The place of policy to practice research to foster dynamism in music

Description

The Place of Policy to Practice research to foster Dynamism in music
In contemporary policy discourse, music education is a problematic area. Although creativities have long been established as intrinsic expressions of human nature (Sternberg & Williams, 1996; Cropley, 2001) opportunities for young people to engage constructively with music teaching and learning remains problematic in some schools and music education hubs. Headteachers are in some instances reducing their music curriculum offer as a consequence of financial pressures (Martin, 2022), and co-curricular or extra-curricular opportunities in music have also been reduced (NAHT, 2022). Research has a critical role to play in educational contexts in enabling hidden discourses of diminishing opportunities for young people to creatively participate in music provision. The Birmingham Music Education Research Group (BMERG) based at Birmingham City University researches potential inequalities in music provision, seeking to challenge barriers that research findings reveal, and facilitating discussion of access to music in educational settings.
Whilst music education may seem a logical site for researching policy, nonetheless this is not always foregrounded in daily practices of schools and music education hubs. Recent policy documents for music education, including the governmentally produced Model Music Curriculum (Department for Education, 2021), and the second National Plan for Music Education (H M Government, 2022), can be considered as tending to be more concerned with content delivery, than with pupil interest with the dynamic, living art form that is music.
This presentation takes as its focus the key theme of music provision inequalities, and we focus on these as related case studies which show the ways in which we endeavour to address barriers to music learning. The two main foci for this paper are
a) Research work with disabled children in learning to play a musical instrument and accessing musical experiences in educational settings
b) Research work with primary school on developing composing music in schools
Whilst these two areas may seem disjunct from one another, they share the common element of barrier removal, and this is key to our understanding of democratising teaching and learning creativity in children and young people (Adams & Owens, 2015). The work with disabled children involves them being able to participate in whole-class instrumental learning. This is a relatively under-researched area in UK provision, although taking place in nearly every primary school in England (Fautley et al., 2017, 2019). The disabled children have been, in some instances, denied access to teaching and learning, simply on account of the difficulties of instrumental access. Our research reports on ways in which these barriers can be addressed, enabling fairness and equity for these pupils.
The other research presented here reports on ways in which children in primary schools often fail to encounter composing music as part of their everyday schooling. We know that primary school teachers can struggle with teaching music generally (Hennessy, 2017) and teaching composing specifically (Berkley, 2001). This research reports on how teachers can be empowered by pairing them with a visiting professional composer, and how this acts both as CPD for the teachers, but additionally enables them to be agentic in the ways in which they think about, and subsequently enact both their pedagogic choices, but also their curricular thinking (Bate, 2020; Anderson, 2022).
In drawing together these strands the paper concludes by discussing the policy and policy-into-practice aspects of this research, and how this has significant implications for practitioners. The march of neoliberalism and its impact on music education specifically (Goble, 2021) means that this paper has resonance for all those seeking to remove barriers to creative music teaching and learning for all our pupils, whether these be physical, attitudinal, or systemic. The paper draws out lessons for the Music Mark community on why these things matter in daily practices in schools and music education hubs, how taken-for-granted assumptions can be addressed by careful research and practice positionality, and how these can help create fairer and more equitable access for all children in state education.
The notion of dynamism, central to this music mark conference, is in danger of being submerged by what is often referred to as deliverology, wherein it is content which is privileged, with subsequent lists and tick-boxes. The central thrust of this presentation is to present the ways in which BMERG works to address this, and how schools and music education hubs can deal with policy whilst maintaining excitement, dynamism, and that all-important spark which should be at the centre of musical teaching and learning.

REFERENCES
Adams, J. & Owens, A. (2015) Creativity and democracy in education: Practices and politics of learning through the arts, London, Routledge.
Anderson, A. (2022) Curriculum power positioning in classroom music education: music curriculum design in the secondary music classroom in England. Arts Education Policy Review, (online).
Bate, E. (2020) Justifying music in the national curriculum: The habit concept and the question of social justice and academic rigour. British Journal of Music Education, 37, 1, 3-15.
Berkley, R. (2001) Why is teaching composing so challenging? A survey of classroom observation and teachers' opinions. British Journal of Music Education, 18, 2, 119-138.
Cropley, A. (2001) Creativity in education and learning, London, RoutledgeFalmer.
Department for Education (2021) Model Music Curriculum: Key Stages 1 to 3 - Non-statutory guidance for the national curriculum in England, London, National Archives UK. https://www.gov.uk/search/guidance-and-regulation
Fautley, M., Kinsella, V. & Whittaker, A. (2017). Whole Class Ensemble Teaching - Research Report. Birmingham, Birmingham City University and Music Mark.
Fautley, M., Kinsella, V. & Whittaker, A. (2019) Models of teaching and learning identified in Whole Class Ensemble Tuition. British Journal of Music Education, 36, 3, 243-252.
Goble, J. S. (2021) Neoliberalism and Music Education: An Introduction. Action, Criticism & Theory for Music Education, 20, 3, 1-18.
H M Government UK (2022) The power of music to change lives - A National Plan for Music Education, London, Open Government Licence - National Archives UK.
Hennessy, S. (2017) Approaches to increasing the competence and confidence of student teachers to teach music in primary schools. Education 3-13, 45, 6, 689-700.
Sternberg, R. & Williams, W. M. (1996) How to Develop Student Creativity, Alexandria, Virginia, ASCD.

Period	27 Nov 2023
Held at	Music Mark, United Kingdom
Degree of Recognition	National