Who Is Brokering the Gap?
or How Does Music-Didactic Research Find Its Way into Music-Didactic Teaching?
Music teaching and the associated discipline of music didactics is often described as a ‘poorly structured domain’ (Puffer, 2021, p. 14) due to its strong practical orientation, as well as its weak scientific foundation and weak networking with related disciplines (Huber et al., 2021; Kranefeld, 2021). Accordingly, incorporating research findings from relevant disciplines such as music education into the subject- didactic training of teachers is a challenge (Blanchard & Huber, 2014).
Theoretical approach
Based on Shavelson's (2020) considerations on ‘Brokering the Gap’, and the assumption that teaching should not be unidirectional but multi-perspective and reciprocal way, this contribution discusses how the gap between practical orientation and scientific foundation can be bridged in the field of music didactics. As Shavelson also assumes that this can only happen through participatory processes, I argue that local time-spaces (Joyce, K. E., & Cartwright, N. 2020) are needed in which the transfer of research and application can be organised according to the specific circumstances, such as content, formats and structures of the respective didactic events.
Empirical and methodological approach
Based on interviews with lecturers, a possible (successful) transfer of research knowledge in a continuing education programme is reconstructed. Subsequently, the findings are then compared with an auto-sociological analysis of the author's experience as a potential mediator (or broker). As Bourdieu describes this process as participatory objectification, which involves a continuous comparison of critical self-reflection and objectification of one's own everyday (social) experiences (Bourdieu, 2002/2017, p. 133 in Martinsich, 96), the aim of ‘the return to one's own person” (Rieger-Ladich & Grabau, 2018, p. 791 in Martinsich, 2024, S. 96) is to access implicit knowledge. This opens up the field in which the impact of participants (learners) and the self-assessment of the educational researchers as a ‘broker function’ can be worked out.