Exploring student voice on music through collage

ENIn recent years, we have heard increasing calls for a stronger student voice in exploring the lives of children and youth and in designing and organising educational processes. Incorporating student voices into the discourse of music education is important for creating communication- and collaboration-based educational processes, evaluating different perspectives, initiating change, and making music education more democratic and accessible to all. To hear student voice in music education, we conducted art-based research focused on one of its methods, i.e. collage and its narrative. 37 participants of the Lithuanian Music Olympiad were asked to prepare a collage of at least 15 pictures/symbols illustrating their experience in music. Thirty-seven collages and their narratives became the basis for the data analysis. The research evidenced that students positioned themselves in music as active learners, linking their experience to a specific musical activity and/or instrument. The emotional relationship between music and musical activity was the most important feature of the student voice. The results of the research allowed us to provide recommendations for improving the quality of music education: inclusion of emotional variables into the teaching-learning process, development of practice-based educational strategies, and initiating continuous discussion with students concerning what and how it should be taught in music lessons. Keywords: student voice, music education, art-based research, collage, narrative.