The papers presented in this special issue grew from a symposium on the topic of ‘Informal Learning and Post-Compulsory Music Education’ convened at the Reflective Conservatoire Conference, 2nd International Conference-Building Connections hosted by the Guildhall School of Music from February 28th–March 3rd 2009. In this symposium, scholars from many countries came together to give views on issues presented to post-compulsory or post-sixteen education institutions with the growing interest in informal learning in music education. As one of the most frequently cited academics in this field, and because many of the papers referred to her work, Professor Lucy Green has summarised the key debates she considers each paper to present and voiced her responses to these issues. Not wishing to duplicate Professor Green's work therefore, this editorial does not introduce the content of each paper but rather attempts to look to the bigger picture within which issues of informal learning and music education are located. It attempts to set the stage in a broad sense for the discussions which follow.

How do student teachers learn to use informal learning and pedagogy in their teaching? Through focusing on Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in England, this paper will explore the possibility of developing a meta-pedagogy which embraces informal learning and pedagogy in music. The paper is in two parts, the first of which examines the background to Informal Learning and Pedagogy (ILP) in English music education and some attendant issues surrounding initial teacher education. The second will report on some approaches to developing a meta-pedagogy for ILP in music, before speculating on future areas for research in music ITE. The concepts of ‘living’ and ‘excavating’ learning will be proposed as important meta-pedagogical tools in the process of student teachers learning how to teach music.

The embedding of informal practices in music education in school relates to significant issues concerning students' engagement, participation, inclusion and the role of the teacher. This article addresses these issues by presenting and discussing current music education in compulsory comprehensive schooling in Sweden. It does so by drawing upon music pedagogical research, music education studies conducted during the last 10 years and national evaluations. Examples of practice from upper secondary schools are also used to clarify and illustrate the issues under consideration. It has been said that Swedish music education has gone from ‘School Music’ to ‘Music in School’. This development has been characterised by greater influence of students on curriculum content resulting in increased use of popular music, and, consequently, teaching strategies acquired from informal music playing contexts. The curriculum states that the core of the subject is practical music playing, through which personal development can occur – both musically and socially. Music education in several other countries is developing a more practical approach, and the role of popular music in schools, and what is sometimes called informal learning, is featured in international music pedagogy debates. This article considers the musical, pedagogical and democratic consequences of this pedagogy from a Swedish perspective. As a result of a sharp focus on personal social development and individual students' musical interests, music education in Sweden has become relatively limited in terms of repertoire, content and teaching methods. Recent evaluations and studies also demonstrate that music education lacks direction, and is short of creative engagement with music. The role of the teacher is unclear and sometimes lacks validity in a practical music education situation. Viewed from an international perspective, the kind of music education that has developed in Sweden is unique. Thus, when the possibilities and limitations of music education in Sweden are discussed, it has the potential to be of interest to international music education research.

The article reports on a 2-year higher education music programme for young rock musicians in Sweden called BoomTown Music Education. The pedagogical philosophy behind this programme is developed from the findings of two Swedish music education researchers, and the programme exemplifies how knowledge about popular musicians' learning strategies in informal contexts can be utilised when designing post-compulsory music education. The aim of the article is to problematise the BoomTown environment in relation to its informality and authenticity. In addition to a description of the programme, the author's experiences from visiting this education programme are laid out in order to provide the ground for such a problematisation.

This work derives from a doctoral research study which looked at the differences in students' attitudes towards learning music in a Brazilian music higher education institution, while taking into account their different music learning backgrounds. The students' backgrounds (which consist of their set of musical experiences and music-learning processes that had been acquired and developed in their lives before entering the university course) are divided into three types: (i) those who have acquired their skills and knowledge mostly through informal learning experiences, particularly in the world of popular music; (ii) those who have only experienced classical training either within institutions such as music schools, or privately; and (iii) those whose backgrounds consist of both informal learning and classical training. These different backgrounds are termed here formal, informal and mixed. The research also discusses the gap between the way music is conceived and taught within the university and the reality students will have to face outside university. It further suggests that the traditional teaching approaches for music in higher education are possibly inadequate for educating university students from varied music learning backgrounds, especially those with informal music learning backgrounds. After examining some findings of the research, the paper proposes pedagogical strategies in which informal music learning practices might help the integration of students from different backgrounds, encouraging students' diversity and their inclusion in the university music school environment. The suggested strategies exemplify approaches that enable the students to bridge the gap between their own musical practices and those they are expected to learn in their institution. In this case, the students have more autonomy and the teacher becomes a facilitator of the process.

In this paper, I suggest that it is perhaps time to consider the pedagogy of popular music in more extensive terms than conventional rock band practices have to offer. One direction in which this might lead is the expansion of the informal pedagogy based on a ‘garage band’ model to encompass various modes of digital artistry wherever this artistry takes place. This might include: in face-to-face pedagogical situations, in other contexts of informal learning, and in such open networked learning environments as remix sites and musical online communities. The rock-based practice of learning songs by ear from records and rehearsing them together to perform live or to record is just one way to practice popular music artistry today. Such practices as DJing/turntablism; assembling of various bits and pieces to remixes; remixing entire songs to mash-ups in home studios; collective songwriting online; producing of one's own music videos to YouTube; exchanging and comparing videos of live performances of Guitar Hero and Rock Band game songs – all of these indicate a musical culture that differs substantially from conventional ‘garage band’ practices. The global eminence of digital music culture can be taken as one indication of the need to reconsider music as a transformative praxis. By examining the ways in which music is produced and used in digital music culture, we can prepare for new forms of artistry that have yet to emerge from the creative mosaic of digital appropriation. Thus, we expand and redefine our notions of informal music pedagogy. This paper concludes with consideration of several themes that Afrodiasporic aesthetics suggest to the understanding of this artistry.

This paper1 explores firstly the sense in which improvisation might be conceived of as an informal music education process and, secondly, the effects of a course in free improvisation on student teachers' perceptions in relation to themselves as musicians, music as a school subject and children as musicians. The results of a study conducted in two Greek universities are presented. Using a narrative methodology, examples of data from the reflective diaries or learning journals which 91 trainee teachers kept as part of their participation in an improvisation module are presented and discussed. The argument is made that improvisation, as a particular type of informal music learning process, has an important role to play in fostering the qualities required of teachers to work with informal pedagogies in music education. Furthermore, we would suggest that such musical experiences might gradually lead to the development of a critical perspective on both music education theories and practices. Improvisation might emerge as a moment and a practice of rupture with linearity of progress, working against reification of knowledge and glorification of received information. The findings suggest that improvisation might offer a route for creating an intimate, powerful, evolving dialogue between students' identities as learners, their attitudes towards children and their creative potential, and the interrelationships of the notions of expressive technique and culture, thus becoming ‘an act of transcendence’ (Allsup, 1997, p. 81). We propose that the issue of connecting informal learning and improvisation might be resolved by regarding improvisation as an exemplary case of creating a communicative context where most representations/conceptualisations/struggles to solve problems are left implicit. Such experiences for pupils and teachers alike might further extend the social and personal effectiveness of informal learning as music pedagogy.

I am grateful to Ruth Wright and the editors of the journal for inviting me to make this brief response to the fascinating set of articles collected here. Taking the articles as a whole, I wish to offer a few thoughts which came to mind whilst reading them, concerning our roles as music-education researchers and music educators in relation to informal learning.