ABSTRACT
Research conducted outside as well as inside music educational settings show that Simone de Beauvoir’s theories can help to explain and provide means of change for situations where traditional gender structures risk being conserved. In the Swedish educational system, gender equality is classed as a key area for sustainable development. In this chapter, the authors present, discuss, and reflect upon girls’ experiences of music educational settings, using a collaborative narrative reanalysis of formerly produced data. The chapter draws on de Beauvoir’s concepts of immanence (passivity), transcendence (activity), and freedom. The results show that girls’ experiences in the music classroom appear as both immanent and transcendent, but that immanence is the more common choice of action. A conclusion of the analyzed results is that music teachers should engage in creating situations where girls feel encouraged to transcend in the music classroom.
