In Meditation XVII from Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, John Donne (1624) wrote: “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main” (¶ 1). This passage brings forth a theme relevant to school music education today. Too often, music teachers see themselves and their classrooms as an island. Such islands become places whereby students are initiated into a musical culture bound to strictly controlled pedagogic systems and ordered curricula (Lines, 2005). These cultures perpetuate totalising metanarratives – housing grand theories which espouse a “transcendent and universal truth” – that can dismiss the power of the individual event and often ignore the heterogeneity of human existence (Lyotard, 1979, p. xvii). These metanarratives have held firm in school music education despite significant societal, educational and technological changes. Lyotard (1979) proposed that such metanarratives must give way to petis récits, or more localised narratives, which collectively contribute to locally legitimated knowledge. Such localised narratives can position school music education as a piece of the continent.

To continually refine and improve my own practice as a music teacher, I have committed to ongoing professional reflection. This has recently extended to doctoral studies through which I critically examined my own philosophical position on music education and how I translated this into practice. Initial reflections uncovered a degree of misalignment between my philosophical intentions and how they were enacted. I identified elements of my practice that were somewhat isolated to a classroom context. I saw many students engage with music outside of the classroom in ways meaningful to them; however, inside the classroom these same students did not often locate meaningful experience. These students saw ‘music’ and ‘school music’ as very different things. Was my classroom an island? Music educator Émile Jaques-Dalcroze once stated, that “there are not two classes of music … there is only one music”, and this statement alongside my own observations and reflections brought forth a welcome sense of professional dissonance that I endeavored to resolve (as cited in Swanwick, 1994, p. 93).

To investigate the conditions necessary for meaningful school music education to occur, I embarked on a year-long action research project with one of my Year 8 classes. Action research begins with everyday experience, and is concerned with the development of actionable knowledge, rather than academic theory. Developing such knowledge required democratic, collaborative and inclusive engagement with the students through shared practical and theoretical discourse and reflection. The action research process opened up new communicative spaces in which dialogue and development flourished (Reason & Bradbury, 2006). Through such dialogue, all views were taken as a contribution to understanding the situation, and various accounts and critiques created plural structures. This methodology honoured localised narrative and respected the heterogeneity of student musical experience; it drew us together as part of the main.

Throughout the project, rich data were collected through surveys, observations, formal interviews, informal classroom dialogue, reflective statements, and student work samples. Project content aside, the students were extremely willing to provide their thoughts on our practice throughout the research process, as highlighted in the following focus-group interview excerpts:

“It’s so great that you care about what we think.” (Nic)

“I like how you listen and ask us how we feel about the stuff we do. You actually try to understand where we’re coming from.” (Ariel)

“It’s so good that I can bring in ideas from how I do music at home to school and share them.” (Bennett)

Such dialogue also combatted assumptions I had made about student engagement, as this informal discussion with Luke highlights:

Me: I know that you probably don’t really connect with some of the things that we do, but this is your chance to show me what you like. I know you love music, but you don’t like school music…

Luke: I like pretty much all of what we do, I’m just no good at it!

The symmetrical dialogue underpinning the project empowered the students by positioning their voice to the fore. An acknowledgement and honouring of the student voice informed a co-authoring of pedagogic strategies that enhanced the quality of action in our classroom. Such dialogue challenged metanarratives that were inhibiting meaningful school music education, and contributed to locally legitimated knowledge.

Teachers who adopt action research can realign their classrooms as ‘a piece of the continent, a part of the main.’ As Kincheloe (2012) argues, “teachers must join the culture of researchers if a new level of educational rigor [sic] and quality is ever to be achieved” (p. 18). Action research encourages teachers to critique their own practice with a view to applying the understandings gained to improve future praxis. The student voice is influential in this critique.