The network's practical value and background, analysis of the current situation

• Demographic, sociological and cultural changes in society require an overall shift in the way the role and aims of music education in a general educational system are thought of. What are the aims that we wish to achieve with music education? Have they been formulated and if so, are they comparable at European level? As far as we are aware, no overall analysis on a Europe-wide scale has yet been carried out.
• Now that “cultural expression” has been named as one of the eight key competences for lifelong learning we need to ask how this competence can and should be achieved.
• One result of the Bologna Process is that tremendous efforts are now being made in Europe to bring about far-reaching reforms in the realm of higher education. Although the AEC (European Association of Conservatoires, Music Academies and Musikhochschulen) has already done a great deal of important work in this direction it has focused almost exclusively on the training of professional musicians and teachers of musical instruments and not on the training of music teachers for schools providing general education. What are the consequences of this process of change for the training of music teachers? What tools need to be developed to ensure that the training of music teachers can be fully integrated into this process?
• The recognition of the qualifications of trained music teachers poses serious problems. It can be assumed that some of these difficulties will be solved during the Bologna Process, but it is nevertheless significant that many of them are a result of the insufficient exchange of information on the training of music teachers between the various European countries.
• There are many indications that the European dimension in matters relating to the training of music teachers is severely lacking: the number of music teacher training institutions that participate in European programmes is low, which is evidently due to the inadequate exchange of information and the problems related to recognition of the studies.

-- meNet project team- 28 Aug 2006