ABSTRACT
Music is a powerful process and resource that can shape and support who we are and wish to be. We can use music in a range of ways to perform our inner selves, including to experiment, form, define, maintain, disrupt, and repair who we are. Music, in particular, holds great significance to adolescents’ identities and can support their mental health and well-being. There is a clear correlation between music learning and development and adolescent identity construction, warranting a need to reconsider the potential and responsibilities of secondary school music education. Class music, also known as classroom music or general music, can serve as a foundational and uniting music learning experience for students’ multiple musical identities and presents an opportunity to positively shape and support their identity work. This chapter introduces the study and provides a brief overview of the conceptual framework adopted in this book. Musical identities of teenage boys are examined using the theories of identity work and possible selves, where music values and uses are powerful motivating processes of identity construction. The research setting and featured boys and their parents will be introduced, along with the narrative inquiry research design and innovative draw and tell interview method.
