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31st European Association for Music in Schools (EAS) conference – Dublin June 12 – 15​

We are around 25 people from 14 different institutions all over Europe working together in TEAM.

Our project TEAM has started officially on the 15. of June 2023, so we’ll soon have our first year of work behind us. In this newsletter, we will report on the latest content-related results and upcoming events. TEAM is strucruted into 9 different Workpackages, which are strongly interconnected. Nice to have you with us and a warmly welcome in our TEAM-crew.

At the European Association for Music in School (EAS) conference in Dublin in June 2024, we were able to develop a new format for EAS – the student sessions. Elissavet Perakaki, Branka Rotar Pance, Michael Rumpeltes, and Philip Stade teamed up with colleagues from Ireland and Germany to put together a participatory session. This year the students were invited to work on the topic “Participation in Music Education”. Next years’ student sessions will address the topics of sustainability and digital music making.

In between departure and arrival, on our way to meet in Dublin in May, we felt excited about visiting another country, soon meeting new and familiar faces.   

Mobility is about departures and arrivals. Which international gates are open to all our music education students? What baggage do they claim? Is mobility in transit? We explored these questions at the EAS conference, where we performed (yes, there was singing) the presentation: Is mobility in Music Teacher Education in need of transformation? Objectives, structures and experiences investigated at 13 European higher education institutions. Although we only were 3 people on the stage, we have not done the work presented on our own. The WP 4 crew were cheering and smiling from the audience. 

WP4 Meeting in Leuven

From 15 to 16 April, Thomas welcomed us warmly in Leuven, Belgium, where we got into the groove with Madonna and spent two days in a playful ‚analysis workshop‘. Searching for categories in our data, reading transcribed interviews, coding, sharing, comparing, discussing, adjusting and further planning were on the agenda. 

As Jens had just fallen in love with AI, we discussed and adjusted at a high and constructive pace, which left us with ‘less to does and more ta das’. An appreciated and useful combination that led us to the beginning of three articles and preparations for the EAS conference in Dublin. 

WP 4 – Mobility in Music Teacher Education

Maybe it was Madonna who inspired us to get into the groove with thinking outside of the box, or maybe it was just ‘the vibe’ with the fantastic people in WP4 – we are not sure. We leave you with what is still lingering with us, and hope you remember to groove with Madonna in between too. Enjoying chocolate and pommes frites certainly makes a difference. 

  • Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

© 2025 · TEAM · Teacher Education Academy for Music

UP

TEAM Webinar- May 15, 2025
14:00 CET

WP5 is creating a network to facilitate school internships abroad after the conclusion of the TEAM Project: the Teacher Education Academy for Music Internship Network, or TEAM-IN.
TEAM-IN, will provide a resource-rich platform where music teachers, music teacher educators, and music education students can go to find the contacts and information they need to set up a successful school internship abroad.

TEAM-IN officially launches with an online information and exchange on Thursday, May 15, at 2 pm CET. You are cordially invited to come and hear about the internships that have taken place within the TEAM project: so far, students from Germany, Norway, Belgium and Greece have interned in schools in Luxembourg, Austria and Lithuania. There will be ample time during the session for participants to ask questions and voice concerns about the benefits and challenges of school internships abroad, as well as to brainstorm together what sort of resources would make TEAM-IN helpful to you and your institution.

Please join us! And please feel free to pass this invitation along to colleagues you think might be interested. The invitation is open to anyone who fits the description of our target audience: music teacher educators, international/Erasmus officers, music teachers in schools, and school administrators.

Please direct any questions you might have to Lauren Steinmetz at steinmetz@mdw.ac.at.
Thanks and hope to see you there!

TOPIC: Info and exchange about school internships abroad: TEAM Project and TEAM-IN Network

Time: 15 May2025 14:00 CET
https://mdw-ac-at.zoom.us/j/64751595160?pwd=AgSb9O06HzXV2fmKfH63iFJQMD6Obq.1
Meeting-ID: 647 5159 5160
Code: 457738

Verena Bons

WP 5

Verena Bons has a teaching diploma and a master’s degree in Music Education and French as well as a bachelor’s degree in oboe. After working as a secondary school teacher near Freiburg and as a lecturer at the Freiburg University of Teacher Education, she currently works as a research assistant at the Freiburg University of Music, where she teaches music education and research methods. There, she is also part of the research project „Zukunft. Land. Music.“ (Future. Country. Music.“) which investigates the transformation processes of amateur music ensembles. In her dissertation, she focuses on young amateur musicians and their everyday musical practice. She is interested in social aspects of music-making, future-oriented teacher training, innovative forms of music-making in the classroom and praxeological approaches.

Verena Bons is part of WP 5, where she supports the development of design principles for mentoring situations.

Dr. Jana Buschmann

WP 5

Dr. Jana Buschmann has studied Music and German at the University of Potsdam and is currently Research Assistant at the UP. Dr. Buschmann works for many years at the interface between university music teacher education and school internships. She leads the School Internship Semester in Music at UP and, at the moment, is also developing a prototype for a mentoring tool for Potsdam students in interships abroad. Dr. Buschmann earned her Ph.D in 2020 which concenred the issue of Continuous Education in rural areas of Brandenburg. Her current research interest is the development of online learning resources in music for students in rural areas where there is a lack of music teachers.

Dr. Buschmann will be part of WP5 and ensure knowledge transfer from UP Network for Sustainable Teacher Education.

Angeliki Triantafyllaki

COMING SOON

Prof. Dr. Stefan Gies is Secretary General of the biggest and most powerful NGO in the Music Higher Education Area: the AEC. The AEC runs huge transnational projects in the area of professional musicians training and works as NGO in close cooperation with European policy makers for the subject music.

In TEAM Prof. Gies will act as one person in the SAB and provide dissemination possibilities.

The Association Européenne des Conservatoires et Musikhochschulen (AEC) is the leading voice for Higher Music Education in Europe, a powerful advocate for its member institutions. AEC understands and supports music and arts education, together with cultural participation, as central contributors to quality in human life, and inclusive societies founded on democratic values. – AEC sees professionally focused arts education as a quest for excellence in three areas: artistic practice; learning and teaching; –research and innovation. It seeks to foster these elements and to encourage the diversity and dynamism with which they are pursued in different institutions, countries and regions. AEC works for the advancement of Higher Education in the performing arts, primarily focusing on music. It does this based on three pillars:

  1. Fostering the value of music and ME in society
  2. Enhancing quality in Higher Music Education
  3. Promoting participation, inclusiveness and diversity AEC operates inclusively, sustainably, efficiently and effectively, enabling communication and sharing of good practice.