Enhancing professionalism through collaboration between music schools and a university

Music schools across Europe are currently facing the challenge of developing their practices in response to public, political, and scholarly debate about their aims and responsibilities. This chapter argues that it can be beneficial for music schools to partner with universities to support practice development, and it describes a way of working where music school teachers connect with each other and one or several researchers for reflection and inquiry, aiming to enhance collaborative professionalism. The collaboration model features small-scale development projects where teachers work with a university researcher over a longer period of time (6-12 months) to study specific questions or situations that require attention and change. In the example described, all partners increased their knowledge of the conditions needed for excellent musical teaching and learning, and gained a deeper understanding of how music school students and teachers can find meaning in their activities through the complex webs of social contexts, relationships, and interactions where musical learning takes place. These insights suggest that as complexity becomes an inherent feature of music education in contemporary societies, alliances between music schools and universities contribute in important ways to knowledge production that both music schools and wider society agree is both relevant and trustworthy.