‘What Is It That We’re Doing Here?’: Pedagogical Tensions, Uncertainties and Reflexivity in Higher Popular Music Education

This chapter focuses on a specific sector within the contemporary music ecosystem; music education. This has been suggested to be of particular importance given its conceptualisation as part of ‘the talent pipeline’ in producing both artists and wider music industry professionals. Presenting new empirical data, we reveal how a sample of Higher Popular Music Education (HPME) academics in the United Kingdom reflexively negotiate pedagogical uncertainties experienced working in this dynamic but relatively immature scholarly discipline. Drawing on semi-structured interviews, alongside the personal reflections of authors both working in the same field, interviewees are seen to ask themselves fundamental questions and confront profound pedagogical challenges: What should we teach this highly diverse and technologically astute cohort? How can we or should we assess the learning and the creativity of students? Even, at times, there was an existential questioning of the role of HPME is in the context of a contemporary employability agenda in HE, and uncertainty over how to best articulate the value of this kind of creative education. In response, we will articulate potential new avenues for consideration in the realm of HPME teaching, assessment, curriculum design, and industry-institution relations, and reflect on how this key domain can and should relate to other spheres of activity within the music ecosystem going forward.