In July 2024, I was fortunate to receive a conference travel grant that supported me to attend the International Society for Music Education Community Music Activity pre-conference gathering and the main world conference held in Finland.  These bi-annual conferences, a cornerstone of music education and community music since the 1960s, bring together a diverse group of researchers and practitioners. As part of the conferences, I was selected to deliver two presentations and showcase a poster that drew from my scholarship work in community music and cultural policy.  

Having attended the events whilst undertaking my PhD, I knew how valuable these conferences were for supporting new opportunities for networking, building new partnerships, and considering new approaches to teaching and learning across a broad range of contexts. They were also a great place to disseminate my research. Hence, I was excited about the opportunities that attending this conference may afford me to develop my work at Manchester as a teacher and researcher.  

The Community Music Activity conference took place over three days and included various presentations, practical workshops, and discussion panels. One which stood out to me was a discussion around the tensions of community music practice within formalised institutions within Germany, an area that I explicitly touch upon within the cultural policy module I teach, but that often only locates the tension within UK institutions. Thus, hearing that this is pertinent within other international contexts has inspired me to bring these perspectives into the module by connecting with other researchers looking at these areas, beginning with the team I met at the conference. I believe this international perspective will be useful, particularly for international students, for supporting them to recognise how the content being taught is not only explicitly connected with UK cultural policymaking but has international traction and something that, as individuals entering the sector workforce, need to be aware of in the future.  

It is often the case with conferences that the time between presentations can be the most fruitful. The community music activity was the same, particularly through the opportunity to interact with other lecturers who are teaching and leading on reflective practice, an area that I focus on as placement course convenor in the Institute for Cultural Practices. We discussed some challenges of supporting students (and occasionally staff!) to understand reflective practice as a research method and how we can best support students to move towards a more critically reflective rather than descriptive approach in assignments. One approach, that was shared with me by a colleague, was integrating technology by asking students to pre-record audio or video reflective logs that could be shared with staff before a tutorial meeting. The staff member could then use this pre-recording to discuss how the student may integrate specific reflective models into their discussion. The individual shared how this had been particularly useful in their reflective practice teaching. Through discussion, I identified how a similar approach might work well for the reflective module I teach here at Manchester. We have devised a plan to connect and discuss how such an approach may be best integrated, and whether there are opportunities for shared research that could come from the dual employment of these approaches across two international contexts as a framework for supporting critical reflective practice teaching and learning.  

The main conference, held over five days, was extremely busy. Over 800 attendees and up to seven different presentation slots were scheduled at any one time. Having not participated in the main conference since pre-COVID, I found this quite overwhelming due to the sheer scale of the conference and the numerous presentations to choose from- there was so much diversity, and so much piqued my interest. My advice for anyone going in the future would be to take the time to carefully plan what they want to do and to remember that it is impossible to engage with everything!  

Attending and presenting at the main conference was a wonderful experience, and it allowed me to connect with new colleagues from around the world. For instance, I formed a connection with a colleague from the University of Melbourne, where we began to dream up potential future collaborations, building on the partnership links already in place by both institutions. Many of these could provide opportunities to connect our students and provide international dialogue, critical for broadening our students’ perspectives, particularly around arts, culture, and its place in society.  

Across the main conference, I found myself wanting to engage in the numerous discussions and presentations around decolonisation, and how we can further support the decolonisation of curriculum within our work as educators at all levels. I try hard to think about this when designing my course content. However, I still acknowledge that there are limitations in my teaching and that it is something that I need to continue to work on. I believe that as educators, we should constantly engage in thoughtful and reflective discussions to ensure that we are mindful of our own biases when designing curriculum content and the effects and impacts that this might have on students’ engagement and learning experience. Hence, having the space to attend and discuss these pertinent issues will be fruitful as I plan for the next academic year.  

It is difficult to summarise the impact and influence that attending this conference will have on my teaching and research in a short blog. I have formed connections and future points of collaboration that will be useful for supporting my teaching and enhancing my practices further. I have found the discussions around supporting critical reflective practice and decolonisation particularly thought-provoking. I will concentrate on these areas as I move forward into the next academic year and the courses I teach, looking critically at the content I teach and the support mechanisms in place across the course. 

Dr Ryan Humphrey, Art History and Cultural Practices 

Connect with Ryan on X: @ryanhumphrey20

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