Shifting lights through the interstices: Extending notions of what it means to learn music in higher education

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore interstitial spaces in higher music education. Interstitial spaces are small-scale settings where individuals interact around common activities. Drawing from the learning experiences of three students, the disparate feelings that students have within the interstices are unpacked. Specifically, we lean on Michel Foucault’s notions of power and hierarchy as a way to explore the dynamics in the teaching and learning relationships between students, and how the power that institutional structures might wield could shape the pocket conversations taking place. In the context of higher music education, we explore the ways that such spaces offer special moments where students see themselves in new ways. We explore how Mezirow’s theory of transformative learning might latch on to the potential that these interstitial spaces offer. We argue that potentials for transformative learning encounters described by the three students seem to be situated within interstitial spaces. The article considers what it means to be in the peripheral locations of student learning and contributes to the need to revisit interstices as an important location to understand how knowledge and creative interactions can be made in higher music education.