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Dr Carolyn Cooke

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Professional biography

I am a Staff Tutor (Education) based in Scotland. I have previously worked as a Music Teacher, Head of Music, Teacher Education lecturer (secondary, primary, music education, professional studies) and as a Research Assistant. My Staff tutor role is focused on supporting the Open University's BA in Education Studies (Primary). I have an additional role in promoting and developing the Open University's contribution to the education sector in Scotland.  

I have interests in music education, teacher education, transdisciplinary learning, and posthumanism.  I have recently completed my PhD, 'Troubling' Music Education: (Re-)making research and music education differently (University of Edinburgh). 

My publications including co-editing the third edition of Learning to teach music in a secondary school (https://www.routledge.com/Learning-to-Teach-Music-in-the-Secondary-School-A-companion-to-school/Cooke-Evans-Philpott-Spruce/p/book/9780415713092​), and more recently chapters in Taylor and Bayley (2019) Posthumanism and Higher Education: Reimagining Pedagogy, Practice and Research (​Palgrave Macmillan) and Colucci-Gray and Burnard (2019) ​Why Science and Arts creativities matter: STEAM (re-)configurings for future-making education (​Sense publications). Forthcoming publications include co-editing the second edition of 'A Practical Guide to Teaching Music in Secondary Schools' (Cooke, C and Philpott, C, 2022), and 'Why transdisciplinary and community creativities matter in creating teacher and young composer makers'  (Burnard, P. and Cooke, C., 2022, In M. Kaschub (Ed) Oxford Handbook of Music Composition Pedagogy). 

I am very fortunate to live in beautiful rural Aberdeenshire. 

 

Research interests

​I have broad research interests around and between the following areas:

  • The definition and use of the term pedagogy
  • Teacher Education and professional learning
  • Music Education
  • Posthumanism and post-qualitative research
  • Play / improvisation / making pedagogies (particularly as adults)

Teaching interests

In Higher Education I have taught on a broad range of courses including:

  • Music Education PGCE / PGDE (Primary and Secondary)
  • Professional studies PGCE / PGDE including course design
  • Undergraduate Primary Education courses
  • EdD supervision

I am very fortunate to have undertaken school visits to moderate student teachers achievements for four different institutions, across England, Wales and Scotland and in Primary and Secondary. 

My approach to teaching is one of 'making together', providing opportunities and materials to push us to explore ideas from different perspectives, and moving beyond accepted or presented narratives. 

 

Publications

Reverberations in music education: what does sound ‘do’ in our learning spaces. (2024)
Cooke, Carolyn
Music Education Research ((in press))


Collaborative Writing as Bio‐Digital Quilting: A Relational, Feminist Practice Towards “Academia Otherwise” (2023)
Vackova, Petra; Puntil, Donata; Dowdeswell, Emily; Cooke, Carolyn and Caton, Lucy
Social Inclusion, 11(3)


Sensing bodies: Transdisciplinary enactments of ‘thing-power’ and ‘making-with’ for educational future-making (2023)
Cooke, Carolyn; Colucci-Gray, Laura and Burnard, Pamela
Digital Culture & Education ((In Press))


Transdisciplinarity: Re-Visioning How Sciences and Arts Together Can Enact Democratizing Creative Educational Experiences (2022)
Burnard, Pam; Colucci-Gray, Laura and Cooke, Carolyn
Review of Research in Education, 46(1) (pp. 166-197)


'Making-With' in Music Education (2022)
Cooke, Carolyn
Cultural and Pedagogical Inquiry, 14(1) (pp. 110-116)


How Transdisciplinary and Improvisational Creativities Can Nurture Young Composers and Teachers as Confident 'Makers' (2024)
Cooke, Carolyn and Burnard, Pam
In: Kaschub, Michele ed. The Oxford Handbook of Music Composition Pedagogy. Oxford Handbooks
ISBN : 9780197574874 | Publisher : Oxford University Press (In Press)


(Re)hearing and (re)seeing what happens in music education: Re-storying music education with Posthumanism (2024)
Cooke, Carolyn
In: Philpott, Chris and Spruce, Gary eds. Debates in Music Teaching (2nd Edition)
Publisher : Routledge (In Press) | Published : New York and London


Troubling Terrains of Diffractive Re-readings: Performing Transdisciplinary Re-matterings of Music, Mathematics and Visual Art Materiality (2023-08-06)
Burnard, Pamela and Cooke, Carolyn
In: Bailey, Annouchka and Chan, JJ eds. Diffracting New Materialisms Emerging Methods in Artistic Research and Higher Education (pp. 235-263)
ISBN : 978-3-031-18606-6 | Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan, Cham


Exploring Singing and the Voice (2023)
Cooke, Carolyn and Philpott, Chris
In: Cooke, Carolyn and Philpott, Chris eds. A Practical Guide to Teaching Music in the Secondary School.. Routledge Teaching Guides (pp. 52-64)
ISBN : 9780367552473 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon, Oxon


Exploring Pedagogy (2023)
Cooke, Carolyn and Philpott, Chris
In: Cooke, Carolyn and Philpott, Chris eds. A Practical Guide to Teaching Music in the Secondary School.. Routledge Teaching Guides (pp. 5-15)
ISBN : 9780367552473 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon, Oxon


Exploring Responding (2023)
Cooke, Carolyn
In: Cooke, Carolyn and Philpott, Chris eds. A Practical Guide to Teaching Music in the Secondary School.. Routledge Teaching Guides (pp. 16-25)
ISBN : 9780367552473 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon, Oxon


Walking With(in) Transdisciplinary-Scapes (2022-05)
Cooke, Carolyn
In: Burnard, Pamela; Macklay, Elizabeth; Rousell, David and Dragovic, Tatjana eds. Doing Rebellious Research In and Beyond the Academy. Critical Issues in the Future of Learning and Teaching (pp. 70-83)
ISBN : 978-90-04-51604-5 | Publisher : Brill | Published : Leiden


On Methodological Accounts of Improvisation and "Making with" in Science and Music (2019-12-19)
Cooke, Carolyn
In: Burnard, Pam and Colucci-Gray, Laura eds. Why Science and Art Creativities Matter: (Re-)Configuring STEAM for Future-making Education. Critical Issues in the Future of Learning and Teaching
ISBN : 978-90-04-39611-1 | Publisher : Brill I Sense | Published : Leiden


Complex Knowing: Promoting Response-Ability Within Music and Science Teacher Education (2019-04-18)
Colucci-Gray, Laura and Cooke, Carolyn
In: Taylor, Carol A. and Bayley, Annouchka eds. Posthumanism and Higher Education: Reimagining Pedagogy, Practice and Research (pp. 165-185)
ISBN : 978-3-030-14672-6 | Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan


Behaviour for Musical Learning (2016-04-21)
Cooke, Carolyn
In: Cooke, Carolyn; Evans, Keith; Philpott, Chris and Spruce, Gary eds. Learning to Teach Music in the Secondary School: A companion to school experience (3rd Edition). Learning to Teach Subjects in the Secondary School (pp. 94-108)
ISBN : 9781315621203 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Oxon


What is a Music Curriculum? (2016-04-21)
Cooke, Carolyn and Spruce, Gary
In: Cooke, Carolyn; Evans, Keith; Philpott, Chris and Spruce, Gary eds. Learning to Teach Music in the Secondary School: A companion to school experience (3rd Edition). Learning to Teach Subjects in the Secondary School (pp. 63-79)
ISBN : 9781315621203 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Oxon


Critical Reflection for Social Justice and Inclusion in Music Education (2015-12-10)
Cooke, Carolyn
In: Benedict, Cathy; Schmidt, Patrick; Spruce, Gary and Woodford, Paul eds. The Oxford Handbook of Social Justice in Music Education
ISBN : 9780199356157 | Publisher : Oxford University Press


Promoting an inclusive music classroom (2011-12-16)
Cooke, Carolyn
In: Spruce, Gary; Beech, Nick and Evans, Julie eds. Making Music in the Primary School: Whole Class Instrumental and Vocal Teaching (pp. 33-44)
ISBN : 9780415561303 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : London


Personal, learning and thinking skills and functional skills (2011-10)
Cooke, Carolyn
In: Price, Jayne and Savage, Jonathan eds. Teaching Secondary Music (pp. 37-48)
ISBN : 9780857023933 | Publisher : Sage Publications | Published : London


A Practical Guide to Teaching Music in the Secondary School. 2nd Edition (2023)
Cooke, Carolyn and Philpott, Chris eds.
Routledge Teaching Guides
ISBN : 9780367552473 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon, Oxon


Learning to Teach Music in the Secondary School: A Companion to School Experience (3rd Edition) (2016-04-21)
Cooke, Carolyn; Evans, Keith; Philpott, Chris and Spruce, Gary eds.
Learning to Teach Subjects in the Secondary School Series
ISBN : 9781315621203 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Oxon


What Is Care?: Bio-digital collaborative writing towards conferencing otherwise (2024)
Puntil, Donata; Vackova, Petra; Cooke, Carolyn; Caton, Lucy and Dowdeswell, Emily
In : 7th European Congress of Qualitative Inquiry (10-12 Jan 2024, Helsinki, Finland)


What do we mean by meaning-making in music education? (2022-05)
Spruce, G.; Philpott, C.; Finney, J. and Cooke, C.
In : 29th European Association of Music in Schools Conference (18-21 May 2022, Belgrade / Online.)


Rooms of possibilities: Making spaces for posthumanist (un)doings. (2022)
Caton, Lucy; Cooke, Carolyn; Puntil, Donata and Vackova, Petra
In : European Congress of Qualitative Inquiry (Feb 2022, Online)


What do we mean by sustainability in music education? (Re)making meaningful practices. (2022)
Cooke, Carolyn
In : European Association for Music in Schools Conference (18-21 May 2022, Belgrade / Online.)


Posthumanising transdisciplinary pedagogies: New directions for democratising how the arts and sciences can teach creatively together (2021)
Burnard, Pam; Colucci-Gray, Laura and Cooke, Carolyn
In : American Education Research Association Annual Meeting (8-12 Apr 2021, Online)


‘Troubling’ Music Education: Playing, (re)making and researching differently (2021)
Cooke, Carolyn
In : Birmingham City University Centre for the study of Practice and Culture in Education (Apr 2021, Online hosted by BCU)


Posthumanising transdisciplinary pedagogies: New directions for democratising how the arts and sciences can teach creatively together. (2021)
Burnard, P; Colucci-Gray, L and Cooke, Carolyn
In : American Educational Research Association Conference (Apr 2021, Online)


Transdisciplinarity: Making the case and heeding the evidence for letting arts and science teach together with a new turn for music education (2020)
Cooke, Carolyn; Burnard, Pam; Colucci-Gray, Laura and Sinha, Pallawi
In : Australian and New Zealand Association for Research in Music Education (ANZARME) 2020 ONLINE CONFERENCE, 42nd Conference (4 Oct 2020, Online)


Redefining music pedagogy: using improvising as an enactive metaphor with music student teachers (2017)
Cooke, Carolyn
In : Research in Music Education (24-27 Apr 2017, Bath Spa University)


Photograph elicitation as a window into experiences of space(s): glimpsing the memories, feelings, and experiences of relational playfulness (improvisation) of music student teachers (2017)
Cooke, Carolyn
In : University of Aberdeen Research Student Conference (Dec 2017, University of Aberdeen)


Pedagogy as Improvisation: a possible scaffold to support music student teachers developing pedagogical understanding (2016)
Cooke, Carolyn
In : The International Society of Music Education (Jul 2016, Glasgow)


Teaching as performance: music student teacher’s perceptions of pedagogy (2015)
Cooke, Carolyn
In : Scottish Educational Research Association (Nov 2015, University of Aberdeen)


Critical Pedagogy in Music Education (2012)
Cooke, Carolyn and Spruce, Gary
In : European Association for Music in Schools (13-16 Feb 2012, The Hague, the Netherlands)


Understanding study intensity change among education studies (primary) concurrent students (2024-02)
Cooke, Carolyn; Peterkin, Anton; Todd-Ellis, Ashleigh; Carden, Catherine; Scott, Chloe; Mogridge, Claire; Buck, Julie; Gallastegi, Lore and Wroe, Stuart
PRAXIS, Open University


Weaving-thinking-becoming-with: introducing the Posthumanist Collective (2022)
Cooke, Carolyn; Dowdeswell, Emily; Puntil, Donata and Vackova, Petra
Postgraduate Research Poster Competition, The Open University


Who are our Education Studies (Primary) concurrent students? (2021-11)
Gallastegi, Lore; Cooke, Carolyn; Saunders, Claire; Addison-Pettit, Paula; Tope, Clare; McPhilemy, Roisin; Henry, Fiona; Moore, Lorraine; Reddin, Mandy and Delsoldato, Jill
PRAXIS, Open University


Critical Review of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics): Re-visioning Education? (2019-03-01)
Colucci-Gray, Laura; Burnard, Pamela; Gray, Donald and Cooke, Carolyn
Oxford University Press.


Reviewing the potential and challenges of developing STEAM education through creative pedagogies for 21st learning: how can school curricula be broadened towards a more responsive, dynamic, and inclusive form of education? (2017)
Colucci-Gray, L.; Burnard, P.; Cooke, C.; Davies, R.; Gray, D. and Trowsdale, J.
BERA