Challenges of pedagogical innovation in an interdisciplinary music teacher formation course

Abstract

The offering of higher education programs outside of the capitals of Brazilian states seems to have opened a very intense discussion on the need for new pedagogical approaches closely related to the specific socio-cultural contexts of these places. The Brazilian national political panorama of recent years has generated a set of reformulations on the Education Guidelines and Basis Law – Law n. 9394/96 and, with it, new ordinances and resolutions from CNE – National Chamber of Education. In this direction, the pedagogical projects of Music Teacher Formation Courses have been undergoing curricular reformulation which often exceeds and suppress the actual specific local needs. In this paper, we present and discuss the creation and implementation of an interdisciplinary music teacher formation course at a public university in Maranhão, Brazil, under the demand for innovation. The goal here is to better understand the concept of pedagogical innovation in an interdisciplinary degree aimed at the music teacher's training, to be able to outline the possibilities of pedagogical management for better results and finally to list formative processes in music that could turn to pedagogical strategies that catalyze innovation processes. We seek to understand how the concept is seen in different contexts and situations and confront them with a methodological model of the area of Music, that from Artistic Research. This movement has led us to the unifying principle of methods in Artistic Research, the artistic practice and therefore the creative practices in a broader way, starting a chain of relations that has signaled to us how much Artistic Research and Pedagogical Innovation can contribute to a certain sight flexibility from the part of artistic-educators and educators-artists as something essential for the opening of innovation spaces, including in the very process of seeking for common points in both areas.