Conceiving the construct ‘social-emotional learning climate’ as an embodiment of Illeris’ contemporary learning theory, this paper serves dual purposes. First, it examines recent music education literature, which identifies issues of competence and institutionalised pedagogic practice in secondary school music settings that result in adolescents’ inability to target and develop personal locus of control over learning, and the subsequent rejection of the learning environment. Second, it details findings, discussion and pedagogic implications from the author's dissertation study exploring music teacher formative influence upon and student experience of Illeris’ theory of learning process within three Canadian secondary school learning settings integrating informal learning practices.

This paper presents research carried out in a kindergarten in Catalonia with the aim of studying the different kinds of musical activity that take place during one school day. This is an ethnographic study where the researcher became an extra teacher in a group of one to two-year-olds and interacted with them musically. The methodology is based in a participatory observation approach and data are collected via video-recordings, field notes and a daily exchange of impressions and reflections with the teacher. The results show four different kinds of participation that determine the type of musical activity carried out when children are placed in the spotlight: (a) active audience, (b) performer pointer (c) performer proof with expert, and (d) performer proof without expert.

Reflecting upon the relationship between people and music, the author is led to adopt a new position on musical education. His ideas are based on the work of the philosopher Hannah Arendt, the pedagogue and paediatrician, Janusz Korczak, and the composer R. Murray Schafer – all of whom focus upon the ‘dialogue’ of education. From Korczak is borrowed the idea of the child as ‘a present-state being’ rather than a ‘future-state being’; from Arendt the concepts of labour, work and action; and from Schafer his ‘Wolf Project’ for a musical community. On the basis of these three influences, the author advocates a ‘new manner of enacting music’ instead of ‘simply enacting new music’, basing pedagogic practice on a psycho-analytical approach to education. The pupil–teacher relationship turns on identification and projection. Teachers must nurture pupils' aesthetic choices and opinions as well as their commitment, so that ethical and aesthetic considerations can be brought together in the same musical act. Only in this way can musical education be worthwhile.

This article critically engages with the discipline of African musics in the academy. It examines the process of curriculum transformation of the African music section at the South African College of Music, University of Cape Town since 2005 as an emergent curriculum model for an integrated approach to the teaching of African musics at universities. The adoption of this curriculum predated the 2015–2016 fervent calls in South Africa to decolonise the university, which necessitates an approach to teaching African musics not rooted in its colonial past. As is known, the study and research of African musics in the academy partly stemmed from the efforts of European (and later US) researchers who often received support through the British colonial administration and much of their output seemed to be focused on convincing their peers about the virtues of ‘African music’ and the study thereof. Despite this history, there is evidence to support the fact that in most African universities, the music departments are far more interested in teaching Western art music and its virtues. In recognition of the calls by students for radical changes to the curricula in South African universities, the article seeks to answer the question ‘how do we consider ongoing changes to the knowledge both received and produced in this field?’

This paper reviews the implementation (1988) of a practical music-making curriculum in Scotland for 14—16 year olds in the context of its reliance on activity-based learning experiences. Such experiences, which result in the pupil taking part in subject-related activities such as performing, inventing, and active listening, enable knowledge and skills to be applied and developed in a variety of ways, and in so doing reinforce previous learning and allow new opportunities for learning and teaching. This approach has a theoretical foundation in a wide variety of literature, and the paper focuses on literature concerning creative and aesthetic activities, and more specifically the role of active-learning experiences in a musical context.

From time to time the standard and content of musical education in Danish Teacher Training Colleges has been the subject of strong criticism. It has been argued that the courses are out of date; that they should be modernised, and that the quality of instruction should be improved. Yet the criticism is often imprecise – possibly because those who make it are not themselves sufficiently well-informed about the details of the existing courses and the problems faced by those who have to teach and administer them. The author, a very experienced musician, author of numerous music-education publications, and himself a Lecturer at a Teachers College, discusses the principles and problems of organising music as a specialist area of the teacher-education programme.

We have discussed in these editorials before the broad range of interests that music education encompasses (Fautley and Murphy, 2015a). The range that we described therein is a strength of our discipline. We are, however, now living in troubling times, and the global downturn in the economy is having effects in all sorts of ways on many aspects of our lives, both personal and professional. Music education is not immune from these changes. We are living through a time of austerity, and in many jurisdictions, the refrain has been ‘we're all in this together’ as a way of explaining away government decisions or unpopular economic strategies. But are we? It is in times of austerity that we often feel that we need to make the case for music education even louder than we have done before. Yet herein lies one of our problems. Many music educators feel in these times of austerity that music education is under threat, and that the proper course of action under such circumstances to take is to increase activities related to advocacy. This is problematic in a number of ways, as we shall now discuss.

The first British patent describing an educational game designed for musical ‘amusement and instruction’ was granted in 1801 to Ann Young of Edinburgh, Scotland. The authors' discovery of Young's game box has prompted an examination of the nature and purpose of the six games she designed. Ann Young's patent is discussed in the context of her cultural environment, the history of women inventors, and eighteenth century educational theory. The activities are compared with musical instruction games recently patented in the UK and the USA.

This article describes some of the experiences of, and lessons learnt by a composer working as Head of Music in a secondary school. The article highlights in particular aspects which are considered to be of value to teachers and other colleagues now embarking on a new era of musical education in schools, notably aspects relevant to the composing component in public examinations. The text includes details of a recording of newly composed music.

With colleagues in Japan, the author, a composer and improvising musician, developed novel techniques of collaborative composition. Subsequently – in Japan and in Britain – he explored ways of developing those techniques with school pupils. In this article he writes about the background to that experiment, the professionalism of composers and performing musicians, and the relative importance of boundaries of all kinds (e.g. different frames for the reception of music). In particular, he reflects upon compositional ideas and processes generated by his work with children.

The National Curriculum for Music in England at Key Stage 3 (KS3; age 11–14) declares its purpose that pupils should be inspired to ‘develop a love of music and their talent as musicians’ (DfE, 2013: KS3 Music). The Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) have criticised secondary schools for a lack of progress in the musical development of pupils (e.g. Ofsted, 2012). This paper reports on an exploratory study into how far class music lessons at KS3 provide for the development of the musician and the relationship between the musical values of music teachers and classroom practice. The research centres on an investigation into the place of musical competencies in music learning and the contexts within which musicianship can develop. It concludes that classroom music lessons have a tendency to focus more on presenting pupils with a range of ‘taster’ musical experiences than in the development of musicians.

The Babysong Project arose out of the Baby Room Project and its aims included supporting baby room practitioners to develop ‘communicative musicality’ (Malloch & Trevarthen 2009), extending research knowledge about baby room practices and helping practitioners to explore opportunities to question and adapt their own ways of working with babies in their care. Six years on, we reflect on the project and consider the significance and sustainability of what might have been achieved. We also probe whether there are further areas for development. We conclude that while there were many positive outcomes, we recognise the challenges of sustaining and nurturing the confidence of practitioners and the desirability of addressing the organisational aspects of the initiative to promote the embedding of practice. There is a real necessity for such projects, often involving radical challenges to previously held attitudes and practices, to be funded over longer periods of time. We also acknowledge the rich, untapped potential of using song to connect with families and carers.

This article examines the impact of the Music Code on the teaching of music in elementary schools during the last ten years of its operation. Secondly, it draws attention to the friction between the teaching profession and the wider musical world as a result of an almost exclusive use of tonic sol-fa to meet the requirements of the Code. Finally, the contribution of William Gray McNaught to music education in his role as editor of the School Music Review is evaluated.

This article seeks to create further professional debate on the practical, political and historical significance of girls' experience in music education, and to suggest possible ways for change.

A secondary schools research project on Music and Gender is outlined and work in one project school where language (especially the words in songs) was the focus is discussed in detail.

Between 1922 and 1941 Walford Davies linked music in schools with the relatively new media of the gramophone and the radio. His work with the BBC and the Gramophone Company had immense potential. He believed strongly that teachers using the radio and gramophone could contribute to a significant improvement in the musical life of the nation. At the heart ofDavies's educational mission was a belief in the ability of children to compose their own melodies, Davies achieved a high public profile for his work, but was less successful in developing its detail. His teaching method became predictable, and style triumphed over substance. However, it may be more productive to view his work within the context of his notion of fellowship, recovering a sense of community in the arts through the mass media, an attempt to connect different musical worlds.