„…weil es unter der Laterne am hellsten ist.“

Thoughts on pragmatism, ego trips and critical discourse in music education research

Abstract

The DFG project Kompetenzmodell im Fach Musik (KoMus) in the mid-2000s was one of the largest third-party funded and highly regarded research projects in music education to date, which contributed significantly to an empirical turn in music education. This project was also accompanied by criticism, for example from representatives of educational theory in the context of a symposium in Bremen in 2007. Taking up this criticism as an example, it is worthwhile to illuminate the relationship between philosophically oriented educational theory and empirically based educational research that has since been re-examined – also in order to highlight the achievements of Andreas Lehmann-Wermser as project leader far beyond the DFG project in an appreciative manner. Following on from this, the text refers to the Hanover symposium in 2023 on the occasion of his retirement from university service, which not only referred back to the KoMus project, but also took a look at Andreas Lehmann-Wermser's other achievements.