The use of Alfred Schütz's theory of action in a research on Music Education

theoretical possibilities

Abstract

In this essay, I introduce the possibilities that are established with the use of the theory of action, from the philosopher and sociologist Alfred Schütz, in the grounding of a research in Music Education. Schütz defines action as a motivated and projected conduct, intrinsicality connected to the subjects who execute it. Through his theory, it is possible to study the subjects’ motives, their decision’s moment, and the action’s effects in their lives, having the interpretative process from the ones who executed it, in the center of the analysis. The research that brought me closer from this theory seek to understand a serie of music-pedagogical actions, in the perspective of the collaborators who produced them. The field’s analyses, from Schütz theory of action, has enabled to understand the relations between the projects’ objectives and the collaborators’ motives, their decisions’ process, and the meanings that they attribute to the actions, when reflecting about their lived experiences. The research grounding in Schütz work has been fruitful, pointing to a great growing potential in the dialogue between Sociology and Music Education.