Producing, DJing, sampling and remixing, virtual ensembles, artificial intelligence, platforms, social media, streaming and algorithms: The ways in which music is created, experienced, learned and taught in a culture of digitality have changed significantly. The DFG-funded Scientific Network „Post-digital Music Practices in Music Teacher Education“ explores what these developments mean for the professionalization of pre-service music teachers and how they can be meaningfully integrated into music teacher education.
What Is the Network About?
The network focuses on researching post-digital music practices and the ways in which they are translated into music teacher education. These practices are understood as post-digital because they emerge in a world shaped by digitalisation, yet cannot be understood as exclusively digital. Rather, they combine digital and analogue practices and processes in a variety of ways. A post-digital perspective therefore considers not only the technological aspects of these practices but also, and particularly, their social, cultural, aesthetic, ecological and economic dimensions.
Why a Network?
Post-digital music practices are shaping contemporary music cultures and the musical experiences of pupils and students. In music teacher education, however, they have so far been integrated only selectively and inconsistently. Although some universities have already introduced selected (post-)digital music practices as artistic subjects, their integration into music teacher education is still at an early stage.
This raises fundamental questions: What characterises post-digital music practices? How can they be meaningfully translated into music teacher education? What artistic-practical competencies and competencies related to technology, pedagogy and content are associated with these practices? How can post-digital music practices be integrated into existing degree programmes as artistic subjects while ensuring coherence and meaningful connections with other areas of study and subsequent phases of teacher education?
This is where the network comes in: It brings together researchers and educators from music education, musicology, popular music studies, sound studies and cultural studies across different institutions. The aim is to bring together existing research and disciplinary expertise, comparatively examine different processes of translation into educational practice, and use these insights to further develop research-informed curricula and approaches to teaching and learning in higher education. In doing so, the network understands translation not as a neutral process of transfer, but as one in which questions of representation, power, hegemony and social responsibility are also negotiated and contested.
Why Is This Important?
Through this project, the network contributes to the further development of music teacher education in the context of contemporary music cultures and multiple, interconnected crises. It strengthens cross-institutional exchange, connects research with artistic and educational practice, and lays the groundwork for embedding post-digital music practices in higher education in ways that are sensitive to difference, critically reflective and sustainable.
Over the course of the three-year project, six two-day working meetings will take place, complemented by digital exchange formats and impulses from invited guests. The work focuses on three interlinked goals:
Post-digital music practices and their existing translations into music teacher education are systematically examined, for example, with regard to artistic strategies and techniques, aesthetics and artefacts, processes of appropriation, professionalization and mediation.
On this basis, the network develops, tests and reflects on its own approaches to translation, including competency heuristics, teaching-learning formats and curricular modules. A particular focus is on the integration of (post-)digital music practices as artistic subjects and their incorporation into existing degree programme structures.
The results are made accessible beyond the network, including through two special issues of the journal sustain – Journal of Sustainability and Futures in Music Education as well as a symposium.
The network brings together 16 members from various universities and universities of music across German-speaking countries.
It was initiated by Interim Prof. Dr. Chris Kattenbeck and Dr. Josef Schaubruch, who jointly coordinate the network’s work.
Members:
Prof. Dr. Michael Ahlers, Leuphana UniversityLüneburg
Dr. Fabian Bade, Lübeck University of Music
Prof. Dr. Thade Buchborn, Freiburg University of Music
Philipp Feneberg, Mozarteum University, Innsbruck
Prof. Dr. Marc Godau, Paderborn University
Dr. Sarah Hardjowirogo, University of Oldenburg
Benjamin Hecht, Rostock University of Music and Drama
Prof. Dr. Carmen Heß, Cologne University of Music and Dance
Prof. Dr. Barbara Hornberger, University of Wuppertal
Matthias Krebs, BEST-Sabel Oberschulen Köpenick, Berlin
Prof. Dr. Valerie Krupp, Mainz School of Music, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Malte Pelleter, University of Münster
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Johannes Treß, University of Education Freiburg
Lisa Werner, Karlsruhe University of Education
Associated Members:
Phillip Gosman, Paderborn University
Tom Hartmann, Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media
Prof. Dr. Johann Honnens, Berlin University of the Arts
Timo Neuhausen, Paderborn University
Prof. Dr. Matthias Pasdzierny, Berlin University of the Arts
Review of the 1st Working Meeting
On September 29 and 30, 2026, the members of the DFG Network on Postdigital Music Practices in Music Teacher Education gathered at the Mainz University of Music for their first working meeting.
Following an introduction to the network’s goals and structure, the group first discussed the concept of postdigital music practices. While this concept serves as a productive unifying framework, the hybrid nature of these practices makes it difficult to define the subject with precision. A subsequent review revealed that, since 2019, (post-)digital music practices have been introduced as an artistic subject in teacher education programs at 16 colleges and universities in Germany, with a wide variety of names and program profiles.
In an open-space session, participants collaboratively exchanged experiences regarding the establishment of such courses, including strategies for recruiting faculty and students as well as teaching and examination formats. On the second day, small groups mapped out post-digital music practices and explored which areas could be grouped together as artistic disciplines. Finally, the members developed initial (joint) research projects and gathered ideas for network-wide initiatives, including a guide for establishing artistic disciplines.
1st Working Meeting
29–30 September 2026, Mainz School of Music
2nd Working Meeting
1–2 March 2027, Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media
