Systems Analysis and the Lyon Model of Music Education

Introduction

The French music educators’ participation in international research collaboration is still rare, and the field at large is not aware of the recent developmental work conducted by music educators in France. The French situation differs radically from the Finnish context where research and international visibility has been part of music teacher education since the beginning of 1980s. Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, the only university-level music school in Finland, has a strong music education doctoral education program, and half-a-dozen music education postdoctoral researchers work at the university in collaboration with stakeholders.

ArtsEqual project provides an interdisciplinary environment for such research. ArtsEqual consortium, funded by the Strategic Research Council of the Academy of Finland throughout the years 2015-2021, includes nearly 100 affiliated researchers in music, theatre, dance, fine arts and other disciplines. It investigates the Finnish arts and arts education service system from the perspective of equality and accessibility.

Such perspectives have been crucial in Lyon Conservatoire, however, with no research involvement. In Lyon Conservatoire research has been recently introduced as part of the professional development by Dr Galmiche, one of the teachers and organisers of the AÏCO system. In AÏCO, the conservatoire and primary schools have been developing music education practices in close institutional and interprofessional collaboration to better include children from non-privileged areas of the city.

Workshop and related publications

The project consists of a five day workshop and related publications. The collaboration and results of the workshop serve as material to the publications within the project.

The 5-day workshop ‘Systems Analysis and the Lyon Model of Music Education’ took place in November 16-20, 2019 in Lyon, organised by Lyon Conservatoire (Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional), the Sibelius Academy and the ArtsEqual research consortium of the University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland.

The workshop was divided in different sections with relevant division of labor to ensure that all objectives were effectively met. The workshop report will be published in the Finnish Journal of Music Education; the research outcomes in the ISME conference proceedings; and the cross-national collaboration is made visible on the ArtsEqual website.

The objectives of the workshop

• Observation, school visits and presentations to share knowledge and understanding of the AÏCO system and other innovations in Lyon Conservatoire based on the The Lyon Model of Cultural Work.
• Research presentations on theorizing interprofessional / institutional collaboration to share ArtsEqual research on institutional social innovations and systems analysis in the Finnish music school context.
• Half-a-day workshops (3) to create systems analyses of AÏCO/other Lyon practices together with a systems analysis expert.
• Strengthen mutual scholarly collaboration and networking to establish research collaboration between the Lyon Conservatoire and the Sibelius Academy music education researchers.
• Preparing research dissemination in a joint presentation/panel (submissions in November 2019) for the International Society of Music Education (ISME) World Conference to be held in Helsinki in August 2020.  The event, however, was cancelled in Spring 2020

Participants

Core participants from CRR, France (10)

• Dr Martin Galmiche : “musicien intervenant”, coordinator of the AÏCO system and coordinator of the CLUSTER (pedagogical and artistic research group at CRR)
• Cécile Richard : head of culture development of CRR
• Aline Brévier : head of “musiciens intervenants” department of CRR.
• Christophe Truant (harp), Laurent Picard (violin), Valérie Lewandowski (flute), Olivier Hue (oboe), Benoît Morel (cello), Aurélie Burgos (flute) : instrument professors in the AÏCO system.
• Diane Delzant (CRR, France) : “musicienne intervenante” in the AÏCO system

Other french participants (13+)

• Instrument professors (CRR) : Anne-Elysabeth Tauleigne, Aude Buet, Sophie Boeuf, Laure Zehmann, Florence Gajda, Aurélie Coueffé, Sylvie Dalmais, Lionel Avot
• Musiciens intervenants (CRR) : Julien Ouillon, Laetitia Gineste
• Head of danse department (CRR) : Nathalie Delassis
• Danse / theatre professor (CRR) : Kerrie Szuch
• From association “Léthé Musicale” : Nathalie Rochet
• Participants from training programs in Lyon involved in art pedagogy (to be named).
• Presenters from City of Lyon and Metropole (to be named).

Finnish participants

• Professor Heidi Westerlund
• Professor Lauri Väkevä
• Professor Marja-Leena Juntunen
• Postdoctoral researchers:  Dr Tuulikki Laes, Dr Hanna Nikkanen, Dr Anna Kuoppamäki
• Dr Leena Ilmola-Sheppard, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis Laxenburg, (Austria)

Principal investigators

Professor Westerlund is a music education researcher and the leader of the ArtsEqual consortium and Visions -research group that investigates arts institutions from systems perspective. Professors Väkevä and Juntunen have led the ArtsEqual research group that investigates social innovations in the Finnish music schools. Dr Laes, Dr Nikkanen and Dr Kuoppamäki are ArtsEqual researchers who investigate institutional resilience and interprofessional collaboration for instance between comprehensive schools and music schools. Dr Ilmola-Sheppard work for the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis Laxenburg, Austria and has been consulting the ArtsEqual researchers since 2016.

Dr. Martin Galmiche is a musician in schools and the organiser of the new AÏCO course at Lyon conservatoire (Apprentissage Instrumental et Invention Collective, i.e. instrumental learning and collective Invention). His previous researches were on theoretical physics of geophysical fluid dynamics in the frame of the dynamical systems theory. He now organises a new pedagogical and artistic research group at Lyon conservatoire (CRR), called “Le Cluster”.