Juxtaposing teacher voices to explore upper primary school music teaching and learning

Duoethnography and narrative inquiry are used to investigate the perspectives of two experienced teachers from contrasting curriculum specialities, one in music and the other in mathematics within a primary school setting. Initiated by the music teacher, research focuses on the usefulness of embodied and participatory forms of music-making for students in the upper primary school (generally 10-12 year age group). Themes emerge from the research that inform subsequent dialogue including the relationship between accessible participatory experience, minimising tedium for students, self-paced learning and student agency, psycho-social well-being, community of practice and life-long learning. Through a dialogic process, emergent ideas provoke dissonance that leads to re-framed thinking about the teaching and learning of music in the upper primary school context.