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All Outputs (106)

Freedom to learn (2025)
Book Chapter
Di Domenico, A., Harvey, A., Karp, B., Shakespeare, E., van Knippenberg, I., Cowan, J., & Moir, Z. (2025). Freedom to learn. In S. Abegglen, T. Burns, R. F. Heller, R. Madhok, F. Neuhaus, J. Sandars, S. Sinfield, & U. Gitanjali Singh (Eds.), Stories of Hope: Reimagining Education (237-246). Open Book Publishers. https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0462.21

Rooted in the transformative pedagogies of Paulo Freire and Carl Rogers, and influenced by contemporary thinkers such as Jesse Stommel, Susan Blum, David Clark, Robert Talbert, and Jan McArthur, this chapter presents a collaborative exploration of se... Read More about Freedom to learn.

Capitalist Realism and Higher Popular Music Education: Towards a Counter-Hegemonic Alternative (2025)
Journal Article
Moir, Z., Harvey, A., & Veldon, E. (2025). Capitalist Realism and Higher Popular Music Education: Towards a Counter-Hegemonic Alternative. Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, 24(2), 186-215. https://doi.org/10.22176/act24.2.181

This article presents a theoretical consideration of some of the ways in which capitalist realism is shaping the field of higher popular music education. We begin by presenting an overview of our understanding of Fisher’s concept and then offer a cri... Read More about Capitalist Realism and Higher Popular Music Education: Towards a Counter-Hegemonic Alternative.

Digital Musicianship in Post-Pandemic Popular Music Education (2024)
Journal Article
Cheng, L., Moir, Z., Bell, A. P., Humberstone, J., & Hein, E. (online). Digital Musicianship in Post-Pandemic Popular Music Education. International Journal of Music Education, https://doi.org/10.1177/02557614241287558

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about dramatic changes in popular music education, underscoring the importance of technology in both practice and transmission. Nevertheless, the celebration of technological integration as a one-stop solution has le... Read More about Digital Musicianship in Post-Pandemic Popular Music Education.

The shifting sands of UK secondary music curricula: problematising relationships between aural training and music literacy (2024)
Journal Article
Donn, R., Stillie, B., & Moir, Z. (2024). The shifting sands of UK secondary music curricula: problematising relationships between aural training and music literacy. Music Education Research, 26(1), 58-70. https://doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2024.2309204

This article, which is intended as a contribution to wider conversations around music literacy, explores current conceptions of music literacy within the UK, using the area of aural skills training as a focus. Specifically, it considers the nature of... Read More about The shifting sands of UK secondary music curricula: problematising relationships between aural training and music literacy.

Proceedings of the 18th International Audio Mostly Conference (2023)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
(2023, August). Proceedings of the 18th International Audio Mostly Conference. Presented at AM '23: Audio Mostly 2023, Edinburgh

Audio Mostly is an interdisciplinary conference on design and experience of interaction with sound that prides itself on embracing applied theory and reflective practice. Its annual gatherings bring together thinkers and doers from academia and indus... Read More about Proceedings of the 18th International Audio Mostly Conference.

Tempered radicalism: A model for navigating academic practice and identity in the twenty-first-century neoliberal university? (2023)
Journal Article
Vaul-Grimwood, M. L., Naik, V., Graham, C., Moir, Z., & Smart, F. (2023). Tempered radicalism: A model for navigating academic practice and identity in the twenty-first-century neoliberal university?. Learning and Teaching, 16(2), 32-54. https://doi.org/10.3167/latiss.2023.160203

This article explores Meyerson and Scully's concept of ‘tempered radicalism’ (1995) in the context of contemporary academic practice and identity. We report on a collaborative autoethnographic study which addressed the question: ‘What does the concep... Read More about Tempered radicalism: A model for navigating academic practice and identity in the twenty-first-century neoliberal university?.

Activating and Developing Free Improvisational Creativities in Higher Education: Contesting Authority, Exploring Creativities, Stimulating Dialogue (2022)
Book Chapter
Atton, C., Cowan, M., Docherty, H., Farnish, K., Moir, Z., & Pattie, E. (2022). Activating and Developing Free Improvisational Creativities in Higher Education: Contesting Authority, Exploring Creativities, Stimulating Dialogue. In C. Randles, & P. Burnard (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Creativities in Music Education. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003248194-35

This chapter explores the concept of improvisational creativities in higher education and the ways in which such an approach to music education is beneficial. We report on a collaborative autoethnography, conducted by the authors, in which we explore... Read More about Activating and Developing Free Improvisational Creativities in Higher Education: Contesting Authority, Exploring Creativities, Stimulating Dialogue.

Piano teachers’ perspectives on educational and professional aspects of instrumental graded exams in the United Kingdom (2022)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Marinelli, A., & Moir, Z. (2022, September). Piano teachers’ perspectives on educational and professional aspects of instrumental graded exams in the United Kingdom. Presented at 44th International Conference of the European Piano Teachers Association (EPTA), Guimaraes, Portugal

Formal assessments in instrumental music education are much more than a snapshot-like summary of an achievement, although rarely considered within the entirety of their professional, social, economic and institutional context. Given the size of the m... Read More about Piano teachers’ perspectives on educational and professional aspects of instrumental graded exams in the United Kingdom.

Belonging to the university or being in the world: From belonging to relational being (2022)
Journal Article
Graham, C., & Moir, Z. (2022). Belonging to the university or being in the world: From belonging to relational being. Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 19(4),

In a world characterised by supercomplexity, in which higher education (HE) is in the grip of neoliberal market forces (Barnett, 2000), it is incumbent upon participants in this sector to ask; what does it mean to belong, and to what? ‘Belonging’ has... Read More about Belonging to the university or being in the world: From belonging to relational being.

Popular music, policy, and education (2022)
Book Chapter
Moir, Z., & Smith, G. (2022). Popular music, policy, and education. In S. Homan (Ed.), The Bloomsbury Handbook of Popular Music Policy (91-108). Bloomsbury Publishing. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781501345357.ch-6

Extract: In this chapter we explore links between popular music, policy and education from two broad perspectives. We examine the impacts of popular music and cultural policy on music education, and links between education policy and popular music ed... Read More about Popular music, policy, and education.

A Good Pair of Ears: Conceiving of and developing aural skills in popular music education (2021)
Book Chapter
Stillie, B., & Moir, Z. (2021). A Good Pair of Ears: Conceiving of and developing aural skills in popular music education. In K. D. Cleland, & P. Fleet (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Aural Skills Pedagogy: Before, In and Beyond Higher Education. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429276392-18

When musicians and music educators consider aural training, many of us have a tendency to imagine students transcribing melodic dictation, identifying chord progressions, intervals, and cadences by ear, and otherwise training to recognize the aural f... Read More about A Good Pair of Ears: Conceiving of and developing aural skills in popular music education.

Low-latency Networked Music Collaborations: Does ‘good enough’ do enough good? (2020)
Journal Article
Dylan Smith, G., Moir, Z., Ferguson, P., & Davies, G. (2020). Low-latency Networked Music Collaborations: Does ‘good enough’ do enough good?. Journal of Network Music and Arts, 2(1),

LoLa is a cutting-edge technology that enables low latency, real-time collaborations across vast distances using high-bandwidth, low-jitter networks. It has the capacity to transform how music is made and experienced. It has been utilized on a relati... Read More about Low-latency Networked Music Collaborations: Does ‘good enough’ do enough good?.

Found Sounds: Music from The Mundane (2020)
Book Chapter
Moir, Z. (2020). Found Sounds: Music from The Mundane. In A. P. bell (Ed.), The Music Production Cookbook: Ready-made Recipes for the Classroom. Oxford University Press

This recipe encourages learners to develop their critical and analytic listening skills by seeking and recording sounds in their environment as a basis for music composition. The use of unorthodox (i.e. not inherently musical) sounds in a composition... Read More about Found Sounds: Music from The Mundane.

Piloting ‘Creative Musicianship’ in Scotland: An analysis of the experiences of students and teachers (2020)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Moir, Z., & Stillie, B. (2020, August). Piloting ‘Creative Musicianship’ in Scotland: An analysis of the experiences of students and teachers. Paper presented at International Society for Music Education World Conference, Helsinki

Secondary music courses in Scotland currently do not provide applicants with the necessary knowledge, understanding or skillsets to be able to engage with music study at HE. Based on research conducted by the authors in 2016, it is clear that there i... Read More about Piloting ‘Creative Musicianship’ in Scotland: An analysis of the experiences of students and teachers.

Free Improvisation As Radical Musicing in Higher Popular Music Education: Community, Belonging, and Dialogic Space (2020)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Moir, Z. (2020, August). Free Improvisation As Radical Musicing in Higher Popular Music Education: Community, Belonging, and Dialogic Space. Paper presented at International Society for Music Education World Conference, Helsinki

Moir, Z. (2020, August). Free Improvisation As Radical Musicing in Higher Popular Music Education: Community, Belonging, and Dialogic Space. Paper presented at International Society for Music Education World Conference, Helsinki.

Free Improvisation as Radical Musicking: Community, Belonging, and Dialogic Higher Popular Music Education (2020)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Moir, Z. (2020, July). Free Improvisation as Radical Musicking: Community, Belonging, and Dialogic Higher Popular Music Education. Paper presented at Association for Popular Music Education World Conference, Edinburgh

Moir, Z. (2020, July). Free Improvisation as Radical Musicking: Community, Belonging, and Dialogic Higher Popular Music Education. Paper presented at Association for Popular Music Education World Conference, Edinburgh.

Social Inequalities in Music Education: Whose Problem? (2020)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Moir, Z. (2020, July). Social Inequalities in Music Education: Whose Problem?. Paper presented at Association For Popular Music Education World Conference, Edinburgh

Moir, Z. (2020, July). Social Inequalities in Music Education: Whose Problem?. Paper presented at Association For Popular Music Education World Conference, Edinburgh.

Trying Something New: Student and teacher responses to the pilot of an alternative secondary music curriculum for Scotland (2020)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Moir, Z., & Stillie, B. (2020, July). Trying Something New: Student and teacher responses to the pilot of an alternative secondary music curriculum for Scotland. Paper presented at Association for Popular Music Education World Conference, Edinburgh

Moir, Z., & Stillie, B. (2020, July). Trying Something New: Student and teacher responses to the pilot of an alternative secondary music curriculum for Scotland. Paper presented at Association for Popular Music Education World Conference, Edinburgh.