David Johnson

David Johnson serves as an Assistant Professor of Music at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen, Norway since August 2021. He is a founding member and regional coordinator of the Decolonising and Indigenising Music Education (DIME) special interest group within the International Society for Music Education (ISME), and co-founded the European research organization Singing in Music Education (SiME) in 2017.

His academic credentials include:

• Master's in Classical Guitar from the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Denmark
• Doctorate in Music Education from Malmö Academy of Music, Sweden (2021)

Johnson's research examines the historical evolution of singing practices and song repertoire in Nordic educational contexts, with particular emphasis on preserving Indigenous and traditional vocal traditions through contemporary music pedagogy. His work bridges cognitive development through singing-language interactions and explores digital platforms for music learning, grounded in ethnomusicological frameworks. His doctoral thesis "Raising voices: singing repertoire and practices in Swedish schools" analyzed national questionnaire data on singing's role in modern Swedish music education.

He currently leads the Singing Map of Scandinavia initiative connecting researchers across all five Nordic countries to advance traditional singing cultures in education, while also contributing to the 5-year "Singing Health in Schools" project studying daily singing's cognitive, psychosocial, and linguistic impacts within Sweden's "Sjungande Barn" national program.