西島 千尋（にしじま ちひろ）は、音楽教育史と、人々が音楽を通じて結ぶ関係を研究する音楽教育学者。2004年に金沢大学を卒業し、同大学大学院教育学研究科修士課程、人間社会環境研究科博士課程を修了。博士（学術）。日本福祉大学での教育・研究を経て、金沢大学人間社会研究域学校教育系の准教授となった。近代日本の音楽鑑賞教育を研究した『クラシック音楽は、なぜ〈鑑賞〉されるのか――近代日本と西洋芸術の受容』では、西洋芸術音楽が日本でどのように受け入れられ、聴いて理解すべき対象になったのかを、鑑賞という概念の歴史から検討した。クリストファー・スモールの『ミュージッキング――音楽は〈行為〉である』（原題 “Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening”）を野澤 豊一と共訳し、音楽を作品や物ではなく、演奏や聴取を含む実践と人々の関係から捉える議論を紹介した。学校の合唱コンクールや地域の獅子舞、福祉現場のミュージック・ケアにも調査を広げた。『音楽でケアする――福祉現場を動かすセッション』では、障害児・者や高齢者と、職員や家族がかかわるセッションのフィールドワークをもとに、参加者それぞれの動きのズレやつながり、ケアする側も支えられる関係を描き、ケアとしての音楽療法を問い直した。
Chihiro Nishijima is a music education researcher studying the history of music education and relationships formed through musical activity. She graduated from Kanazawa University in 2004 and completed its master’s programme in education and doctoral programme in human and socio-environmental studies, earning a doctorate. After teaching and conducting research at Nihon Fukushi University, she became an associate professor in Kanazawa University’s Faculty of Education. In “Classical Ongaku wa, Naze Kansho Sareru no ka,” she examined how Western art music was received in modern Japan and became something to be listened to and understood, tracing the history of the concept of music appreciation. With Toyoichi Nozawa, she translated Christopher Small’s “Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening” into Japanese as “Musicking: Ongaku wa Koi de Aru.” The book approaches music as practice, including performing and listening, and as relationships among participants rather than as works or objects. Her fieldwork has also addressed school choir competitions, local lion dances, and Music Care in welfare settings. In “Ongaku de Care Suru: Fukushi Genba o Ugokasu Session,” she drew on observations of sessions involving children and adults with disabilities, older people, staff, and families. She explored differences in participants’ movements and forms of involvement, the connections emerging among them, and ways that caregivers themselves received support, reconsidering music therapy as a practice of care.
