“Where the Social Stigma Has Been Overcome” : The Politics of Professional Legitimation in Nepali Music Education

Abstract

This chapter explores the actions musician-teachers in the extremely diverse and complex context of the Kathmandu Valley imagine that might hold potential for contesting and altering processes of marginalisation and stigmatisation in Nepali society. The empirical material was generated in 16 workshops involving 53 musician-teachers and guided by the Appreciative Inquiry 4D model (e.g. Cooperrider et al. Appreciative inquiry handbook: for leaders of change. Crown Custom, Brunswick, 2005). Drawing upon the work of Arjun Appadurai, we analysed the ways in which engaging the collective imagination (1996) and fostering the capacity to aspire (2004) can support musician-teachers in finding resources for changing their terms of recognition. We identified five actions that musicians and musician-teachers take to legitimise their position in Nepali society: (1) challenging stigmatised identities, (2) engaging foreignness, (3) advocating academisation, (4) countering groupism, and (5) promoting professionalisation. We argue that these actions suggest the need for music teachers to be able to ethically and agentively navigate both the dynamic nature of culture and questions of legitimate knowledge, which may be fostered through an emphasis on professional responsibility (Solbrekke and Sugrue. Professional responsibility: new horizons of praxis. Routledge, New York, 2011) in music teacher education.