ABSTRACT
Research concerning music development would benefit from an analytical tool that takes into consideration the interconnected elements of culture, environmental structure, and relationship to formations of mind and action. The diverse musical learning processes and behaviors present in the classroom and their development involve a range of interconnected interactions. The classroom is a multifaceted environment where individual identities, dispositions, social and historical perspectives, and pedagogical processes exist. Because of these complexities, the researcher must select a methodology that accounts for individual realities but also attributes collective understanding. This methodology must also consider how musical learning takes place, and its relationship to wider socio-cultural elements that shape development. Within this chapter we propose that Activity Theory (AT) (Engeström, Miettenen, & Punamaki, 1999) is an analytical methodology that provides a lens through which to explore these interactions, and one which also takes into account aspects of cognition.
