The need for effective continuing professional development (CPD) in music education is outlined and literature on CPD for generalist teachers and teaching assistants is reviewed. A small qualitative study is then presented that took advantage of a music-making project led by folk musicians in six special schools in England. This study focused on the generalist teaching staff who actively supported their pupils to participate. The staff reported that their own confidence in working musically had increased, as had their awareness of the importance of music for children. It is suggested that these outcomes were achieved through incidental CPD, potentially paving the way for further, deliberate CPD.

At present, in music education scholarship, there is a renewed interest and enthusiasm in materiality motivated by theories that gather under the title of ‘New Materialism’. Beyond the field of music education, doubts and reservations towards new materialism are being discussed, but these discussions are not yet entering music education debates. There are reservations concerning the lack of continuity with ‘old’ materialisms, some internal inconsistencies within the theories, problems that arise when new materialist concepts of agency and decentring are applied, and propositions that new materialism is not emancipatory, as claimed, but represents a further twist of Neoliberalism.

When young people leave the musical world of their school environment, a lack of clear routes into adult musical engagement brings a risk of wasted ability, motivation and enjoyment, which arguably undermines the value of music education. This study explored the factors that influence continued musical participation among young British adults who had been actively engaged in school music. Musical participation is defined in this research as group music-making in either a formal or informal setting. Participants (n = 102) completed an online questionnaire or were interviewed (n = 6) about their past and present musical experiences along with future expectations for music-making. The stark headline finding was that while 87% of participants had intended to continue with music-making beyond school, only 48% had found groups to join. Nonetheless, 78% expected to continue with music-making in the future. Our research therefore suggests that any break from musical participation need not be permanent for individuals who have established strong musical identities through their early experiences. To conclude, we present a model of lifelong musical participation that illustrates the influences, motivations and choices that contribute to sustained musical engagement.

El Sistema and Sistema-inspired programmes have become increasingly popular community music education and social welfare initiatives that aim to benefit socially and economically disadvantaged youth. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic significantly disrupted many of these programmes. The purpose of this research was to investigate how eight Canadian El Sistema and Sistema-inspired programmes adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic. We interviewed eight teachers and eight administrators and found that their programming was impacted in relation to four themes: (a) an increased emphasis on social curricula, (b) pedagogical shifts, (c) inclusion of diverse musical voices and (d) adopting anti-racism perspectives. The COVID-19 pandemic response served as a significant catalyst for change for Canadian El Sistema and Sistema-inspired programmes, utilising the disruption to rethink and address participant needs.

In the 21st century, we are increasingly exposed to music created entirely on computers. This article shows how pioneering music teachers approach the challenge of teaching music on the laptop computer in the context of one-to-one musical instrument lessons. Interviews and observations with five laptop teachers in Norwegian secondary schools enabled the authors to explore characteristic challenges in this field. This study explored two research questions: What are the instructional strategies, content and ‘repertoire’ in music lessons on laptop computer? How have teachers experienced the laptop’s evolutionary process towards legitimation?

Posthuman understanding of music and bodies as matter highlights otherwise forms of musical embodied learning. In this paper, we focus on an early childhood classroom music event and think diffractively with cognitive and posthuman theories in order to extend our insight into it. Accordingly, we explore cognitive approaches to music and movement, as well as posthuman concepts such as agency, embodiment, affect and desire, (de)territorialisations and assemblages. As music educators, we acknowledge the relationship between music and movement in early childhood, but our posthuman reading of the event enables a more equitable understanding of children’s music learning.

This article examines how classical music students understand early twentieth-century recordings in higher music education. A qualitative research method was chosen to investigate the beliefs and self-reported practices of 16 students enrolled in a European conservatoire, whose attitudes were considered through the administration of a semi-structured questionnaire and an interview. Their responses identified seven main themes: (1) beliefs, (2) sources, (3) self-reported practices, (4) repertoires/performers, (5) educational implications, (6) limits and (7) benefits.

Results show how much students value early twentieth-century recordings – especially when it comes to analysing the performance practices of the past and developing new interpretations – and how articulate their responses can be with regard to specific stylistic and technical issues. However, possibly due to informal learning strategies and the lack of curricular teaching activities focusing on listening to and analysing recorded interpretations, some responses highlighted a misrepresentation of our recent musical past and the need for a more structured curricular activity. This last should benefit from a vast body of scholarly literature whose relevance is still underestimated among music practitioners.

This article explores the multifaceted landscape of music literacy education in South African secondary schools through an anagrammatic lens. Music literacy education is symbolised by the anagrams ‘NAOUIEDCT’ and ‘RCSSEOEUR’, encapsulating resource-related, cultural and pedagogical complexities. This comparison of music literacy education to anagrams creates an interesting analogy that can shed light on the complexity and challenges inherent in the situation. It aims to unravel these complexities, like solving a multifaceted puzzle. Thus, the result of this qualitative interpretive research project is the transformation of a complex challenge (conundrum) into symbolic puzzles (anagrams), aiming to decipher the intricacies of music literacy education. This methodology offers an approach to foster engagement and collaborative work toward future solutions. Through a comprehensive exploration, this research aims to unravel the layers of challenges inherent in Music Education, offering insights and recommendations for a nuanced and enriched educational experience. The data for this research project were collected through semi-structured interviews and, consequently, a thematic content analysis was carried out, first in a descriptive level of analysis, followed by a conceptual level of analysis. Computer-aided qualitative analysis software, namely ATLAS.tiTM23, played a valuable and significant role in both the literature review and thematic content analysis phases of this study.

This Participatory Action Research (PAR) investigates the integration of informal music learning in Macau’s educational context, guided by the Model of Generative Change (Ball, 2009). Engaging the participating college students (N = 41), this study explores how learners perceive the formal–informal learning continuum (Folkestad, 2006) through the four stages of informal learning experiences: awakening, agency, advocacy and efficacy (Ball, 2009). Through multiple data collection methods and qualitative analysis, students experienced (a) autonomous learning, (b) joyful peer learning, (c) creative exploration and skill development and (d) resilience through challenges. Moreover, the study highlights the stages of awakening, introspection and critique from the students’ perspectives. Notably, a subset of students, predominantly those with prior formal instrumental training, expressed critiques concerning informal learning, predominantly regarding its perceived lack of systematic structure and foundational skills. These insights suggest a need to further embed informal music learning in Macau to foster a dynamic change towards generativity and a ‘multileveled cultural world’ (Law & Ho, 2015). The implications point to a broader pedagogical shift that values diverse learning experiences, which may enhance the development of a more adaptable, innovative and well-rounded musical skill set within the student population in Macau.

Informal music learning, pioneered by Green (2002, 2006, 2017), presents an alternative approach that integrates students’ interests in popular music, bridging the informal and traditional styles of Western music education in schools. We conducted a scoping review adhering to the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines to investigate informal music learning. Our scoping review encompasses 28 empirical, peer-reviewed articles published from 2006 to 2023. First, we analyse the diverse contexts, methodologies and geographic locations in which informal music learning has been investigated. Second, we explore how different stakeholders perceive and engage with informal music learning in various educational settings. Lastly, we summarise the implications derived from the analysed studies on informal music learning. Our findings reveal that across various educational contexts, informal music learning has consistently demonstrated its positive impact in motivating students. We also find that researchers have extended their investigations from programme reform to exploring pupil and teacher’s musical identities. Recommendations for future research include exploring informal music learning in ensembles and elementary music classrooms and employing quantitative or mixed methods to assess its effectiveness and impact.

Music teachers in secondary education tend to undervalue the professional competence of creating music, in response to educational models that prioritise the development of musical interpretation skills. The aim of this research is to identify the factors that contribute to this belief among teachers in Spain, by analysing the results of the Professional Competences of the Music Teacher questionnaire (n = 112). Significant differences were found between age categories, as well as significant linear correlations between teachers’ perceptions of their preparation during initial training, their practical skills and habits, and the professional importance they attached to their competence in musical creation.

In the words of Eric Lewis, “approaching Afrological musics from the theoretical perspective of a Western aesthetic…yields not only a lack of understanding…but can have pernicious political and social results.” In this paper, I demonstrate the relevance of this statement to the British Music classroom. In Part One, I outline the current state of the UK’s Model Music Curriculum and seek to identify its underlying ideology. Part Two offers a survey of how the universal understanding of music as a series of autonomous products generates a prescribed set of criteria for musical evaluation. By ascribing idiosyncratically European notions to our evaluation of music on a universal scale, we are left with an incomplete understanding and appreciation of music not conceived according to this ideology. Looking to the future, Part Three suggests how we might approach music in a fair and germane way via a transfer of emphasis from the musical product to the people involved in the musical process. I name this an outside-in approach to music, and consider it a universally applicable and fruitful mode of musical analysis—people are, after all, the common denominator for music-making. By beginning with the social and cultural conditions in which musicians create, students are equipped with a multiplicity of lenses through which they can better appreciate the value and beauty of musical cultures both near and far.

This study investigates the extent to which a group of Australian preservice and early career secondary school music teachers of East Asian heritage are likely to teach aspects of their heritage music. It is positioned against a background of national multiculturalism and approaches to cultural inclusivity in Australian society, as well as the long-standing notion of ‘Asia literacy’ in Australian education and the national cross-curriculum priority (C-CP) of ‘Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia’. The study’s findings indicate that the participants identified with their ancestral cultures to varying extents, generally had very limited knowledge of and experience with their heritage music and in general were reluctant to teach their heritage music. The authors suggest that the slow rate of progress towards culturally diversifying Australian music classrooms is related to complex matters and attitudes surrounding race in the country. The study proposes developing Cayari’s concept of ‘Asian spaces’ as a means of increasing the presence of East Asian music in Australian schools and of supporting teachers of East Asian heritage in the workplace. Finally, the authors emphasise that culturally diversifying the content of music classrooms can be undertaken by teachers of any cultural background.

Teaching is a highly complex act, and learning to teach in an educational era that combines both teacher-centred and student-centred approaches presents additional challenges. Conducting demonstration lessons (DL) is one of the methods aimed at enhancing teachers’ instructional skills. This study examines the features and functions of this unique type of lesson from the perspective of music demonstration teachers in Guangdong, China. Through observation and interviews, the findings not only reveal the prevalence of DLs as performance-based lessons in Chinese teachers’ professional lives but also explore their distinctions from regular school teaching and their potential for improving teachers’ pedagogical abilities. Concerns and issues related to this type of lesson, along with possible solutions, are also discussed to provide recommendations for incorporating DLs into teacher training programmes in higher education institutions.

This article explores the potential barriers for emerging composers to constructing and maintaining a career in the field of composition in Scotland, viewed through the lens of both those early in their careers and the experience of others who have worked professionally for many years. Thirty-nine composers responded to a survey that highlighted the role of educational mentoring, the need for monetary stability and the challenges faced by female and older emerging composers. The professional lives of current Scottish composers have been seldom studied, and the purpose of this investigation is to explore, inform and provide suggestions for future consideration.

This study was of adolescent males about their musical self-perceptions and experiences in one Austrian school’s choral music programme. Participants who sang continuously in the school choir reported experiences consistent with flow theory. In contrast, participants who withdrew said that their school choral experiences lacked challenge levels commensurate with their interests and skills and that they wished for greater opportunities for autonomy and control. Participants who never sang in school choir lacked older male singing role models, an element consistent with the theory of possible selves. The study findings reflect those of previous research at The London Oratory. The article closes with implications for research and pedagogy.

This study investigates teachers’ musical abilities in Shandong kindergartens in China, making a comparison between public and private kindergartens. For this research, five public and five private kindergartens were selected within the same city. The methods of non-participant observation and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. The findings show that the overall musical abilities of public kindergarten teachers were greater than those of private kindergarten teachers. This study reveals that leadership and government policy are important factors for influencing the results, and puts forward recommendations for making changes in policy to improve teachers’ musical abilities in private kindergartens.