Keeping to the curriculum: How classroom music teachers conceptualise curriculum and what this means for curriculum design

Curriculum design and practice is central to the daily work of schools and is directly connected with the education with which pupils engage. This paper will explore how music teachers’ perceptions of curriculum impacts curriculum design at Key Stage 3 for 11-14-year-olds. Drawing from a research study consisting of with interviews with 12 classroom music teachers, it will present graphical elicitations which teachers created to describe concepts of curriculum. The presentation will go on to explore the impacts of these representations for understanding how music teachers conceptualise curriculum. It will conclude by discussing impacts and dissonances between music teacher curriculum perspectives and current curriculum discourse in the English educational policy landscape.