Description
Conceptualising learning activity in the music classroom is challenging. Prior to decisions about long-term planning and within this, the content of music lessons, teachers first operate within curriculum conceptualisations of their own design. In England, teachers often realise approaches to classroom music in the form of programmes of study, which frequently present musical understandings in topic form. In order to illuminate structures of such teacher planning practices, this paper will consider knowledge constructs and Bernstein’s (2000) concepts of knowledge discourse, and how this connects to notions of epistemic ascent (Rata, 2016; Winch, 2013) as realised in curriculum design practices.Approaches to curriculum design and the resulting pedagogies teachers enact, demonstrate wide variance. How teachers manage their own musical narratives within epistemological structures and how they assimilate and mould vertical and horizontal discourses are areas of curriculum ‘noise’ (Oates, 2011). This paper will explore how teachers reconcile such cognitive dissonance and discuss the behaviours which they then bring to bear on their personal signature pedagogies.
The research is based on documentary analysis of 12 programmes of study designed by music teachers as structures for teaching and learning in English secondary school settings. This was followed by 9 semi-structured interviews with music teachers designed to explore their rationales for curriculum design and their chosen pedagogies to realise these frameworks. Research results are realised in models that represent music curriculum in terms of epistemological constructs, which map how such concepts relate to personal pedagogical approaches in music.
| Period | 6 Apr 2021 → 9 Apr 2021 |
|---|---|
| Held at | Royal College of Music, United Kingdom |
| Degree of Recognition | International |