Hege Merete Bjørnestøl Beckmann

• Beckmann, Hege Bjørnestøl & Christensen, Jorun (2022). "Det er jo viktig, men ikke lett å få til" - En undersøkelse av sangens plass i grunnskolen. In Skregelid, Lisbet & Knudsen, Kristian Nødtvedt (Ed.), Kunstens betydning? Utvidede perspektiver på kunst og barn & unge. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISSN 9788202763299. p. 137–163. doi: 10.23865/noasp.163.ch6. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The purpose of the article is to examine singing in Norwegian primary schools. Through a schematic overview of the singing activity at ten schools in Agder and qualitative interviews with teachers and school management, we focus on the following question: How is singing used in today’s schools, and what are the teachers’ arguments for implementing or not implementing singing activities? As a theoretical framework, we present singing in educational contexts in Norway from a historical and contemporary perspective and present relevant theories related to the concepts of “formation” and “community music”. The results show that singing activity varies from school to school, decreasing when students get older. The results also show that teachers find it essential to conduct singing activities as a part of the educational courses, but challenges associated with the teachers’ own singing skills and choice of repertoire leave the teachers feeling insecure when carrying out the activity

• Beckmann, Hege Bjørnestøl (2019). «Hvis det går en dag uten musikk, føler jeg at jeg ikke har levd den dagen» – om ungdommers musikkbruk som en eksistensiell ressurs. Tidsskriftet Norges Barnevern. ISSN 0800-1014. 96(01-02), p. 6–21. doi: 10.18261/ISSN.1891-1838-2019-01-02-02. Full text in Research Archive
• Balsnes, Anne Haugland & Beckmann, Hege (2017). "Musikken kan jeg ikke leve uten!" : Musikk som kilde til menneskets meningsskaping. In Balsnes, Anne Haugland (Eds.), Hva er nå et menneske? : tverrfaglige bidrag. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISSN 9788202566258. p. 208–228. Full text in Research Archive
• Beckmann, Hege (2013). Music, adolescents and health : narratives about how young people use music as a health resource in daily life. In Bonde, Lars Ole; Ruud, Even; Skånland, Marie Strand & Trondalen, Gro (Ed.), Musical Life Stories. Narratives on Health Muscking. Norges musikkhøgskole. ISSN 9788278530818. p. 95–116. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In this text, I focused on the extent to which young people’s use of music can be a healthpromoting resource. Based on an interpretative understanding of health as a category of experience, I found music in turn to impact the subjective interpretation of our relation to the world, to other people and to our existential being. I presented, through three adolescents’ narratives concerning their music use in their daily lives, examples of the ways in which music can be used to regulate, master and influence emotions (as an individual resource) and to inform the construction of identity and socialisation (as a social resource). Finally, I discussed the fact that adolescents find music to be a necessary element in their lives and, potentially, an existential resource in this regard. The adolescents’ narratives about their daily use of music, it became apparent, involve more than the music in itself. They involve music, in various situations, as a deliberate strategy for coping with a host of challenges. Thanks to music’s multifaceted individual, social, and existential application, I concluded that music — as used by adolescents, at least — ought to be viewed as a resource in their experience and cultivation of health. Technological developments continue to make access to music increasingly straightforward, and musical activity will impact young people’s lives for the foreseeable future. In this sense, we have only scratched the surface of this topic, whichdemands further exploration along the lines presented here.

• Beckmann, Hege (2013). "Musikken ... det er ryggen min, liksom." En kvalitativ analyse av musikk som en helsefremmende ressurs. In Schuff, Hildegunn Marie T; Salvesen, Reidar & Hagelia, Hallvard (Ed.), Forankring og fornyelse : festskrift for Ansgarskolen 1913–2013. Portal forlag. ISSN 9788292712870. p. 336–352. doi: 10.18261/issn.1891-1838-2019-01-02-02. Full text in Research Archive
• Breistein, Ingunn Folkestad & Beckmann, Hege Bjørnestøl (2008). Fellessang som religionsutøvelse? In Repstad, Pål; Løvland, Anne & Tønnessen, Elise Seip (Ed.), Gud på Sørlandet. Portal forlag. ISSN 9788292712092. p. 115–116. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  En "kaffebordsbok" med korte populærvitenskapelige oppsummeringende artikler fra forskningsprosjektet "Gud på Sørlandet", rikt illustrert med fotos.

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• Beckmann, Hege Bjørnestøl & Anundsen, Tormod Wallem (2026). Reimagining Higher Music Education as Social Action: Developing “Music in Action in Contemporary Society (MUSACT)” as an International Joint Master’s Programme. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This concept paper analyses the ongoing development of the international joint master’s programme ‘Music in Action in Contemporary Society’ (MUSACT) as a site where questions are being negotiated. Rather than presenting an established educational model, the paper examines the curriculum design process through which social responsibility, artistic practice, and professional identity are being configured. Particular attention is given to how these dimensions are shaped through international collaboration and structural decisions in the emerging programme architecture, with the following research questions: • RQ1: Which conceptual foundations can inform a socially engaged music programme? • RQ2: How does programme development become a process of curriculum negotiation and research? • RQ3: What implications does this work have for developing musical professionalism? The paper presentation will later be developed into a research article

• Torstveit, Monica Klungland; Beckmann, Hege Bjørnestøl; Haugen, Gunn-Hilde Erstad & Solstad, Bård Erlend (2025). Kraften i likeverd - Sammen for en rettferdig prestasjonsutvikling - Universitetet i Agder. doi: https:/www.uia.no/arrangementer/kurs-konferanse-seminar/kraften-i-likeverd.html. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Hvordan kan vi bygge en prestasjonskultur der alle har like muligheter til å lykkes? Vi samler ledere, forskere og utøvere for å belyse utfordringene og løsningene som kan sikre likeverdig karriereutvikling i musikk og idrett. Gjennom inspirerende foredrag, panelsamtaler og dyptgående diskusjoner utforsker vi temaer som fysisk og psykisk helse, utøverperspektivet, støtteordninger og inkludering – og hva som skal til for å skape reelle endringer.

• Solstad, Bård Erlend; Beckmann, Hege Bjørnestøl; Haugen, Gunn-Hilde Erstad; Abdallah, Rasha & Torstveit, Monica Klungland (2025). Kunnskapshull som koster mer enn blod, svette og tårer. doi: https:/www.fvn.no/mening/kronikk/i/qPwVre/kunnskapshull-som-koster-mer-enn-blod-svette-og-taarer. Full text in Research Archive
• Skånland, Marie Strand; Beckmann, Hege Bjørnestøl & Bjotveit, Alexander (2025). Trygge relasjoner gjennom musikk: Live Podcast. Full text in Research Archive
• Nørsett, Bodil Kvernenes; Balsnes, Anne Haugland & Beckmann, Hege Bjørnestøl (2024). UiA-konserten Samhold. Full text in Research Archive
• Beckmann, Hege Bjørnestøl & Beckmann, Morten (2024). Sang i KRLE-faget. Full text in Research Archive
• Beckmann, Hege Bjørnestøl & Anundsen, Tormod Wallem (2023). How can higher music education institutions offer responsible music education? Full text in Research Archive
• Beckmann, Hege Bjørnestøl (2023). Music activity as a resource for life skills in primary and lower secondary school. Full text in Research Archive
• Beckmann, Hege Bjørnestøl & Beckmann, Morten Klepp (2023). Sang i KRLE-faget. In Balsnes, Anne Haugland; Hagen, Liv Anna & Haukenes, Siri (Ed.), Sangglede og stemmebruk i barnehagen. Gyldendal Akademisk. ISSN 9788205571013. p. 274–289. Full text in Research Archive
• Beckmann, Hege Bjørnestøl & Christensen, Jorun (2023). Sangens plass i grunnskolen. Full text in Research Archive
• Anundsen, Tormod Wallem; Beckmann, Hege Bjørnestøl; Wetlesen, Isabelle Restrepo & Rusdal, Kristina R Larsen (2023). Educating musicians as socially engaged artists (Or: What might 'responsible music education' look like?). Full text in Research Archive
• Beckmann, Hege Bjørnestøl & Erstad, Gunn-Hilde (2023). Mangfold og likestilling på et senter for kreativ bruk av teknologi i musikkutdanningen – hvordan jobber vi? ​. Full text in Research Archive
• Beckmann, Hege Bjørnestøl (2022). «Musikken kan jeg ikke leve uten» – om musikk som kilde til meningsskaping og ressurs til bedre helse. Full text in Research Archive
• Beckmann, Hege Bjørnestøl (2022). Creative children - Social participation through music and visual art. Full text in Research Archive
• Skånland, Marie Strand & Beckmann, Hege Bjørnestøl (2022). Nye utdanninger, nye muligheter? Full text in Research Archive
• Skånland, Marie & Beckmann, Hege Bjørnestøl (2022). Ungdom, musikk og oppvekst. Full text in Research Archive
• Trondalen, Gro; Skånland, Marie Strand & Beckmann, Hege Bjørnestøl (2021). Kommunikativ musikalitet. Full text in Research Archive
• Seip, Hildegunn Marie Tønnessen & Beckmann, Hege Bjørnestøl (2021). Cultural participation as mental health promotion. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  OBJECTIVE The project aims at deepening our understanding of how cultural participation can serve as mental health promotion for young people. Participating in different forof musicking, dancing, arts projects and creative communities can provide refuge and resources for young people at risk of marginalization and mental ill-health (Beckmann, 2014; Fancourt & Finn, 2019; Seip, 2020). METHODS The paper synthesizes data from interviews and participant observation we have conducted in multicultural settings and collaboration projects in Norway and on study trips to Bhutan and Zambia. This synthesizing thematic analysis draws more general theoretical and practical lessons from these interviews and observations. RESULTS A range of young voices clearly expresses how important cultural participation is to them and their well-being. It strengthens their everyday joy, sense of belonging, sense of community and affect regulation and widens their range of coping strategies. The discussion elaborates on the interaction between traditional and emerging/contemporary musical expressions, identity issues and community vs. individual musicking. CONCLUSION Cultural participation deserves more attention in the mental health promotion field. Cultural and contextual sensitivity and listening to young voices can help professionals engage in creative interaction that promotes health. All in all, facilitating creative arenas for young people has great potential for improving their lives.

• Skårderud, Finn; Trondalen, Gro; Skånland, Marie Strand & Beckmann, Hege Bjørnestøl (2021). Musikk, kropp og følelser. Full text in Research Archive
• Takle, Tone & Beckmann, Hege (2019). Creative Children -The impact of an Art-Project on Children in Kindergartens. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Abstract "Art in Education" Oslo 28-30th August 2019 Tone Takle and Hege Bjørnestøl Beckmann The project “Skapende barn” (in English Children that Create), is a cultural project for children in kindergarten in Kristiansand. The main purpose of the project is to give participants opportunity to enjoy music, literature and visual art, and to strengthen social cohesion in the participating groups. The project started in 2017 and has been carried out every semester in kindergartens in two different stages. In part one of the project the musicians and pedagogues Torstein Andersen and Elin Nygård visit a group of children in their Kindergarten. They meet the same group several times and present a program consisting of songs and stories. In part two of the project the same group of children visit the artist Anna Berthelsen in her studio to make art. This happens several weeks in a row. Each group consists of eight children on different levels concerning linguistic and social skills. The children are 3 and 4 years old. The project is ongoing and financed until the end of 2020. The project has been followed up by research since the start. The follow-up research has been conducted in two stages: First by associate professor Lise Lotte Ågedal (Department of Classical Music and Music Education, UiA), and then two years into the project by associate professor Hege Bjørnestøl Beckmann (Department of Classical Music and Music Education, UiA) and assistant professor Tone Tackle (Department of Visual Arts and Drama). The follow-up research is linked to the research group Art and children & young people in the research platform Art in context (Faculty of Fine Arts, UiA). During the conference, Hege Bjørnestøl Beckmann and Tone Takle want to present temporary results of the follow-up research. Through qualitative interviews, observation and review of evaluation forms, the researchers are investigating what impact the project has had on the participants so far. The researchers will focus on the following questions: • What impact has the project on the children participating? • Did the project inspire the participating kindergarten teachers to use more music, art and literature in their work with the children?

• Beckmann, Hege (2014). Den livsviktige musikken. En kvalitativ undersøkelse om musikk, ungdom og helse. Norges musikkhøgskole. ISSN 9788278530962. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The last decade’s technological advances have increased the availability of music. With portable stereos like MP3-players, iPods and smartphones, and music libraries such as Spotify, WiMP og iTunes, we have access to all music whenever we want. Adolescents are, more than most, up to date on technical innovations, and many young people are surrounded by music in their daily activities (Vaage, 2013). In the words of Swedish music researcher Carin Öblad (2000, s. 41), music exists in young people’s lives ‘like the air they breathe’. Also, music can, in many ways, be described as a ‘soundtrack’ to life in general (Ruud, 2013b). Music is no longer just a leisure activity. It also has an important symbolic function. Further, music has more influence on several social and psychosocial fields than before. Resent publications within youth research indicates that a large number of current adolescents struggle with physical or mental health issues (Mykletun et al., 2009; Samdal et al., 2009). There is a variety of explanations for this, but most frequently the causes are connected to non-material threats to health, such as a lack of fellowship, faith, meaning and hope (Fløttum, 2013; Fugelli, 1998). Even if present adolescents perform better and are more forwardlooking than before, scientist are concerned about their mental health (Frøyland et al., 2013). On the basis of the outlined topic area, the present thesis will examine the connections between adolescents’ daily use of music and their understanding of its affect upon their quality of life or in a broad sense, their experience of health. This explorative study is based on eighteen qualitative interviews with young people between the ages of sixteen and nineteen, who were recruited from upper secondary schools and from the Department of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Care (ABUP) at Sørlandet Hospital (South Norway). The interviews can be described as ‘semi-structured’ (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009). For the analysis I have used systematic text condensation, as modified by Kirsti Malterud (2003). The analysis is based on a theoretical framework where perspectives from music sociology, music psychology and music and health help form a unified theoretical platform. My interest lies in with how adolescents use music, and how they experience musical meaning and sense, not so much what kind of music they listen too. Following Small (1998), I hold that music is something we take an active role in, something we do. Music carries certain affordances that offers its listeners various possibilities for action (DeNora, 2000). The experience of musical meaning, then, is determined by the sounding material, the person who performs or listen to it, and the context within which it is encountered (Ruud, 2006a, 2011b). Health is interpreted as pluralistic and holistic concept (Barbosa da Silva, 2013; Duncan, 2007; Nordenfelt, 1991, 2007). The analysis indicates that music is part of young people's everyday lives as a resource on individual, social and existential levels alike. On an individual level, the adolescents’ statements show that they have a clear understanding of the music they listen to. Music is described as an “everyday good”, something that ”raises me up” and ”makes me feel good”. Music functions as a strategy for emotion regulation. It has the ability to amplify and change emotions, and it contributes to their ability to vent and process their emotions. In this way, music can contribute to emotional competence. Furthermore, the adolescents' statements show how music can function as a coping strategy. Music is used to relax, to gear up, to concentrate on homework, to sleep, and music activity can thus be described as a resource when facing everyday demands. Linked to a social level, the adolescents’ statements show how music use constitutes an important resource in their socialization process. Music forms a large part of their leisure time, and several of the adolescents describe music as a central and necessary ambience in social contexts. The adolescents categorize music into what it fits, and by playing the "right" music; the music can contribute to social basic skills. Furthermore, music contributes in different ways to regulate relationships. Through discussing music, exchanging sound files and identifying with or disparaging certain artists, the adolescents signal something about values and social positions. Music can thus also in different ways reflect their identity. The adolescents are concerned with authenticity and genuine musical expressions, which in turn can be linked to a desire to appear in the social community with a strong sense of individuality. Because music activities influence many and important parts of the adolescents’ everyday life, the adolescents refer to music as something they are dependent on, something that makes life meaningful. One of them puts it this way: ”Music's vital to me, for my life to be anything”. Another says: ” ”If a day goes by without music, it's like I haven't lived that day”. These kinds of statements speak to young people’s experience of music as a prerequisite for leading a good life, suggesting its positioning and potential as not only an individual and social resource but also an existential one that affects human existence in the deepest sense. Music can in this perspective be described as a recourse on an existential level. It became apparent through this project that the adolescents’ daily use of music involves more than the music itself. They use music, in various situations, as a deliberate strategy for coping with a host of challenges. Thanks to music’s multifaceted individual, social, and existential application, I conclude that music, as used by the adolescents in this project, ought to be viewed as a resource in their experience and cultivation of health. Technological developments continue to make access to music increasingly straightforward, and musical activity will impact young people’s lives for the foreseeable future. In this sense, we have only scratched the surface of this topic, which demands further exploration along the lines of the work presented here. - - - - Norsk sammendrag - - - - Temaet i Hege Bjørnestøl Beckmanns studie er ungdoms bruk av musikk som helseressurs. Beckmanns analyse viser at ungdom har et svært bevisst forhold til musikken de hører på. Musikk hjelper ungdommene å reflektere over hverdagslige hendelser. Gjennom ulike sanger og selvkomponerte spillelister finner ungdommene trøst, og musikk fungerer som egenomsorg og en ressurs på et individuelt plan. Musikk står også sentralt i ungdommenes sosialiseringsprosess. Ved å gi sin tilslutning til noen musikalske sjangere og ta avstand fra andre, fungerer musikk som et redskap til å innordne seg et sosialt miljø, og musikk blir en viktig brikke i ungdommenes arbeid med å skape sin egen identitet. Musikk fungerer derfor også som en ressurs på et sosialt plan. Siden musikk inngår i så mange og viktige deler av ungdommenes liv, kan musikken i tillegg beskrives som en ressurs på et eksistensielt plan. Ungdommene forteller at musikkaktivitet gjør hverdagen meningsfull. En av dem sier for eksempel at «musikken er viktig for meg, for at livet mitt skal være fylt med noe». En annen sier: «Hvis det går en dag uten at jeg har hørt på musikk, så føler jeg liksom at jeg ikke har levd den dagen». Disse utsagnene forteller noe om ungdommenes opplevelse av musikk som svært viktig i hverdagen, noe som oppleves essensielt og nødvendig. I helsefremmende arbeid er man opptatt av hvilke aktiviteter som kan påvirke helse og livskvalitet. Hensikten med Beckmanns studie er å synliggjøre hvordan ungdoms musikkbruk kan inngå som ressurs for å forebygge og fremme opplevelse av helse, en selvvalgt strategi som ungdommene bruker i møte med livets mange utfordringer. Det empiriske materialet til studien er samlet inn gjennom kvalitative intervjuer med 18 ungdommer i alderen 16-19 år. Beckmann har benyttet en tverrfaglig tolkningsramme basert på sosiologiske, psykologiske og helsefaglige teorier for å diskutere hvorvidt ungdoms musikkbruk kan forstås som en ressurs som på ulike måter kan ses i sammenheng med deres opplevelse av helse og livskvalitet.

• Beckmann, Hege Bjørnestøl (2001). Ungdom og musikk : en kartlegging av musikksmak, påvirkning, bruk og funksjon i en skoleklasse våren 2000. Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive

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