Connecting the Social and the Musical: A Longitudinal Study of Swedish Preservice Music Teachers’ Social Positionings

In this article, we explore identity construction in specialist music teacher education. In this longitudinal study, we followed 11 preservice music teachers through their education for five years, 2016 to 2021, in a music teacher training program directed toward upper secondary schools in Sweden. For decades, music education researchers have identified tension between the music teacher and musician identities. This tension is today challenged by critical thinking concerning the rapid societal and cultural changes of late modern society and by the need to take social responsibility for music education in a broader context. The data for this report comprise 11 journal entries (designated “personal reflections” and written by each participant in their first year) and five focus group interviews, produced in three steps over five years. Throughout the data production, “past,” “present,” and “future” served as keywords. Content analysis focused on identity constructions was conducted using the concepts of social positioning and music identity. The findings show how the students gradually shifted their social positioning from being cultural bearers in local society to being music specialists, aiming to teach skilled and motivated young people. However, this gradual change was not linear but was multilayered, complex, and contradictory.