The Public Pedagogies Institute is very excited to announce the publication of a Special Edition of the Journal of Public Pedagogies.

 Public Pedagogy in Music Education:
Reconfiguring Responsibility in Times of the Great Regression

This edition of the Journal is guest edited by Tuulikki Laes and Heidi Westerlund. Each are esteemed intellectuals in music education and public pedagogy. I want to gratefully acknowledge that the inception of the articles in this edition began life during my time as a visiting scholar funded by the Research Council of Finland. 

Tuulikki Laes is a university researcher at the University of the Arts Helsinki. She works as a lecturer, public speaker, mentor, and facilitator in various contexts. Tuulikki is an Academy Research Fellow appointed by the Research Council of Finland (2023-2027), leading a project: Performing the Political: Public Pedagogy in Higher Music Education.

Heidi Westerlund is a professor at the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland, where she is responsible for music education doctoral studies. She has published over 140 articles and book chapters.

The contributors to this special issue are part of the community of researchers, teachers, and students at the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland. 

The issue is now available be read online on the Journal page.

Karen Charman

Editor, Journal of Public Pedagogies

Extract from the Editorial by the guest editors:

“With this special issue, we wish to highlight the potential of public pedagogy in the music field as perhaps the oldest form of associated behavior in human existence. The authors of this issue address, for example, the pressing issues of sustainable futures, including climate action, resistance to colonial occupation, and girls’ and women’s access to the public sphere, by reflecting on the interruptive potential of public pedagogy in higher music education, school music education, and community-based musical practices. In this context, the call for new configurations of public pedagogy is not limited to informal contexts and practices but also, and quite uniquely, includes educational institutions, through their practices, hierarchies, repertoires, admissions, and events, which are integrally connected to public life.

The contributors to this special issue are part of the community of researchers, teachers, and students at the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland. While the topic of public pedagogy has only recently emerged within music education research (see, e.g., Lewis, 2024; Barrett & Westerlund, 2024; Laes et al., 2025; Westerlund et al., 2026), several studies from the past decade resonate with the idea of public pedagogy, shaping a research landscape that manifests critical structural change in music education, particularly at the intersections of democratic education and social activism. The authors of this special issue are undergraduate and postgraduate students and faculty members who all have long-established public professional status, as performing for audiences and building relationships with the public are prominent aspects of professional education, often beginning in childhood.

The articles acknowledge that the publicness of music and music education is indeed taken- for-granted and unarticulated, permeated by the dominant practice where past musical repertoires are taught, practiced, and publicly performed without necessarily rethinking the ‘whats’ and ‘why’s beyond the expected musical quality. “
Tuulikki Laes and Heidi Westerlund.

Read the full issue here