ABSTRACT
In this chapter we consider curriculum and pedagogy as inseparable from the tripartite relation between teacher, students, and content. We will focus on two related dichotomies central for music curricula: One between creative and reproductive music-making, and one between convergent and divergent learning. This problematization is informed by the state of music education in Sweden and the Nordic countries, where the informal music-educational ideals (modeled on rock/pop band practices) have been dominant since the late 1970s. We argue that creativity is a tool-dependent process, and that the difference between reproduction and creation, convergent and divergent is a matter of perspective. This is illustrated by analyses of three upper secondary students engaged in setting chords to a melody. We conclude that if creativity is viewed as thinking outside the box, teaching creativity is not about dismantling boxes, nor about never building any boxes to begin with, but giving access to a wide variety of boxes to think in.
