Teaching and learning in music education – a meta-synthesis

This article reports a meta-synthesis of 14 qualitative studies on how teachers can support students' musical learning. The aim of the article is twofold: to (1) contribute to empirically grounded knowledge in music education, and (2) advance the methodological development of meta-synthesis in qualitative research. All included studies have a common unit of analysis: teacher–student interaction. In the synthesis of the studies, four aspects emerged as crucial for students' musical learning: (1) the framing of the teaching, (2) taking the learners' perspectives, (3) teachers' scaffolding strategies, and (4) representations of sounding music. Further, three pedagogical tensions were identified: (a) using local versus expansive language, (b) following the students' or the teacher's perspectives and interests, and (c) ways of approaching musical content through representations. The article also contributes to the methodological development of meta-synthesis by elaborating on how some of the challenges involved are tackled.