First International Conference on
Narrative Inquiry in Music Education a Success
Sandra Stauffer, Evelyn Smith Professor of music education (middle), and Margaret Barrett, professor of education at the University of Tasmania (right).
Sandra Stauffer, Evelyn Smith Professor of music education, and her colleague Margaret Barrett, professor of education at the University of Tasmania in Australia, have been interested in narrative inquiry as a means of examining music teaching and learning music. "Narrative inquiry is relatively new to music education," Stauffer, conference coordinator, said. "We recognized a need for people interested in narrative to meet and build a community of scholars, and to increase our own knowledge and understanding about how narrative can be used in our discipline."
In response to this need, the Herberger College School of Music hosted Narrative Soundings, the first international conference on Narrative Inquiry in Music Education (NIME) at Arizona State University, April 5-7. The conference brought more than 100 scholars from 10 countries including New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Finland, Sweden, Germany and the United States. "We had a fabulous international gathering of scholars," Stauffer said. "We brought new scholars and established scholars into a single setting to learn from each other. The conference was also a tremendous opportunity for doctoral students to meet established scholars from around the world."
Faculty and doctoral students from other areas of study on the ASU campus were invited to join the conference. "Students and faculty from Art, Theatre and Film and the College of Education also attended various sessions," Stauffer said. "We extended the invitation so other constituencies other than the School of Music could benefit from this event as well."
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From left: Wayne Bowman, Brandon University, Canada and Cathy Benedict, New York University. |
The purpose of the NIME conference was to consider the current and potential contributions of narrative inquiry to music education and to advance the philosophical, theoretical and practical basis of narrative inquiry in music education. Keynote speakers for the event included Margaret Barrett, who also co-convened and planned the conference with Stauffer; Tom Barone, Arizona State University, USA; Wayne Bowman, Brandon University, Canada; Liora Bresler, University of Illinois, USA; Jean Clandinin, University of Alberta, Canada; and Marie McCarthy, University of Maryland, USA. In addition to keynote speakers, the conference included presentations of papers, symposium sessions featuring multiple related presentations, and Narrative Gallery sessions in which works in progress were presented.
Stauffer hopes to make the NIME conference a regular occurrence. "We had excellent support from the university and very positive responses from those who attended. The quality of the keynote speeches and the papers was excellent." She indicated that a second conference would likely occur in the next few years.
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