Research Shorts: Sustainable Teaching Practices in a Music Outreach Project in Southwark

Today we’re meeting Javier Rivas and Esther Cavett, to hear about their collaboration and research into collaborative learning practices. In this project, university music students worked with primary school children at a community music school called the Academy in Southwark, London. In their work, they argue that ‘collaborative practices have the potential to shape alternative ways of thinking about the self, music education, and society at large.’  

Their key findings suggest ‘that participation in collaborative music-making initiatives like the Academy fosters self-reflection, personal growth, and cultural exchange.’ Javier and Esther particularly hope that their research will ‘resonate with other practitioner-researchers in community music and music education, as well as academics or musicians interested in the relationship between music and social justice.’ 

In their work, they use the concept of a ‘rhizome’. If you’re a gardener you might already know this term in a different context – it refers to a type of root system, like mushrooms or bamboo, that spreads underground in multiple, unpredictable directions. In academic writing, it’s used as a metaphor for ideas and concepts that grow and connect in non-linear ways. This is different to say, a sunflower seed, which grows with a tap root and then a stem reaching upwards in a linear way. In contrast, rhizomatic thinking is messier but interconnected, where ideas branch out and can’t be easily separated from one another.  

Javier and Esther explain,

‘Using the metaphor of a ‘rhizome’, we conceptualise how participants view their work at the Academy as entangled in an organic network shaped by their past, current, and future educational journeys; their gendered, racial and class identities and values; their neurodivergence; and their mentoring relationships.’  

I asked them to tell us more about their participants’ attitudes, which they describe as rhizomatic, and they explained that through them ‘participants connect ethical forms of musicianship and education at the Academy with other aspects of their lives, therefore contributing to social transformation and civic imagination beyond the context of the music classroom.’  

I asked them how they did their research: ‘We used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), a qualitative interviewing method, for our research. Our choice of methodology reflects our interest in understanding the personal lived experience of Academy teachers, and how they ascribe meaning to their time working in the Academy, their relationships, and particularly their understanding of teaching and learning.’ 

The project raises some interesting findings about who benefits from community music interventions, Jose and Ether explain ‘We found that it was not only primary school children, but also parents and carers, university students, institutions, and local communities who are mutually affected by these interventions.’ However, as they explain:  

‘Our findings also complicate simplistic understandings of music education as beneficial for emotional wellbeing. While there is evidence of music’s potential to support wellbeing, our study shows that this is highly situational. Academy teachers become aware and discriminate between positive and negative dynamics in the music classroom. Their own identities, values, and life experiences crucially shape how they make these judgments and decisions in the music classroom and beyond.’  

Javier is a writer, teacher, musician, researcher and PhD candidate at King’s College London. He is also a music teacher in a variety of settings, at KCL and at King’s Music Academy, KCL’s music outreach programme, where he works as a project manager. Esther Cavett is a Senior Research Fellow in Music at King’s College London and College Lecturer in Music at Somerville, Jesus, and Lincoln Colleges. She works and performs the piano with various musical charities dedicated to improving access to and broadening appreciation of music. It was a pleasure to hear about their work! 

Read their article 

• Javier Rivas and Esther Cavett, “‘It’s like You’re an Activist’: Sustainable Teaching Practices in a Music Outreach Project in London,” International Journal of Community Music 17, no. Music Making and Sustainable Futures (September 2024): 383–402, doi:10.1386/ijcm_00114_1.  

Read more  

• An earlier collaboration between Javier and Esther, on the King’s Music Academy during the COVID-19 pandemic: https://doi.org/10.1386/ijcm_00043_1 
• Learn more about Javier at KCL, LinkedIn and academia.edu 
• Learn more about Esther here and her research here 

Interview by Dr Sarah K. Whitfield, Research Manager for Music Mark