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Mutual Hospitality

Intersubjective understanding depends on translation. Two highlights from a research conference held in Muttenz in early May illustrate what this might mean for music education.

Andrea Ferretti & Jürg Huber (translation: AI)  - Aug. 24, 2026

Translation has never been as easy as it is today: AI-powered programs deliver results for any language in seconds, seemingly making universal understanding possible. Paul Ricoeur, however, has already pointed out that the perfect translation is an illusion and advocates for linguistic hospitality between one’s own language and foreign languages. This is a particularly compelling idea for music and music education, where forms of knowledge that are embodied and non-verbal come into play. He set the tone for the music education research conference, which took place on May 8–9 in Muttenz. Two articles serve as examples of how research can highlight translation services and provide them itself.

Collective Beliefs

How can research bring implicit knowledge to the surface and thus make it available for reflection? In a project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation on music education in high schools, a research approach was adopted that involved group discussions, which were analyzed using the Documentary Method developed by Ralf Bohnsack. In his analysis, David Lichtsteiner was thus able to identify shared action-guiding orientations among teachers. Among other things, these included the central importance of shared experiences as both a means and an end, performances as the linchpin of instruction, the unquestioningly accepted positive effect of music education, and complaints about a lack of foundational training in elementary school. Complementing this, Christoph Marty pursued an ethnographic approach. Through participant observation of classroom lessons, he explored how school music practice in high schools is jointly constructed by all participants and what forms of subjectification are associated with it. He outlined a tension between the pedagogical norm of individualization and collective music-making, and demonstrated how corresponding subjects are produced through mutual engagement.

Translations in Identity Formation

In their symposium, Anne Günster and Sabine Mommartz explored the question of how the biographical experiences of music education students can be significant for their future teaching careers. Based on their data, the two presenters were able to demonstrate how, in biographical interviews, the adoption of positions serves as a form of problematizing subjects, thereby constructing specific meanings. This was illustrated, among other things, by an empirical example in which an interviewed student adopted different positions regarding the topic of «practice.» Drawing on her biographical experience, she first placed herself in the position of she Schoolgirl was and said that she herself had practiced very little. She then adopted the perspective of a future instrumental teacher and described Practice as an essential element of musical and instrumental development. This example illustrates how reflecting on and translating one’s own biographical experiences into one’s future role as a music educator can become a fundamental component of professional identity formation.

Patient, painstaking work

Understanding—whether collective or biographical in nature—does not happen simply at the push of a button; rather, as the examples show, it must be rebuilt time and again through patient, painstaking work negotiated This attitude served as the underlying theme throughout the conference, where the topic of translation proved to be relevant to various areas of music education, research perspectives, and theoretical foundations, and fostered a culture of open discussion.

«On Translation—Music-Related Pedagogy in Discourse and Practice»: Music Education Research Conference and Closing Conference of the SNSF Project «High School Music Education as a Reflection of Practice-Based Pedagogy,» May 8–9, 2026.

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