‘Music is my Oxygen’: an Exploration of Bioecological Influences on Pathways to University Music Study in Australia

Abstract

Informed by the perspectives of the participants, this study explores the influences on students’ decision to study music at university in Australia, and the music pathway learning experiences that facilitate that choice. Students’ interest in music, and what that means to them in terms of types of motivation, bio/social systems or ecologies comprised of intra- and interpersonal influences, and self-efficacy are a focus. By exploring students’ perspectives of these systems, sub-systems and their related social interfaces, I identify the enabling influences or factors that have shaped their music development journeys prior to their university music study. Consideration of the relevant literature through a policy enactment theory lens (Ball, Maguire & Braun 2012), prompted a re-conceptualisation of the bioecological systems model (Bronfenbrenner and Ceci 1994) and later social interface model (Pettigrew, Segrott, Ray & Littlecott 2018) to produce a new research model. The model positions a hierarchy of enabling influences, as revealed by the investigation, within respondents’ individual music identity, music culture and human bioecological systems conceptual framework. Exploration of participants’ enabling influences on their interest in music and their music pathways experiences were investigated using quantitative, Likert-scale data, with participants’ enabling influences regarding their decision to study music at university investigated using qualitative, open-ended data sourced from semi-structured survey and interview questions. The findings of the study were conclusive in that the most enabling influences identified by the respondents’ perspectives regarding music pathway experiences, decision to study music at university and interest in music, were ‘school music experience,’ ‘identity/passion for/love of music’ and ‘school music learning’ respectively. These were conceptually situated in the music microculture. The next most enabling influences revealed for pathways/decision/interest were ‘private music tuition,’ ‘music teachers’ and ‘listening to music at home’ respectively, and situated in the music exoculture. The third most enabling influences revealed for pathways/decision/interest were ‘private music experiences,’ ‘ambition to improve as a musician’ and ‘private music tuition’ respectively, situated in the music macroculture. Based on the findings of this phenomenological, mixed-methods study, it is intended that the active bioecological agents involved in the students’ pre-university systems will benefit from the identification of enabling influences with regard to music educational curriculum, pedagogy, and structural and policy decision-making to support those pathways. The findings of the study have major implications regarding the provision of Music education in schools across Australia. Similarly, the findings reveal important implications for the implementation of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) subjects in schools, or more cogently, the implementation of an authentically integrated Arts STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) as a more effective means of securing increased student engagement in learning, improved learning outcomes, and the realisation of broader national social and economic policy imperatives. The potential transferability of the model for use in other micro-, exo- and macro-cultural contexts within human bioecological systems, as discovered and defined in the study, was also explored and is recommended for consideration regarding further research.