The role of ‘creative transfer’ in professional transitions

The context: Professional transitions and forms of transfer

Musicians experience multiple and complex transitions during their development, including transitions from school into HE study (Burt and Mills, 2006) and early adult transitions from study into working life (Juuti and Littleton, 2012). The world of work, with its rapidly shifting conditions, competitiveness and more often than not, multiple career realities, where riskier specialist practices run in parallel to more stable forms of employment, presents a real challenge for graduates. When leaving the structured and familiar environment of performing arts studies, they often experience a ‘culture shock’ (Weller, 2013), which inevitably involves a re-negotiation of identity and career pathways, shifts in personal narratives and expectations (Creech et al., 2008; Triantafyllaki, 2013).

There is now a growing body of research around creative and performing arts higher education teaching and learning in relation to student employability, entrepreneurship and work-related learning (Ball and Shreeve, 2008; Bennett, 2009; Bridgstock, 2013; Walmsley, 2013). Higher education institutions are increasingly encouraged to provide richer opportunities for work-based learning in both commercial and non-commercial environments, as well as to build strong networks with alumni working in a range of musical career pathways (Triantafyllaki and Anagnostopoulou, 2013; Weller, 2013). It is clearly vital that higher education institutions facilitate the development of a wider range of subject-specific knowledge and generic skills to support multiple transitions and unforeseen career paths.

Importantly, it is being acknowledged that learning paradigms based on accumulation of knowledge consistent with prior experience are insufficient in supporting students in transitioning to unfamiliar environments, and new learning paradigms are therefore needed to prepare students for the challenges of transitioning to unfamiliar work practices. One process supporting such new transitions is that of “transfer” or “knowledge transfer” that has been conceptualised not only as the application of prior knowledge to a new situation but as transformation in that new knowledge, new identities, new ways of positioning oneself in the world are constructed (Beach, 2008). In discussing the various paradoxes that the concept of “transfer” introduces for learners, Simons (1999) talks about ‘far transfer’ or ‘high road’ to knowledge transfer (Salomon and Perkins, 1989) whereby there is little relevance between prior skills and knowledge and the new situation in which it needs to be applied. As a result, the thinking and knowledge that is essentially transferred need to be made more abstract by the individual, a process that indicates that transfer is also about individual agency, dependent on the pro-activeness of the individual in carrying out the mental activity necessary for expanding or constructing (and not just applying old) knowledge when dealing with novel and challenging situations. This way of thinking about transfer encourages moving away from knowledge continuity and reproduction, towards knowledge transformation in assisting transitions across different and challenging social activities, such that music graduates encounter across their careers.

Exemplars of work-related creative transfer

Music graduates are often not fully prepared to undertake the kind of creative learning required in transitioning successfully from one professional environment to another, as this involves a kind of metacognitive awareness of how prior knowledge may relate to a current situation, to the development of autonomy and independence, and/or to enterprising qualities in expanding prior knowledge and constructing new knowledge (Shreeve and Smith, 2012). In a study with musicians transitioning into school teaching in London, UK in 2011 (see Triantafyllaki, 2013), one musician-teacher, drawing on his jazz background and band participation, talks about the values of enthusiasm, collaboration, risk-taking, experimentation and diverse musical styles when working with his pupils, values of:

being able to use different ideas or different forms of teaching music, not being stuck to one method, or one teacher style, always coming up with different ideas of articulating something or teaching a musical element … A different mindset within the classroom, where students are not afraid to take risks and come up with something else. To collaborate and try out different musical styles with different people in the classroom. Just having that boldness to do that in the classroom, to experiment. I’ve been playing a lot of musical styles for the last few weeks to show them the music they listen to has been influenced by different musical styles over the years. (Musician 1)

In another study that looked at final-year music students’ experiences when participating in community music placements in Athens, Greece in 2012 (see Triantafyllaki and Anagnostopoulou, 2013), knowledge transfer is evidenced not only in the ways they re-conceptualise prior disciplinary knowledge, but also by ‘breaking down’ dominant expectations about excellence in musical performance. As the excerpts below suggest, music students working in community settings experienced a widening of their vision of music, how it is experienced in different contexts and, therefore, the multiple ways it can be offered/presented:

There isn’t any right or wrong. Each person can do what they like, even just whistle and through that will make a contribution and the music can become our music. That wherever you are, you can create music together with other people in a group. (Music student 1)

It’s about personal expression. You learn to like music. What’s more simple than that? But we forget that so many times in our days. You learn to like hitting something with your body with simple means, and expressing yourself through sound. (Music student 2)

It was not just about ‘music’ as we know it. Music there was an experience. How do you feel? That’s how you’ll play. It was improvisation, it had meaning. You just had to do it, you had to be on your toes. It’s also social, you’re not playing by yourself. Not following your own rhythm, not music as we know it, it was an experience, a game. The way we made music before was just a lesson. (Music student 3)

Creative knowledge pedagogies

Diverse music practices undertaken during undergraduate studies impact significantly on aspiring professional musicians’ learning pathways. Students/young graduates will often participate in multiple work-related practices, such as local initiatives and extra-curricular activities, paid or unpaid (orchestral or smaller ensemble performance, recording opportunities, and a variety of public or third sector engagements including working in schools, with the elderly, or with youth groups and people with special needs). Yet, little attention is given to reflecting on the relevance, use and thereby impact of such experiences on their learning and how this may be significant beyond their course of studies.

The notion of ‘knowledge transfer’ has implications for discourses around employability in HEIs as it exemplifies the kind of ‘creative knowledge pedagogies’ so important for a restructuring of their curricula (Triantafyllaki, 2013). Such pedagogies are not simply a new layer added to existing structures in higher music education, but can actually be meaningfully embedded within these structures, shaping curricula in ways that are relevant to the future needs of both graduates and the music profession. In this respect, further focus is needed within learning environments to:

Ensure that all graduates have experienced and developed employability, entrepreneurial skills and knowledge through experiencing diverse work-related activities, not only those immediately relevant to their chosen specialism.

Finally, if creative knowledge transfer during professional transitions is about preparation for new learning and workplace challenges, we need to move away from oversimplifications of graduate ‘readiness’ and envision a higher music education as one where more value is placed on learning to learn, student creative agency and experiential learning.