Articles de revues sur le sujet « General goals for music education in Kuwait »

The purpose of this multiple-case study was to examine the career development, choices, and goals of elementary general music teachers who identified as instrumental majors during their undergraduate degree programs. Data collection included a questionnaire, interviews, participant journals, and observation field notes; data were organized using the theoretical framework of social cognitive career theory. Themes are presented in two categories: internal influences (self-efficacy and perceived differences between elementary music and instrumental music) and external influences (economy, undergraduate preparation, and working in elementary general music). Implications regarding the development of self-efficacy and preparation for teaching outside of one’s specialization are discussed.

This article deals with objectives in the teaching of musical instruments to children. Methods of establishing and re-establishing goals are suggested, and previous lists of objectives pertaining to music education in general, instrumental teaching and athletics are presented. Based on these lists, and on his experience as a teacher and consultant in instrumental methodology, the author presents a list of goals specifically formulated for the teaching of musical instruments to children. Some of the goals are far-reaching, dealing not only with progress on the instrument, but also with the overall musical and personal development of the pupils. The article concludes with a discussion about possible priorities among these objectives.

This paper discusses the research of psychologists and pedagogues which are committed to issues of professional music education. The statement of Ksenija Radoš (2010) that the psychologist-researchers and music pedagogues pass each other on the same way, and that they go on parallel paths toward the same goals, encountering the same obstacles, and yet never really meet, is the starting point for the review of the relationship between these disciplines. as the first step of our research, the definition of a 'common way' is imposed, and then testing the connection of current issues of music education and music psychology. according to our understanding, there are several important reasons for the mentioned situation in music education: focusing music pedagogy on general music education and 'late' awakening of pedagogy of professional music education as a special scientific discipline; obsolescence of the curriculum of professional music education and insufficient cooperation between music pedagogues and psychologists-researchers. Interplay of these disciplines, implemented through the planned conducted research that focuses on the problems of professional music education, could be an important support for the development and improvement of specific areas of music pedagogy.

The purpose of this qualitative collective case study was to examine the ways an elementary general music teacher’s curricular beliefs and practices influence the expression of music in identity and identity in music for second-generation students. In addition to the music teacher, participants were 4 students whose families had immigrated to the United States from Mexico and who were attending the midwestern suburban school within the United States where the study took place. This research was designed to provide an understanding of the interactions between the roles of music instruction, cultural responsiveness, and musical identity. Within-case and cross-case analysis generated specific and broad themes that addressed the purpose of the study. The findings revealed that the role of the teacher’s view of the self as musician and educator, combined with the choice of instructional approach, created a music classroom environment that successfully met the teacher-directed goals for sequence-centered instruction. Nonetheless, the data revealed that the choice of instructional approach resulted in an isolated musical experience that did not support the integration of cultural, linguistic, and popular music experiences and largely ignored issues of cultural responsiveness.

This article focuses on music education in Chinese and Lithuanian schools, especially on the latest reforms of the national music curriculum for basic and general education. Due to the original reasons and historical development in the east and west, the philosophies of educations are different, resulting in differences in concepts of education, goals of education, methods of education, roles of teachers and students. The process of collecting information for music education in Lithuania and China will be explained in order to gain insight into specific issues related to each country. The resulting similarities and differences between Chinese and Lithuanian school music education are reported, and suggestions for basic and teacher education improvement are discussed. Most importantly, the findings of this study have highlighted that the notions of school music education in Lithuania and China are insignificantly different. Keywords: Chinese general music education, music curriculum, music activities, Lithuanian general music education.

The concept of intercultural education should be aimed at better understanding of ourselves and others, discovering similarities and differences, recognizing preconceptions, and cooperation in accomplishing our common goals. Intercultural education can be very useful in resolving the issues that arise when different groups live together. Also, intercultural education may benefit the process of getting to know and better understand other cultures and the development of successful communication between cultures. Music courses in grammar schools may contribute to students’ intercultural education, because music is an area in which cultural competence can develop significantly. During the December of 2014, for the purposes of this paper, a research study was conducted in a Croatian general programme grammar school. The goal of the study was to determine the students’ attitudes toward interculturalism, their attitudes on music courses with regard to interculturalism, and are there any differences in the attitudes and intercultural awareness between first grade students and fourth grade students at the grammar school. A survey questionnaire was used to conduct an anonymous survey among first and fourth grade students. The results of the study have shown that both the first and fourth grade students are aware that they are living in a multicultural environment, as well as that there are examples of certain forms of intolerance towards members of other cultures who share their living surroundings. When compared to fourth grade students, first grade students generally have more positive attitudes toward interculturalism. According to the students’ opinions, music courses at the grammar school could be more focused on getting to know the music and musical traditions of the people from other continents. Complementing the syllabus with music from different cultures and from all the continents would contribute to the development of more positive students’ attitudes toward interculturalism and help with the realization of goals set by the premise of intercultural education.

This article describes exercises for a sensation and perception laboratory using a computer application called SoundWave. The exercises were conducted in two 1-hr sessions. Goals of the lab included giving students hands-on experience with how sound wave shape changes as frequency and amplitude vary, the continuousness of the speech stream, and determining whether a complex wave pattern represents noise or music. These exercises could also be adapted for use in introductory psychology classes.

The purpose of this study was to examine the degree withdrawal patterns of undergraduate music education majors, with a specific focus on the individual experiences of students withdrawing from the major. Data from recently withdrawn students ( N = 14) were assembled using a qualitative methodology that included semistructured interviews, questionnaires, researcher journals, and meetings with experienced researchers. The data were analyzed and coded, generating a number of categories for discussion and analysis. Students’ experiences during college were diverse, with concerns focused on the applied music component of the degree surfacing as important to many students. The reasons given for withdrawal from the music education program also were diverse, including dismissal from the applied music studio, erosion of personal confidence as a musician, realizations about their feelings toward music versus their feelings about teaching in general as it related to their personal career goals, and personal life issues. Following withdrawal from the music education curriculum, all interviewed students reported that they remained actively involved in music in some way. Implications of these results are discussed in relation to individual experiences and the function of those experiences within the context of current models of student persistence.

Leadership in contemporary society is perceived as a process, which contributes to efficient solution of constantly emerging problems in business, pedagogical and social spheres. Over the last period a rapid progress of science and various technologies has been observed and leadership has acquired a significant status in education as well. To make leadership a natural phenomenon at school, there is a need for a harmoniously functioning link: authorities-leaders; teachers - leaders, who should educate a new generation of school learners-leaders. A teacher of music or a leader of music collective has to rally school learners for attainment of common goals: to develop music abilities during lessons of music; to satisfy needs for music expression during non-formal activities. Therefore, this mission may be implemented only by a teacher-leader. The object of the research: leadership skills of music teacher. The goal of the research: to reveal peculiarities of expression of music teacher’s leadership skills. The research methods: analysis of scientific literature, semi-structured interview, qualitative content analysis. The analysis of scientific literature on leadership issues was carried out during the research and leadership skills that are most characteristic of music teachers were highlighted. On the basis of the distinguished abilities, the model of expression of leadership skills of music teacher of general education school was designed. The semi-structured interview was conducted and its sample included six respondents. The data acquired during the interview were processed employing the qualitative content analysis. The results of the research showed that the identified leadership skills of music teacher may be characterised through the following features: • Motivation (inspiration) for music activities is manifested during lessons and extracurriculum music activities. • Communication and collaboration is seen through joint activities with teachers of other study subjects, administration and learners’ parents. Successful communication is predetermined by friendly, sincere, mutual and responsible style of communication. • Ability to solve problems that emerge during music activities is revealed through collaboration with class master, colleagues and specialists, clarification of situation, individual conversations, sincere communication, professional attitude, understanding of group needs, prioritising of the goal to be attained over personal needs. • Management of stressful situations is expressed through recognition of conflict situations, application of various conflict resolution ways, control of emotions, positive attitude and understanding of behaviour, which typical of a certain age group of a learner. The research results showed that leadership skills are very important to successful activities of a music teacher because a music teacher-leader has a vision and able to rally children for joint music activities to achieve as good results as possible.

Abstract This paper reports on the social, cultural, and demographic factors affecting Kuwaiti commuters. The objectives were to 1) investigate the awareness of Kuwaitis of transportation problems, 2) examine the perceptions of Kuwaitis of daily traffic congestion and how it affects them emotionally and physically, and the main objective 3) study the attitudes of Kuwaitis towards using public buses. An online survey was used to examine these factors, and a sample of five hundred transportation system users was obtained. The primary findings showed significant associations between the use of public transport buses and the user’s nationality, gender, age, education, and income level. Men are 2.6 times more likely to use buses, and non-Kuwaiti residents are 6.4 times more likely to use them. In relation to the perceptions of daily traffic congestion, findings indicate that with increase in travel time, commuters, in general, developed more negative feelings, such as exhaustion and stress. A large proportion of the sample population is aware of current local transportation problems and future transportation projects. The results of this study fill a gap in the knowledge of the socioeconomic and cultural factors that influence the success of sustainable public transportation solutions to the traffic challenges found in Kuwait. This knowledge is also crucial to foreign consultants working on planning and transportation projects in the region. It is recommended that officials use this new knowledge on cultural factors to develop integrated land use and transportation plans of the urban areas in Kuwait and to develop more effective and sustainable transportation demand management policies in support of UN Sustainable Development Goals that Kuwait has signed up to pursue.

The primary purpose of this study was to examine composition practices in public schools across the state of Indiana, to investigate who incorporates composition and why they chose to use or not use composing tasks. A second purpose was to learn if teachers had an operational definition for composition. Three hundred thirty-nine teachers participated in a survey to answer questions about their use of compositon in the classroom. Respondents who used composition answered open-ended questions about learning goals for composing tasks and gave examples of typical classroom composing tasks. Although 88.5 % of the respondents indicated that they incorporated composition, only 5.9% reported using composition tasks often. General music teachers were slightly more likely to incorporate composition in their classrooms than were ensemble directors. There were no significant relationships found between years of experience or years at a school, certification, or school use of Standards and the relative use of composing tasks. An analysis of the responses to open-ended questions revealed that teachers used composing tasks for a great variety of purposes. No one definition of composition emerged from the analysis. Instead, respondents labeled a range of activities from dictation and practicing notation and improvising to complex tasks as "composition. " The article calls for developing an operational definition and pedagogy for composition in the classroom and discusses possibilities for future research.

The purpose of this study was to identify behavioral differences between children who dropped out of piano lessons and those who continued for 3 years. Two videotaped first-year lessons of 14 pairs of piano students were systematically observed to record the duration or frequency of occurrence of selected student and teacher behaviors. Students in each pair took lessons with the same teacher and had comparable initial levels of pianistic ability and achievement. One child in the pair continued the piano lessons for 3 years, whereas the other child dropped out during the first or second year of lessons. In general, dropouts elicited verbal cues and tended to seek approval from the teachers more often than did the more persevering students. On the other hand, they received fewer actual approvals from the teachers, tended to accomplish the goals set by the teachers less often during the lessons, and obtained lower marks in the end-of-year piano exam than did their matched peers. The results of independent analyses performed for students who dropped out during the first and second year of lessons suggest that behavioral differences related to achievement may help identify late dropouts, but not early dropouts. March 18, 2005 October 4, 2005

OBJECTIVES: Music-related symptoms can already be found among student musicians during their years of university training. The goals of the present study were to ascertain the state and developmental course of the student musicians’ health and to test the effectiveness of a preventive curriculum given to student musicians during their first two semesters at university. METHODS: Within a longitudinal, observational study, we assessed students’ psychological and physical health during the first 2 years of university training. We compared data from the group of students who had followed the prevention program (intervention group, IG, n = 144) with data of a comparison group (CG, n = 103) of students who had not followed the program. Using standardized questionnaires, we measured physical and psychological symptoms as well as health behavior in a sequential plan (duration, 3.5 yrs). RESULTS: Student musicians (n = 247) showed elevated ratings in psychological and physical health in comparison with nonmusicians of the same age. These ratings decreased at the end of the students’ second year. The prevention program had a preventive effect on the students’ psychological health: while IG students remained stable in their performance and powers of concentration, CG students got worse in those same areas. However, the prevention program did not reduce physical symptoms. In comparison with their younger colleagues, upper-level students took more courses in body-oriented methods, relaxation, and mental techniques, which focus on preventive measures for musicians. CONCLUSION: At present, the study offers evidence supporting the use of the prevention curriculum for young musicians. In higher music education, preventive education has a positive impact on students’ performance and their attitude toward health. The preventive curriculum does not have an effect on preexisting physical symptoms, and those symptoms related to the student musicians’ activity should rather be treated in an additional therapeutic setting.

Connecting mathematics with other disciplines is one of the major goals of many general-education mathematics courses taught at universities and colleges across the nation. Of course, from kindergarten to calculus, good teachers demonstrate and explore these connections as a means of making clear the relevance and importance of mathematics to every person. In particular, I have cheerfully noticed a renewed interest in the relationships between mathematics and music. This article examines several fundamental notions of number theory as they arise in music theory, and in the process, develops several music-related functions. I see an added pedagogical benefit in emphasizing the importance of functions in mathematics with examples from a different arena than the usual function pool. Middle school and high school teachers might find that a subset of these topics are handy nuggets of material that can show examples of applications of mathematics outside the mainstream uses in science and engineering. I created this article as notes for the liberal-arts mathematics course that I teach at my college and have consistently found this topic to be one of the students' favorites.

Encouraging musical creativity in primary schools in Montenegro and Slovenia is determined by the course programs for music education, according to which music teaching in two countries is realised through three musical activities: performing, listening and creating. The similarities between the two primary education systems are characterised by the nine-year duration of primary school, which is divided into three threeyear cycles. Programme for the course Music Culture in Montenegro, dating from 2003, has been developed in collaboration with Slovenian experts. Thus, creation, as an activity, was clearly defined and has been represented in all the revised and new programs that followed. The aim of this paper was to analyse the representation of creation as an activity through which some of the important goals and learning outcomes are achieved in both general primary education systems. The obtained results show that this activity is more concretely represented in the Slovenian programme, and that a higher level of systematicity in its definition has been achieved. Comparative analysis can also serve as a guideline for future improving the programmes and a clearer definition of what is meant by musical creativity in the teaching of music in primary schools of two educational systems.

<p class="Abstract">The organization of Romanian distance learning in music has been supported in terms of research, collaboration and financing by European projects, with the following achievements: training of teaching staff involved in distance learning, assistance in activities meant to introduce ICT in general schools, construction of a platform dedicated to distance learning activities, creating a database with instrumental accompaniments for singers, designing multimedia courses, assessing distance learning programs offered by the Academy of Music Gheorghe Dima in Cluj-Napoca.</p><p class="Abstract">The Prelude Training Programme on ICT in Music Education – a project aimed at developing a training programme for in-service music educators, as there are many ways in which technology helps educators meet instructional goals: Programs designed to help students develop their musicianship or improve their knowledge of notation and skill in reading notation, support with improvisation skills, notation and sequencing programs which assist students in composition activities.</p><p class="Abstract">Vemus - Virtual European Music Schools - a programme which focuses on teaching music notation or performing instruments, involving execution of rhythm patterns, melody, music scores; E-vocal learning, with simultaneous appearance of sound and notation, conducted by famous musicians. DIMA - Direct Impact of Multimedia Application - a platform that comprises courses, audio and video examples focusing on music history, performing and listening activities.</p><p class="Abstract">The partners proceed from various areas (higher education, innovation/development centers), and the projects were conceived to stimulate the implementation of ICT in the educational process in music, approaching teaching staff as a target group, and students as an interested party.</p>The need for such products was revealed by interviews and questionnaires and the results’ evaluation proved that the online environment can be accessed in order to develop educational resources, enrich lesson content, motivate and engage children in music education, deliver information and learning opportunities, stimulate children in their musical endeavors.

The article clarifies the nature and content of musical and aesthetic competence and, based on this, the basic principles of its formation in adolescents covered by system activities of the school education in Ukraine, which is regarded as a complementary to the secondary, and sometimes advancing. Music and aesthetic teens’ competence forms both in efforts of secondary school and adult education. The question: “What are the features’ principles of work in out-of-school institutions for the establishment of music and aesthetic competence of students of this age?”. The relevance of research caused by need in deeper theoretical understanding of various aspects of competence approach, as a basis for reforming the educational and upbringing process in modern conditions.The purpose of the article essence and content of principles methods that make up foundation methods of the educational process in out-of-school education, directed at the affirmation to musical and aesthetic competence of teens’ students.In foreign and domestic literature we meet a lot of definitions of competence (Bader R., Beh I., Bibik N., Hutorskoy A., Mertens D., Raven J., Savchenko O., Shelton A. etc.). Despite some differences in the meaning of this definition, we have fond also common features: ability, willingness to the subject effectively organize knowledge, abilities, skills, experience for setting and achieving goals. There are key competencies, including general cultural, which includes musical and aesthetic as one of the brunch. In our research, we follow the general approach to competence which defines the essence of "musical aesthetic competence" concept. The essence of the musical and aesthetic competence lies in its individual capacity, readiness and real opportunities to accept, integrate and experience the beauty of musical works, play (or create) it practical with understanding of the importance of this type of activity in the social and individual spheres of life, in different social relations.The principle of national focus in education including knowledge of Ukrainian folk songs, works of local composers, ability to perform it (singing or with the help of instrument), feel their beauty, bringing together with their nationality, and therefore with themselves. It helps to develop the ability to preserve their national identity, to understand music as an integral part of spirituality of the Ukrainian people. Ukraine is a country, which is home to several dozen ethnic groups, or so-called minorities. The Constitution of Ukraine declares that the country supports, creates conditions for the development of their national identity. Representatives of these peoples and ethnic groups should not feel reduced in their rights. Therefore, in areas where contact populated by national minorities in non-school institutions should be created special creative teams under national direction. At presence of choir, band, orchestra, etc., several participants of certain nationalities their national works should be included in repertoire. However, all teenagers, members of the creative teams must be able to sing in Ukrainian language, perform Ukrainian music to feel the citizens of Ukraine, to be part of Ukrainian nation, formed as a patriot for all ethnic homeland.

Purpose The Supermodel Astronaut (SMA) Challenge began with a group of women in a graduate class who joined together to take the pledge “I Am Enough.” The goals of the pledge are to practice positive affirmative actions of self-acceptance, self-grace, self-improvement and positive encouragement of oneself and others. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach The SMA Challenge involves an online video pledge to encourage women and girls to demonstrate their opposition to the promotion of singular ideals of body perpetuated through media. Various individuals and groups have created music videos titled SMA to the soundtrack created by Ellen Tift (the originator of the project). Findings Here, framed by Daignault’s (1983) theories on curriculum construction, the authors critically reflect on their support of the idea of the video, but also their apprehension and insecurities in participating in the video production. Originality/value From reflections, writings and dialogic discussions, they determined five embodied frames of mind that supported them in traversing the liminal space of new learning: imagining the possible, learning in doing, settling in vulnerability, journeying through empowerment and heightening self-reflection.

The relationship of mass composition to the study of rhetoric has occupied many writers interested in perceiving the two as analogous in organisation, vocabulary and persuasive goals. Grammar belonged to the choirboy's education but, more importantly, the method of grammar permeated the general teaching method for other subjects as well. Material, such as questions or disputations, was organised into the similar and the dissimilar, so that working from a model and transfer by analogy were the principal means of making connections between statements and ideas. This essay is concerned with the opportunities available in sixteenth-century Spain for the study of grammar and music and how these possibilities affected the leading Spanish composer of the time, Cristóbal de Morales. In this discussion, Juan Bermudo's treatiseDeclaración de instrumentsis important. Not only does it name leading humanists and composers, and present its theoretical remarks in the language of rhetoric; Morales, who had been in close contact with Bermudo at the Marchena estate of the Duke of Arcos, recommended the treatise. Thus Bermudo, a young Minorite monk, reveals a good deal about Morales by both direct quotation and analogy, and in effect provides a more rounded intellectual impression of the composer, who otherwise expressed himself only in his musical works and their dedications. It can be deduced from musical quotations that Morales is Bermudo's model composer, and by analogy that Morales, versed in rhetoric and imitation, understood the application of these rules in musical composition. In his thorough appraisal of musical tradition, theory and practice, Bermudo assumes the function of a critic in the modern sense.

Maximizing musician’s potential and creating effective performing skills in the process of their musical education and during the further professional development, as well as overcoming their own fears, doubts and limiting beliefs, particularly during performing in public, are still actual tasks both for musicians and their teachers.One effective approach to developing musician's creative potential is coaching. Coaching is based on a dialogue between the coach and the student (coachee); the coach proposes a series of questions aimed on assisting the student in finding their own solution of the problem. It has been known for a long time that the inner state of a person significantly impacts effectiveness of their actions. The Inner Game concept proposed by Timothy Gallwey is a coaching methodology designed to overcome inner obstacles in reaching person’s goals. Those obstacles are of mental nature and include loss of concentration, nervousness and self-doubt. What distinguishes the Inner Game from other coaching methods is that it utilizes statements and tasks that often do not require the student’s verbal answer (moreover, such verbal answer often cannot be given at all), but rather stimulate them to pay attention to their senses and to experiment (for example, in finding optimal position during playing an instrument or choosing proper dynamics for a certain music piece).The first principle of the Inner Game points out the fact that the quality of person’s performance depends not only on their potential (talent, skills, knowledge, etc.), but also on the level of self-interference (mental digression, untimely self-criticism, lack of confidence, fear, etc.).Traditional approach to improving performance suggests working on increasing the potential; the idea of the Inner Game is to decrease self-interference in order to bring the quality of the performance as close to the potential as possible.To describe the inner dialogue taking place inside person’s mind, notions of Self 1 and Self 2 are used. Self 1 is the source of self-interference, it contains person’s ideas about how the thins should be, their judgements and associations. Self 2 is our inner potential, it includes our natural talents, abilities and skills. The methods of the Inner Game are used to decrease self-interference (impact of the Self 1) and help the performer to enter the ideal state during performance, the state of relaxed concentration.

Carl Czerny (1791-1857) was a composer and music educator who made nearly a thousand musical compositions. He was a piano performer, a teacher of the instrument and a theorist. His achievements in the field of education are considered a solid foundation to teach beginners and skilled performers. The study aims to shed some light on the educational point of view of Carl Czerny from a theoretical analytical perspective, in addition to highlighting the principles and methods developed by him that can provide and help both students and teachers to achieve their goals more effectively. The study brings out Czerny’s ideas, theories and methodology of teaching music in general, and learning to play the piano in particular. The researchers studied the most important educational principles developed by Carl Czerny in which he saw a basis for the process of learning to play the Instrument, and they managed to elaborate the methodology he created.

Purpose – Despite the longstanding use of music therapy with people with intellectual disabilities and the growing evidence base for using music therapy as a tool to aid behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia in the general population, there is little work published which details the use of music therapy groups for people with intellectual disabilities who have a diagnosis of dementia. The purpose of this paper is to report a qualitative evaluation of staff views of a music therapy group for people with intellectual disabilities and dementia. Design/methodology/approach – Carers of service users attending the group were interviewed either individually or through a focus group in order to ascertain their views about the music therapy group. The interview transcripts were then analysed using thematic analysis. Findings – Two core themes and eight sub themes emerged from the data. These themes show that the group was felt to be pleasurable and enjoyable for the service users and that some tangible benefits of attending the group were observed by staff members. Notwithstanding the positive feedback, the results also suggested that more work is needed to inform carers of the goals and purpose of such groups. Further psycho-education for carers is suggested as a strategy to support future groups to run successfully. Originality/value – There is little published research into the use of music therapy for people with intellectual disabilities who also have dementia. The current paper provides a starting point for future work in the area and further recommendations for future practice and research are considered.

In contrast to Oldenburg’s concept of «library – the “third place”» the article presents its role as the «second place», i.e. the place for study and work, on the examples of music and art schools libraries, (music schools/CAS) of St. Petersburg. These establishments meet the specific needs of library users (students and teachers) that occur in the process of educational activities on pre-service programs in various types of art. The peculiarity of these libraries permit them to preserve their own niche in the general library and information space and in each concrete institution of additional education. The article examines social functions, goals and tasks of DMSH/DSHI libraries, their normative-legislative regulations, financial and acquisition questions, work of referencesearch apparatus, forms of servicing users. Possible ways of their development are designated: creation of the special Model standard; transformation of libraries into educational information centers on art in the educational environment of schools with the appropriate technical and technological equipment and the Internet access; active mastering of social networks. All this will allow DMSH/DSHI libraries to develop and implement additional forms of service.

Most students of English Education Program in STKIP PGRI Ponorogo can be considered as nontraditional students with family, work, and other life responsibilities which have many influences on their educational goals. Autonomous learning is a customized way of learning applied by individual to find out his own learning needs and learning goals, decide the most appropriate way for his own learning, as well as to monitor and evaluate the learning progress. This research used qualitative descriptive method. The primary techniques in data collection were questionnaire, and interview. In general, the most influential motivation for the students was internal motivation. Advisor’s availability, text book, internet, supportive atmosphere, self discipline, cozy and quiet place, and early morning were among the students’ choices for their autonomous learning. They frequently used music, film, video, essay, and smart phone application in their study. In general, the nontraditional students with high achievement were often felt easy to understand the material especially when it was delivered in relatively “easy” language, expressed their opinion bravely, and patient in doing their tasks. They considered friends, best friends, and lecturer as people who were capable to help them in doing autonomous learning

The article provides brief information about the creative word. Ways of development of creative abilities of children of preschool age by means of technology of designing are considered. The goals and importance of the development of children’s creative abilities in the child’s life are defined. The definition of design technology was issued. On the effectiveness of the use of design technology in the development of creative abilities. The features of the design technology and the importance of the development of children’s creativity are considered. In the system of preschool education there are areas of creativity within the framework of the state compulsory standard of preschool education, indicating the types of projects. Ways of application of creative educational activity are presented. In preschool age, educational activities in drawing, music, modeling, modeling affects the influence of the child on the formation of creative and intellectual abilities and psychologically developed personality. The General tasks of creative development are considered.

Environmental protection is one of the most topical spheres in natural science education. Problems regarding integration of environmental protection into the content of education have been broadly analysed by E.Šapokienė, V. Lamanauskas, etc. Environmental protection education is emphasised in universal programmes, general programmes, other education documents, the Public Environmental Education Strategy of the Republic of Lithuania and Action Programme. It is not surprising that one of the goals of general education school is to convey the system of environmental knowledge and skills and to form value principles of environmental protection in a democratic school environment, which promotes students’ initiative. The aim of this article is to present the results of research – the analysis of the 1st form textbooks which allowed to identify the number and the particularity of environmental elements in them. The results revealed that the biggest number of environmental protection elements was in the textbooks of environment cognition (‘Aš ir pasaulis’ (Me and the World) – 10 topics, ‘Raktas’ (Key) – 18 topics which integrate environmental knowledge, develop skills, abilities and value principles). Environmental protection was integrated into 7 topics of native language textbook ‘Šaltinėlis’ (Springlet). The textbooks of mathematics, fine arts and technologies included 1-3 environmental elements integrated into their topics. Though the subject itself is very favourable for environmental education, no elements of it were observed in the textbooks of music education. It is obvious that the authors of the textbooks for 1st forms demonstrate a holistic approach to education and environment. The range of environmental activities in the textbooks prepared by them is wide. Keywords: environmental education, primary school, and textbooks.

The consequences of reduced financial and other possibilities in the period of social transition are reflected on the quality of life and work of teachers, and thereby indirectly on education of pupils as well. Aims: (1) to determine teachers' estimation of their own financial status and subjective perception of teachers' poverty; (2) to examine in which way the personal perception of poverty of teachers is linked with the quality of their engagement in curricular and extracurricular activities; (3) to examine which economic and psychological strategies teachers use in overcoming stress because of the lower financial status; (4) to examine whether there are differences between teachers with regard to socio-demographic variables and the previously established goals. Sample consists of 141 teachers of music and general education schools in Belgrade and the interior of the country. Method: research is explorative and uses qualitative and psychometric methods of analysis. Results point out to the structure of 'hidden poverty' of teachers: average and poor financial status, financial and logistic support of the extended family, additional job, unfulfilled financial expectations regarding the educational status and ungratified higher needs. Teachers estimate that real poverty of educational system and 'hidden poverty' of teachers are reflected on the quality of certain aspects of educational process as a whole and in certain elements: teacher's personal life and work motivation, authority in school, quality of teacher's engagement in tuition and the possibility of professional specialization. Teachers use financial and psychological strategies for overcoming stress that can be determined as: moralist compensatory, evasive, inappropriate, emotional, relying on family and friendly supportive systems and activist. Conclusion: primarily subjective and spiritual impoverishment of the stratum of highly educated people, who are, in addition to this, the bearers of upbringing and education of new generations, weakens the strength of the educated middle social stratum which should be a generator of changes and bearer of development of social values.

We review and discuss the literature related to adaptive musical instruments since 2000, focusing on the use of such instruments with children with disabilities. The aim of this review is to provide a synthesis of perspectives and answer the following questions: How have music technologies, including both software and hardware, been used for children with disabilities and how have they been tested and evaluated? What have been the research questions asked and outcomes evaluated concerning these instruments? The studies reviewed include intervention, narrative and descriptive studies. One observation is that adaptive instrument design and research cuts across many different disciplines including music therapy, education and engineering. We considered articles taking functional and rehabilitation informed perspectives as well as critical disability studies, for which music making is often discussed as a human right independently of potential benefits. We discuss methodological approaches used in these studies, and reports of user’s opinions concerning the use of AMIs. It is worth noting that most uses of AMIs by the population under consideration are highly improvisatory, and so a methodological challenge frequently reported is how can the effectiveness of AMIs be assessed without focusing only on easily measurable outputs? We reveal divisions existing between research focusing on the use of AMIs with precise therapeutic and pedagogic goals in mind, and that interested in more general positive effects of improvised collective creative activity and its role in community building. With this two-fold perspective, we analyse the limitations of current research and derive questions for future directions.

The formula of the New Ukrainian School consists of nine key components, one of which is a personality-oriented model of education based on the child-centered ideas. This implies the maximum approximation of education and upbringing of a particular child to his essence, abilities and life plans, providing moral and psychological comfort, refusal to focus the educational process on the «average» student. Therefore, today in pedagogy the problem of individual educational trajectory of youth is actively discussed, which makes it possible to create conditions for the harmonious development of the individual, to meet his educational needs. In general, the concept of individualization of the educational trajectory of students is associated with the process of identifying and developing their abilities, the realization of their own educational goals that meet the needs, opportunities, motivation, interests of modern youth. The purpose of the article is to reveal the features of the formation of the individual educational trajectory of the student in the profile senior school of artistic and aesthetic field of training. Artistic and aesthetic field of specialized training is connected with the core of creative industries (literature, music, fine arts, cinema, television, radio, video and computer games, advertising, architecture, design, fashion, etc.), so it is important to personalize educational path of gifted students with a focus on unleashing their creative potential. The formation of individual educational trajectories of students of the artistic and aesthetic field of specialized education begins with the definition of their life plans, hopes for the future and consists of four stages. The first stage is the study of needs, interests, requests, personal characteristics of students. The second stage is associated with the creation of an individual educational program, which involves the definition of long-term goals; conceptual strategies and approaches to creative development, indicators of their achievements, as well as the selection of content and forms of training. Within the third stage there is a correction of pedagogical influences, creation of a positive pedagogical environment around students, elimination of organizational shortcomings, psychological and pedagogical support of senior students’ creative development is carried out. The fourth stage is related to pedagogical monitoring, which is carried out in order to ensure the quality of this process.

At present, the representatives of the country’s small farming sector are interested in using digital technologies in their economic and socio-cultural life. The possibility of using new digital technologies presupposes the presence of a certain level of education and special competencies, in connection with which such a form of acquiring knowledge as self-education is becoming widespread. Basing on the results of the analysis, a tendency for a significant increase in the involvement of representatives of small agribusiness in the process of self-education in groups with higher, vocational or secondary general education was revealed. It was found that on average 4-5% of the working-age population employed in the rural economy remotely improve their educational level and use electronic libraries. The use of the Internet is most often carried out to provide access to electronic government services, search for suppliers, sales sites for products, and obtain the required operational information. Mostly the use of its opportunities is focused on goals that are remotely related to improving the social potential of small farms: to pay for services or transfer money, submit or search for advertisements for the sale of things, as a means of communication on social networks, tracking news, entertainment and pleasure (music, games), etc. The current situation can be characterized as insufficient use of the existing potential opportunities present in the rural society. The use of digital technologies, in particular, the Internet, requires a change in the arrangement of current priorities to build up economic and economic potential, among which the sociological monitoring of the most demanded branches of knowledge, the modernization of education and its adaptation to the specifics of the rural way of life, an increase in general and specialized competencies of small farm owners and workers.

Musical education and development are connected with numerous challenges, such as great expectations, repertoire requirements, or consistent practice. At the same time, a destructive role of assessment, comparisons and expectations does not influence solely the effectiveness and quality of concerts, or auditions. Musicians experience various obstacles, including doubts, self-criticism, lack of self-confidence; they also experience anxiety and depression more frequently than the rest of the population. Going through such psychological hardships has an impact on their professional life and the quality of life in general. Over the course of music education, it is worth striving for the development of working methods regarding the prophylaxis of mental health and maintenance of mental well-being, which could be introduced as part of systemic programs offering psychological help. What may potentially be used here is a model of psychological flexibility, equipped with firm empirical foundations and covering processes that are tailor-made for the needs of the musical community. Formal and informal exercises in mindfulness, value recognition, or setting goals based on values, applied as part of work within the psychological flexibility model, result directly in, for instance, mindful, dedicated preparation and performances, as well as in enhanced self-confidence indirectly. For musicians this may be of a particular importance, as it has impact on better management of workload and preparations, despite experienced pressure of achieving perfection, on a higher quality of performance, enabling to experience ultimate and mindful performance, and first of all – on a sense of meaning and fulfillment.

Aim/Purpose: This study describes a conceptual model, based on the principles of concept algebra that can provide intelligent academic advice using adaptive, knowledge-based feedback. The proposed model advises students based on their traits and academic history. The system aims to deliver adaptive advice to students using historical data from previous and current students. This data-driven approach utilizes a cognitive knowledge-based (CKB) model to update the weights (values that indicate the strength of relationships between concepts) that exist between student’s performances and recommended courses. Background: A research study conducted at the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET), a higher education institution in Kuwait, indicates that students’ have positive perceptions of the e-Advising system. Most students believe that PAAET’s e-Advising system is effective because it allows them to check their academic status, provides a clear vision of their academic timeline, and is a convenient, user-friendly, and attractive online service. Student advising can be a tedious element of academic life but is necessary to fill the gap between student performance and degree requirements. Higher education institutions have prioritized assisting undecided students with career decisions for decades. An important feature of e-Advising systems is personalized feedback, where tailored advice is provided based on students' characteristics and other external parameters. Previous e-Advising systems provide students with advice without taking into consideration their different attributes and goals. Methodology: This research describes a model for an e-Advising system that enables students to select courses recommended based on their personalities and academic performance. Three algorithms are used to provide students with adaptive course selection advice: the knowledge elicitation algorithm that represents students' personalities and academic information, the knowledge bonding algorithm that combines related concepts or ideas within the knowledge base, and the adaptive e-Advising model that recommends relevant courses. The knowledge elicitation algorithm acquires student and academic characteristics from data provided, while the knowledge bonding algorithm fuses the newly acquired features with existing information in the database. The adaptive e-Advising algorithm provides recommended courses to students based on existing cognitive knowledge to overcome the issues associated with traditional knowledge representation methods. Contribution: The design and implementation of an adaptive e-Advising system are challenging because it relies on both academic and student traits. A model that incorporates the conceptual interaction between the various academic and student-specific components is needed to manage these challenges. While other e-Advising systems provide students with general advice, these earlier models are too rudimentary to take student characteristics (e.g., knowledge level, learning style, performance, demographics) into consideration. For the online systems that have replaced face-to-face academic advising to be effective, they need to take into consideration the dynamic nature of contemporary students and academic settings. Findings: The proposed algorithms can accommodate a highly diverse student body by providing information tailored to each student. The academic and student elements are represented as an Object-Attribute-Relationship (OAR) model. Recommendations for Practitioners: The model proposed here provides insight into the potential relationships between students’ characteristics and their academic standing. Furthermore, this novel e-Advising system provides large quantities of data and a platform through which to query students, which should enable developing more effective, knowledge-based approaches to academic advising. Recommendation for Researchers: The proposed model provides researches with a framework to incorporate various academic and student characteristics to determine the optimal advisory factors that affect a student’s performance. Impact on Society: The proposed model will benefit e-Advising system developers in implementing updateable algorithms that can be tested and improved to provide adaptive advice to students. The proposed approach can provide new insight to advisors on possible relationships between student’s characteristics and current academic settings. Thus, providing a means to develop new curriculums and approaches to learning. Future Research: In future studies, the proposed algorithms will be implemented, and the adaptive e-Advising model will be tested on real-world data and then further improved to cater to specific academic settings. The proposed model will benefit e-Advising system developers in implementing updateable algorithms that can be tested and improved to provide adaptive advisory to students. The approach proposed can provide new insight to advisors on possible relationships between student’s characteristics and current academic settings. Thus, providing a means to develop new curriculums and approaches to course recommendation.

Background. The modern practice of teaching and training the specialists of higher education, in particular, choral performance specialists, introduces new requirements to the content of education and organization of the educational process, emphasizing the importance and necessity of using the independent work of students in nowadays conditions. In this connection, there is a need to determine the directions of the independent work of students and to systematize this type of work in the educational process. Objectives. The purpose of the article is to define and theoretically substantiate all aspects of the independent work of students in the process of the vocal education for the further formation of their professional skills. Methods. To solve this task, the following methods were used: studying the state of the problem in the practice of the present (analysis of curricula content and educational and methodical literature); the analysis of academic progress and performing activity of the vocal students; the research and generalization of pedagogical experience. Results. In the vocal training, the independent work of students involves organizing their educational activities both during practice in the classroom and in the process of working outside the classroom in such a way as to get the intended result. Planning the independent work on solo singing allows finding the concrete ways of the development of vocal skills and criteria for evaluation in the professional training of a specialist. The essence of organization of the independent work of students in the process of learning singing is concluded in the creation and implementation of a specific system of tasks, which takes in account general didactic principles and the interdisciplinary interactions arising in the educational process in the formation of vocal abilities and skills. The planning of this work is carried out on the basis of both the focused activity of the teacher, who poses the necessary tasks and controls the results of their implementation, as well as the organization of the student’s own extra-curricular work, containing moments of introspection and self-assessment of the achieved results. So, the organization of the independent work of students in the process of singing education should be carried out necessarily taking into account the person-oriented approach. The independent work on solo singing is considered as a specific form of the educational activity of the student and is characterized by a number of the following psychological and pedagogical peculiarities. First, it is a continuation and extension of the vocal-performing activity in classroom organized expediently by the teacher, which stimulates students to the further professional work in the lessons-free time. In this case, the educational and cognitive activity of the student during his/her individual classes is called to act as a kind of the algorithm for the independent work on the preparation of the vocal concert program. Secondly, the student’s independent work on solo singing should be understood by him/her as a chosen and internally motivated activity, which includes: a) the awareness of the goals of his/her activities; b) the adoption or setting of a vocal-performing or vocal-methodical task; c) the self-organization in the distribution of the educational load in time; d) the adjustment of own work on the basis of self-control and self-esteem. Thirdly, the students’ independent work on solo singing should be a highly organized form of the educational activity, and the methods of its execution should be conditioned by the level of development a number of student’s personal qualities. These include: self-regulation, which involves a certain level of the self-awareness; an adequate self-esteem; active thinking; independence; time management skills; purposefulness; the complex of will qualities, as well as the so-called substantive self-regulation. An important indicator of the formation of the student’s substantive self-regulation is the availability of skills related to the definition of the goal and the final results of the proposed tasks. In determining the tasks for the independent work of students, it is necessary to cover several aspects: the complexity on theoretical and practical levels; the necessity to include tasks with increasing complexity, as well as use of interdisciplinary connections. The tasks for self-mastering of material should adhere to the following principles: 1) the principle of minimizing the level of the complexity and amount of scientific information, vocal exercises and compositions; 2) the principle of coherence of the content of the educational material for the independent work with the previously presented scientific information, studied vocal material during individual classes; the reflection in the content of essential information on the topic being studied, interdisciplinary connections, stylistic diversity of the vocal music; 3) the principle of the correspondence of the volume and the complexity of the selected vocal material to the real possibilities and individual characteristics of the students and to the time interval allocated in accordance with the curriculum; 4) the principle of the content-technological continuity between the forms and methods of independent study of the material by the students, the self-examination of vocal knowledge, skills and abilities. Also, the article deals with: a) the ways of organizing the independent work of students on solo singing; b) the plan of the independent work on a vocal composition; and c) the conditions for the effectiveness of the students’ independent work. Conclusion. So, the independent work on solo singing is considered as a specific form of the educational work of the student and is characterized as an activity that is purposeful, internally motivated, structured and adjusted by the student himself/herself. Its implementation involves a sufficient level of self-awareness, self-discipline, personal responsibility, and creativity of the learner, which allows one to consider the independent activities of students as a process of self-improvement and self-knowledge. Independent work is a necessary component of the vocational training of the singer and a specific form of his educational activity, which is characterized by certain psychological and pedagogical features, namely: - it organically complements and continues the vocal and performing activity during the individual lessons in the classroom, contributing to the unveiling of the student’s creative potential and its formation as a thinking artistic personality; - independent work should be perceived by a student as a chosen and internally motivated activity, since the development of the motivational sphere stimulates the growth of his professional interest in vocal performance and nurtures his/her ability to develop strategies for forming a system of vocal skills, hence, the strategies of success.

IntroductionAccording to modern scholars (N. Maslova, B. Astafiev), one of the important reasons for the global planetary crisis, including modern educational system in particular, is violation of the conformity of nature principles in the process of perception and cognition of the world, which is conditioned by the advantages of the development of logical and rational thinking and insufficient development of figurative, spiritual-intuitive thinking in the contemporary school of all levels.The modern system of education at all levels (school, higher education, postgraduate studies, and doctorate) is aimed primarily at the development of mechanisms of the left hemisphere that are rational, logical thinking, and analytical perception of reality.Such a one-way orientation leads to inhibition of right-sided processes, does not contribute to the development of creativity, disclosure and activation of the spiritual and intuitive capabilities of the individual, as well as to alienation of individual from the World, loss of personal sense of integrity, unity with the World; that is, to the disharmony of individual with his/her own nature and environment.Personal development of an individual in modern conditions takes the form of "Homo technicus" ("technical person"), "Homo informaticus" (“informational and technogenic person”), "Нomо соnsumens" (“person who consumes”), "Reified man" ("material surplus person"), "Nomo Festivus" ("person who has fun") (Butenko, 2017). As a result, a person with a technocratic, rational thinking, pragmatic and consumer attitude towards the world is brought up, and as a consequence, harmony in the "man-man", "man-nature", "man-society", "man-universe" systems, and correspondingly, the equilibrium in the integrated information-energy system interaction "Man – Society – Earth –Universe" are violated.Approach In contemporary education of all levels, high ontological and existential goals are not set, and not enough attention is paid to the spiritual and mental health of the individual, in particular to problems of spiritual self-knowledge, self-development, self-regulation and self-realization, thus leading to the formation of consumer psychology, dominance of pragmatic values, loss of spirituality, upbringing of a human – destroyer, a soulless person, but not a creator.One of the ways out from the planetary global crisis in the area of a contemporary education in particular, is the noosphereization of education, the imperative task of which is formation of the noospheric individual, actualization of his/her spiritual and intuitive potential, training of the noosphere integral harmonious bioadequate environmentally healthy mindset, which is based on a conscious total ownership of logical (left cerebral hemisphere) and creative, spiritual-intuitive (right cerebral hemisphere) thinking that, due to correspondence with both huamn nature and the laws of the cosmoplanetary world, will provide the individual with possibilities to adequately and fully (at the information and energy levels) perceive and recognize the surrounding world, and to interact with it on a spiritual basis.Results and Discussion The problem of intuition always remains relevant throughout the history of mankind. Among the scholars of the late XX century - beginning of the XXI century the problem of intuition and harmonization of the activity of the left and right hemispheres of the brain has been studied by such researchers as G. Kurmyshev, N. Maslova, Osho Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh, I. Smokvina and others. Modern psychophysiological science explains the nature of intuitive thinking and cognition: the human mind combines the ability to integrate and develop both intellectual and intuitive knowledge that modern scientists associate with the activity of the left and right cerebral hemispheres. According to psychological science, the two hemispheres of the brain cognize and reflect the surrounding world differently and, thereafter transform information in their own ways. The left hemisphere "sees" objects as discrete, separated; it is responsible for logic and intellect, verbal thinking, application of sign information (reading, counting, language), and is characterized by the ability for logical, rational, mathematical, and scientific thinking. The right hemisphere binds objects into a single whole; it is responsible for emotions, creative thinking, intuition (unconscious processes). Thanks to the right hemisphere, a holistic image of the world is formed, and the left hemisphere gradually collects the model of the world from separate, but carefully studied details. "Left- hemisphered" thinking is associated with the ability for consistent, step-by-step cognition, which has respectively analytical rather than synthetic character. "Right- hemisphered" thinking is linked to the ability for integral, voluminous and complete cognition, space spatial immediate perception of the world in all of its information-energy interrelations and interactions.Logic and intuition, rational and intuitive paths – are different aspects of the unified process of cognition, and if the intellect can be regarded as the earthly beginning in humans, then intuition – is a spiritual primary source, a phenomenon of nonlinear, unearthly thinking, the logic of the Higher Being, the logic of the Almighty. As was very wittily pointed out by Osho Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, logic – the way our mind cognizes our reality, intuition – is how the spirit passes through the experience of reality (Maslova, 2006). Therefore, logic and intuition are two mutually conditioned mechanisms of scientific cognition that supplement and do not exist in isolation from one another. If the function of intuition in this interaction lies in creative discoveries, inventions, awareness of the true essence of things and phenomena, then the task of the scientific method, acting as an assistant of intuition, is to endeavor to comprehend new ideas, explain them from the point of view of earth science at the logical level, and "adapt" to our reality.Given this, rational and intuitive paths must complement, enrich and explain each other, interact in sync, in synthesis.Intuition is an organic component of the spiritual and psychic nature of the individual. Therefore, the problem of the development of intuition and harmonization of the discourse-logical and spiritual-intuitive components of thinking is extremely important at all levels of contemporary education. This is especially true for student youth, since students are the future spiritual and creative potential of the country, and therefore it is extremely important to reveal and develop their spiritual and intuitive abilities, to harmonize their mental-spiritual sphere, which promotes spiritual self-healing of both the individual and the environment, and harmonization of relations in the world. In the context of the modern information and energy paradigm, intuition is considered as a special mental state of a highly spiritual person, in which he/she deliberately initiates informational and energetic contact with any object of the Universe, in the physical or subtle world, "connects" to its information field, "reads out", "decrypts" and analyzes necessary information. This information-energy interaction is perceived by the individual as the process of connection, merging with the object being studied, which enables instant cognition of its true essence (Smokvina, 2013). As the analysis of the literature on the research problem testifies, if the activity mechanisms of the left hemisphere of the brain are relatively studied in modern science, the problems of the individual’s intuitive updating potential and harmonization of the activity of logical and intuitive cognitive processes are being investigated.According to many scholars, the ability for intuition is inborn in every human; however, unfortunately, in most people it is in a latent state. And only due to intense conscious work of the individual regarding their own spiritual self–cognition and self–perfection, one can discover and develop personal spiritual and intuitive abilities.According to the results of our theoretical study the general conditions contributing to the disclosure and development of intuition are as follows: (Tyurina, 2017) • Ability to cope with one’s own passions, emotions, feelings, thoughts, and achievement of the state of internal silence, voicelessness;• Formed self-motivation for spiritual self–cognition and self–perfection;• Achievement by the individual of the corresponding spiritual level: the higher the spirituality of the human, the more clearly his/her ability is expressed to obtain a higher spiritual knowledge: information and energy interaction, contact with higher levels of psychic reality;• Conscious desire, willingness of the individual to use intuitive cognition that helps overcome information-power resistance, the barrier that exists between a subject and an object, helps create harmony, assonance, interaction with the object being studied;• Intuitive human confidence: deep inner belief in personal intuitive capabilities and ability for intuitive cognition and self-cognition;• Humanistic orientation of the individual and his/her internal psychological properties such as: altruism, active love for all living beings on the Earth, empathy, ability to express compassion, care, and self-consecration, conscious desire to live in harmony with oneself and the world;• Nonjudgmental practice, which consists of the ability of a person to abandon assessments, classifications, analysis, which creates favorable conditions for immersion into the information space around us, makes it possible to connect to the information-energy field (biofield) of the object being studied;• Sense of inner unity with the world, awareness of oneself as a part of mankind, of the Earth, of the Universe, and a feeling of deep responsibility for the world and for ourselves in the world;• Striving for personal self-realization for the benefit of the cosmoplanetary world.In our opinion, the ways of actualization of intuition and harmonization of the activity of logical and intuitive components of the process of cognition should be attributed to the following (Tyurina, 2018):• Concentration, concentration of human consciousness of the subject being studied, deep and thorough knowledge of it.Psychological mood, deep concentration, focus of human consciousness on the subject of research lead to intuitive penetration into its essence, comprehension of the subject of study as if "from within." An intuitive act of cognition is the result of a huge concentration of all human efforts on a particular problem, deep and thorough knowledge of it, mobilization of all its potencies. In particular, for almost 20 years, D. Mandeleev worked continuously on the systematization of chemical elements, and only after that he "saw" his periodic system of elements in his dream. At academician M. Shchetynin school students spend 21 days (6 lessons daily) studying only one academic discipline for the purpose of deep penetration into its essence - information-energy merger, connection with the subject being studied, into a single whole, that is, achieving an intuitive level of comprehension.• Spiritual practices (prayer, meditation).Prayer and meditation are effective ways of spiritualizing a person, awakening and activating his/her intuitive potential. Through prayer, meditation a person learns to adjust to nature and Cosmos, eternity and infinity, the World Harmony, reaches consonance with the World, and permeates its inner essential depth with the heart.It is believed that it is prayer that promotes the spiritual purification of both the human soul and the surrounding world. During a heart-warming prayer a human comes to enlightenment and spiritual enlightenment, intuitive enlightenment.In the process of prayer, meditation, the right and left hemispheres of the brain begin to work synchronously, which makes the brain function in resonance with the Field of Consciousness or the Field of Information - Noosphere.• Spiritual processing of the corresponding religious, spiritual and philosophical sources, fine arts, classical music, information-energy interaction which raises the spiritual level of an individual, awakens his/her intuitive abilities.Spiritual literature is an important way of discovering and developing intuition and harmonizing the activity of intuitive and logical components of thinking, since information and energy interaction with spiritual literature contributes to individual’s spiritual growth, disclosure and development of intuition, and harmonization of personal intuitional and intellectual sphere.It should be noted that various forms of art, in particular, visual and musical, play a special role in the process of disclosure and development, intuition, harmonization of the logical and figurative, spiritual and intuitive perception of reality.The spiritual potential of art is, first of all, that in itself, creating spiritual values, spiritualizes a person, and interprets personality as a phenomenon of a global planetary-cosmic nature. True art has an ecumenical, cosmic dimension. The best masterpieces of world art transfer the idea of unity of humans with the world, their harmonious interaction.The creativity of great artists contributes to the disclosure and development of the personality's spirituality, the heart's perception of the world, the cultivation of the Cosmic Worldview, and directs the person to high ideals.Musical art is one of the most important means of revealing and developing intuition, harmonizing its spiritual and intuitive basis.The results of research by modern scholars show that classical, spiritual music activates the spiritual-intuitive sphere, harmonizes the person, gives a sense of joy and rest, and helps to restore spiritual and mental balance.It has been scientifically proven that classical musical compositions based on the perfection of harmony and rhythm, especially the works of J. Bach, L. Beethoven, J. Brahms, A. Vivaldi, G. Handel, F. List, F. Mendelssohn, A. Mozart, S. Rakhmaninov, O. Scriabin, P. Tchaikovsky, F. Chopin, F. Schubert, R. Schumann and others have a positive effect on the individual on the spiritual, mental and physiological levels, since classical music relates mainly to the natural rhythms of the human body. This music causes not only positive emotions, but also represents a powerful energy force that inspires humans and the world: makes a person more perfect and the world more beautiful.Consequently, fine arts, classical music, contribute to the disclosure and development of the spiritual and intuitive potential of the individual, to harmonization of his/her intuitive-intellectual sphere; they help the person to grow spiritually and be filled with high spiritual energy, accordingly, to change, and improve the natural and social environment.- Bioadequate REAL-methodology of noosphere education (N. Maslova), in which stages of relaxation (accumulation of information, work of the right creative hemisphere in a state of rest), alternating with stages of activity (training of the left hemisphere: logic, analysis, synthesis of information) are presented. As a result, the work of the left and right cerebral hemispheres is synchronized, which promotes harmonization of consciousness, carries a beneficial influence on the spiritual, mental, social and physical health of the student's personality.The fundamental characteristics of the bioadequate method of noospheric education are:1. Health preserving - does not violate the nature of perception, processing and preservation of information.2. Corrective - restores the natural genetic sequence of work with the information and health of the student and the teacher.3. Developing - improves the body's reserves.4. Harmonizing - integrates all systems of the body and personality (Vernadsky, 2002).According to studies of the neuropathologist I. Smokvinova, PhD, bioadequate methods of noosphere education, taking into account the physiological and informational and energy resources of the individual, contribute to the harmonization of the work of the left and right cerebral hemispheres, awaken higher feelings, recharge with life energy, teach the ability to direct vitality to the realization of one’s own higher potential, which also has a beneficial effect on the spiritual, mental and physical health of the individual. Moreover, due to the application of a bioadequate technique, psychological and physiological stress is eliminated, and a positive emotional mood is created that heals the body and the student's psychics (Osho, 2000). According to N. Maslova, holistic thinking contributes to the acquisition of basic energy, biologically adequate to livelihoods programs (Kurmyshev, 2013).Many independent groups of scientists (teachers, psychologists, physicians, biologists) have proved that noosphere education, harmonizing the left and right hemispheres thinking, has a healing effect on the body of both the student and the teacher, contributes to the development of natural creativity.Practical valueResults of our study can be used in lectures and practical classes with students in medical psychology, psychology of creativity, social, general, pedagogical psychology, pedagogy (sections of didactics, spiritual and moral education), sociology, philosophy, etc.ConclusionsThus, the actualization of the spiritual and intuitive potential of the individual and the harmonization of the activity of the left and right cerebral hemispheres stimulates the disclosure of spiritual and creative abilities of the individual, fills the individual with spiritual energy, and the person becomes a source of spiritualization of himself/herself and the world, thus contributing to the spiritual and psychological improvement of society, humanity, and civilization in general, since at the information-energy level, "Man - Society - Earth - Universe" this is the only cosmoplanetary organism, all parts of which are mutually interconnected, interact and stipulate with one another. We consider that it is important in the future to develop appropriate special disciplines for all the sections of modern school and keep working in the direction of developing and incorporating into the content of the curricula, relevant pedagogical technologies aimed at the disclosure and development of the intuitive-mental sphere of the individual

typical classroom in Ontario is filled with a variety of learners with diverse needs. These various needs require teachers to differentiate instruction or create a universal design for learning (UDL) so that all students can participate. As a result, research is needed to explore and describe successful programs that can support all learners. One way to do this is to develop pedagogical practices for atypical learners and examine how these could be broadened for more typical learners. This research examines a series of general music lessons, including singing, playing percussion instruments and musical games, for atypical twelve-year-old learners. An Action Research methodology was used to examine six weeks of lessons taught to three students by the primary researcher. Data were collected using reflective journals, portfolios and videos of the sessions. Thematic analysis was conducted to examine similarities and differences in learner profiles, trends in the content of the lessons and pedagogical development over time, as well as to define some strategies or activities that could form the basis of a UDL approach. Despite the students’ atypical learning profiles, only minor accommodations were required during lessons. Overall, this research demonstrates the value of a pedagogical approach that articulates learning goals while allowing the path to achieving those goals to be different for each student, reinforcing the importance of the UDL approach. Moreover, the action research methodology highlights the importance of incorporating opportunities to work with atypical students in music teacher education, so that future teachers can develop a UDL approach.

Music education and education in general play an important role inlearning the cultural heritage of one’s own nation and in strengthening national identity.The United Europe has been creating an increasingly homogenous and multiculturalsociety, which is facing the problem of migrations. Understanding and acceptingdifferences and diversity is a prerequisite for life in European multicultural community,where above all mutual respect is repeatedly emphasised. Multicultural educationendeavours for equal opportunities in the education of all children in all areas irrespectiveof the differences such as race, ethnic affiliation, social background, and other categories.It creates the circumstances for equitable education of all children. The goals ofmulticultural education are clear and represent an ideal both for teachers, parents, andchildren. The process of their implementation is gradual and long-term. The developmentof multicultural community in Europe is a reality and a future, and on this way educationsystems including the multicultural music education will play an important role.

The purpose of this study was to explore the reasons for parents' reluctance to register their children in public education and their preference for private education in kindergarten in the State of Kuwait. The study used the analytical descriptive methodology, and 311 questionnaires were randomly distributed to parents of children in private schools. This study found some recurring reasons for refraining from general education as follows: (a) The curriculum in public education does not include teaching foreign languages, (b) The frequent absence of children in public schools because of the lack of awareness of parents about the importance of the kindergarten stage, (c) The non-serious attitude of the Public Education Department in implementing the educational goals, (d) The inability of teachers to apply the curriculum in public education sector and understand the nature of the kindergarten stage, (e) The lack of after-school service programs and overcrowding of the students in public schools. The study recommends reducing the number of students in public schools, teaching foreign languages, like English, and raising general awareness among the teachers so that they would teach effectively. Keywords: Private Education; public education; kindergarten; reluctance to education; education; government education

In preschool education institutions, child, parents and teachers are a part of the society and culture, and have mutual influence on one another thus creating the culture of the educational institution. Music enriches and refines life in a preschool education institution, which is a part of its cultural identity. Music activities contribute to creating an invaluable environment in a kindergarten, and have positive influence on the development of a child. This paper provides evidence from practice, and it is focused on the segment of music education related to teachers' music teaching competences and to the way in which the teachers realize music education in order to raise the level of culture in the kindergarten. Analysis of teaching journals showed a lack of basic determinants in the curriculum for early childhood and preschool education. Accordingly, there is an important problem in understanding and interpreting the general goals and principles of artistic expression in education (including music education). By eliminating the shortcomings the teachers could improve their professional skills and competences for music teaching, raise the importance of music education for a comprehensive development of children, and ultimately contribute to better quality of the cultural identity of a preschool education institution.

The ability to play the piano with a variety of timbres requires a performer to have advanced pianistic skills. Little is known about how these skills are acquired and developed in piano lessons and what the role is of elements such as concepts, technique, sonic outcomes, and bodily movements. To investigate the teaching and learning of piano timbre, the lessons of three pairs of university-level teachers and students (two teachers and three students) were observed, during which they behaved as usual in the first two lessons and were asked to use a dialogic teaching approach in the third lesson. Verbal communications of teachers and students about timbre were coded and analyzed, aiming to gain insight into the teaching/learning process of piano timbre and the roles of embodiment and teacher–student interaction in the context of higher music education. The results suggest that piano timbre is not learned through imitation or as “fixed” and objective knowledge, but as a co-constructed conception between the teachers and the students. The meaning of timbre goals in piano lessons is enacted through “in-the-moment” bodily experience and embodied through performance actions. This study contributes to the understanding of piano timbre as a multifaceted phenomenon and illustrates the teacher's role in developing the student's mind–body integration involved in tone production.

The goal of the paper is to evaluate and propose methodological techniques for the introduction of the playing of recorder in the music teaching for the first grade pupils, in order to more successfully develop the basic singing skills. Methods: analysis of the teaching and psychological literature regarding the possibilities of playing the recorder in the music teaching, observation and analysis of the process of music teaching and the reflection on the personal experience in connection with the standard of the General education of Latvia in the music teaching. Analysis of the informal discussion based on the use of playing of recorder in the music lesson. Modeling of the pupils’ practical activities in music teaching in the primary school. Results: Methodological techniques are proposed for the development of the basic singing skills using the playing of recorder, and the creation of the cooperation among the students and their self-expression skills in the music lessons is encouraged. A teacher starting the formation of the basic singing skills often in the teaching process faces the situation, when the majority of the pupils in the class have an insufficiently developed ability to listen and reproduce the sound using their voice. One of the goals of the music teaching is to create correct vocal skills of the pupils, placing an emphasis on proper inhalation, creation of sound and also on a posture. Correct breathing is important both for singing and playing the recorder, but the tune culture is formed by the interaction of the breathing and posture. These singing aspects have the common characteristics with the basics of playing the recorder: interaction of breathing and posture forms the timbre of the recorder’s sound. The pupils initially cannot physically sing a certain pitch, but playing of recorder helps them to obtain a certain pitch of the sound using their hands, thereby allowing hearing and reproducing the sound, while simultaneously developing preconditions for the composition of stable melody in the playing of recorder. The pupils acquire the note reading skills simultaneously with the learning of proper breathing and blowing in. In order for the pupils to easier comprehend the recording of the note rhythm, they are offered to play simple rhythm examples, gradually increasing the number of ledger lines until a full staff is reached. Such method of learning to read the notes allows comprehending that the same melody can be played at different pitches. Any sound is always perceived and processed together with its duration and timbre (Griffin, 2007), so the combination of the sound of playing the recorder and singing gives an additional impulse to the pupils’ auricular centre. The timbral differences of the sounds of recorder and human voice are processed in different areas of the brain – the secondary and associative; therefore it is reasonable to assume that the combination of playing the recorder and singing stimulates the brain activity, based on the research of M. Tervaniemi and I. Winklera (Tervaniemi &amp; Winklera, 1997). The use of the playing of recorder in teaching music is not new in the music education. In the middle of 20th century, it was popularized in their philosophies of teaching music by Karl Orff, Schinichi Suzuki and Zoltan Kodaly. The playing of recorder is not difficult, it does not create problems for the pupils, but brings them joy and satisfaction about their playing skills. This factor is therefore one of the most important for the creation of positive self-expression skills and motivation during the music lesson. Based on the opinion of B. Teplov (Теплов, 1947), the musical talent is formed in the childhood and it manifests itself in the pupil’s attitude towards the music: he or she likes or dislikes it. Combining the singing skills with the playing of recorder in the music lesson brings the joy to the pupils about their ability to play and creates the positive motivation. A teacher develops a vocal and instrumental musical score, encouraging all pupils to participate in playing music, thereby creating a situation, when each pupil achieves a positive result in accordance with his or her specific playing skills. The creation of skills to play in the group is equally important. Learning to read the notes in the staff is the beginning for the creation of polyphony in the music teaching. The teacher using the singing and playing of recorder skills may form the vocal, vocal and instrumental or instrumental groups. The pupils during the playing of recorder listen to the pitch of the sound and form a precise musical sound of the recorder.The goal of the study: to find out the opinion of the teachers of music regarding the possibilities to use the playing of recorder in teaching music. The methods used in the study: informal discussion of the target group. The group at the beginning of the discussion is asked to share its experience and provide the comments regarding the use of playing of recorder in teaching music. The following results were gathered after summarizing the opinions and arguments expressed during the discussion of the group: all members of the target group are familiar with the playing of recorder; 5 respondents admit that they play the recorder, 2 respondents have the basic skills of playing the recorder, and 1 respondent does not know how to play the recorder; 4 respondents use the playing of recorder in music teaching, but only one respondent has used the elements of playing the recorder in teaching of the singing skills; 1 respondent has decided to use the playing of recorder in music teaching during the next school year; all respondents consider the playing of recorder as a supplemental method, which can be used in music teaching; all respondents admit that the playing of recorder facilitates the development of pupils’ musical hearing; 6 respondents believe that the learning to play the recorder in a music lesson is a time – consuming learning method, because there is already limited time for teaching the curriculum; 3 respondents using the recorder in the teaching process believe that the introduction of playing the recorder in the music teaching is not useful, because the recorders available to the pupils do not allow playing in unison; 1 respondent expressed an opinion that the playing of recorder can be used in the music lesson only by working with a previously prepared selection of pupils. The following negative and positive arguments were gathered after summarizing the opinions and arguments provided during the group discussions: the pupils buy the recorders manufactured by different companies, therefore their timbral sound may differ, and the pitches of the sounds, which are not always identical, do not allow reaching a perfect unison; different fingering of the recorders (German recorders and baroque recorders) makes the learning process difficult. The pupils observing each other’s finger movements often learn to play incorrect pitches of the sounds, which are difficult for the teacher to control during the beginning stage of learning to play the recorder. traditional teaching methods are more useful and easier to apply in music teaching. The teachers of music relying on their personal experience, however, confirm the positive aspects of using the playing of recorder in teaching music for the first grade pupils: playing of recorder facilitates the development of the pupils’ musical achievements, especially the development of musical hearing of the pupils; facilitates the development of the pupils’ self-expression skills, because playing of recorder allows each pupil accomplishing his/her individual artistic potential. the playing of recorder in teaching music facilitates the development of the pupils both from the teaching and psychological point of view. It can be concluded by comparing the musical development of the pupils from 3 different classes that the musical development is the highest in the classes using the playing of recorder in their music lessons. This conclusion is also affirmed by the number of pupils in each class participating in the groups of amateur performance. The number of such pupils is the highest in the classes with the elements of playing the recorder in teaching music. Therefore it can be concluded that the process of teaching music creates a positive motivation, which facilitates the necessity for an emotional musical experience for pupils, as well as the tendencies of creation of a collective body of the class and the cooperation skills among the pupils.

In the 2019 documentary Chasing Happiness, recording artist/musician Joe Jonas tells audiences that the band was “living the dream”. Similarly, in the 2012 documentary Artifact, lead singer Jared Leto remarks that at the height of Thirty Seconds to Mars’s success, they “were living the dream”. However, for both the Jonas Brothers and Thirty Seconds to Mars, their experiences of the music industry (much like other commercially successful recording artists) soon transformed into nightmares. Similar to other commercially successful recording artists, the Jonas Brothers and Thirty Seconds to Mars, came up against the constraints of the industry which inevitably led to a forfeiting of authenticity, a loss of creative control, increased exploitation, and unequal remuneration. This work will consider how working in the music industry is not always a dream come true and can instead be viewed as a proverbial nightmare. Living the DreamIn his book Dreams, Carl Gustav Jung discusses how that which is experienced in sleep, speaks of a person’s wishes: that which might be desired in reality but may not actually happen. In his earlier work, The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud argued that the dream is representative of fulfilling a repressed wish. However, the creative industries suggest that a dream need not be a repressed wish; it can become a reality. Jon Bon Jovi believes that his success in the music industry has surpassed his wildest dreams (Atkinson). Jennifer Lopez considers the fact that she held big dreams, had a focussed passion, and strong aspirations the reason why she pursued a creative career that took her out of the Bronx (Thomas). In a Twitter post from 23 April 2018, Bruno Mars declared that he “use [sic] to dream of this shit,” in referring to a picture of him performing for a sold out arena, while in 2019 Shawn Mendes informed his 24.4 million Twitter followers that his “life is a dream”. These are but a few examples of successful music industry artists who are seeing their ‘wishes’ come true and living the American Dream.Endemic to the American culture (and a characteristic of the identity of the country) is the “American Dream”. It centres on “a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability and achievement” (Adams, 404). Although initially used to describe having a nice house, money, stability and a reasonable standard of living, the American Dream has since evolved to what the scholar Florida believes is the new ‘aspiration of people’: doing work that is enjoyable and relies on human creativity. At its core, the original American Dream required striving to meet individual goals, and was promoted as possible for anyone regardless of their cultural, socio-economic and political background (Samuel), because it encourages the celebrating of the self and personal uniqueness (Gamson). Florida’s conceptualisation of the New American dream, however, tends to emphasise obtaining success, fame and fortune in what Neff, Wissinger, and Zukin (310) consider “hot”, “creative” industries where “the jobs are cool”.Whether old or new, the American Dream has perpetuated and reinforced celebrity culture, with many of the young generation reporting that fame and fortune were their priorities, as they sought to emulate the success of their famous role models (Florida). The rag to riches stories of iconic recording artists can inevitably glorify and make appealing the struggle that permits achieving one’s dream, with celebrities offering young, aspiring creative people a means of identification for helping them to aspire to meet their dreams (Florida; Samuel). For example, a young Demi Lovato spoke of how she idolised and looked up to singer Beyonce Knowles, describing Knowles as a role model because of the way she carries herself (Tishgart). Similarly, American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson cited Aretha Franklin as her musical inspiration and the reason that she sings from a place deep within (Nilles). It is unsurprising then, that popular media has tended to portray artists working in the creative industries and being paid to follow their passions as “a much-vaunted career dream” (Duffy and Wissinger, 4656). Movies such as A Star Is Born (2018), The Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980), Dreamgirls (2006), Begin Again (2013) and La La Land (2016) exalt the perception that creativity, talent, sacrifice and determination will mean dreams come true (Nicolaou). In concert with the American dream is the drive among creative people pursuing creative success to achieve their dreams because of the perceived autonomy they will gain, the chance of self-actualisation and social rewards, and the opportunity to fulfil intrinsic motivations (Amabile; Auger and Woodman; Cohen). For these workers, the love of creation and the happiness that accompanies new discoveries (Csikszentmihalyi) can offset the tight budgets and timelines, precarious labour (Blair, Grey, and Randle; Hesmondhalgh and Baker), uncertain demand (Caves; Shultz), sacrifice of personal relationships (Eikhof and Haunschild), the demand for high quality products (Gil & Spiller), and the tense relationships with administrators (Bilton) which are known to plague these industries. In some cases, young, up and coming creative people overlook these pitfalls, instead romanticising creative careers as ideal and worthwhile. They willingly take on roles and cede control to big corporations to “realize their passions [and] uncover their personal talent” (Bill, 50). Of course, as Ursell argues in discussing television employees, such idealisation can mean creatives, especially those who are young and unfamiliar with the constraints of the industry, end up immersed in and victims of the “vampiric” industry that exploits workers (816). They are socialised towards believing, in this case, that the record label is a necessary component to obtain fame and fortune and whether willing or unwilling, creative workers become complicit in their own exploitation (Cohen). Loss of Control and No CompensationThe music industry itself has been considered by some to typify the cultural industries (Chambers). Popular music has potency in that it is perceived as speaking a universal language (Burnett), engaging the emotions and thoughts of listeners, and assisting in their identity construction (Burnett; Gardikiotis and Baltzis). Given the place of music within society, it is not surprising that in 2018, the global music industry was worth US$19.1billion (IFPI). The music industry is necessarily underpinned by a commercial agenda. At present, six major recording companies exist and between them, they own between 70-80 per cent of the recordings produced globally (Konsor). They also act as gatekeepers, setting trends by defining what and who is worth following and listening to (Csikszentmihalyi; Jones, Anand, and Alvarez). In essence, to be successful in the music industry is to be affiliated with a record label. This is because the highly competitive nature and cluttered environment makes it harder to gain traction in the market without worthwhile representation (Moiso and Rockman). In the 2012 documentary about Thirty Seconds to Mars, Artifact, front man Jared Leto even questions whether it is possible to have “success without a label”. The recording company, he determines, “deal with the crappy jobs”. In a financially uncertain industry that makes money from subjective or experience-based goods (Caves), having a label affords an artist access to “economic capital for production and promotion” that enables “wider recognition” of creative work (Scott, 239). With the support of a record label, creative entrepreneurs are given the chance to be promoted and distributed in the creative marketplace (Scott; Shultz). To have a record label, then, is to be perceived as legitimate and credible (Shultz).However, the commercial music industry is just that, commercial. Accordingly, the desire to make money can see the intrinsic desires of musicians forfeited in favour of standardised products and a lack of remuneration for artists (Negus). To see this standardisation in practice, one need not look further than those contestants appearing on shows such as American Idol or The Voice. Nowhere is the standardisation of the music industry more evident than in Holmes’s 2004 article on Pop Idol. Pop Idol first aired in Britain from 2001-2003 and paved the way for a slew of similar shows around the world such as Australia’s Popstars Live in 2004 and the global Idol phenomena. According to Holmes, audiences are divested of the illusion of talent and stardom when they witness the obvious manufacturing of musical talent. The contestants receive training, are dressed according to a prescribed image, and the show emphasises those melodramatic moments that are commercially enticing to audiences. Her sentiments suggest these shows emphasise the artifice of the music industry by undermining artistic authenticity in favour of generating celebrities. The standardisation is typified in the post Idol careers of Kelly Clarkson and Adam Lambert. Kelly Clarkson parted with the recording company RCA when her manager and producer Clive Davis told her that her album My December (2007) was “not commercial enough” and that Clarkson, who had written most of the songs, was a “shitty writer… who should just shut up and sing” (Nied). Adam Lambert left RCA because they wanted him to make a full length 80s album comprised of covers. Lambert commented that, “while there are lots of great songs from that decade, my heart is simply not in doing a covers album” (Lee). In these instances, winning the show and signing contracts led to both Clarkson and Lambert forfeiting a degree of creative control over their work in favour of formulaic songs that ultimately left both artists unsatisfied. The standardisation and lack of remuneration is notable when signing recording artists to 360° contracts. These 360° contracts have become commonplace in the music industry (Gulchardaz, Bach, and Penin) and see both the material and immaterial labour (such as personal identities) of recording artists become controlled by record labels (Stahl and Meier). These labels determine the aesthetics of the musicians as well as where and how frequently they tour. Furthermore, the labels become owners of any intellectual property generated by an artist during the tenure of the contract (Sanders; Stahl and Meier). For example, in their documentary Show Em What You’re Made Of (2015), the Backstreet Boys lament their affiliation with manager Lou Pearlman. Not only did Pearlman manufacture the group in a way that prevented creative exploration by the members (Sanders), but he withheld profits to the point that the Backstreet Boys had to sue Pearlman in order to gain access to money they deserved. In 2002 the members of the Backstreet Boys had stated that “it wasn’t our destinies that we had to worry about in the past, it was our souls” (Sanders, 541). They were not writing their own music, which came across in the documentary Show Em What You’re Made Of when singer Howie Dorough demanded that if they were to collaborate as a group again in 2013, that everything was to be produced, managed and created by the five group members. Such a demand speaks to creative individuals being tied to their work both personally and emotionally (Bain). The angst encountered by music artists also signals the identity dissonance and conflict felt when they are betraying their true or authentic creative selves (Ashforth and Mael; Ashforth and Humphrey). Performing and abiding by the rules and regulations of others led to frustration because the members felt they were “being passed off as something we aren’t” (Sanders 539). The Backstreet Boys were not the only musicians who were intensely controlled and not adequately compensated by Pearlman. In the documentary The Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearlman Story 2019, Lance Bass of N*Sync and recording artist Aaron Carter admitted that the experience of working with Pearlman became a nightmare when they too, were receiving cheques that were so small that Bass describes them as making his heart sink. For these groups, the dream of making music was undone by contracts that stifled creativity and paid a pittance.In a similar vein, Thirty Seconds to Mars sought to cut ties with their record label when they felt that they were not being adequately compensated for their work. In retaliation EMI issued Mars with a US$30 million lawsuit for breach of contract. The tense renegotiations that followed took a toll on the creative drive of the group. At one point in the documentary Artifact (2012), Leto claims “I can’t sing it right now… You couldn’t pay me all the money in the world to sing this song the way it needs to be sung right now. I’m not ready”. The contract subordination (Phillips; Stahl and Meier) that had led to the need to renegotiate financial terms came at not only a financial cost to the band, but also a physical and emotional one. The negativity impacted the development of the songs for the new album. To make music requires evoking necessary and appropriate emotions in the recording studio (Wood, Duffy, and Smith), so Leto being unable to deliver the song proved problematic. Essentially, the stress of the lawsuit and negotiations damaged the motivation of the band (Amabile; Elsbach and Hargadon; Hallowell) and interfered with their creative approach, which could have produced standardised and poor quality work (Farr and Ford). The dream of making music was almost lost because of the EMI lawsuit. Young creatives often lack bargaining power when entering into contracts with corporations, which can prove disadvantaging when it comes to retaining control over their lives (Phillips; Stahl and Meier). Singer Demi Lovato’s big break came in the 2008 Disney film Camp Rock. As her then manager Phil McIntyre states in the documentary Simply Complicated (2017), Camp Rock was “perceived as the vehicle to becoming a superstar … overnight she became a household name”. However, as “authentic and believable” as Lovato’s edginess appeared, the speed with which her success came took a toll on Lovato. The pressure she experienced having to tour, write songs that were approved by others, star in Disney channel shows and movies, and look a certain way, became too much and to compensate, Lovato engaged in regular drug use to feel free. Accordingly, she developed a hybrid identity to ensure that the squeaky clean image required by the moral clauses of her contract, was not tarnished by her out-of-control lifestyle. The nightmare came from becoming famous at a young age and not being able to handle the expectations that accompanied it, coupled with a stringent contract that exploited her creative talent. Lovato’s is not a unique story. Research has found that musicians are more inclined than those in other workforces to use psychotherapy and psychotropic drugs (Vaag, Bjørngaard, and Bjerkeset) and that fame and money can provide musicians more opportunities to take risks, including drug-use that leads to mortality (Bellis, Hughes, Sharples, Hennell, and Hardcastle). For Lovato, living the dream at a young age ultimately became overwhelming with drugs her only means of escape. AuthenticityThe challenges then for music artists is that the dream of pursuing music can come at the cost of a musician’s authentic self. According to Hughes, “to be authentic is to be in some sense real and true to something ... It is not simply an imitation, but it is sincere, real, true, and original expression of its creator, and is believable or credible representations or example of what it appears to be” (190). For Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers, being in the spotlight and abiding by the demands of Disney was “non-stop” and prevented his personal and musical growth (Chasing Happiness). As Kevin Jonas put it, Nick “wanted the Jonas Brothers to be no more”. The extensive promotion that accompanies success and fame, which is designed to drive celebrity culture and financial motivations (Currid-Halkett and Scott; King), can lead to cynical performances and dissatisfaction (Hughes) if the identity work of the creative creates a disjoin between their perceived self and aspirational self (Beech, Gilmore, Cochrane, and Greig). Promoting the band (and having to film a television show and movies he was not invested in all because of contractual obligations) impacted on Nick’s authentic self to the point that the Jonas Brothers made him feel deeply upset and anxious. For Nick, being stifled creatively led to feeling inauthentic, thereby resulting in the demise of the band as his only recourse.In her documentary Gaga: Five Foot Two (2017), Lady Gaga discusses the extent she had to go to maintain a sense of authenticity in response to producer control. As she puts it, “when producers wanted me to be sexy, I always put some absurd spin on it, that made me feel like I was still in control”. Her words reaffirm the perception amongst scholars (Currid-Halkett and Scott; King; Meyers) that in playing the information game, industry leaders will construct an artist’s persona in ways that are most beneficial for, in this case, the record label. That will mean, for example, establishing a coherent life story for musicians that endears them to audiences and engaging recording artists in co-branding opportunities to raise their profile and to legitimise them in the marketplace. Such behaviour can potentially influence the preferences and purchases of audiences and fans, can create favourability, originality and clarity around artists (Loroz and Braig), and can establish competitive advantage that leads to producers being able to charge higher prices for the artists’ work (Hernando and Campo). But what impact does that have on the musician? Lady Gaga could not continue living someone else’s dream. She found herself needing to make changes in order to avoid quitting music altogether. As Gaga told a class of university students at the Emotion Revolution Summit hosted by Yale University:I don’t like being used to make people money. It feels sad when I am overworked and that I have just become a money-making machine and that my passion and creativity take a backseat. That makes me unhappy.According to Eikof and Haunschild, economic necessity can threaten creative motivation. Gaga’s reaction to the commercial demands of the music industry signal an identity conflict because her desire to create, clashed with the need to be commercial, with the outcome imposing “inconsistent demands upon” her (Ashforth and Mael, 29). Therefore, to reduce what could be considered feelings of dissonance and inconsistency (Ashforth and Mael; Ashforth and Humphrey) Gaga started saying “no” to prevent further loss of her identity and sense of authentic self. Taking back control could be seen as a means of reorienting her dream and overcoming what had become dissatisfaction with the commercial processes of the music industry. ConclusionsFor many creatives working in the creative industries – and specifically the music industry – is constructed as a dream come true; the working conditions and expectations experienced by recording artists are far from liberating and instead can become nightmares to which they want to escape. The case studies above, although likely ‘constructed’ retellings of the unfortunate circumstances encountered working in the music industry, nevertheless offer an inside account that contradicts the prevailing ideology that pursuing creative passions leads to a dream career (Florida; Samuel). If anything, the case studies explored above involving 30 Seconds to Mars, the Jonas Brothers, Lady Gaga, Kelly Clarkson, Adam Lambert and the Backstreet Boys, acknowledge what many scholars writing in the creative industries have already identified; that exploitation, subordination, identity conflict and loss of control are the unspoken or lesser known consequences of pursuing the creative dream. That said, the conundrum for creatives is that for success in the industry big “creative” businesses, such as recording labels, are still considered necessary in order to break into the market and to have prolonged success. This is simply because their resources far exceed those at the disposal of independent and up-and-coming creative entrepreneurs. Therefore, it can be argued that this friction of need between creative industry business versus artists will be on-going leading to more of these ‘dream to nightmare’ stories. The struggle will continue manifesting in the relationship between business and artist for long as the recording artists fight for greater equality, independence of creativity and respect for their work, image and identities. 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IntroductionThe popularity of social networking sites (SNSs) bears witness to thriving movement protests worldwide. The development of new hardware technologies such as mobile devices and digital cameras, in particular, has fast enhanced visual communications among users that help document and broadcast contemporary social movements. Using social media with these technologies thus presents new opportunities for grassroots social movement organisations (SMOs) and activist groups to become narrators of their activist lives, and to promote solidarity and recognition for advancing varied civic and political agendas. With the case of a student activist group that led and organised a 10-day occupation protest in Hong Kong, this article examines the idea of new media-savvy SMOs as political curators that employ SNS platforms to (co-)create digital narratives at large-scale movement protests. Invoking the concepts of curation and choreography, it highlights how these processes can work together to encourage contentious engagement and collaboration in contemporary social movements.The New Media-Savvy SMO as Political CuratorWhereas traditional social movement studies stressed the importance of pre-existing social networks and organisational structures for collective action, developments in new information and communication technologies (ICTs) challenge the common theories of how people are drawn into and participate in social movements. In recent years, a spate of research has particularly emphasised the ability of individuals and small groups to self-organise on the Internet (e.g. Rheingold). Lately, observing the use of SNSs such as Facebook and Twitter in contemporary social movements, work in this area has focused on how SNSs enable movement diffusion through personal networks and individuals’ online activities even without either the aid or the oversight of an organisation (e.g. Shirky).However, horizontal activism self-organised by atomised new media users seems insufficient as an explanation of how many recent protest movements achieved their high tides. While the flourishing literature shows writers have correctly centred their study on the changing dynamics in control over information and the growing importance of individual users’ contributions, it fails to account for the crucial role that SMOs continue to play. In fact, recent studies consistently observe the continuing importance of SMOs in mobilising and coordinating collective actions in online environments (Bimber, Flanagin, and Stohl, Collective). Whereas new ICTs have provided activist groups with the instrument to deal with their contentious activities with less cueing and leadership from conventional institutionalised structures, SMOs have created their own new media resources. Nowadays, a significant percentage of protest participants have received their information from online platforms that are run by or affiliated with these organisations. The critical questions remain about the kinds of communication methods they utilise to activate and integrate independent activists’ networks and participation, especially in emerging social media environments.Unfortunately, existing research tends to overlook the discursive potentials and cultural dimensions in online activism while emphasising the cost-effectiveness and organisational function of new ICTs. In particular, social movement and new media scholars merely attended to the ways in which digital media enable widescale, relatively un-coordinated contributions to repositories of resources for networks of activists and interest groups, as SNS applications stress the importance of user participation, openness, and network effects in the processes of content production and sharing. However, the mere existence or even “surplus” (Shirky 27) of “second-order communal goods” (Bimber, Flanagin, and Stohl, “Reconceptualizing” 372)—a collection of resources created collectively but without a bounded community, through video-posting, tagging, and circulation practices engaged in by individuals—does not accidentally result in critical publics that come to take part in political activism. Rather, social movements are, above all, the space for manifesting ideas, choices, and a collective will, in which people produce their own history through their cultural creations and social struggles (Touraine). As such, the alteration of meaning, the struggle to define the situation, and the discursive practices carried out within a social movement are all major aspects of social movements and change (Melucci).Indeed, SMOs and marginalised communities worldwide have increasingly learnt the ability to become narrators of their activist and community lives, and to express solidarity and recognition afforded through technology adoption. The recent proliferation of social media applications and mobile digital technologies has allowed activist groups to create and distribute their own stories regarding concrete actions, ongoing campaigns, and thematic issues of protest movements on more multimedia platforms. In order to advance political ideas and collective action frames, they may bring together a variety of online content in such a way that the collated materials offer a commentary on a subject area by articulating and negotiating new media artefacts, while also inviting responses. Therefore, not only are the new media channels for activist communication comparatively inexpensive, but they also provide for a richer array of content and the possibility of greater control by SMOs over its (re-)creation, maintenance, and distribution for potential digital narrating. To understand how digital narrating takes place in contemporary protest movements with SNSs, we now turn to two analytic concepts—curation and choreography.Social Media Content Curation and Choreography Curation, as a new media practice, involves finding, categorising, and organising relevant online content on specific issues. For instance, museums and libraries may have curators to select and feature digital items for collection and display, improving the types of information accessible to a public audience. In protest movements, SMOs and political actors may also curate peer-produced content on SNS platforms so as to filter and amplify useful information for mobilising collective action. In fact, this process by SMOs and political actors is particularly important, as it helps sort and draw timely attention to these information sources, especially at times when users are faced with a large amount of noise created by millions of producers (Bennett, Segerberg, and Walker). More importantly, not only does content curating entail the selection and preservation of online materials that may facilitate collective action, but it may also involve the (re-)presentation of selected content by telling stories not being told or by telling existing stories in a different way (Fotopoulou and Couldry). In contrast to professional collecting, it is a much more deliberate process, one which clearly articulates and puts forwards (opportunities for) new meanings or new understanding of a subject (Franks). For example, when new media content is re-posted or shared in its original form but in a new context, digital narrating occurs as it may result in a new or additional layer of meaning (Baym and Shah). Therefore, more than merely expending information resources available to activists, the power of curation can be understood primarily as discursive, as users may pick up particular versions of reality in interpreting social issues and protest movements (Bekkers, Moody, and Edwards).Moreover, nowadays, social media curating is not restricted to text but also includes image and video streaming, as the development of mobile devices and digital cameras has facilitated and enhanced instant communication and information retrieval almost regardless of location. The practice of content curating with SNSs may also involve the process of choreographing with various social media modules, such as posting a series of edited pictures under an overarching schema and organising user-generated photos into an album that suggests a particular theme. Rather than simply using a single visual item designed to tell a story, the idea of choreographing is thus concerned with how curated items are seen and experienced from the users’ perspectives as it “allows curators not just to expose elements of a story but to tell a structured tale with the traditional elements of beginning, middle and end” (Franks 288).In practice, the implementation of choreography can be envisioned to bring together the practice of content curating and that of enhancing and connecting contentious engagement at protest movements. For example, when SMOs make use of images and video to help frame an issue in a more advanced way by sharing a picture with a comment added on Facebook, they may at once, whether consciously or unconsciously, suggest possible endorsement to the selected content and/or the source—may it be that of an individual user or a formal organisation—while drawing attention to the image and circulating it beyond the original network for which it was posted (Bennett, Segerberg, and Walker). As such, by posting pictures with captions and sharing user-generated photos that do not belong to the SMO but are produced by other users, curating and choreographing with social media content can create a temporary space for practicing mutual recognition and extending the relationship between the SMO and the larger public. Combined, they may therefore “entail the creation of norms and boundaries in particular user communities and their platforms” (Bennett, Segerberg, and Walker 239).This article examines the ways in which a new media-savvy SMO employed SNS platforms to (co-)create digital narratives, with the case of the 2012 Anti-National Education Movement in Hong Kong. By highlighting how social media content curating and choreographing may work together to encourage engagement and collaboration at large-scale protests, we can better understand how emerging SNS-enabled affordances can be translated into concrete contentious activities, as well as the discursive aspects and cultural expressions of using new media platforms and digital technologies in contemporary protest movements.Digital Narrating for Grassroots Mobilisation Since 2010, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government has undertaken “national education” curriculum reform. However, the worry about mainland-Chinese style national education in schools brought people out to defend values that were held dear in Hong Kong. Scholarism, a new media-savvy SMO founded by about 20 secondary school students in May 2011, became the first pressure group formed against the “Moral and National Education” curriculum and became the leading activist group. On 30 August 2012, about 50 members and supporters of Scholarism started occupying the public area in front of the government’s headquarters, while three of its members went on a hunger strike. At the same time, Scholarism made active use of Facebook to undertake grassroots mobilisation, prompting both online activism and offline participation. On 7 September, over 120,000 people went to Occupy Headquarters. The next day, the Chief Executive, C. Y. Leung, succumbed to the pressure and declared that the curriculum would not be imposed in Hong Kong schools. In order to initiate a grassroots mobilisation, upon the beginning of Occupy Headquarters, Scholarism carried out the new media practice of telling the story of the student hunger strikers on Facebook to create a “moral shock” (Jasper 106) among the general public. On the first day of the occupation protest, 30 August, a poster on the hunger strike was released by Scholarism on its Facebook page. Instead of providing detailed information about the protest movement, this poster was characterised by the pictures of the three student hunger strikers. The headline message simply stated “We have started the hunger strike.” This poster was very popular among Facebook users; it accumulated more than 16,000 likes.By appealing to the hardships and sufferings of the three student hunger strikers, more photos were uploaded to narrate the course of the hunger strike and the occupation protest. In particular, pictures with captions added were posted on Facebook every couple of hours to report on the student hunger strikers’ latest situation. Although the mobilising power of these edited pictures did not come from their political ideology or rational argumentation, they sought to appeal to the “martyr-hood” of the student activists. Soon thereafter, as the social media updates of the student hunger strikers spread, feelings of shock and anger grew rapidly. Most of the comments that were posted under the updates and photos of the student hunger strikers on Scholarism’s Facebook page protested against the government’s brutality.In addition, as the movement grew, Scholarism extended the self-reporting activities on Facebook from members to non-members. For instance, it frequently (self-)reported on the amount of people joining the movement days and nights. This was especially so on 7 September, when Scholarism uploaded multiple photos and text messages to report on the physical movement of the 120,000 people. As a movement strategy, the display of images of protests and rallies on the Internet can help demonstrate the legitimacy, unity, numbers, and commitment of people supporting the movement goals (Carty and Onyett). Curating and choreographing with protest images on Facebook therefore facilitated the symbolic interactions and emotional exchanges among activists for maintaining movement solidarity and consolidating activist identity.To demonstrate the public support for its organisation and the movement, Scholarism extensively reported on its own, as well as other, protest activities and efforts on Facebook against the introduction of the “Moral and National Education” curriculum, creating unprecedented parallel public records of these events. In fact, throughout the entire movement protest, Scholarism took tight photo records of protest activities, systematically organised them into albums, and uploaded them onto Facebook every day between 30 August and 8 September.Content Co-Creation for Counter-Hegemonic ExpressionsFrom a (neo-)Gramscian perspective, counter-hegemony is often embedded and embodied in music, novels, drama, movies, and so on (Boggs). An example of counter-hegemony in the traditional media is a documentary that questions the government’s involvement in a war (Cohen). Therefore, popular culture in the media may help foster counter-hegemony on the terrain of civil society in preparation for political change (Pratt). For Chinese communities in East Asia, pop music, for example, had played a significant role in organising patriotic feelings in mass protest events, such as the Tiananmen demonstrations of 1989 and the many subsequent protests in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and elsewhere against the violence of the Beijing government (Chow 153). During the occupation protest, Facebook was turned into an open and flexible discursive space, in which cutting-edge counter-hegemonic narratives were produced, distributed, and expressed. Scholarism and many individual activists adopted the social media platform to (co-)create activists’ discourses and knowledge in order to challenge the dominant political and cultural codes (Melucci). An example is a poster created by Scholarism, posted on its Facebook page on 4 September. The title message of this poster is: “This is not the government headquarters. This is our CIVIC SQUARE. Come and occupy!” This message represents a discursive intervention that seeks to “illuminate the limits of normative discourses of knowledge and power” (Lane 138). It did so by replacing the original, official name and meaning of the government headquarters as well as its authority with the counter-hegemonic idea of “civic square,” a term developed and coined by Scholarism during the occupation protest to represent the public space in front of the headquarters.Moreover, the Facebook page of Scholarism was by no means the only source of content out of which counter-hegemonic knowledge and discourses were produced. Conversely, most of the new media artefacts observed on the Facebook page of Scholarism were originally created by and posted on, and therefore re-posted and shared from, the Facebook pages of other individual or group users. They are in forms of text, picture, video, and the like that sought to undermine the legitimacy of the Hong Kong government, ridicule the rationale of the “Moral and National Education” curriculum, and discredit figures in the opposition.An example is a cartoon made by an individual user and re-posted on the Facebook page of Scholarism on 2 September, the day before schools restarted in Hong Kong after the summer break. This cartoon features a schoolboy in his school uniform, who is going to school with a bunch of identical locks tied to his head. The title message is: “School begins, keep your brain safe.” This cartoon was created to ridicule the rationale of the introduction of the “Moral and National Education” by “making visible the underlying and hidden relations of power on which the smooth operation of government repression depends” (Lane 136).Another new media artefact re-posted on the Facebook page of Scholarism was originally created by a well-known Hong Kong cartoon painter of a major local newspaper. This cartoon sought to humanise the student activists and to condemn the brutality of the Hong Kong government. It paints an imagined situation in which a public conversation between the Secretary for Education, Hak-kim Eddie Ng, and the three students on the hunger strike takes place. In this cartoon, Ng is cast as the wholesaler of the “Moral and National Education” curriculum. Holding a bottle of liquid in his hand, he says to the students: “This is the tears of the chief executive from last night. Kids, should you all go home now?”Thus, counter-hegemonic expressions did not flow unidirectionally from Scholarism to the society at large. The special role of Scholarism was indeed to curate and choreograph new media artefacts by employing social media modules such as re-posting and sharing user-generated content. In so doing, it facilitated the mobilisation of the occupation protest and instant collaboration, as it connected scattered activities, turned them into a collective, and branded it with a common identity, conviction, and/or purpose.ConclusionThis article has briefly looked at the case of a new media-savvy SMO in Hong Kong as an example of how activist groups can become political curators at large-scale protest events. In particular, it highlights the concepts of curation and choreography in explaining how emerging SNS-enabled affordances can be translated into concrete contentious activities. This article argues that, rather than simply producing and disseminating content on SNS platforms, SMOs today have learnt to actively construct stories about protest movements with social media modules such as (re-)posting edited pictures and sharing user-generated photos in order to mobilise effective political interventions and sustain a vibrant participatory culture.ReferencesBaym, Geoffrey, and Chirag Shah. “Circulating Struggle: The On-Line Flow of Environmental Advocacy Clips from the Daily Show and the Colbert Report.” Information Communication & Society 14.7 (2011): 1017–38. Bekkers, Victor, Rebecca Moody, and Arthur Edwards. “Micro-Mobilization, Social Media and Coping Strategies: Some Dutch Experiences.” Policy and Internet 3.4 (2011): 1–29. Bennett, W. Lance, Alexandra Segerberg, and Shawn Walker. “Organization in the Crowd: Peer Production in Large-Scale Networked Protests.” Information, Communication & Society 17.2 (2014): 232–60. Bimber, Bruce, Andrew J. 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Introduction Utopia has always been countercultural, and ever since technological progress has allowed, utopia has been using alternative media to promote and strengthen its underpinning ideals. In this article, I am seeking to clarify the connections between counterculture and alternative media in utopian contexts to demonstrate their reciprocity, then draw together these threads through reference to a well-known figure of the Rainbow Region–Rusty Miller. His trajectory from iconic surfer and Aquarian reporter to mediator for utopian politics and ideals in the Rainbow Region encompasses in a single identity the three elements underpinning this study. In concluding, I will turn to Rusty’s Byron Guide, questioning its classification as alternative or mainstream media, and whether Byron Bay is represented as countercultural and utopian in this long-running and ongoing publication. Counterculture and Alternative Media in Utopian Contexts Counterculture is an umbrella that enfolds utopia, among many other genres and practices. It has been most often situated in the 1960s and 1970s as a new form of social movement embodying youth resistance to the technocratic mainstream and its norms of gender, sexuality, politics, music, and language (Roszak). Many scholars of counterculture underscore its utopian impulses both in the projection of better societies where the social goals are achieved, and in the withdrawal from mainstream society into intentional communities (Yinger 194-6; McKay 5; Berger). Before exploring further the connections between counterculture and alternative media, I want to define the scope of countercultural utopian contexts in general, and the Rainbow Region in particular. Utopia is a neologism created by Sir Thomas More almost 500 years ago to designate the island community that demonstrates order, harmony, justice, hope and desire in the right balance so that it seems like an ideal land. This imaginary place described in Utopia (1516) as a counterpoint to the social, political and religious shortcomings of contemporary 16th century British society, has attracted accusations of heresy (Molner), and been used as a pejorative term, an insult to denigrate political projects that seem farfetched or subversive, especially during the 19th century. Almost every study of utopian theory, literature and practice points to a dissatisfaction with the status quo, which inspires writers, politicians, architects, artists, individuals and communities to rail against it (see for example Davis, Moylan, Suvin, Levitas, Jameson). Kingsley Widmer’s book Counterings: Utopian Dialectics in Contemporary Contexts reiterates what many scholars have stated when he writes that utopias should be understood in terms of what they are countering. Lyman Tower Sargent defines utopia as “a non-existent society described in considerable detail and normally located in time and space” and utopianism as “social dreaming” (9), to which I would add that both indicate an improvement on the alternatives, and may indeed be striving to represent the best place imaginable. Utopian contexts, by extension, are those situations where the “social dreaming” is enhanced through human agency, good governance, just laws, education, and work, rather than being a divinely ordained state of nature (Schaer et al). In this way, utopian contexts are explicitly countercultural through their very conception, as human agency is required and their emphasis is on social change. These modes of resistance against dominant paradigms are most evident in attempts to realise textual projections of a better society in countercultural communal experiments. Almost immediately after its publication, More’s Utopia became the model for Bishop Vasco de Quiroga’s communitarian hospital-town Santa Fe de la Laguna in Michoacan, Mexico, established in the 1530s as a counterculture to the oppressive enslavement and massacres of the Purhépecha people by Nuno Guzmán (Green). The countercultural thrust of the 1960s and 1970s provided many utopian contexts, perhaps most readily identifiable as the intentional communities that spawned and flourished, especially in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand (Metcalf, Shared Lives). They were often inspired by texts such as Charles A. Reich’s The Greening of America (1970) and Ernest Callenbach’s Ecotopia (1975), and this convergence of textual practices and alternative lifestyles can be seen in the development of Australia’s own Rainbow Region. Located in northern New South Wales, the geographical area of the Northern Rivers that has come to be known as the Rainbow Region encompasses Byron Bay, Nimbin, Mullumbimby, Bangalow, Clunes, Dunoon, Federal, with Lismore as the region’s largest town. But more evocative than these place names are the “rivers and creeks, vivid green hills, fruit and nut farms […] bounded by subtropical beaches and rainforest mountains” (Wilson 1). Utopian by nature, and recognised as such by the indigenous Bundjalung people who inhabited it before the white settlers, whalers and dairy farmers moved in, the Rainbow Region became utopian through culture–or indeed counterculture–during the 1973 Aquarius Festival in Nimbin when the hippies of Mullumbimby and the surfers of Byron Bay were joined by up to 10,000 people seeking alternative ways of being in the world. When the party was over, many Aquarians stayed on to form intentional communities in the beautiful region, like Tuntable Falls, Nimbin’s first and largest such cooperative (Metcalf, From Utopian Dreaming to Communal Reality 74-83). In utopian contexts, from the Renaissance to the 1970s and beyond, counterculture has underpinned and alternative media has circulated the aims and ideals of the communities of resistance. The early utopian context of the Anabaptist movement has been dubbed as countercultural by Sigrun Haude: “During the reign of the Münster (1534-5) Anabaptists erected not only a religious but also a social and political counterculture to the existing order” (240). And it was this Protestant Reformation that John Downing calls the first real media war, with conflicting movements using pamphlets produced on the new technology of the Gutenberg press to disseminate their ideas (144). What is striking here is the confluence of ideas and practices at this time–countercultural ideals are articulated, published, and disseminated, printing presses make this possible, and utopian activists realise how mass media can be used and abused, exploited and censored. Twentieth century countercultural movements drew on the lessons learnt from historical uprising and revolutions, understanding the importance of getting the word out through their own forms of media which, given the subversive nature of the messages, were essentially alternative, according to the criteria proposed by Chris Atton: alternative media may be understood as a radical challenge to the professionalized and institutionalized practices of the mainstream media. Alternative media privileges a journalism that is closely wedded to notions of social responsibility, replacing an ideology of “objectivity” with overt advocacy and oppositional practices. Its practices emphasize first person, eyewitness accounts by participants; a reworking of the populist approaches of tabloid newspapers to recover a “radical popular” style of reporting; collective and antihierarchical forms of organization which eschew demarcation and specialization–and which importantly suggest an inclusive, radical form of civic journalism. (267) Nick Couldry goes further to point out the utopian processes required to identify agencies of change, including alternative media, which he defines as “practices of symbolic production which contest (in some way) media power itself–that is, the concentration of symbolic power in media institutions” (25). Alternative media’s orientation towards oppositional and contestatory practices demonstrates clear parallels between its ambitions and those of counterculture in utopian contexts. From the 1960s onwards, the upsurge in alternative newspaper numbers is commensurate with the blossoming of the counterculture and increased utopian contexts; Susan Forde describes it thus: “a huge resurgence in the popularity of publications throughout the ‘counter-culture’ days of the 1960s and 1970s” (“Monitoring the Establishment”, 114). The nexus of counterculture and alternative media in such utopian contexts is documented in texts like Roger Streitmatter’s Voices of Revolution and Bob Osterlag’s People’s Movements, People’s Press. Like the utopian newspapers that came out of 18th and 19th century intentional communities, many of the new alternative press served to educate, socialise, promote and represent the special interests of the founders and followers of the countercultural movements, often focusing on the philosophy and ideals underpinning these communities rather than the everyday events (see also Frobert). The radical press in Australia was also gaining ground, with OZ in Australia from 1963-1969, and then from 1967-1973 in London. Magazines launched by Philip Frazer like The Digger, Go-Set, Revolution and High Times, and university student newspapers were the main avenues for youth and alternative expression on the Vietnam war and conscription, gay and lesbian rights, racism, feminism and ecological activism (Forde, Challenging the News; Cock & Perry). Nimbin 1973: Rusty Miller and The Byron Express The 1973 Aquarius Festival of counterculture in Nimbin (12-23 May) was a utopian context that had an alternative media life of its own before it arrived in the Rainbow Region–in student publications like Tharnuka and newsletters distributed via the Aquarius Foundation. There were other voices that announced the coming of the Aquarius Festival to Nimbin and reported on its impact, like The Digger from Melbourne and the local paper, The Northern Star. During the Festival, the Nimbin Good Times first appeared as the daily bulletin and continues today with the original masthead drawn by the Festival’s co-organiser, Graeme Dunstan. Some interesting work has been done on this area, ranging from general studies of the Rainbow Region (Wilson; Munro-Clark) to articles analysing its alternative press (Ward & van Vuuren; Martin & Ellis), but to date, there has been no focus on the Rainbow Region’s first alternative newspaper, The Byron Express. Co-edited by Rusty Miller and David Guthrie, this paper presented and mediated the aims and desires of the Aquarian movement. Though short-lived, as only 7 issues were published from 15 February 1973 to September 1973, The Byron Express left a permanent printed vestige of the Aquarian counterculture movement’s activism and ideals from an independent regional perspective. Miller’s credentials for starting up the newspaper are clear–he has always been a trailblazer, mixing “smarts” with surfing and environmental politics. After graduating from a Bachelor of Arts in history from San Diego State College, he first set foot in Byron Bay during his two semesters with the inaugural Chapman College affiliated University of the Seven Seas in 1965-6. Returning to his hometown of Encinitas, he co-founded the Surf Research accessory company with legendary Californian surfer Mike Doyle, and launched Waxmate, the first specially formulated surf wax in 1967 (Davis, Witzig & James; Warshaw 217), selling his interest in the business soon after to spend a couple of years “living the counterculture life on the Hawaiian Island of Kauai” (Davis, Witzig & James), before heading back to Byron Bay via Bells Beach in 1970 (Miller & Shantz) and Sydney, where he worked as an advertising salesman and writer with Tracks surfing magazine (Martin & Ellis). In 1971, he was one of the first to ride the now famous waves of Uluwatu in Bali, and is captured with Steven Cooney in the iconic publicity image for Albe Falzon’s 1971 film, Morning Of The Earth. The champion surfer from the US knew a thing or two about counterculture, alternative media, advertising and business when he found his new utopian context in Byron Bay. Miller and Guthrie’s front-page editorial of the inaugural issue of The Byron Express, published on 15 February 1973, with the byline “for a higher shire”, expressed the countercultural (cl)aims of the publication. Land use, property development and the lack of concern that some people in Byron had for their impact on the environment and people of the region were a prime target: With this first issue of the Byron Express, we hope to explain that the area is badly in need of a focal point. The transitions of present are vast and moving fast. The land is being sold and resold. Lots of money is coming into the area in the way of developments […] caravan parts, hotels, businesses and real estate. Many of the trips incoming are not exactly “concerned” as to what long term effect such developments might have on the environment and its people. We hope to serve as a focus of concern and service, a centre for expression and reflection. We would ask your contributions in vocal and written form. We are ready for some sock it to ya criticism… and hope you would grab us upon the street to tell us how you feel…The mission of this alternative newspaper is thereby defined by the need for a “focal point” that inscribes the voices of the community in a freely accessible narrative, recorded in print for posterity. Although this first issue contains no mention of the Aquarius Festival, there were already rumours circulating about it, as organisers Graeme Dunstan and Johnny Allen had been up to Main Arm, Mullumbimby and Nimbin on reconnaissance missions beginning in September 1972. Instead, there was an article on “Mullumbimby Man–Close to the Land” by Nicholas Shand, who would go on to found the community-based weekly newspaper The Echo in 1986, then called The Brunswick Valley Echo and still going strong. Another by Bob McTavish asked whether there could be a better form of government; there was a surf story, and a soul food section with a recipe for honey meade entitled “Do you want to get out of it on 10 cents a bottle?” The second issue continues in much the same vein. It is not until the third issue comes out on 17 March 1973 that the Aquarius Festival is mentioned in a skinny half column on page four. And it’s not particularly promising: Arrived at Nimbin, sleepy hamlet… Office in disused R.S.L. rooms, met a couple of guys recently arrived, said nothing was being done. “Only women here, you know–no drive”. Met Joanne and Vi, both unable to say anything to be reported… Graham Dunstan (codenamed Superfest) and John Allen nowhere in sight. Allen off on trip overseas. Dunstan due back in a couple of weeks. 10 weeks to go till “they” all come… and to what… nobody is quite sure. This progress report provides a fascinating contemporary insight into the tensions–between the local surfies and hippies on one hand, and the incoming students on the other–around the organisation of the Aquarius Festival. There is an unbridled barb at the sexist comments made by the guys, implicit criticism of the absent organisers, obvious skepticism about whether anyone will actually come to the festival, and wonderment at what it will be like. Reading between the lines, we might find a feeling of resentment about not being privy to new developments in their own backyard. The final lines of the article are non-committal “Anyway, let’s see what eventuates when the Chiefs return.” It seems that all has been resolved by the fifth issue of 11 May, which is almost entirely dedicated to the Aquarius Festival with the front page headline “Welcome to the New Age”. But there is still an undertone of slight suspicion at what the newcomers to the area might mean in terms of property development: The goal is improving your fellow man’s mind and nourishment in concert with your own; competition to improve your day and the quality of the day for society. Meanwhile, what is the first thing one thinks about when he enters Byron and the area? The physical environment is so magnificent and all encompassing that it can actually hold a man’s breath back a few seconds. Then a man says, “Wow, this land is so beautiful that one could make a quid here.” And from that moment the natural aura and spells are broken and the mind lapses into speculative equations, sales projections and future interest payments. There is plenty of “love” though, in this article: “The gathering at Nimbin is the most spectacular demonstration of the faith people have in a belief that is possible (and possible just because they want it to be) to live in love, through love together.” The following article signed by Rusty Miller “A Town Together” is equally focused on love: “See what you could offer the spirit at Nimbin. It might introduce you to a style that could lead to LOVE.” The centre spread features photos: the obligatory nudes, tents, and back to nature activities, like planting and woodworking. With a text box of “random comments” including one from a Lismore executive: ‘I took my wife and kids out there last weekend and we had such a good time. Seems pretty organized and the town was loaded with love. Heard there is some hepatitis about and rumours of VD. Everyone happy.” And another from a land speculator (surely the prime target of Miller’s wrath): “Saw guys kissing girls on the street, so sweet, bought 200 acres right outside of town, it’s going to be valuable out there some day.” The interview with Johnny Allen as the centrepiece includes some pertinent commentary on the media and reveals a well-founded suspicion of the mediatisation of the Aquarius Festival: We have tried to avoid the media actually. But we haven’t succeeded in doing so. Part of the basic idea is that we don’t need to be sold. All the down town press can do is try and interpret you. And by doing that it automatically places it in the wrong sort of context. So we’ve tried to keep it to people writing about the festival to people who will be involved in it. It’s an involvement festival. Coopting The Byron Express as an “involved” party effects a fundamental shift from an external reporting newspaper to a kind of proponent or even propaganda for the Aquarius festival and its ideas, like so many utopian newspapers had done before. It is therefore perhaps inevitable that The Byron Express should disappear very soon after the Aquarius festival. Fiona Martin and Rhonda Ellis explain that Rusty Miller stopped producing the paper because he “found the production schedule exhausting and his readership too small to attract consistent advertising” (5). At any rate, there were only two more issues, one in June–with some follow up reporting of the festival–and another in September 1973, which was almost entirely devoted to environmentally focused features, including an interview with Kath Walker (Oodgeroo Noonuccal). Byron Bay 2013: Thirty Years of Rusty’s Byron Guide What Rusty did next is fairly well known locally–surfing and teaching people how to surf and a bit of writing. When major local employer Walkers slaughterhouse closed in 1983, he and his wife, social geographer Tricia Shantz, were asked by the local council to help promote Byron Bay as a tourist destination, writing the first Byron guide in 1983-4. Incorporating essays by local personalities and dedicated visitors, the Byron guide perpetuates the ideal of environmental awareness, spiritual experimentation, and respect for the land and sea. Recent contributors have included philosopher Peter Singer, political journalist Kerry O’Brien, and writer John Ralston Saul, and Miller and Shantz always have an essay in there themselves. “People, Politics and Culture” is the new byline for the 2013 edition. And Miller’s opening essay mediates the same utopian desires and environmental community messages that he espoused from the beginning of The Byron Express: The name Byron Bay represents something that we constantly try to articulate. If one was to dream up a menu of situations and conditions to compose a utopia, Australia would be the model of the nation-state and Byron would have many elements of the actual place one might wish to live for the rest of their lives. But of course there is always the danger of excesses in tropical paradises especially when they become famous destinations. Australia is being held to ransom for the ideology that we should be slaves to money and growth at the cost of a degraded and polluted physical and social environment. Byron at least was/is a refuge against this profusion of the so-called real-world perception that holds profit over environment as the way we must choose for our future. Even when writing for a much more commercial medium, Miller retains the countercultural utopian spirit that was crystallised in the Aquarius festival of 1973, and which remains relevant to many of those living in and visiting the Rainbow Region. Miller’s ethos moves beyond the alternative movements and communities to infiltrate travel writing and tourism initiatives in the area today, as evidenced in the Rusty’s Byron Guide essays. By presenting more radical discourses for a mainstream public, Miller together with Shantz have built on the participatory role that he played in launching the region’s first alternative newspaper in 1973 that became albeit briefly the equivalent of a countercultural utopian gazette. Now, he and Shantz effectively play the same role, producing a kind of countercultural form of utopian media for Byron Bay that corresponds to exactly the same criteria mentioned above. Through their free publication, they aim to educate, socialise, promote and represent the special interests of the founders and followers of the Rainbow Region, focusing on the philosophy and ideals underpinning these communities rather than the everyday events. The Byron Bay that Miller and Shantz promote is resolutely utopian, and certainly countercultural if compared to other free publications like The Book, a new shopping guide, or mainstream media elsewhere. Despite this new competition, they are planning the next edition for 2015 with essays to make people think, talk, and understand the region’s issues, so perhaps the counterculture is still holding its own against the mainstream. References Atton, Chris. “What Is ‘Alternative’ Journalism?” Journalism: Theory, Practice, Criticism 4.3 (2003): 267-72. Berger, Bennett M. The Survival of a Counterculture: Ideological Work and Everyday Life among Rural Communards. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2004. Cock, Peter H., & Paul F. Perry. “Australia's Alternative Media.” Media Information Australia 6 (1977): 4-13. 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