Abstract
Introduction
Unconscious Bias is a topic that is currently highlighted in contemporary music therapy discourse. Ensuring equitable experiences for clients where their identities are at the heart of the therapeutic alliance is crucial for students and practitioners alike. This World Café will invite participants to reflect on this issue through the lens of an innovative pedagogical research project examining music therapy students’ unconscious bias. The relevance and applicability of the research will be considered in relation to the landscape of anti-oppressive music therapy pedagogy and practice through dialogue and in response to a range of provocations.
Description and elaboration
Problem Based Learning is a pedagogical approach widely used across healthcare subjects and increasingly explored in music therapy. This approach nurtures confidence in clinical reasoning skills, identifying current knowledge and what learning is necessary to inform and underpin clinical practice. In alignment with the USW MA Music Therapy programme’s social justice focus, an innovative dimension was incorporated providing opportunities for students to experience, identify and interrogate unconscious bias in their initial responses to clinical scenarios.
During the World Café, participants will explore the research premise and consider from pedagogical, practice and social justice perspectives the impact of unconscious bias remaining unchallenged. There will be scope to consider whether and how unconscious bias manifests in wider clinical practices and how this may be addressed to advocate for socially just practices.
Summary and Implications for the field
Participants will have opportunity to dialogue and develop thinking with colleagues across geographical, cultural and philosophical borders, engaging with scenarios developed with participants from diverse communities and contexts. Guided by ethical and professional standards, they will discuss their own experiences of clinical reasoning and unconscious bias. We will explore together how this shapes music therapy pedagogy and practice, centring clients’ individual experiences during their therapeutic journey.
Unconscious Bias is a topic that is currently highlighted in contemporary music therapy discourse. Ensuring equitable experiences for clients where their identities are at the heart of the therapeutic alliance is crucial for students and practitioners alike. This World Café will invite participants to reflect on this issue through the lens of an innovative pedagogical research project examining music therapy students’ unconscious bias. The relevance and applicability of the research will be considered in relation to the landscape of anti-oppressive music therapy pedagogy and practice through dialogue and in response to a range of provocations.
Description and elaboration
Problem Based Learning is a pedagogical approach widely used across healthcare subjects and increasingly explored in music therapy. This approach nurtures confidence in clinical reasoning skills, identifying current knowledge and what learning is necessary to inform and underpin clinical practice. In alignment with the USW MA Music Therapy programme’s social justice focus, an innovative dimension was incorporated providing opportunities for students to experience, identify and interrogate unconscious bias in their initial responses to clinical scenarios.
During the World Café, participants will explore the research premise and consider from pedagogical, practice and social justice perspectives the impact of unconscious bias remaining unchallenged. There will be scope to consider whether and how unconscious bias manifests in wider clinical practices and how this may be addressed to advocate for socially just practices.
Summary and Implications for the field
Participants will have opportunity to dialogue and develop thinking with colleagues across geographical, cultural and philosophical borders, engaging with scenarios developed with participants from diverse communities and contexts. Guided by ethical and professional standards, they will discuss their own experiences of clinical reasoning and unconscious bias. We will explore together how this shapes music therapy pedagogy and practice, centring clients’ individual experiences during their therapeutic journey.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication status | Accepted/In press - 29 Sept 2025 |
| Event | 18th World Congress of Music Therapy: Connecting Borders: Creating Networks and Enhancing Identities Through Music Therapy - Bologna, Italy Duration: 8 Jul 2026 → 12 Jul 2026 https://wcmt2026.org/ |
Conference
| Conference | 18th World Congress of Music Therapy |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Italy |
| City | Bologna |
| Period | 8/07/26 → 12/07/26 |
| Internet address |
Keywords
- clinical reasoning skills
- social justice
- unconscious bias
- music therapy