education. Springer.
Treacy, D. S. (2022). Appreciating situations of breakdown for researcher reflexivity. Action Research, 20(3), 278 – 294. https://doi.org/10.1177/14767503211073083
Treacy, D., Thomson, K., & Odendaal, A. (2025, in print). The potentials of ecological thinking for music education professionalism: A scoping review. In A. Odendaal & D. Treacy (Eds.) Ecological transitions in and through music education. Springer.
Vähi, K. J., López-Íñiguez, G. & Westerlund, H. (in press). Estonian music schools amidst societal transitions: A call for future-oriented curriculum thinking. In H. Westerlund & M.S. Barrett (Eds.), Transforming music conservatories and higher music education: The art of systems change. Routledge.
Westerlund, H. (2025). What can a reflexive teacher learn from philosophies of music education? Towards a Responsible Personal Philosophy [Revised from the 2010 version]. In C. Philpott & G. Spruce (Eds.), Debates in music education (pp. 3–16). Routledge.
Westerlund, H. (2025). Why should children compose? From an egological to ecological rationality. In T. Buchborn, M. Gall, S. Hennessy, & M. Stumpfögger (Eds.) European (Ed.) Liberty – Equity – Creativity: Innovating and Inventing Music in the Classroom, European Perspectives on Music Education 13 (pp. 29–41). HELBLING, Rum/Innsbruck.
Westerlund, H. (2023). Kriisien ja epävarmuuksien ajan ekopoliittinen ammatillisuus musiikkikasvatuksessa. [Ecopolitical professionalism in music education in times of crises and insecurities]. In H. Partti & M.-L. Juntunen (Eds.) Musiikkikasvatus muutoksessa [Changing Music Education] (pp. 452–475). Sibelius Academy. University of the Arts Helsinki.
Westerlund, H. & Barrett, M. S. (2025, in print). Countering the ‘great regression’: expanding professional responsibility in music education. In A. Odendaal & D. Treacy (Eds.) Ecological transitions in and through music education. Springer.
Westerlund, H. & Barrett, M.S. (in print). The art of systems change in conservatoires and higher music education in an era of moral blindness. In H. Westerlund & M.S. Barrett (Eds.), Transforming music conservatoires and higher music education: The art of systems change. Routledge.
Westerlund, H. & Karlsen, S. (in press). What’s at the bottom of the iceberg? Changing mental models in higher music education. In H. Westerlund & M.S. Barrett (Eds.), Transforming music conservatories and higher music education: The art of systems change. Routledge.
Westerlund, H., Levänen, S. & Odendaal, A. (in press). The painfulness of transformation in higher music education: (Post)Luhmannian lessons on systems reflexivity. In H. Westerlund & M.S. Barrett (Eds.), Transforming music conservatories and higher music education: The art of systems change. Routledge.
Westerlund, H., Barrett, M.S., Odendaal, A., Treacy, D., Thomson, K. & Ilmola-Sheppard, L. (in press). What if? Sustainable development goals as provocations for transforming higher music education. In H. Westerlund & M.S. Barrett (Eds.), Transforming music conservatories and higher music education: The art of systems change. Routledge.
Westerlund, H., Laes, T. & López-Íñiguez, G. (2025). Toward Sustainability Beyond Advocacy: Systems Thinking for Unlocking the Transformative Powers of Music Education. Action, Theory and Criticism in Music Education 24 (7), 57–89.
Westerlund, H., Lehtinen-Schnabel, J. & Levänen, S. (2025, in print). Music education ’building’ bridges to the future. Language-aware choir for adult immigrants triggering transdisciplinary transitions towards sustainability. In A. Odendaal & D. Treacy (Eds.) Ecological transitions in and through music education. Springer.
Westerlund, H. & Odendaal., A. (2025). Expanding the ‘expert gaze’ of music education: Towards a transformative systems view. In T. Laes, G. Biesta & H. Westerlund (Eds.) The transformative politics of music education (pp. 26–42). Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781003403036-3
Westerlund, H., Treacy, D., & Thomson, K. (in press). ‘Anarchists we were!’ Music teacher education ‘dancing’ with the conservatory system. In H. Westerlund & M.S. Barrett (Eds.), Transforming music conservatories and higher music education: The art of systems change. Routledge.
Westerlund, H., Treacy, D., Thomson, K. & Odendaal, A. (2025). Music educators as imaginative designers for socially responsible transformation. In T. Laes, G. Biesta & H. Westerlund (Eds.) The transformative politics of music education (pp. 43–62). Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781003403036-4
Other publications
Thomson, K. & Treacy, D. S. (2024). Music education, professionalism, and eco-politics: Towards socio-ecological sustainability through changing mental models. Finnish Journal of Music Education, 27(1), 122–125.
Treacy, D. S. (2022). Appreciating situations of breakdown for researcher reflexivity. ARJ article by Danielle Treacy. AR+ Action Research.
Invited keynotes
Thomson, K.: Ecopolitics. NNME (Nordic Network for Music Education) Joint Master course, Socially, Ecologically, and Ethically Responsible Music Education, University of the Arts Helsinki, November 3-7, 2025, Kallio-Kuninkala, Finland.
Laes, T., López-Íñiguez, G. & Westerlund, H. Beyond Advocacy: Engaging with the Political in Music Education’. Collective keynote, performcd together with K. Thomson, D. Treacy, A. Odendaal, P. Palanchoke & A. Olarte. 36th International Society for Music Education World Conference, Helsinki, University of the Arts Helsinki, 28.7.–2.8.2024.
Westerlund, H. Why should children compose? From ego-logical to eco-logical rationality. Keynote in the European Association for Music in Schools (EAS), 9th ISME European Regional Conference, Lyon University, Université Lumière Lyon 2, France, May 24–27, 2023.
Westerlund, H. & Karlsen, S. What’s at the bottom of the iceberg? A dialogue on mental models and systems change in music and music education professionalism. Joint keynote in the 13th International Society for Philosophy of Music Education (ISPME) Symposium, Norwegian Academy of Music, Oslo, Norway, June 14–16, 2023.
Conference and seminar presentations
Barrett, M.S. & Westerlund, H. Generating positive friction: (not) a manifesto for ecopolitical music professionalism. In 2025 Asia-Pacific Symposium for Music Education Research, “Being and Becoming Musical in a Posthuman Era”, 9-11 July, Perth, Australia.
Barrett, M. S. (Panelist) (2024, July 28 – Aug 2). Effecting systems change through ecopolitical professionalism: From theory to practice. In Odendaal, A. (Chair) Ecologically responsible Music Education. Panel presentation at International Society for Music Education World Conference, Helsinki.
Laes, T., Treacy, D. S. & Thomson, K. (2023, May). Artists for a sustainable future: Art-science activism within higher music education. Paper presented at the Music, Research, and Activism conference, University of Helsinki, May 10–12, 2023.
Odendaal, A. (Chair) (2024, July 28 – Aug 2). Ecologically responsible Music Education. Panel presentation at International Society for Music Education World Conference, Helsinki.
Odendaal, A., Laes, T., Thomson. K., & Karlsen, S. (2025). How higher music education leadership matters in times of challenge. Panel presentation at NNRME conference in Hurdal, Norway, April 8–10, 2025.
Odendaal, A., Thomson, K., Treacy, D. (2025). What if? Sustainable development goals as provocations for transforming higher music education. Online seminar hosted by MASARA at the North-West University, Potchefstroom, May 6, 2025.
Thomson, K. (panelist) (2025, April) ‘Anarchists we were!’: Leaders of the Music Teacher Education programme ‘dancing’ with the conservatory system. In A. Odendaal, T. Laes, K. Thomson & S. Karlsen: How higher music education leadership matters in times of challenge. NNRME conference in Hurdal, Norway, April 8–10, 2025.
Thomson, K. (Panelist) (2024, July 28 – Aug 2). Music teacher education ‘dancing with the systems’: Changing mental models toward ecological responsibility in a conservatory environment. In Odendaal, A. (Chair). Ecologically responsible Music Education. Panel presentation at International Society for Music Education World Conference, Helsinki.
Thomson, K. & Treacy, D. S. (2021, October). Mapping visions of sustainability in music education. Invited presentation in the Seminar on Social Engagement & the Arts: Participation and Sustainability, Malmö, Sweden.
Thomson, K., Treacy, D., & Odendaal, A. (2025). What if? Sustainable development goals as provocations for transforming higher music education. Seminar hosted Music Education Department at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, May 28, 2025.
Treacy, D. S. (Panelist) (2024, July 28 – August 2). Music educators as imaginative ‘designers’ in higher music education: beyond conservatory silos. In T. Laes (chair), Beyond advocacy: Why music education needs transformative politics[Symposium]. 36th International Society for Music Education World Conference (ISME), Helsinki, Finland.
Treacy. D. S. (2022, November). Navigating modernity/coloniality in music education: The case of music in Nepali private schools. Invited paper presented at the Communality & the Arts: Place, Sustainability and Heritage seminar, Inter Arts Center, Malmö, November 8–9.
Treacy, D. S. & Thomson, K. (2022, November). The World in Motion ensemble as a case of imaginative design in music education for transformation. Invited paper presented at the Communality & the Arts: Place, Sustainability and Heritage seminar, Inter Arts Center, Malmö, November 8–9.
Treacy, D. S. & Westerlund, H. (2022, January). Gender exclusion and multicultural discourse: Activism through public pedagogy in Nepali music education. Paper presented at the Gender and Musicianship Study Days, University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland, January 24-25.
Westerlund, H. Systems thinking expanding music professionalism. CIPEM – Centre for Research in Music Psychology and Music Education – seminar. Music and Drama Department of the School of Education of the Porto Polytechnic Institute. March, 9, 2024. Porto, Portugal.
Westerlund, H. & Laes, T. Navigating public scholarship in music education research: beyond disciplinary professionalism. Presentation in the Beyond Advocacy: Why Music Education Needs Transformative Politics Symposium led by T. Laes. 36th International Society for Music Education World Conference, Helsinki, University of the Arts Helsinki, 28.7.–2.8.2024.
Westerlund, H. & Odendaal, A. (2024, July 28 – Aug 2). Expanding mental models in music education: Transformational praxis beyond the expert gaze. In Laes, T. (Chair) Beyond Advocacy: Why Music Education Needs Transformative Politics [Symposium]. International Society for Music Education World Conference, Helsinki.
Westerlund, H., Treacy, D. S., & Thomson, K. (2023, October). Music teacher education ‘dancing with the systems’: Changing the mental models of sedimented traditions in a conservatory environment. Paper presented at the Cultural Diversity in Music Education conference, North-West University, October 9–11, 2023.
Advisory board
Emily Achieng Akuno
Emily Achieng Akuno is professor of music with teaching and university administration experience at Kenyatta University in Kenya, University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, Maseno University andThe Technical University of Kenya. Currently, she serves as the Deputy Vice-Chancellor in charge of Academic Affairs at The Co-operative University of Kenya.
Emily trained as a performer-educator in Kenya, USA and the UK, Her research interests veer towards cultural relevance in music education. She is the editor and a contributing author of the (2019) Routledge published Music Education in Africa: Concept, Process and Practice. She is a former president of the International Music Council (IMC) and current President of the International Society for Music Education (ISME) as well as chair of the Music Education Research Group – Kenya (MERG-Kenya).
Gert Biesta
Gert Biesta is Professor of Public Education in the Centre for Public Education and Pedagogy at Maynooth University, Ireland, and Professor of Educational Theory and Pedagogy at the Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh, UK. In addition, he has a visiting professorship at the University of Agder, Norway, working across the departments of education, mental health and fine arts and crafts. He is currently also a visiting professor at Uniarts, Helsinki, Finland (Centre for Educational Research and Academic Development in the Arts). His work focuses on the theory of education and the theory and philosophy of educational and social research, with a particular interest in questions concerning curriculum, teaching, teacher education, citizenship and democracy, the arts, and religious education. Since 2020 he is a member of the National Scientific Curriculum Committee in the Netherlands, providing guidance to the Minister of Education on the future of the curriculum for primary and secondary schools. His work has so far appeared in 20 different languages. Recent books include: The Rediscovery of Teaching (Routledge 2017); Obstinate Education: Reconnecting School and Society (Brill-Sense 2019); Educational Research: An Unorthodox Introduction (Bloomsbury 2020); and World-Centred Education: A View for the Present (Routledge 2021). Personal website: www.gertbiesta.com
Sidsel Karlsen
Sidsel Karlsen is vice-principal for research and development as well as professor of music education at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Karlsen has published widely in international research journals, anthologies, and handbooks. Her research interests include, among other things, the sociology of music education, various aspects of musical gentrification, and cultural diversity in music education. She is co-editor of the recent books Musical gentrification: Popular music, distinction and social mobility (Routledge) as well as The politics of diversity in music education (Springer).
Collaboration
Project name
Music education, professionalism, and eco-politics (EcoPolitics)
Time
09/2021-08/2025
Funder
Research Council of Finland
Team
Principal investigators of the project:
Professor Heidi Westerlund, University of the Arts Helsinki, Sibelius Academy
Professor Margaret S. Barrett, Monash University (Australia)
Other researchers in the project:
Leena Ilmola-Sheppard, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (Vienna)
Albi Odendaal, Associate Professor, North-West University (South Africa)
Katja Thomson, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of the Arts Helsinki, Sibelius Academy
Danielle Treacy, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of the Arts Helsinki, Sibelius Academy
Collaborators
Partner institutions: University of the Arts Helsinki, Monash University (Australia), North-West University (South Africa), and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (Vienna)
Contact
-
Heidi Westerlund
Professor, music education, doctoral education, Sibelius-Akatemian tohtoriohjelma, Sibelius Academy+358505015622heidi.westerlund@uniarts.fi -
Johanna Rauhaniemi
Coordinator, Research services, University of the Arts Helsinki+358505169339johanna.rauhaniemi@uniarts.fi
Introduction
Music education, professionalism, and eco-politics (EcoPolitics) interrogates the knowledge gap between music educators’ professional self-awareness in music education and their civic responsibilities as professionals in an age of uncertainty, eco-crises, and systemic ‘wicked problems’. The project proposes a moral shift from the social and political neutrality of an inward-focused discipline-based expertise to an outward-focused relational, environmentally responsible, socially engaged, and imaginative eco-political professionalism.
Specifically, it will 1) reveal the hidden professional mental models that have shaped music teacher education 2) expand professional horizons by engaging music teacher educators in eco-political reflexive processes; and 3) identify ways to strengthen teacher educators’ deep ecological systems awareness, eco-political change agency, and capacity to imagine. Data is generated through workshops, discussions, and individual and group interviews, and analysed through Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) and narrative inquiry. Findings will radically redefine the emancipatory agenda of music education professionalism and create an open-ended reflexive discourse on the ‘civic purpose’ of professional education in music.
The research team in collaboration with Monash University (Australia), North-West University (South Africa), and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (Vienna) is based at the Sibelius Academy and Uniarts CERADA.
Principal investigators
Heidi Westerlund
Heidi Westerlund is a professor at the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland. She has published widely in international journals and books and she is the Editor-in-chief of the Finnish Journal of Music Education. Her research interests include higher arts education, music teacher education, collaborative learning, cultural diversity and democracy in music education. She is the co-editor of Collaborative learning in higher music education (2013, Ashgate), Music, Education, and Religion: Intersections and Entanglements (2019, Indiana University Press), Visions for intercultural music teacher education (2020, Springer), The Politics of Diversity in Music Education (2021, Springer) and Expanding Professionalism in Music and Higher Music Education–A Changing Game (2021, Routledge). She is the PI of Music Education, Professionalism, and Eco-Politics (EcoPolitics, 2021-2025) and the Co-PI in Music for social impact: practitioners’ contexts, work, and beliefs (2020-2022), funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK.
Margaret S. Barrett
Professor Margaret S. Barrett is a leading figure in Australian and international music education. She is currently professor and Head of the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance at Monash University. Among her many achievements Professor Barrett was awarded a Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship in 2018 to undertake preliminary investigations of children’s singing and song-making in the archives of the Smithsonian Institute, and the Library of Congress (Washington DC) and was elected Beaufort Visiting Research Fellow at St John’s College University of Cambridge in 2019. She has held a research residency funded by the Foundation de Maison des Sciences de l’Homme at IRCAM (Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics /Musique) investigating creative pedagogy and transmission practices (2019). She was awarded the Fellowship of the Australian Society for Music Education in 2011. Professor Barrett has held nine ARC grants, seven as lead Chief Investigator, in addition to numerous other funded research projects. She is currently Founding Director of the Pedagogies of Creativity, Collaboration, Expertise and Enterprise (PoCCEE) research focus at Monash.
Professor Barrett holds positions as a Director of the Australian Music Centre, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and the Queensland Music Festival. She has served as President of the International Society for Music Education (2012-2014), Chair of the World Alliance for Arts Education (2013-2015), Chair of the Asia-Pacific Symposium for Music Education Research (2009-2011), board member of the International Society for Music Education (2008-2010), and National President of the Australian Society for Music Education (1999-2001).
In addition, Professor Barrett has been an advisor for arts and educational bodies nationally and internationally, including the Australia Council for the Arts, the Australian Curriculum and Assessment Reporting Authority, and the United Kingdom Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. Her research encompasses the investigation of the role of Music and the Arts in human cognition and social and cultural development. Her research has addressed problems in the areas of aesthetic decision-making, the meaning and value of Arts engagement for young people, young children’s musical thinking, young children’s identity work in and through music, teaching and learning practices in the arts, and the pedagogy and practices of creativity. A key aspect of her work has been the development of innovative arts-based inquiry and expertise in music and music education.
Researchers
Albi Odendaal
Albi Odendaal is Associate Professor of Music Education at the School of Music at the North-West University in Potchefstroom, South Africa. He completed his doctoral studies at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki under Lauri Väkevä and Harald Jørgensen, and has held postdoctoral research fellowships at the University of Cape Town and the University of Stellenbosch. His research interests include musical memory, music teacher education, multicultural education, and professionalism.
Katja Thomson
Katja Thomson is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the project Music Education, Professionalism, and Eco-Politics (EcoPolitics, 2021-2025) and a Lecturer in Music Education at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland. Her spatially oriented research focuses on intercultural music practices as part of social engagement in higher music education institutions. In May 2021 she completed her doctoral dissertation on an ensemble project including musicians with refugee and immigrant background and students from the Sibelius Academy. Thomson has worked extensively in developing and implementing education programmes promoting creative, participatory music practices. Her international experience in this field includes work in Brazil, Nepal, the Philippines and European countries. Originally from Finland, Katja lived in the UK for fifteen years from late 90s until 2011.
Danielle Treacy
Danielle Shannon Treacy is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the project Music Education, Professionalism, and Eco-Politics (EcoPolitics, 2021-2025) at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on the ethical and methodological deliberations involved in intercultural music teacher education policy, practice, and research, and collaborative learning and reflective practice in higher arts education. She has published peer-reviewed international journal articles and book chapters, and is a co-editor of the journal Nordic Research in Music Education. She has also presented her work at numerous international conferences, and coordinated, organised and served on the scientific committee for international music education conferences. At the university level she currently teaches in the Doctoral School of Music Education, Jazz and Folk Music (MuTri) and the Global Music Department.
Leena Ilmola-Sheppard
Leena Ilmola-Sheppard is Emeritus Senior Scientist at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Vienna, Austria. She got her doctoral degree at Aalto University, Finland. Leena’s research focus is methodological, she is developing methods for qualitative systems analysis, especially for decision-making in the situations dominated by uncertainty.
Activities
EcoPolitics researchers visited North-West University and Monash University
EcoPolitics researchers Heidi Westerlund, Danielle Treacy and Katja Thomson visited North-West University in Potschefstroom, South Africa in October 2023 to hold interviews and conduct workshops with music teacher educators.
EcoPolitics researchers Danielle Treacy and Katja Thomson visited Monash University in Melbourne, Australia in June 2023 to hold interviews and conduct workshops with higher music education teachers.
Keynote lectures in May 24-27 and June 12-16, 2023 conferences
The European Association for Music Conference (9th ISME European Regional Conference) will be arranged in Lyon in May 2023. The Conference keynotes are Gert Biesta, Laetitia Pansanel-Garric and Heidi Westerlund. The conference theme is “Liberty – Equity – Creativity: Innovating and Inventing Music in the Classroom”.
Heidi Westerlund`s keynote`s title is “Why should children compose? From ego-logical to eco-logical rationality”. Read more about the keynote speakers for Lyon 2023.
Heidi Westerlund and Sidsel Karlsen will held their keynote “What’s at the bottom of the iceberg? A dialogue on mental models and systems change in music and music education professionalism” at the ISPME Symposium – Philosophy of Music Education, June 12-16, 2023.
Read more: ISPME Symposium – Philosophy of Music Education
Music, Research and Activism conference in Helsinki 10 May 2023
On May 10th, 2023 Tuulikki Laes presented a conference paper co-authored with Danielle Treacy and Katja Thomson titled “Artists for a sustainable future: Art-science activism within higher music education” at the Music, Research and Activism conference organized by the University of the Arts Helsinki, the University of Helsinki and Suoni Ry.
This paper grew out of their work in the project ARSADAPT: Artists for a sustainable future. The project is a transdisciplinary collaboration between higher music education teachers and students at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki and sustainability researchers from the fields of environmental sciences in the Adaptation and Resilience for Sustainable Growth project funded by the Strategic Research Council.
Read more about the project ARSADAPT: Artists for a sustainable future
Communality & the Arts: Place, Sustainability and Heritage seminar in Malmö 8-9 November 2022
EcoPolitics Post-Doctoral Researchers Danielle Treacy and Katja Thomson were invited to participate in the Communality & the Arts: Place, Sustainability and Heritage seminar that took place at the Inter Arts Center in Malmö, Sweden from November 8th to 9th. Together they presented a co-authored paper titled The World in Motion ensemble as a case of imaginative design in music education for transformation.
In addition, Danielle Treacy presented a single-authored paper titled Navigating modernity/coloniality in music education: The case of music in Nepali private schools.
Read more: Communality & the Arts: Place, Sustainability and Heritage seminar
Kick-off seminar 30 September and keynote lecture by Ronald Barnett
Music education, professionalism, and ecopolitics project´s kick-off online seminar was arranged on September 30, 2021, at 9.30 – 10.45 am (EEST)
The keynote lecturer was Ronald Barnett, Emeritus Professor, Institute of Education, University of London.
Adorno was wont to ask whether it was possible to write poetry following the Holocaust. In the realm of music, should we not also be asking if it is legitimate to listen to music in the midst of ecological crises? There are, therefore, awkward notes sounding in the presence of music education. Even that term ‘education’ has to be placed in scare quotes for it has to become a problematic category. Redemption has to lie in coming to be – to live and to act – in an awareness of one’s ecological entanglements, the ways in which music is intertwined with ecosystems of the economy, knowledge, learning, culture, one’s identity, social institutions, the polity and, indeed, the natural environment. Such an eco-political pedagogy will amount to a transdisciplinary critique of musical professionalism and is liable to add to one’s initial disturbance. But yet such a pedagogy may just provide additional resources even for humanity to live with the Armageddon possibly in front of it.
Publications
Books
Barrett, M.S. & Westerlund, H. (2024). Music education, ecopolitical professionalism and public pedagogy: Towards systems transformation. SpringerBriefs in Education.
Laes, T., Biesta, G. & Westerlund, H. (Eds.)(2025). The transformative politics of music education. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003403036
Odendaal, A. & Treacy, D. (Eds.)(2025, in print). Ecological transitions in and through music education. Springer.
Westerlund, H., & Barrett, M. S. (Eds.)(in press). Transforming conservatories and higher music education – The art of systems change. Routledge (SEMPRE).
Peer-previewed articles and chapters
Barrett, M. S. & Westerlund, H. (in print). Generating positive friction for ‘wide-awake’ systems change in music education. In H. Westerlund & M.S. Barrett (Eds.), Transforming music conservatoires and higher music education: The art of systems change. Routledge.
Biesta, G., Laes, T. & Westerlund, H. (2025). A Manifesto for Transformative Politics in Music Education. In T. Laes, G. Biesta & H. Westerlund (Eds.) The transformative politics of music education (pp. 134–136). Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781003403036-9
Biesta, G., Laes, T. & Westerlund, H. (2025). Why music education needs transformative politics: Introduction. In T. Laes, G. Biesta & H. Westerlund (Eds.) The transformative politics of music education (pp. 1–10). Routledge.
Galmiche, M., Westerlund, H. & Laes, T. (in print). “I want to be the teacher I never had”: Towards a relational transition in the conservatoire system. In H. Westerlund & M.S. Barrett (Eds.), Transforming music conservatoires and higher music education: The art of systems change. Routledge.
Galmiche, M., Westerlund, H., Laes, T., & Väkevä, L. (2024). How social innovations can enable socially just spatial politics and collaborative professionalism in music education: The case of AÏCO at the Conservatoire de Lyon. In M. Hahn, C., Björk & H. Westerlund (Eds.), Music schools in changing societies – How collaborative professionalism can transform music education (pp. 113–130). Routledge.
Laes, T., Thomson, K., Treacy, D. & Westerlund, H. (2024). Towards the ‘swampy lowlands’ of professional practice: Higher music education teachers reflecting on arts-science integration in the Artists for a Sustainable Future course. Diskussion Musikpädagogik [Discussion Music Education]102, 3–10. https://www.junker-verlag.com/dmp-102
Laes. T., Treacy, D. S., & Westerlund, H. (2024). Beyond ‘democracy’: Making space for the educational and political in music education. In J. L. Aróstegui, C. Christophersen, J. Nichols, & K. Matsunobu (Eds.). The SAGE Handbook of School Music Education (pp. 457–472). Sage.
Laes, T. & Westerlund, H. (2025). The transformative politics of music education research: Navigating public scholarship. In T. Laes, G. Biesta & H. Westerlund (Eds.) The transformative politics of music education (pp. 119–133). Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781003403036-8
Lamminmäki, N., Saether, E., Treacy, D. & Westerlund, H. (2025, in print). ‘Counterlabelling’ as a political act: Towards ecological sustainability in and of Finnish folk music education. In A. Odendaal & D. Treacy (Eds.) Ecological transitions in and through music education. Springer.
López-Íñiguez, G. & Westerlund, H. (in press). The Conservatoire as a Caring Ecosystem for Children Gifted for Music. In G. López-Íñiguez & G. McPherson (Eds.) Caring for Gifted and Talented Music Learners – Current Perspectives and Future Possibilities. Oxford University Press.
Odendaal, A. & Treacy, D. (2025, in print). Introduction: Ecological transitions in and through music education. In A. Odendaal & D. Treacy (Eds.) Ecological transitions in and through music education. Springer.
Treacy, D. S. (2022). Appreciating situations of breakdown for researcher reflexivity. Action Research, 20(3), 278 – 294. https://doi.org/10.1177/14767503211073083
Treacy, D., Thomson, K., & Odendaal, A. (2025, in print). The potentials of ecological thinking for music education professionalism: A scoping review. In A. Odendaal & D. Treacy (Eds.) Ecological transitions in and through music education. Springer.
Vähi, K. J., López-Íñiguez, G. & Westerlund, H. (in press). Estonian music schools amidst societal transitions: A call for future-oriented curriculum thinking. In H. Westerlund & M.S. Barrett (Eds.), Transforming music conservatories and higher music education: The art of systems change. Routledge.
Westerlund, H. (2025). What can a reflexive teacher learn from philosophies of music education? Towards a Responsible Personal Philosophy [Revised from the 2010 version]. In C. Philpott & G. Spruce (Eds.), Debates in music education (pp. 3–16). Routledge.
Westerlund, H. (2025). Why should children compose? From an egological to ecological rationality. In T. Buchborn, M. Gall, S. Hennessy, & M. Stumpfögger (Eds.) European (Ed.) Liberty – Equity – Creativity: Innovating and Inventing Music in the Classroom, European Perspectives on Music Education 13 (pp. 29–41). HELBLING, Rum/Innsbruck.
Westerlund, H. (2023). Kriisien ja epävarmuuksien ajan ekopoliittinen ammatillisuus musiikkikasvatuksessa. [Ecopolitical professionalism in music education in times of crises and insecurities]. In H. Partti & M.-L. Juntunen (Eds.) Musiikkikasvatus muutoksessa [Changing Music Education] (pp. 452–475). Sibelius Academy. University of the Arts Helsinki.
Westerlund, H. & Barrett, M. S. (2025, in print). Countering the ‘great regression’: expanding professional responsibility in music education. In A. Odendaal & D. Treacy (Eds.) Ecological transitions in and through music education. Springer.
Westerlund, H. & Barrett, M.S. (in print). The art of systems change in conservatoires and higher music education in an era of moral blindness. In H. Westerlund & M.S. Barrett (Eds.), Transforming music conservatoires and higher music education: The art of systems change. Routledge.
Westerlund, H. & Karlsen, S. (in press). What’s at the bottom of the iceberg? Changing mental models in higher music education. In H. Westerlund & M.S. Barrett (Eds.), Transforming music conservatories and higher music education: The art of systems change. Routledge.
Westerlund, H., Levänen, S. & Odendaal, A. (in press). The painfulness of transformation in higher music education: (Post)Luhmannian lessons on systems reflexivity. In H. Westerlund & M.S. Barrett (Eds.), Transforming music conservatories and higher music education: The art of systems change. Routledge.
Westerlund, H., Barrett, M.S., Odendaal, A., Treacy, D., Thomson, K. & Ilmola-Sheppard, L. (in press). What if? Sustainable development goals as provocations for transforming higher music education. In H. Westerlund & M.S. Barrett (Eds.), Transforming music conservatories and higher music education: The art of systems change. Routledge.
Westerlund, H., Laes, T. & López-Íñiguez, G. (2025). Toward Sustainability Beyond Advocacy: Systems Thinking for Unlocking the Transformative Powers of Music Education. Action, Theory and Criticism in Music Education 24 (7), 57–89.
Westerlund, H., Lehtinen-Schnabel, J. & Levänen, S. (2025, in print). Music education ’building’ bridges to the future. Language-aware choir for adult immigrants triggering transdisciplinary transitions towards sustainability. In A. Odendaal & D. Treacy (Eds.) Ecological transitions in and through music education. Springer.
Westerlund, H. & Odendaal., A. (2025). Expanding the ‘expert gaze’ of music education: Towards a transformative systems view. In T. Laes, G. Biesta & H. Westerlund (Eds.) The transformative politics of music education (pp. 26–42). Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781003403036-3
Westerlund, H., Treacy, D., & Thomson, K. (in press). ‘Anarchists we were!’ Music teacher education ‘dancing’ with the conservatory system. In H. Westerlund & M.S. Barrett (Eds.), Transforming music conservatories and higher music education: The art of systems change. Routledge.
Westerlund, H., Treacy, D., Thomson, K. & Odendaal, A. (2025). Music educators as imaginative designers for socially responsible transformation. In T. Laes, G. Biesta & H. Westerlund (Eds.) The transformative politics of music education (pp. 43–62). Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781003403036-4
Other publications
Thomson, K. & Treacy, D. S. (2024). Music education, professionalism, and eco-politics: Towards socio-ecological sustainability through changing mental models. Finnish Journal of Music Education, 27(1), 122–125.
Treacy, D. S. (2022). Appreciating situations of breakdown for researcher reflexivity. ARJ article by Danielle Treacy. AR+ Action Research.
Invited keynotes
Thomson, K.: Ecopolitics. NNME (Nordic Network for Music Education) Joint Master course, Socially, Ecologically, and Ethically Responsible Music Education, University of the Arts Helsinki, November 3-7, 2025, Kallio-Kuninkala, Finland.
Laes, T., López-Íñiguez, G. & Westerlund, H. Beyond Advocacy: Engaging with the Political in Music Education’. Collective keynote, performcd together with K. Thomson, D. Treacy, A. Odendaal, P. Palanchoke & A. Olarte. 36th International Society for Music Education World Conference, Helsinki, University of the Arts Helsinki, 28.7.–2.8.2024.
Westerlund, H. Why should children compose? From ego-logical to eco-logical rationality. Keynote in the European Association for Music in Schools (EAS), 9th ISME European Regional Conference, Lyon University, Université Lumière Lyon 2, France, May 24–27, 2023.
Westerlund, H. & Karlsen, S. What’s at the bottom of the iceberg? A dialogue on mental models and systems change in music and music education professionalism. Joint keynote in the 13th International Society for Philosophy of Music Education (ISPME) Symposium, Norwegian Academy of Music, Oslo, Norway, June 14–16, 2023.
Conference and seminar presentations
Barrett, M.S. & Westerlund, H. Generating positive friction: (not) a manifesto for ecopolitical music professionalism. In 2025 Asia-Pacific Symposium for Music Education Research, “Being and Becoming Musical in a Posthuman Era”, 9-11 July, Perth, Australia.
Barrett, M. S. (Panelist) (2024, July 28 – Aug 2). Effecting systems change through ecopolitical professionalism: From theory to practice. In Odendaal, A. (Chair) Ecologically responsible Music Education. Panel presentation at International Society for Music Education World Conference, Helsinki.
Laes, T., Treacy, D. S. & Thomson, K. (2023, May). Artists for a sustainable future: Art-science activism within higher music education. Paper presented at the Music, Research, and Activism conference, University of Helsinki, May 10–12, 2023.
Odendaal, A. (Chair) (2024, July 28 – Aug 2). Ecologically responsible Music Education. Panel presentation at International Society for Music Education World Conference, Helsinki.
Odendaal, A., Laes, T., Thomson. K., & Karlsen, S. (2025). How higher music education leadership matters in times of challenge. Panel presentation at NNRME conference in Hurdal, Norway, April 8–10, 2025.
Odendaal, A., Thomson, K., Treacy, D. (2025). What if? Sustainable development goals as provocations for transforming higher music education. Online seminar hosted by MASARA at the North-West University, Potchefstroom, May 6, 2025.
Thomson, K. (panelist) (2025, April) ‘Anarchists we were!’: Leaders of the Music Teacher Education programme ‘dancing’ with the conservatory system. In A. Odendaal, T. Laes, K. Thomson & S. Karlsen: How higher music education leadership matters in times of challenge. NNRME conference in Hurdal, Norway, April 8–10, 2025.
Thomson, K. (Panelist) (2024, July 28 – Aug 2). Music teacher education ‘dancing with the systems’: Changing mental models toward ecological responsibility in a conservatory environment. In Odendaal, A. (Chair). Ecologically responsible Music Education. Panel presentation at International Society for Music Education World Conference, Helsinki.
Thomson, K. & Treacy, D. S. (2021, October). Mapping visions of sustainability in music education. Invited presentation in the Seminar on Social Engagement & the Arts: Participation and Sustainability, Malmö, Sweden.
Thomson, K., Treacy, D., & Odendaal, A. (2025). What if? Sustainable development goals as provocations for transforming higher music education. Seminar hosted Music Education Department at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, May 28, 2025.
Treacy, D. S. (Panelist) (2024, July 28 – August 2). Music educators as imaginative ‘designers’ in higher music education: beyond conservatory silos. In T. Laes (chair), Beyond advocacy: Why music education needs transformative politics[Symposium]. 36th International Society for Music Education World Conference (ISME), Helsinki, Finland.
Treacy. D. S. (2022, November). Navigating modernity/coloniality in music education: The case of music in Nepali private schools. Invited paper presented at the Communality & the Arts: Place, Sustainability and Heritage seminar, Inter Arts Center, Malmö, November 8–9.
Treacy, D. S. & Thomson, K. (2022, November). The World in Motion ensemble as a case of imaginative design in music education for transformation. Invited paper presented at the Communality & the Arts: Place, Sustainability and Heritage seminar, Inter Arts Center, Malmö, November 8–9.
Treacy, D. S. & Westerlund, H. (2022, January). Gender exclusion and multicultural discourse: Activism through public pedagogy in Nepali music education. Paper presented at the Gender and Musicianship Study Days, University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland, January 24-25.
Westerlund, H. Systems thinking expanding music professionalism. CIPEM – Centre for Research in Music Psychology and Music Education – seminar. Music and Drama Department of the School of Education of the Porto Polytechnic Institute. March, 9, 2024. Porto, Portugal.
Westerlund, H. & Laes, T. Navigating public scholarship in music education research: beyond disciplinary professionalism. Presentation in the Beyond Advocacy: Why Music Education Needs Transformative Politics Symposium led by T. Laes. 36th International Society for Music Education World Conference, Helsinki, University of the Arts Helsinki, 28.7.–2.8.2024.
Westerlund, H. & Odendaal, A. (2024, July 28 – Aug 2). Expanding mental models in music education: Transformational praxis beyond the expert gaze. In Laes, T. (Chair) Beyond Advocacy: Why Music Education Needs Transformative Politics [Symposium]. International Society for Music Education World Conference, Helsinki.
Westerlund, H., Treacy, D. S., & Thomson, K. (2023, October). Music teacher education ‘dancing with the systems’: Changing the mental models of sedimented traditions in a conservatory environment. Paper presented at the Cultural Diversity in Music Education conference, North-West University, October 9–11, 2023.
Advisory board
Emily Achieng Akuno
Emily Achieng Akuno is professor of music with teaching and university administration experience at Kenyatta University in Kenya, University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, Maseno University andThe Technical University of Kenya. Currently, she serves as the Deputy Vice-Chancellor in charge of Academic Affairs at The Co-operative University of Kenya.
Emily trained as a performer-educator in Kenya, USA and the UK, Her research interests veer towards cultural relevance in music education. She is the editor and a contributing author of the (2019) Routledge published Music Education in Africa: Concept, Process and Practice. She is a former president of the International Music Council (IMC) and current President of the International Society for Music Education (ISME) as well as chair of the Music Education Research Group – Kenya (MERG-Kenya).
Gert Biesta
Gert Biesta is Professor of Public Education in the Centre for Public Education and Pedagogy at Maynooth University, Ireland, and Professor of Educational Theory and Pedagogy at the Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh, UK. In addition, he has a visiting professorship at the University of Agder, Norway, working across the departments of education, mental health and fine arts and crafts. He is currently also a visiting professor at Uniarts, Helsinki, Finland (Centre for Educational Research and Academic Development in the Arts). His work focuses on the theory of education and the theory and philosophy of educational and social research, with a particular interest in questions concerning curriculum, teaching, teacher education, citizenship and democracy, the arts, and religious education. Since 2020 he is a member of the National Scientific Curriculum Committee in the Netherlands, providing guidance to the Minister of Education on the future of the curriculum for primary and secondary schools. His work has so far appeared in 20 different languages. Recent books include: The Rediscovery of Teaching (Routledge 2017); Obstinate Education: Reconnecting School and Society (Brill-Sense 2019); Educational Research: An Unorthodox Introduction (Bloomsbury 2020); and World-Centred Education: A View for the Present (Routledge 2021). Personal website: www.gertbiesta.com
Sidsel Karlsen
Sidsel Karlsen is vice-principal for research and development as well as professor of music education at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Karlsen has published widely in international research journals, anthologies, and handbooks. Her research interests include, among other things, the sociology of music education, various aspects of musical gentrification, and cultural diversity in music education. She is co-editor of the recent books Musical gentrification: Popular music, distinction and social mobility (Routledge) as well as The politics of diversity in music education (Springer).
Collaboration