Music education and conservatorial habitus under tension: challenges for higher education

Abstract

This article, resulting from an undergraduate research project, analyzes the tensions within the initial training of music teachers, investigating how the conservatory habitus can influence both the conceptual understanding and the pedagogical practice of music education. Adopting a case study methodology at a public Brazilian university, the research combines a qualitative approach with quantitative data. To this end, a curricular and bibliographic analysis of the undergraduate music education program was conducted, along with semi-structured interviews with seven students. The results, presented in four analytical axes, demonstrate that the conservatory habitus establishes a structural and dispositional inertia that weakens the component of music education, which should be the central focus of the program and is primarily addressed in pedagogical courses. This inertia manifests itself in the systematic subordination of musicalization to the logic of performance and theoretical primacy, reinforced by the weight of traditional musical training. Additionally, the study identified students’ lack of awareness of their own influences and the absence of prior experiences with music initiation, both of which directly contribute to the reproduction of traditional pedagogical models. The findings suggest that overcoming the ambiguity surrounding music education requires, at the curricular level, a stronger insertion of practical musical experiences before theoretical instruction, as well as the fluid integration of innovative approaches. When compared with other studies, these results indicate that such tensions are not exclusive to this context, highlighting the need for broader critical reflection on music teacher education in higher education.