It is a privilege to be invited to contribute an Editorial to this issue of the Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, which maintains and advances the momentum which Thompson’s (2022) call for respect-focused writing set in motion at the end of last year. It is a period of noticeable growth within the profession, with disability studies-informed and social justice-oriented perspectives emerging from theoretical and philosophical works initially, through to examples in practice, research, pedagogy, and increasingly in publications. There is an increasing acceptance that respectful, anti-ableist practice is everyone’s responsibility and not a specialist approach or focus, with ever-increasing dialogue about how to nurture, facilitate and achieve antioppressive aspirations in the profession. This welcome paradigm shift demonstrates the potential of music therapy as an evolving discipline to respond to multifaceted challenges and opportunities, and for antioppressive perspectives (Baines, 2021) to offer practitioners a valuable lens through which to develop and orientate their work. Through working toward dismantling the inaccurate historical binary and power dynamic between music therapy participants and music therapists, expertise by experience is increasingly understood and valued (Swamy & Webb, 2022). Several of the articles in this issue offer landmark examples of these ideas and signal a shift in the trajectory of research and practice in music therapy. In this issue, Marie Strand Skånland asks whether participation in music therapy, offered through flexible assertive community treatment (a Dutch model of communitybased, recovery-oriented mental health care) can contribute to social recovery (p. 290). This recovery-oriented position shifts emphasis from a pathologizing model to recognition of personal and social recovery, with potential for music therapy to optimise the participant’s health. Skånland proposes that the relational experiences shared in the research may add to the service users’ feelings of being met as equal human beings:

This article evaluates the impact of volunteering with a music education project for children and adults with learning disabilities on the professional development and career trajectory of music students at a Conservatoire in the United Kingdom. A mixed-methods online questionnaire captured the impact of volunteering with Melody Music Birmingham. Findings suggest that volunteering was a powerful aspect of the respondents' learning, potentially influencing their career choices, perceptions and attitudes. Further training and experiences for Conservatoire students in engaging with, supporting, and delivering music-making for people with learning disabilities are recommended.

Higher education is known to privilege certain knowledge and expertise, often prioritising ableist forms of communicating and being. This chapter argues for recognition of an alternative conception of expertise: standpoint epistemology, the expertise and insight gained through the lived experience of disablement. Individuals with learning disabilities may be infrequently employed as lecturers or experts in higher education but have much insight and expertise to share. While co-produced, emancipatory and inclusive research is gladly increasing in prominence, a parallel dimension of teaching practice is under-researched. This chapter presents a brief case study which illustrates how disabled school pupils and disabled actors were enabled to contribute expertise to modules where university students were to learn about diversity and inclusive practice. No amount of deliberate practice could develop such expertise in a non-disabled academic. Therefore, this project enabled students to "learn with and by, rather than about [disability]" from relevant experts. It is proposed that this disruption of the notion of academics as experts and the politics of knowledge could widen access to rich, authentic learning experiences and value alternative conceptions of expertise.

In pedagogic literature informed by critical disability studies, academia is widely cited as an ableist institution: the training ground for the professions of normalcy. Music therapy could readily be complicit in this normalising discourse with its potential to pathologise participants and to maintain a strict ‘normative divide’, between professionals it trains and participants who engage with its provision. Activists, advocates and disabled therapists have posed a welcome challenge to this positioning in recent publications, but the pedagogical dimensions of music therapy training in this area have received less attention. The emerging signature pedagogy of music therapy and its omissions will be considered, which may explain the need for an increased social justice focus in music therapy curricula. This article considers the potential of applying Kumashiro’s typologies of anti-oppressive education in music therapy training: problematising existing pedagogies and critically reflecting upon the potential of a social justice informed curriculum. These approaches have the potential to reframe Otherness by acknowledging expertise in lived experience. Through introducing these frameworks for socially just, anti-oppressive pedagogies, this article invites consciousness raising in music therapy pedagogy through engagement with critical disability studies theory and philosophy.

This article reflects upon the potential mediation of medical and social interpretations of disability through informing instrumental tuition with the strengths recognised in the learning profile of children with Down Syndrome. The learning profile is explored and critically discussed, and its reductionist, deficit-based potential identified; before considering the potential value of applying the evidence-based phenotype to musical provision. While a medical model of disability may interpret this learning profile as a list of deficiencies, this paper proposes that an informed, strength-based approach to teaching could empower students and challenge barriers to participation through suitably tailored provision, providing a relevant and constructive learning experience. This framework therefore aligns more closely with a Nordic relational model of disability that mediates the medical and social models, recognising disability as an interaction between impairment and the environment. Three case reports are presented to demonstrate and emphasise the range of personalities and individual differences between musicians with Down Syndrome, but also how this evidence-based approach can be applicable to many students, potentially contextualised within a "Universal Design for Learning" framework. A summary considers how raising awareness of constructive strategies for informed provision could develop confidence amongst practitioners, and thus in turn increase provision of relevant musical opportunities to students with additional learning needs, including Down Syndrome. In a critical conclusion, the notion of "differentiation" as perpetuating a dominant ableist discourse is considered and recommendations made with regard to furthering connections between critical social practices associated with Critical Disability Studies and music education.

This article explores the portrayal of disability through the Disability Service web pages of Welsh universities in order to understand their potential impression on disabled applicants. The method of Qualitative Content Analysis enables consideration of multiple dimensions including use of language, terminology and photography, as well as discussion of academic, cultural, social and logistical aspects of student life. The development of a primarily concept-driven coding frame enables consideration of the absence of certain criteria as well as the frequency and prominence of others. The ensuing discussion considers, from a Critical Disability Studies perspective, the sector's portrayal of the construct of disability. This article proposes a call to action to challenge deficit-based interpretations of disability and advocates an affirmative stance towards disability in higher education policy and practice.

This study reports on the unanticipated findings of a small-scale, evaluative research project. Further to a pilot iteration, a cohort of undergraduate art students engaged with an immersive, inclusive arts curriculum informed by critical disability studies. Students' perceptions and attitudes about disability were recorded at the outset and conclusion of the pedagogical project, through a qualitative questionnaire. Thematic analysis was employed to surface patterns in the cohort's responses at both points in their learning journey. While the findings evidenced the anticipated shift from individualized perspectives about disability to an increasingly social, interactional perspective, the full extent of the medicalized gaze and internalized ableism at the outset of the study was unanticipated. This realization has been influential in developing the pedagogical approach and the framing of the content taught, and has exemplified both the potential and the need to learn about disability, disablement and diversity through art education.

This article takes the theoretical and philosophical lens of critical disability studies to critically reflect on the Health and Care Professions Council Standards of Proficiency for Arts Therapists. The discipline of critical disability studies, evolving from disability studies and the disability rights movement, is initially defined before multiple paradigms of disability are introduced as central tenets of these disciplines. The relationship between critical disability studies and music therapy is explored, with reference to seminal publications and the perceptions of music therapy within them. The Health and Care Professions Council Standards of Proficiency are then taken as a source of reflection to attempt to understand the perpetuation of medicalised perspectives in the profession and the potential friction between critical disability studies and music therapy. A selection of the Standards of Proficiency are analysed according to distinct paradigms of disability. Questions are posed to interrogate and contextualise the standards in relation to critical disability studies philosophy. From this critical reflection, a discussion emerges which reflects on the reach of these professional standards and how they might contribute to a continuing, outdated expert-model of music therapy in the United Kingdom. The article concludes by drawing these threads together in a series of recommendations to educators, practitioners and the wider profession.

This position paper offers our personal reflections as five music therapists from varying social and international contexts attempting to understand and engage with the theory, politics and implications of the Neurodiversity Movement. We begin by positioning our views on the importance of the therapist’s intentionality when working with individuals for whom this social, cultural and political movement may represent central beliefs and values. The evolution of the Neurodiversity Movement is discussed, growing from the social model of disability and Disability Rights Movements to present a challenge to the dominant, medicalised model of disability. Throughout the paper, we invite critical debate around the role, position and attitude of the music therapist when working with neurodivergent participants, taking the powerful words of Autistic author and activist, Penni Winter, as our provocation. Finally, we offer our interpretation of key concepts and dimensions of this discourse, before sharing examples of how we might apply these understandings to tangible tenets of music therapy practice in different contexts through a series of brief composite case stories. Through critical reflection and discussion, we attempt to draw together the threads of these diverse narratives to challenge a normocentric position, and conclude by posing further questions for the reader and the wider music therapy profession.

This pedagogical research project sought to address the challenge disabled students reported in acquiring specialist provision in the first term of university study.The time taken to establish specialist provision has historically affected students' attainment and wellbeing.This project aimed to provide an accessible technological provision to all students through an online notetaking platform.Following ethical approval, an online platform was embedded within the virtual learning environment for students to upload their notes from an undergraduate module where they received tuition in note-taking strategies.A mixedmethods Questionnaire and Focus Group evaluated the project.Findings were analysed using descriptive statistics and Thematic Analysis.There was very limited engagement with the online platform.It was assumed that the provision was inaccessible, not of interest, or not relevant.However, the qualitative data demonstrated that students had developed a commitment to sharing their notes but had chosen a social media platform over the intended academic portal.Other insightful outcomes included students' attitudes towards others and students' lack of confidence.This project emphasises the responsibility of educators to consider the accessibility of provision; nurturing awareness of others' learning and developing an inclusive course community, embedding technology-enhanced learning and social media in higher education.

This article reflects upon the process, the challenges and the opportunities realised in the recent revalidation activity of an undergraduate degree programme in Creative and Therapeutic Arts ( CTA ) in the UK . The premise of the revalidation activity and the historical context of the course are briefly encapsulated, before engaging with theoretical frameworks at the forefront of contemporary Participatory Arts practice. This includes an initial focus on the relevance of Critical Disability Studies to Participatory Arts education, followed by exploration of the contrasting approaches of Socially Engaged Art practice, Inclusive Arts practice, Participatory Arts practice, Arts in Health and Arts Therapies. The challenge of defining a diverse practice which draws from such contrasting perspectives is further explored in relation to the challenge of working on the boundary between artistic and therapeutic practice. Geographical context is considered, drawing from the Welsh evidence base to inform culturally relevant provision. Curriculum design is reviewed in relation to experiential learning and inclusive practice literature, as well as relevant higher education policies. Upon briefly summarising the revalidated curriculum, a critical discussion around the future of the training and the discipline more broadly is developed, considering the contribution of the critical review and focus groups facilitated as part of this revalidation activity. It is hoped that this discussion will further nurture and challenge educators, students and practitioners in this exciting area of evolving, contemporary practice.

This interview follows a chance meeting between two music therapists: UK music therapist Beth Pickard, and Finnish music therapist Mikko Romppanen. Both Beth and Mikko are registered music therapists, but were engaging in an International Wellbeing Week at Häme University of Applied Sciences (HAMK) in Finland in their capacities as lecturers in higher education. Their diverse roles and responsibilities as well as contrasting pedagogical stances provided a wealth of rich discussion during their time together, and created the stimulus for this extended dialogue. During this interview, they will explore their own orientation and training as music therapists, before considering how their professional background informs how they approach their own learning and teaching practices. Mikko and Beth teach students from a range of disciplines to use music and the arts therapeutically within the boundaries and scope of their practices. In reflecting upon the potential and challenges of this model, they consider whether such an approach could be further developed. In addition, Mikko insightfully reflects on the potential of music as a form of self-expression for undergraduate students across disciplines, and the prospect of the evolution of arts-based research and evaluation to provide further opportunities for music therapists across contexts in higher education.

Examining the utility of music interventions for children with learning disabilities | 28 November 2016 | Royal Society of Medicine; Live Music Now | London, UK