Kulturskolen: A Collection of ‘Artist Teachers’ or a Multidisciplinary Community of Practice?

Abstract

This chapter explores three teachers’ descriptions of leadership and management challenges that they have encountered as kulturskole teachers in the context of Norway. The purpose of this study is to illuminate tensions that appear between the teachers’ philosophy of work and the kulturskole as an organization, and furthermore the challenges these challenges entail from a management perspective. The research has taken a qualitative approach, with the data material generated through written narratives. Through a narrative analysis, in dialogue with the data material and theory about professionalism and management, the research participants’ reflections are examined from a hermeneutic-phenomenological perspective. The discussion extends into reflections on findings related to the teachers’ professional identity, which reveal a strong connection to their art form and desire for professional independence, while at the same time a sense that a unifying kulturskole community is lacking. The study shows that the research participants describe commonalities in values and teaching philosophies across the different art forms. These commonalities can, according to the study, create a basis for common goals for the kulturskole as an organization. A central leadership challenge appears to be in creating a community of practice, which may help to balance the teachers’ roles as autonomous specialists and the development of a multidisciplinary yet unifying community.