Music Education in Schools
Introduction
The meNet project was inspired by a curiosity to find out about the similarities and differences in Music Education (ME) systems in Europe. Project members decided to consider:
· the political context of the education systems,
· the structure of the school systems,
· the amount of time given to Music Education across Europe as a compulsory or optional subject,
· music curricula across Europe,
· common aims and objectives for music education across Europe.
At the beginning of the project the ME group worked as part of a combined ME/MTT (Music Teacher Training) group and, as the project progressed, this large group was re-configured in a number of ways to reflect the interests, expertise and emergent issues which arose from ME/MTT discussions. The ME/MTT group included teacher educators, school teachers and an educational consultant.
The Task of the ME Group
The task of the ME group was threefold:
· The collation and presentation of documentation on music education within the school systems of 20 European countries, listed under common criteria.
· Overall presentation of ME in 20 school systems through diagrams and synopses.
· Exemplifying some of the practice within ME systems through Examples of Practice in Context (EPC).
The final structure of the work leads the reader from the political structure of a country to the organisation of the school system and then to the organisation of Music Education. Finally curricula and possible changes in the next five years are highlighted.
Data Collection under Five Subheadings
It was agreed that the data collection for this task would be presented under five subheadings:
1 Political Framework
2 School System and Structure
3 Music Education in Schools
4 Music Curricula
5 Critical Comment and Future Development
The data collected will be helpful for planning musical projects all over Europe. This work is only the beginning; what it is hoped will follow is a wide range of European partnerships between schools, at teacher to teacher level, which will explore similarities and differences of approach within music education and which will allow for sharing of expertise and the development of new curricula.
|
|
|