Transformative learning, intercultural understanding, and artistic citizenship: Reflections from a tri-national (Chinese-Canadian-Brazilian) music educator

Resumo

This paper is based on the conference delivered by Dr. Qi on October 5, 2023, within the framework of the XIV Latin American Regional and VI Pan-American Regional Conference of the International Society for Music Education (ISME), held in Santiago, Chile.
In this work, Dr. Qi presents an autoethnographic reflection on her journey as a trinational musician-professor-researcher and its impact on music education. The author explores how her experience as a Chinese immigrant in Canada and Brazil has shaped her understanding of key concepts such as identity, interculturality, and artistic citizenship.
The paper is structured around three conceptual pillars: Mezirow's transformative learning, intercultural understanding, and Bowman's artistic citizenship. Transformative learning is addressed as an emancipatory process that challenges meaning perspectives, enabling the reconfiguration of frames of reference towards greater inclusivity. Dr. Nan illustrates this through her research on immigrant students and her own self-exploration, highlighting how marginality can be a space for empowerment and how hybrid identity is a valuable asset.
Interculturality is presented as a relational and equitable process that dismantles inequalities, emphasizing music's role as a tool for connection and adaptation for immigrants. Finally, artistic citizenship emerges as a central concept, defining socially engaged individuals who use their artistic expressions to bring about positive change. The author, a member of the Copenhagen Centre for Research in Artistic Citizenship (CReArC), underscores this notion's potential to foster inclusion, collaborative creativity, and a post-national citizenship that celebrates transnational bonds and the subversion of prejudices.
The presentation is exemplified through three personal stories: confronting anti-Asian racism during the pandemic, establishing an intercultural children's choir, and the impact of a piano four-hands concerto with an environmental message. These narratives demonstrate how artistic actions, even on a micro-scale, can address global issues like climate change and social injustice, promoting empathy and collective responsibility. In sum, Dr. Nan advocates for artists and educators to embrace their role as "artizens," using art as a beacon for social dialogue and transformation.