Society transformation is a priority for many governments, civil society and institutions. Amidst this ongoing discourse, music schools grapple with challenges within the broader spatial, sociocultural and institutional contexts. However, the book Music Schools in Changing Societies offers hope. It views music education through collaboration, particularly in the European context. By examining how collaborative professionalism in European music schools transforms the educational landscape through public funds and cultural systems, Michaela Hahn, Cecelia Björk and Heidi Westerlund’s book presents a promising assessment of multilevel collaboration. This analytical task, a vital part of the school and music educators’ work, addresses societal concerns, paving the way for better futures and pathways for new approaches and practices.

The volume brings together collaborative settings and innovative practices from twelve European countries. The editorial team, two authors from Vienna and one from Helsinki, included eighteen contributors from various professional educators and researchers in different countries. Through this collaboration, new perspectives emerged on how music schools could support transformation in vocal and instrumental music education, as well as preeminent issues about changes in policy, such as democracy, inclusion and sustainability. Addressing these challenges within the institutions and curricula, this book explores the survival of music schools in the contemporary societal context within these changing times. It consists of an introduction and 15 chapters, divided into three parts.

Chapter 1, ‘Music Schools as Forerunners towards Collaborative Professionalism’, sets out the context for the theoretical underpinnings, why collaboration professionalism is necessary in the twenty-first century and what it entails. Although the theoretical context could be complex regarding the diversity of societies and inequality in music education, this section should not deter readers from continuing past this opening chapter. What awaits the reader is a thorough narration of studies, and researchers largely agree that societies serve as locations for participation, innovation and inclusion. The authors thus aim to show that a paradigm shift towards collaborative professionalism in music could enable schools to contribute to contemporary societies as more sustainable places to live in, a change that educators and policymakers can actively work towards.

Empirical research, a significant strength in Part I, ‘Collaborative Teaching and Learning’ (Chapters 2 to 4), offers studies about micro-level approaches in collaborative teaching and learning between university researchers and teachers, between teachers and students and among teachers. Rich detail is provided most engagingly about children as an important stakeholder, and it is a well-organised part identifying the phenomenon of publicly funded music schools and the young people and children’s lack of inclusivity. Furthermore, these chapters also include practical changes made during COVID-19 for young flute players, the challenges during the pandemic, and the adjusted teaching practices. Henceforth, this part highlights the Finnish view that individual projects are not encouraged but rather grounded in research-based knowledge, shared professional ethics and collective social meaning-making processes (p. 57).

Part II, ‘Music Schools Reaching Out: Institutional, Cross-sectoral, and Teacher Collaboration’ (Chapters 5 to 9), analyses music education as a highly specialised and multifaceted field involving multiple actors and various overlapping requirements in each of the countries, Austria, France, Estonia, Finland, Greece and Germany. For instance, the Ethno Camps in France and Estonia, with diverse musicians hosting international workshops, are successful, contributing to boosting the growth of musicians’ self-identity within the context of a collaborative educational culture. Part III, ‘The Impact of Shifting Cultural and Educational Landscapes: Countrywide Systems and Policy-driven Collaboration’ comprises chapters 10 to 15. Broader national policy perspectives and national systems are examined along with comparative insights from different countries. Furthermore, personal perspectives are reflected, alongside consideration of the role of young people within collaboration and educational transformation, as argued in Part I. The editor’s closing reflections, ‘Present and Future Prospects of Collaborative Professionalism in Music Schools’, forms a significant concluding chapter highlighting the ongoing global challenges and changes occurring across the field of music education.

Collaborations from Estonia, Greece, Sweden, Austria, Britain, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Norway and Switzerland are presented as models that are not finalised but could be seen as the start of processes. The editors hope that readers, according to their needs and aims, can take the concepts and ideas further. Hence, the editors argue that this book is an unfinished, open-ended, continuous process. An important finding about the reality in the workplace and the rhetoric of collaboration illustrates a gap between the two phenomena. The book shows that for any organisation, this is a significant challenge and that it is not so much that partnerships are essential for the future of any organisation, but rather collaboration between a creative alliance and a strategic partnership. Thus, the book’s significant contribution is to highlight and deepen understanding of the importance of interconnected organisations, their collaboration and coherence.

The book’s material is impressive, given the in-depth bibliography throughout the chapters. The book offers an engaged analysis of the literature on collaborative cultures, collaborative professionalism, collaborative teaching and learning, changing societies and many other concepts. Regarding the distinctions between the pre-and post-COVID-19 years, the authors have argued that it is worth noting that during the writing of this book, Europe and the world changed during the pandemic; therefore, collaboration during this period occupies a dominant position within this book because it became difficult for music education. However, it is worth noting that Thorgenson and Mars (Reference THORGENSON and MARS2021) report that the COVID-19 pandemic created new collegial online forums in which teachers could support each other by asking questions, sharing materials, solving educational problems, discussing working conditions and letting off steam. Before COVID-19, O’Conner and Hargreaves (Reference HARGREAVES and O’CONNOR2018) described teachers as overworked and resisting collaboration, but moral support could be offered with this emerging collaborative culture.

The multiple fields not included in this volume include collaboration with vocational schools, youth protection authorities, special-needs schools, asylum camps, orphanages, senior citizen’s homes, sheltered workshops, hospitals, nursing homes, theatre companies, arts institutions, museums and media companies. While this book focused on successes, other innovative projects and practices might have failed, but educators could learn from them and, after assessing, evaluating and developing them, might make them available in the future. This is despite the examples in this book that show music school’s capabilities to engage with societal change through collaboration. Furthermore, a significant strength characterised by the examples the authors have provided highlights democratic processes and inclusivity, showing that teacher’s work, experimentation and the work of institutions resonate with the policy recommendations within the collaboration context. Given the author’s experience from the chapters, data collection methods are various and are based on articulating the practitioner’s perspectives. The figures presented in Chapters 5, 9, 11 and 13 are helpful to the reader, particularly Figure 9.3, which indicates the importance of the primary school teachers, the instrumental teachers, the social coordinator and the musician’s intervenants who work as cultural mediators and educators (p. 126). This model highlights the collaboration of instrumental teachers, including the cultures of students, the community, themselves and society. A gap in this section is a comparative model with non-Western countries, which could have contributed to a more in-depth understanding of multiculturalism in music schools during collaboration. In conclusion, the final reflections of the editors are realistic and emphasise that global changes are challenging the vast narrative of music education in ways not foreseen by many stakeholders. The conceptual use of ‘collaborative professionalism’ and ‘professionalism’ put forward by the editors aimed to convey the hope that a mature profession would take a transformative view rather than a defensive stance when change is inevitable. The book would therefore inspire teachers to enhance professional collaboration in music schools. The volume is equally important for academics as its empirical research contributes to the development of scholarship while also offering considerations of relevance to cross-sector collaboration. In summary, this volume makes a strong contribution to understanding collaborative professionalism and to the transformation of music schools and global future expansion of this area of work.