Informal learning pedagogy has become a major topic within the international field of music education, due in no small part to Lucy Green's groundbreaking research on popular musicians' learning, as well as her subsequent efforts to turn her research findings into a pedagogy that can be implemented in comprehensive school music education. This has generated massive interest and attention among music education practitioners and scholars worldwide. With experience of studying and working within higher music education in the Nordic countries, the editors of this anthology, Sidsel Karlsen and Lauri Vakeva, are well acquainted with popular music-related informal learning pedagogies, which have formed an important aspect of comprehensive school music education in the Nordic countries for more than two decades. With this familiarity also comes a wish to contribute to the critical examination and further development of existing practices, by corroborating informal learning pedagogy in popular music from different angles. The introduction of this book explores different theoretical starting points for investigations of the formal-informal nexus. The following chapters, written by an international community of experienced music education scholars and practitioners, afford critical examinations of informal learning pedagogies from various perspectives, either theoretical or research-based. In the last chapter, Lucy Green paves the way for moving informal and aural learning into the traditional instrumental music lesson. Altogether, the anthology aims to explore some of the future prospects for music education with informal learning pedagogy as the focal point.
About the Author: Sidsel Karlsen is Professor of Music Education at Hedmark University College in Norway and Adjunct Professor at the Sibelius Academy in Finland. She received her PhD at Lulea University of Technology, Sweden in 2007. Dr Karlsen has published in Scandinavian as well as international research journals and she is a contributor to several international anthologies. Her research interests range from the social and cultural impact of music festivals, to multicultural music education, and the interplay between formal and informal contexts for music learning. Lauri Vakeva is Professor of Music Education at Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland. A co-author of two books, he has also published several book chapters and numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals, and has presented papers at international conferences in the fields of music education, musicology, music history and popular music studies. His main research interests cover Afro-American music, popular music pedagogy, history of popular music, pragmatist aesthetics, philosophy of music education, informal learning and digital music culture. Aside from his academic career, his work assignments have covered working as a musician, music journalist, general music teacher, and instrumental teacher.