Gender-equal Options for Musical Becomings in the Future Music Classroom: A Pilot Study Exploring "Thinking Outside the Box"

Gender inequality is a problem in western music education, but efforts to solve this problem in practice have thus far been insufficient. By adopting a post-human theoretical framework, this pilot study explores how music practitioners' visions of a gender-equal classroom can be used to question, reverse, and reconstruct gendered traditions within music as an educational field. The aim is to increase knowledge about how gender-equal options for musical becomings could be realized in the future music classroom. As there is a lack of post-human studies in music education inspired by an explorative design, the current project offers a new methodological approach. The findings reveal entanglements of gender-equal identities through diverse socio-material and material representations. This gives recognition to the students in representing identity and gender, genre and style, enabling liquid self-images and identities to be shaped and re-shaped seamlessly.