| الملخص: |
This thesis discusses contemporary British music conservatoires and their practices, as experienced from alumni perspectives. Using the key themes of notions of 'talent', curriculum, and health and wellbeing to provide a contextual focus, qualitative data gathering is undertaken via interviews and informal discussions, making full use of my 'insider' status as I simultaneously work alongside fellow alumni as a professional musician in the field. An additional key theme of this thesis is that of social background, as I look at social dimensions of pedagogy and learning, social concerns in terms of social status and class, and how social position in wider society determines alumni experience of educational practices. I apply Stuart Hall's theories of identity (1990) and his concepts of hegemony and articulation to discuss power dynamics in conservatoires using the method of discourse analysis. I also apply the theoretical ideas of Pierre Bourdieu, particularly his concepts of habitus, capital and field, and hierarchies within educational settings (1979, 1989), putting these in conversation with Hall and thus generating both a cultural and class-based analysis of the ethnographic data. In doing so, this thesis adds to a longitudinal study of conservatoire-based research through building on existing findings to show that these institutions are shaped by social concerns, and that there are social hierarchies which impact on students' embodied experiences of learning and, critically, their notions of identity. Within an analytical autoethnographic framework as presented by Leon Anderson (2006), I also critically reflect on my own experiences as a conservatoire alumna and subsequent music professional, positioning my account in relation to those shared by my interview subjects. The overall aim of this thesis is to discuss alumni experiences of UK conservatoire practices spanning almost three decades, from 1990 to 2018. This is to ascertain how these institutions are responding to alumni concerns regarding changing pedagogic practices for the future, given their rich knowledge of the field as working professional musicians. Ultimately, this thesis critically reflects on these issues to address the gap between intent (in institutional delivery) and reality (in student experience) in conservatoire training and how institutional practices affect students' notions of identity, both within and beyond conservatoire walls. |
