Øystein Kvinge is Associate Professor in music at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. In this post, you will get to know him and his recent work, as a teacher educator, researcher and performing artist. Happy easter to all of our readers, hope you are safe and well!
Hello, I am Øystein Kvinge
At the time of writing this, I am trying to wrap up things on my to-do list before Easter, which is just a few days away. However, Norway is entering a new period of strict lockdown and me and my family may end up spending another holiday at home in Bergen. This peculiar way of living and working seems to continue, unfortunately. Most likely, teaching and meetings will continue to take place online until the end of term.
I work at the music department of Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. My time is shared half and half between working on the campus in Bergen and on Stord. As long as I teach and meet online, the geographical distance is not noticeable – I enter Zoom either from home or from my office in Bergen. I teach and supervise students, who reside in various places in the region, in various programmes: some do a two year study in music pedagogy, some study music education within a master programme in creative teaching and learning processes. Others have embarked on what we refer to as cycle II, the final 2 years of the new Norwegian general teacher education (GTE). Cycle 2 is where the students develop their master thesis. The revised GTE was launched in autumn 2017 and the students I teach are as such the first to enter this stage.
It is good to be closely involved in the new teacher education as it challenges the staff to see how music as a subject fits within the overall ideas and structures that constitute the revised GTE. Surely, this is relevant for my work as a member of the research team of FUTURED. Having completed my PhD in autumn 2019, I became a member of the research team in mid 2020. Currently, I am part of the work package that analyses the curricular plans for music in teacher education at various Norwegian institutions (WP1). We also analyse the most recent job announcements, national wide, that recruit music teachers in GTE. Our purpose is to obtain insight into what values and ideologies that are possible to trace in those texts. We will be using critical discourse analysis for our analytical framework. From my perspective, I find it particularly interesting to experience how my involvements as a music teacher educator influences on my work as a researcher, and vice versa. FUTURED is relevant and offers perspectives on the realities of teacher education as it continues to evolve.
Usually, I perform with bands in and around Bergen, but due to the lockdown, such activities are put on hold. As a substitute, I study online at Berklee to get an Ableton Live Professional Certificate. These days are particularly busy, as I am about to submit my final assignment for the module on performing with technology. In this regard, Easter holiday at home may come in handy.