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EJPAE is happy to publish a new issue with fresh perspectives in the intersection between learning/education, the arts/aesthetics, and philosophy/theory. It feels good, and at the same time strange, to publish articles about learning and the arts in a European journal, when at the same time Europe is at war. In a situation where Putin, an anti-democratic despot, invades a neighbouring country, killing and torturing innocent people, learning and the arts may seem trivial. It is my absolute belief, however, that in times of despair, the arts are seminal in creating meaning for people, both on a personal level and on a societal level. One of my favourite explanations to what purpose art has, comes from Deleuze and Guattari’s book What is Philosophy, where they suggest that art is supposed to offer genuinely new perspectives to the world. Art is this book compared with science and philosophy – all three human activities that aim to construct meaning, albeit with complementary purposes: Philosophy should aim to propose new terms that will allow for new ways of thinking about the world, science should pick the world apart to make visible the parts from which (parts of) the world are becoming, and art aims to present whole new worlds for us that may lure us into turning our world-views around. EJPAE is a journal that combines these three human endeavours for meaning-making. Articles presented here should therefore both deconstruct, create, and suggest new ways of thinking about the world. What could be more appropriate in times of confusion and turbulence? This time, the issue comprises of three articles with very different perspectives and topics: Texture matched with phenomenology; Ethics in music education matched with Martha Nussbaum; Practising in music matched with ancient Greek philosophy and again Nussbaum. There are altogether five authors writing these three articles, from Greece, Norway and Sweden. The first article is an intriguing dive into a pool of texture. Eva Alerby and Kari Doseth Opstad discuss how the arts can understand learning in the arts through how we sense the world as and with texture. To discuss this, they employ the theoretical arsenal of Dufrenne and Merleay-Ponty. “[…] texture is the difference that makes the difference”, they write and argues that there is nothing that can be experienced or thought that is not sensed – and sensing involves texture. In the article, we meet a student group that experience working with texture, mixed with philosophical reflections on aspects of learning in and through texture. And in the end, it becomes clear that “[...] texture encourages or brings out the attention, awareness and sensitivity that are of significance not only for (arts) education, but also for the formation of society—for the formation of our lives.” The second article also reports on student work. Theocharis Raptis. The article Emotions in music education as an ethical issue reflect over ethical issues of working with emotions in kindergarten music education. Nussbaum is used to talking about how students and teachers can construct an education that strengthens the emotional competence of kindergarten teacher students – and in turn the children and herein also citizens. As Raptis argues, emotions are central to why music is important, and also that psychological research shows that music inflicts emotions. On the surface, this may seem trivial, but how should and could teachers deal with the more problematic feelings that could arise in a child? What if music opens up for trauma or sets off aggression? Raptis argues convincingly that through conscious and careful music educational work, children can learn to become aware of their emotions and learn to deal with and trust even the more problematic ones. The third article in this issue is by Robin Rolfhamre and Inga Marie Nesmann-Aas. The article Rethinking Music Practise-Sessions beyond Poiesis and Praxis – Towards Practising Democracy makes the somewhat unexpected connection between practising an instrument and a democratic society. The act of practising music was for long a blank page in the annals of music education. Everyone knew that much practise was needed, but how to teach practising skills, and what constituted such skills was a mystery to those who had not miraculously discovered it somehow. The last thirty or so years, this has changed and there is now quite a lot of research on how to practice and how much one should practice. However, practising a music instrument or song in formal music education, is still oftenmost acting in solitude. This article takes tries out a more collective approach to practising: One that the authors argue will not only make individuals great musicians, but will also help develop a healthy democratic society. I have really enjoyed challenging myself in the meeting with these articles, and I hope you will too. Ketil Thorgersen Editor in Chief Stockholm May 10th 2022

In this article, the complexities of the concept of texture and its relationship to (arts) education, here with a specific focus on attention, awareness and sensitivity, are explored and elaborated upon. Texture can be described simply as the visual and tactile character of surfaces, which covers both nature and culture and, indeed, much of life itself. The overall aim of the article is to explore the following: (i) (arts) education through the lens of texture; (ii) texture, education and the arts as they relate to bodily and sensory experiences; and (iii) texture and (arts) education in relation to silence, silent spaces and repetition. The ultimate goal is to develop theoretical and philosophical insights into diverse understandings of texture as they relate to (arts) education as a way to illuminate and sharpen the sentience and appreciation of its meaning and importance for students in the classroom. The article is theoretically founded on the thinking of the French philosophers Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Mikel Dufrenne. The ways in which texture, education and the arts are related to bodily and sensory experiences are outlined and discussed, which is followed by an exploration of silence, silent spaces and repetition as essential elements of both texture and education. The discussion is exemplified by a narrative, here in the form of a paradigmatic case, of students examining texture in the classroom. To conclude, texture encourages or elicits attention, awareness and sensitivity, all of which are of significance not only for (arts) education, but also for the formation of society—for the formation of our lives.

The Digital Student: Beyond the Boundaries of the Body Eva Alerby & Niclas Ekberg Research topic and aim In the Nordic countries, as in many other countries in the world, there has been a massive shift in (higher) education towards distance education and online teaching. This shift is characterised by an increasingly common use of pre-recorded lectures and audio and video conferencing lessons and seminars as well as learning management systems for teacher–student and student–student interaction. In the midst of this, some universities introduce and use telepresence robots. A telepresence robot provides a virtual presence – or a bodiless presence – to, for example, a remote student who cannot physically attend the class(room). But what does it actually mean to be present in the (class)room, and how are interpersonal relationships affected when the student’s presence is transformed and situated beyond the boundaries of the body? The overall aim of this paper is to explore students’ bodily presence in the (class)room using the materiality of digital telepresence robots. More specifically, the focus will be on the considerations on (i) ethics and integrity, (ii) recognition and re-presentations of the Self and (iii) the significance of the dimension of ‘being-there’ – as a human condition of life as well as a pre-condition for educational relations and encounters. Theoretical framework and research design We apply different perspectives to explore the bodily presence of the digital student – beyond the boundaries of the body. Our analysis is based on the philosophies of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Alfred Schutz and Martin Heidegger. Merleau-Ponty’s theory of the lived body supports the analysis of the bodily presence in the room, whereas the addition of experienced social reality, suggested by Schutz, supports a re-consideration of presence and the formation of roles in education. Heideggerian ideas and concepts provide entries for an ontological understanding of the relational and spatio-temporal aspects of ‘Being-one’s-Self’ and what ‘Being-there’-with as well as the ‘Being-there’-with-of-Others might mean to students in digitised education. Expected findings/conclusions We illuminate and theorise the spatio-temporal and relational dimensions of (future) digitised education in terms of bodily presence in the (class)room. By moving into the unknown and uncertain, we explore the transformation of corporality in the digitised (class)room. Relevance to Nordic educational research The challenging demographic and economic conditions for higher education in the northern part of the Nordic countries lead to an increasingly intensive use of distance bridging and telepresence technologies. These technologies, in turn, mean that the practices, conditions and values of education are in a continuous process of renegotiation. To understand the meaning of these ongoing processes is of utmost relevance to Nordic educational research.

Education is one way for society to promote active engagement and participation as forms of civic responsibility. The decline in academic achievement in schools in Europe, and particular in Swedish schools, can be addressed through working with issues related to teaching, where student participation is an important part. In this article, we aim to illustrate and exemplify how student participation can be described and understood as a continuous process that includes both students’ influence over formal decision-making and student active education. The content of the text emerges from a research overview (Swedish National Agency for Education, 2015), in which current research about student participation and influence in schools was collected, illuminated, analysed and discussed. The article illustrates existing challenges and opportunities identified in educational research, relating to students’ influence over decision-making processes and students being active in their education. The article concludes with a few thoughts about the future, including how student voices are becoming a clearer part of school improvement. Furthermore, we discuss the need for staff training, organisational conditions for developing participation work and the importance of further educational research that will highlight student participation and influence.

Godkänd; 2016; 20160307 (eval)

De demokratiska värdena, elevernas delaktighet och inflytande, ska vara lika centralt i utbildningen som kunskaper i olika skolämnen. Det framgår tydligt i skollagen och läroplanerna. Denna kunskapsöversikt lyfter fram forskning som handlar om vad delaktighet och inflytande innebär och hur man kan arbeta med elevers inflytande över beslutsprocesser och elevaktiv undervisning. Kunskapsöversikten riktar sig i första hand till personal i grund- och gymnasieskolan och mot-svarande skolformer eller till dig som vill veta mer om elevdelaktighet och inflytande.