A review is made of the contents of the Australian Journal of Music Education from 1969, and of conferences in the early history of the Australian Society of Music Education. The categories of music education theses 1936–78 are described. A review of the research presentations is made from reports of the conferences of the Association of Music Education Lecturers. The paper identifies seminal summaries of music education research issues over a twenty-five-year period. It traces the lines of reported research, distinguishing standards for identification of research. It is concluded that although awareness of research issues has been consistently present amongst music educators in Australia, a lack of research orientation, together with inadequate planning and organisational structure has left the field to haphazard individualism. Proposals for current research priorities and procedures for their pursuit are made.

In this paper I explore the musical general knowledge of 46 applicants for places on a secondary Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) music course. The applicants took a 35-question quiz designed to indicate something of their subject knowledge in connection with aspects of the Western art music tradition, knowledge of Western musical instruments and world musics. I will discuss methodological problems related to the use of the quiz results, then analyse the results. The analysis reveals patterns of strength and weakness in the subject knowledge of the applicants that are related to their educational and other musical experiences. Significant absences in areas of knowledge needed to teach the National Curriculum are detected. I then move on to consider the findings in the light of the new Benchmark Statement (QAA, 2002) for music degrees in the UK. Noting that no given body of knowledge is prescribed in the Benchmark Statement that both describes and governs the content of music first degrees, I raise questions about the difficulties this creates for all concerned.

The purpose of the study was to investigate whether children who possess speech and voice disorders could benefit from engaging in singing activities in educational settings, based on the psychological benefits of such activities. The impact of singing on children's psychological state and well-being was investigated with a participant population of 76 pre-pubertal children. Voice recordings, interviews and a survey were conducted. The main finding was that singing has a positive effect on children's overall vocal functioning and on their psychological well-being. Thus, singing could be exploited in educational settings with children suffering from speech and voiced disorders in order to achieve improvement in such domains.

In this article, I explore how neoliberal economic discourses and techniques have profoundly influenced the way that music education in early childhood has developed in recent years in the UK. I focus on two dominant models of practice that have been shaped by market thinking; the private music session (the ‘branded product’) and short term, stand-alone projects funded by charitable organisations (the ‘funded project’). The prevalence of these two models has resulted in highly fragmented and unequal provision accompanied by narrow conceptions of music in early childhood that give rise to impoverished practice. While I base my discussion on the early childhood sector in the UK, this discussion can nevertheless warn music educators beyond this one sector and one location of the negative consequences of abandoning music education to market forces.

This article examines research on the specific training of musicians before they begin work as players in professional orchestras. Most of the research is in the area of education. The present article suggests that little research exists that is specific to the development of a traditional orchestra musician from an early age through the music education system, although considerable research exists on the development and broadening of the actual role of the professional musician in a changing world (portfolio careers).

Curriculum is currently a big issue in England. What a school-based music curriculum should entail, what sorts of things should be taught and learned, and what makes for good learning experiences are all under consideration. One of the issues that crops up in England, and possibly in other jurisdictions too, when these sorts of discussions take place, involves considerations of what sorts of music children and young people should be involved with, what should they learn, and what is important for schools to be teaching. This immediately places discussions beyond what might be termed the strictly musical, and into the area of values. What music is valued by education systems, and what music should be foregrounded in educational settings become a significant arena of contention. This is especially the case when politicians become involved, as they will often have fixed or politically-motivated views about what they think should be taught and learned in school music classes. As ever, the pages of the BJME provide some interesting views on this matter, and so it is worth a brief trawl through the archives. The BJME home page search engine on the website produces 168 results for the term “curriculum”, so clearly this will be a highly selective sampling from these rich pickings in this editorial.

This article explores the significance of context and discourse from a gender perspective within three different studies of the Swedish music classroom, conducted in lower secondary school, upper secondary school and higher music education respectively. The theoretical point of departure is that gender performances as well as the music classroom are discursively constructed within a specific context. The result suggests that if discourse and context are directed towards music as identity and skill, gender is performed in music, but if the music classroom is constructed as educational, gender is performed beside music. A conclusion is therefore that the impact of gender in the music classroom has to be understood as a matter of school discourse and school context in close relationship. It is argued that studying the interplay between context and discourse can be a way ahead for understanding the complexity in the relationship between music education and gender.

This article reports findings from a study that sought to identify barriers to music and music education in the UK. Emerging from empirical research involving n = 723 participants and clarified by an evidence base of over 10,000 research participants, the key findings presented in this paper relate to pupil and participant voice and involvement, location as a sub-theme of diversity and inclusion, collaboration and transition points. The research is contextualised by twenty years of policy initiatives seeking to address barriers to music learning. The article provides an overview of the research study before presenting the rich data that emerged within each theme reported. Research participant voice is used as much as possible to enable the reader to consider, reflect and interpret the data in a way that is meaningful for their own context. The paper concludes by asking why after 20 years of policy initiatives, research and evaluation the same barriers still exist and, as we emerge from the pandemic, suggests that this research provides a compelling case that now is the time for change.

Whilst public music-making is generally perceived as largely a male domain, the perception of school music is that, at all levels, it is dominated by females. This article describes the author's attempt to find out how A-level music students see themselves in relation to their past experiences as musicians, their current work for A-level, and their potential musical future. The aim of the research was to identify differences that might exist between the perceptions of girls and boys in the sample, and between those at state-maintained and private schools.

Apart from generating a psychological and autobiographical profile for the cohort as a whole, results from the students' responses were analysed by using a quantitative statistical measure. Then the autobiographies of the constituents of these groups were examined, and this threw up interesting and unlooked for similarities within them.

This article is written to show that composition can become an integral part of an instrumental teacher's methodology. Current musical education in schools in England and Wales is trying to give children a broad understanding of what music can contribute to the lives of all - listeners and performers. The starting point for this is composition. If instrumental teachers can introduce children to this discipline along with the disciplines of instrumental technique and a love of performing, we can create true, well-balanced musicians.

Through this approach it is possible that we can develop an integrated music curriculum that joins together the expertise of the classroom music teacher and the instrumental teacher, with resulting benefits to children, who can then see that music is not divided between the creative classroom and the re-creative instrumental and performing worlds.

One of the many roles of music teachers is to stimulate creative thinking and creative activity in their pupils. This obligation to help unlock latent musical talent in young people is no less applicable to the disabled than it is to the able-bodied. Music technology has a central place within this process. There are conditions for creativity, some of which may be precluded from the disabled. It is necessary, therefore, for the special needs music teacher to be aware of these conditions and the way in which a particular disability may bar access to any of them. Those involved in the design of either music hardware or software need to be responsive to these factors, through ongoing collaborative work. This paper was presented at a Conference of the Drake Research Project, University of York, November, 1990.

This article, based on research for an MA (December 2000), investigates the connections between the private teacher and music in the National Curriculum. In the process present perceptions and practice are explored to gain a clearer understanding of the situation as it is today. Various ways of improving communications between schools and private teachers are looked at, with a view to helping the pupil feel that school and private lessons are working in harmony. From the research it has been found that an awareness exists of the need to develop teaching philosophies that relate the private lesson to music in the National Curriculum.

The language of music shares a number of basic processing mechanisms with natural languages, yet studies of learner autonomy in music education are rare. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of fostering music students’ learner autonomy in performance practice through a series of curriculum changes. A mixed-methods approach, including a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews, was used to investigate two cohorts of music education students (N = 74) from Hong Kong. The analysis reveals the students’ autonomous learner characteristics, including the ability to formulate their own learning strategies, identify both musical and non-musical weaknesses and take appropriate steps to improve their performance skills.

The study and practice of improvisation in music departments of Australian colleges and universities tends to be dominated by jazz and other African-American styles. However, the School of Music of the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne has developed a course of study with a different focus. While rooted in the fundamentals of jazz performance, the philosophy of the course is that students at the end of the twentieth century should endeavour to develop their own musical ‘voice’. An important means of assisting this development is the encouragement for students to compose their own music as the basis for improvisation. In many cases personal concerns and events form the basis for these original pieces and allow performers to develop their own compositional concepts. This is also a significant means of allowing the music to reflect the era and culture of the performers. This article outlines an investigation of ten students conducted over the three years of their degree studies. The investigation aimed to ascertain the conditions under which a personal voice might be acquired and the extent to which composition was employed in the participants' major performances.

The development of musicians and the continuity of the musical art should be the main thrust of music education. The institutions of education should therefore be equipped to mould the development of music in society and to make the strongest input into musical expressions that are fashionable, acceptable and available. Formal music education came to Nigeria by way of Western institutions, drawing from the cultural traditions of Western societies. On the other hand, the media and other agencies have brought in other types of music acceptable in Western societies outside their academic sectors. Musical and cultural contact has given birth to the contemporary popular music of Nigeria that integrates Nigerian and non-Nigerian elements. With the growth of city life, commerce, industry and communication, this music has grown in popularity, in some cases sweeping every other thing aside. The attendant ‘pop phenomenon’ also means that cultural intrusion from outside Nigeria has grown more menacing. Who controls the popular music in Nigeria today? This paper tries to answer this question and in addition presents some data on the prevailing perspectives in the hope that the Nigerian Government and all music educators should range plans and solutions against them.

The general aim of this article is to explore South Asian music and culture in an educational context. The fieldwork on which it is based mainly consists of semi-structured interviews with pupils of South Asian origin (aged 11–18) who attend a secondary school in Ilford, Essex. The learning methods of South Asian musicians are considered and a detailed investigation of the socio-cultural environment in which these learning methods are related is undertaken, focusing on the role that music plays in the formation of concepts of culture, ‘identity’ and ‘place’. The majority of the musical material is drawn from the South Asian genre of bhangra, concentrating on the improvisations and rhythms of dhol players.

The purpose of this study was to examine the learning situation of Chinese students’ studying chamber music in universities. Therefore, students’ perspectives on learning chamber music were the main focus of this study. The study begins with a comprehensive description by educators of current Chinese college chamber music education and then details students’ cognition of and behaviour towards chamber music education. The survey participants (N = 23) were all music performance majors who had taken chamber music courses in one average-ranked Chinese university. Demographic data regarding students’ chamber music background, actual practical problems in classes, students’ expectations of their chamber music education and the relationship between practice and learning chamber music were collected. The results indicated that students all possessed positive and assertive attitudes towards learning chamber music and believed in the necessity and value of establishing chamber music education in Chinese universities.

In this article the author attempts to briefly review styles of research and consider some implications for music education. It is argued that, although research constitutes a limitless range of activities, there are none the less certain essential conditions to be met. General areas for research are identified that seem central to music education. Note. This article first appeared in the International Journal of Music Education, No. 1 (May 1983), and is reprinted with permission of the editor and the International Society of Music Education.

Although there are many choices for teachers who are considering music technology in the classroom, care has to be taken not to be swayed by novelty value alone. What is required is software that can be linked directly to children's maturation as composers and instruments that make use of their existing playing skills. Sometimes it is difficult to make the right decision, as user friendliness can outweigh the educational value for the pupils. By looking at all that is available a more informed decision can be taken when purchases are made. This new dimension to music education offers an opportunity to reassess music learning and how thinking and working in groups can be developed in the music lesson.

This article reports on a case study in a Norwegian primary school where nearly 50 fifth-grade pupils took part in a creative music-making project. Facilitated by two professional artists, they created an original piece of music and performed their composition for an audience at the end of the project week. A substantial part of the data consisted of recorded sounds, notations, transcribed interviews and documentations of the process of music composition from the first ideas to the final performance. The analysis was conducted from a sociocultural perspective with a special focus on the mediating tools used in the community of creative musical practice. The findings suggest that the cultural tools used in the project were dynamic and interactive, employed by both the facilitators and the participants. The mediating tools found in the creative music making make up a complex toolbox the participants share and develop, consisting of both psychological and material tools. There were three main categories of mediating tools identified. First, the use of symbolic signs, such as graphic notation, was important from the initial stages when the participants developed musical ideas to the final performance. Second, the actions and interactions of music making, such as conducting gestures shared and developed through the project, were both founded on traditional conductor signs but also transformed and adapted to new ways of mediating musical meaning in this particular project. Third, the participants worked with ‘creative reworkings’ of experiences in this project. Through the transformation of previous experiences into the creation of new musical material, important mediating tools were identified as experiences and meaning in the creative musical practice.