ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses stereotyped gender performances in music education by looking at the complex interplay between genre practice, music instrument, educational context, and cultural capital. The objective is to problematize the interplay in relation to an often taken for granted mindset that forwards gender as a dichotomy. By adapting the concepts of binary oppositions and third space, inspired by Jacques Derrida’s writings on deconstruction, Borgström Källén explores the inertness that is related to attempts to change gendered performances in music education. As a gender theoretical framework, Judith Butler and Raewyn Connell are applied. The empirical data that underpins the analysis is derived from an ethnographic study conducted in Swedish upper secondary schools, specializing in music, completed in 2014. The participants were 71 students, aged 16–19. A suggestion presented for enhancing third spaces in relation to gender constructions in musical learning, is to encourage teaching that, regardless of genre, focuses on music unfamiliar to the students. Another suggestion is to support music teaching that emphasizes experimentation and work in progress, that is, teaching less accentuated on performance in front of an audience.
