Welcome to my blog nr. 3

TOPIC: What is othering?

Belonging and otherness are much-researched topics in many fields, such as social sciences and education. Othering concerns national identities, borders, politics, diversity, social justice, religions, and identities of many groups. I looked into the sense of belonging and othering for an international workshop for doctoral students (2022). In my first thesis article about a cultural school and method in Norway called the Kaleidoscope (Fargespill), I examine how intercultural practices in music education may support a sense of belonging.

All of us have probably experienced othering at some point in our lives. It can be a feeling of not fitting in or being accepted by a group, being excluded from an activity, not being invited, or being different from the main group in some way. These are types of soft othering.

Othering can be tied to place, identity, and sense of self and is often present in group dynamics. A group can become a strong “us” by recognizing the Others.  Sometimes, we gain access to a group if we change something about ourselves and become just like the others in the group. However, changing the background or culture we come from is impossible. We should be accepted as we are. We should feel like we belong as we are. When institutions or societies practice long-lasting group-level othering (like apartheid or systemic racism), it becomes hard othering. Deeply othered people are not even seen as human, like the Jews in Nazi Germany.

Recently, humanism has been challenged by racism and ethnic nationalism in many European countries. Far-right movements have raised their heads, especially after the refugee crisis of 2015. As a result, very vocal groups have formed, and they are debating immigration and refugee issues on social media while not trusting the government. This polarized view creates feelings of otherness in many minority communities and individuals.

Find out more about othering:

Othering article example

OBI University

What kind of minorities exist in Finland?

Inside groups of others in Finland are, for example, the Finnish Swedes, a Swedish-speaking minority in Finland consisting of less than 300,000 members, and the ethnic groups of Sámi people, Romani people, and Karelian people.

In 2022, there were about 365,000 individuals with foreign backgrounds in Finland. About 50000 people moved to Finland during 2022, and for example, in the City of Espoo, every 7th first-grade student currently comes from a non-Finnish background. Statistics Finland gives excellent information regarding the immigration and refugee situation in Finland.

Immigrants and integration | Statistics Finland

About Finnish Education and Music Education

The Finnish National Core Curriculum for Basic Education (NCC) was renewed in 2014. As opposed to the concept of integration of immigrants into the school system, previously written into the NCC and considered later as othering, a more global perspective was adopted. In the 2014 NCC, all the students are seen as multilingual and multicultural, and there is no need to concentrate on minority groups as Others. Social justice will be better achieved by adopting an ethical and respectful attitude towards diversity, and human rights education must be integrated throughout all subjects and teaching materials. Check out the curriculum here:

National core curriculum for primary and lower secondary (basic) education | Finnish National Agency for Education (oph.fi)

The music part of the 2014 NCC still constructs diversity as minorities having their own cultures, cultural heritage, and communities. On the other hand, the music part of the NCC promotes a sense of cultural richness and respect when discussing diversity.

A superficial understanding of diversity in music education is common in homogenous countries, such as Finland. We arrange an “international day” celebrating different cultures or a multicultural music lesson once a semester, all in good faith, and think we have done our duty as educators. We don’t understand that we might be othering. Through my research projects, I hope to shed light on the following questions.

How do we create meaningful access to music for all interested, including migrants, refugees, or diverse communities living in Finland?

How do we collaborate with these interested parties while learning and including elements from diverse musical traditions rather than working only with our familiar Western Music Tradition?

The Kaleidoscope (Fargespill) Cultural School in Norway has successfully created this kind of space. I’ll talk about their activities in my next blog.

Photos: Pixabay

Thank you for reading!