Frede V. Nielsen:

The territory of musico-pedagogocal research: Principal concepts and distinctions in the object area

This chapthes comes under the head of scientific theory. It aims at elucidating music pedagogy as a field of research, with specific regard to its area of problems and objects. The following questions are delt with: (1) What essential dimensions enter into the object area of musico-pedagogical research (i.e. that which scholarly attention is directed towards), and in what respects will a clarification of the specification of problems accordingly have to be attempted? (2) What types of concrete research objects are found that are capable of gaining access to the object area and individual dimensions of it? Also the question of music pedagogy as an autonomous field of research is touched upon.

Findings: Re (1): The nucleus of the object area is defined as music education, which is constituted within an interaction between learner and teacher (the internal agents) and educational subject-matter. Several kinds of frame factors exert influence on this (types of discourse, regulations, institutions, economy, and external agents). Music education can be studied in several reality dimensions (as intended, experiences, observed, and possible reality). As an object of research, music education should also be defined within a historical dimension (past, present, future) as well as within a geographical and socio-cultural dimension.

Re (2): Distinctions are made between the following types of "concrete" objects of inquiry: texts, behaviour (non-textual forms of articulation), physical objects, the researcher's own mind and experience.

The said principal concepts are ranged into subcategories. The main categories are epitomized in an interrelational, stratified model (figure 9.3), which may be employed in the planning and analytic clarification of musico-pedagogical research.