Catharina Renate Christophersen

Field of work

Catharina Christophersen has worked as a music teacher both in schools and in municipal schools of performing arts. She holds a doctorate in music education from the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. She teaches music education, research methos and research ethics, and supervises master's and PhD theses. She was  the principal investigator of the research project "Music Teacher Education for the Future" (FUTURED 2019-2022), which was financied by the Norwegian Research Council. In this project the researchers examined the music subject and music education practices of the new 5-year teacher education in Norway, aiming both to map and challenge existing practices, as well as contribute to developing new educational practices. Catharina is the leader of the faculty's interdisciplinary forum for PhD fellows (Stipendiatforum), and she was previously the leader of the research group Culture-Criticism-Community. She is currently chair of the Norwegian Forum for Research in Music Education, and one of the editors of the podcast MusikkPed Podden. 

Selected publications: 

• Aróstegui, J.L., Christophersen, C., Nichols, J., & Matsunobu, K. (2024.). The SAGE Handbook of School Music Education. SAGE (forthcoming).
• Christophersen, C., Holdhus, K. & Kenny, A. (2024). Third Space Moments: Exploring a university-school partnership through collaborative action research. Teaching and Teacher Education 141, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2024.104499  
• Christophersen, C., Aróstegui, J.L., Holdhus, K., Kenny, A., Knudsen, J.S., Lindgren, M., Väkevä, L. & Viig, T.G. (2023). Music Teacher Education for the Future: Reflections on Change. Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education 22(3). https://doi.org/10.22176/act22.3.7 
• Viig, T.G., Onsrud, S.V., Lewis, J. Christophersen, C. & Kvinge, Ø. (2023). Developing Vision for the Future? A Reflection on Utopias in Music Teacher Education. Visions of Research in Music Education 41, p. 1-15. https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/vrme/vol41/iss1/2  
• Kvile, S. & Christophersen, C. (2023). Recognising intra-actions of music and pupil. Music Education Research 25(2), p. 205-215. https://doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2023.2193204 
• Holdhus, K., Christophersen, C., & Partti, H (2023). Soundtrapped? Socio-material perspectives on collaborative teaching within the music classroom. Research Studies in Music Education 45(3), p. 539-554.  https://doi.org/10.1177/1321103X221115978 
• Christophersen, C. (2021). Educating music teachers for the future: The crafts of change. In Holdhus, K., Murphy, R.  & Espeland, M. (Eds). Music Education As Craft : Reframing Theories and Practices (63-74). Springer.  https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-67704-6_6
• Lewis, J. & Christophersen, C. (2021). Frontiers of difference: A duo-ethnographic study of social justice in music education. Music Education Research, 23(1), 90-104. https://doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2021.1887114
• Nysæther, E.T., Christophersen,C. & Sætre. J. H. (2021). Who are the music student teachers in Norwegian generalist teacher education? A cross-sectional survey. Nordic Research in Music Education 2(2), 28-57.  https://nrme.no/index.php/nrme/article/view/2988/6017
• Rinde, F. & Christophersen, C. (2021). Developing an understanding of intercultural music education in a Nordic setting. Nordic Research in Music Education 2(2) https://doi.org/10.23865/nrme.v2.2772
• Havre, S., Väkevä, L., Christophersen, C. & Haugland. E. (2019). Playing to learn or learning to play? Playing Rocksmith to learn electric guitar and bass in Nordic music teacher education .British Journal of Music Education 36(1), 21-32. https://doi.org/10.1017/S026505171800027X
• Christophersen, C. & Kenny, A. (2018). Musician-Teacher Collaborations: Altering the Chord. Routledge.

• PhD program "Studies of Bildung and Didactic Practices"
• Master in arts education
• Primary and Lower Secondary School Teacher Education
• Music pedagogy
• Music didactics
• Philosophy of science
• Qualitative research methods
• Research ethics

• Music in schools
• Music teacher education
• Sustainability in music education
• Creative partnerships
• Policy studies
• Social justice in music education
• Educational change

• Culture, Criticism, Community
• Compete​​​​​​​