This workshop presents an interactive and participant-oriented form of poetic inquiry that invites active and collaborative exploration of student voices through artistic, hands-on engagement.

By combining ideas from concrete and graphic poetry – such as those of the pioneering poet and theorist Mary Ellen Solt – with principles of arts-based and participatory research, the session introduces a method of poetic inquiry that turns data into collaborative reflection.

During the workshop, participants – teachers, students, or researchers – are encouraged to create their own concrete (graphic) poems using words and fragments derived from transcripts of student interviews. Drawing on the well-known concept of “Fridge Poetry” or “Magnetic Poetry”, the comparative act of combining in vivo statements (words and sentences derived from raw data) is presented as a creative analytical tool, particularly suited to dialogic group processes where the interpretation of student voice is in focus.

The method showcased has been developed and utilised within a PhD project in music education, focusing on interdisciplinary, project-based learning in the Swedish Arts and Music School. All research participants are fully anonymised in the “magnetic-poetry kit” used during the session. Workshop participants will also have the opportunity to create their own samples of “poetic magnets” – ideal for those wishing to bring home a concrete idea for their own educational/researcher practice.

Ultimately, the workshop demonstrates a playful yet rigorous method with potential to foster democratic participation, strengthen social cohesion, and inspire collaboration across educational communities.

General education schools and their music classrooms are key arenas in which social norms, belonging and participation are continually negotiated. In pluralistic societies they both reflect and shape how difference is addressed, how democratic values are enacted and how power is distributed.

This workshop invites participants to explore the potential of postmigrant perspectives to critically reflect on music education and reshape it in pluralistic societies.

Drawing on Naika Foroutan’s theory of the postmigrant society (2021), which frames migration not as a deviation, but as a constitutive element of society, the workshop positions music education as a space where lines of difference like heritage, language, gender and power become pedagogically relevant and politically meaningful.

The workshop is structured in three phases:

1. Arrival and collective orientation: Two short warm-up activities support interpersonal connection and activate prior knowledge: a “living statistics” exercise and a Mentimeter-based word cloud on the term postmigrant society.
2. Theoretical input and case example: A short input introduces core ideas from postmigrant theory and highlights their relevance to democratic education. A case from school-based music teaching illustrates how belonging and exclusion are negotiated in everyday pedagogical practice.
3. Reflexive exploration: Through the “think–pair–share” method, participants reflect on how these issues relate to their own teaching and institutional contexts, concluding with a shared discussion (via thematic clustering or mapping).

The workshop aims to provide conceptual impulses and participatory tools to advance music education as a field of democratic participation and social cohesion. It offers space for open dialogue, acknowledges diverse educational realities and fosters reflection on how music teaching can respond to societal transformation.

The workshop is intended for 10–20 participants and requires a projector for visual presentation.