ABSTRACT
The arts are increasingly seen as having the potential to not only adapt to change but also be forerunners of transformative change in and for society. Leadership researcher Sandra Waddock (2021) contends that “artists can help us all ‘see’ into the future that is needed now, particularly where system transformation is needed” (p. 3). However, it remains unclear how musicians and music educators might enhance societal transformation by responding to “wicked problems” (Rittel and Webber, 1973), such as global migration and geopolitical and climate change, and the consequential social-ecological challenges of increasing inequalities, different kinds of exclusion, and power asymmetries in diversifying societies. Although the turn towards broader societal and moral responsibility is now emerging in other professional fields (see, e.g. Cribb and Gewirtz, 2015), it has been argued that teachers, in general, are still mainly educated into the mastery of disciplinary knowledge (Karseth, 2011, pp. 161–162). Moreover, while those working in the educational sector are often “blamed for failing to respond to changed circumstances in appropriate ways” (Bates and Townsend, 2007, p. 727), in higher music education and the western conservatory tradition, the long-established discourse of artistic autonomy as the basis for professionalism has disconnected these large societal problems from disciplinary practices (see, e.g., Reimer, 1989, 2009; Varkøy, 2013). Music educators trained within these contexts may therefore not be accustomed to engaging with wider societal challenges, even when there is a strong will or demand to do so.
