Collaboratively navigating liminality in music education doctoral studies

Abstract

The doctoral research road is often a rocky one, and many candidates, if not all, undergo significant transformations in terms of not only their learning and research skills, but also their individual worldviews and identities. While these transformations may be incremental and only recognizable in hindsight, they may also be sudden and involve considerable personal struggle (Meyer & Land, 2003; Wisker et al., 2010). The transitory states of such transformations in doctoral studies, states of not being what one was, but not yet being what one aims to become, have been referred to as “liminal” (Kiley, 2009; Meyer & Land, 2005). As these liminal states of in-between are inherently uncomfortable and require often extended engagements with uncertainty, questions may be raised as to how doctoral programs can support candidates in navigating these liminal states, both as individuals and as collaborative cohorts. Together with both experienced scholars and a number of doctoral candidates themselves, Professor Heidi Westerlund (henceforth referred to by her first name as is the usual practice between Heidi and her students) has conducted some of the most significant developmental work and research into how university programs can meet the needs of contemporary music education doctoral candidates (e.g. Rikandi, Karlsen & Westerlund, 2010; Westerlund & Karlsen, 2013; Westerlund, 2014). Drawing upon her expertise in John Dewey’s theories of educational democracy, Heidi began developing the music education doctoral program at the Sibelius Academy in response to what she saw as an overreliance on the traditional instrumental pedagogical master-apprentice model (Rikandi et al., 2010). This master-apprentice tradition fostered “competition and a lack of mutual trust among the doctoral students as well as a too one-sided reliance on professors as the only sources of knowledge” (p. 167). Challenging this tradition towards more collaborative and innovative ways of working, this doctoral program has continued to evolve, offering candidates from Finland and around the world opportunities to not only meet the needs of, but envision new ways of being 21st century scholars.