Educational Change and the Secondary School Music Curriculum in Aotearoa New Zealand provides a fascinating case study in educational change. The music curriculum has been greatly affected by deep cultural and economic forces such as the growth of popular music's importance in young people's lives, by demands for inclusive and multicultural education, and not least by advances in technology that promise to invigorate all aspects of teaching and learning. This book brings together the work of a number of leading music education scholars and teachers from Aotearoa/New Zealand to both explore these issues and to share case studies of practice: both the positive changes and the unintended consequences. Each chapter focuses on a current issue in music education and the final chapter contains responses from a number of practitioners to the issues raised by the authors, drawing together the practical and theoretical dimensions of the book.

The Routledge Companion to Teaching Music Composition in Schools: International Perspectives offers a comprehensive overview of teaching composing from a wide range of countries around the world. Addressing the current state of composition pedagogy from primary to secondary school levels and beyond, the volume explores issues, including different curricular and extracurricular settings, cultural aspects of composing, aesthetics, musical creativity, the role of technology, and assessment. With contributors from over 30 countries, this volume encompasses theoretical, historical, empirical, and practical approaches and enables comparisons across different countries and regions. Chapters by experienced educators, composers, and researchers describe in depth the practices taking place in different international locations. Interspersed with these chapters, interludes by the volume editors contextualize and problematize the teaching and learning of composing music. The volume covers a range of contexts, including formal and informal, those where a national curriculum is mandated or where composing is a matter of choice, and a range of types, styles, and genres of musical learning and music-making. Providing a wide-ranging and detailed review of international approaches to incorporating music composition in teaching and learning, this volume will be a useful resource for teachers, music education researchers, graduate and undergraduate students, and all those working with children and young people in composing music.

This incisive Handbook brings together a wealth of innovative research from international curriculum and education experts to ask the question: what knowledge should be taught in school, how should it be taught, and for what purpose?

Knowledge and Music Education: A Social Realist Account explores current challenges for music education in relation to wider philosophical and political debates, and seeks to find a way forward for the field by rethinking the nature and value of epistemic knowledge in the wake of postmodern critiques. Focusing on secondary school music, and considering changes in approaches to teaching over time, this book seeks to understand the forces at play that enhance or undermine music’s contribution to a socially just curriculum for all. The author argues that the unique nature of disciplinary-derived knowledge provides students with essential cognitive development, and must be integrated with the turn to more inclusive, student-centred, and culturally responsive teaching. Connecting theoretical issues with concrete curriculum design, the book considers how we can give music students the benefits of specialised subject knowledge without returning to a traditional past.

This book offers new ideas for thinking about how more equitable outcomes might be achieved in New Zealand so that all students are well-equipped to live and work in contemporary society. It addresses a social justice concern about access to the unique affordances of subject knowledge which comprises two forms of knowledge - propositional (knowledge-that) and applied knowledge (know-how-to). The book provides perspectives on curriculum design by grounding arguments in a theory of knowledge. It describes the different knowledge forms of the theory, and argues that understanding these differences is significant for curriculum design and enactment. It explains why the current imbalance between knowledge forms is a problem, and offers suggestions for change. Understanding about knowledge itself enables more just and equitable outcomes for all students. This book illustrates how different knowledge types and forms can be used together productively to help students develop adaptive expertise for the 21st century, making it a valuable contribution to the field of education.

The Oxford Handbook of Music Composition Pedagogy presents an illuminating collection of philosophy, research, applied practice, and international perspectives to highlight the practices of teaching and learning in the field of music composition. The Handbook offers various strategies and approaches in composition for teachers, music teacher educators, and students of music education.

Unfreezing Music Education argues that discussing the conflicting meanings of music should occupy a more central role in formal music education and music teacher preparation programs than is currently the case. Drawing on the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, the author seeks to take a dialectical approach to musical meaning, rooted in critical formalism, that avoids the pitfalls of both traditional aesthetic arguments and radical subjectivity. This book makes the case for helping students understand that the meaning of musical forms is socially constructed through a process of reification, and argues that encouraging greater awareness of the processes through which music’s fluid meanings become hidden will help students to think more critically about music. Connecting this philosophical argument with concrete, practical challenges faced by students and educators, this study will be of interest to researchers across music education and philosophy, as well as post-secondary music educators and all others interested in aesthetic philosophy, critical theory, cultural studies, or the sociology of music and music education.

This book explores the music of Africa and its experience in modern education, offering music education analyses from African perspectives. The collection assembles insights from around Africa to bring African and non-African scholars into the world of music, education, policy, and assessment as played out across the continent. The music of Africa presents multiple avenues for the understanding of the reality of life from a cultural perspective. The teaching and learning of this music closely follows its practice, the latter involving a combination of artistic expressions. With international interest in world music, there is need to engage with concepts and processes of this music. The volume offers new research from culture bearers, scholars, and educators rooted in practices that provide deeper perceptions of the cultural expression of music. With sections focussing on Concepts in Musical Arts, Musical Arts Processes, and Music Education Practice, it captures and documents the concept of musical arts from an African experiential perspective. Articulating the processes of musical arts and their implications for teaching and learning in both African and international learning contexts, it presents a balanced view of music as a phenomenon and generates material for discussion. A valuable resource for those seeking insight into aspects of music practice in Africa, this book will appeal to scholars of Music Education, Ethnomusicology, Community Music, African Studies, and African Music.

This book presents an examination of the applied music studio as part of higher education. Applied music studios are where students learn an instrument or voice in one-to-one settings with high-level musician teachers. This book reconceptualizes this teaching model within higher education, and it provides a critical lens, seated in current research provided by a diverse and highly influential set of researcher authors. It provides expert suggestions for improved teaching and learning practices in the applied music studio for readers who may be teachers themselves. It may also provide direction for leaders, directors, and department chairs who oversee the quality of applied music studio settings in the respective higher education units. The key feature of this book is that each chapter will explore new and relevant research, bringing new knowledge to the reader. Each chapter will also suggest relevant applied music studio practices and opportunities based on this targeted research literature. The primary audience for this book would be applied music studio teachers who engage in teaching within the applied music studio, offering suggestions for higher education and private teaching. A secondary audience would be music education researchers at all levels and who have an interest in contemporary thinking relevant to the applied music studio, as well as those interested in the master-apprentice format for learning in any field. Additionally, directors and chairs of music units globally in higher education would find this book helpful in guiding practice in the applied music studio within higher education settings.

Based on topics that frame the debate about the future of professional music education, this book explores the issues that music teachers must confront in a rapidly shifting educational landscape. The book aims to challenge thought and change minds. It presents a star cast of internationally prominent thinkers in and beyond music education. These thinkers deliberately challenge many time-worn traditions in music education with regard to musicianship, culture and society, leadership, institutions, interdisciplinarity, research and theory, and curriculum. This is the first book to confront these issues in this way. This unique book has emerged from fifteen years of international dialog by The MayDay Group, an organization of more than 250 music educators from over 20 countries who meet yearly to confront issues in music teaching and learning.