Research Studies in Music Education

In order to understand why adolescents who fail in all other subjects can be highly engaged with music learning, a case study was conducted in a compulsory general music class at a Spanish public secondary school. In the context of this study, the students' general disengagement from learning seemed to be a reaction to teachers' declarative, textbook-based, teaching strategies. Contrastingly, the music teacher had generated student enthusiasm through an inclusive pedagogy in which the principle of `music for all' created the expectation of the orchestral performance of arrangements for percussion instruments in 4 to 12 parts of pop, classical and film music by each class. The subject narrative, `the goal is the concert', was shared both by the teacher and the students, and had been widely accepted as an important part of the school culture. Through observations and video-stimulated interviews with the teacher, the students, parents and administrators, it was found that although the group of students rejected the school academic culture, in the end they decided to work diligently to be included in the school musical culture.

What can a music teacher do, when confronted with 99 percent immigrant students? How does he or she interpret guidelines in national governing documents and, at the same time, listen to the needs of the students? This article opens the doors to two music classrooms in Malmö, a Swedish town with 27 percent of the population born abroad. The project `Social Inclusion in Music education'(SIM), described here, sought to give voice to both teachers and students who work and live in multicultural areas. It was conducted as a collaborative project by a music teacher and a university lecturer-researcher in music education. The results show that the teacher and students involved all stress the importance of student engagement. In the observed classrooms, this engagement is encouraged by taking the music of the youth culture as a starting point.

Drawing on observation and interview data collected from a case study of learning and teaching in a music technology lab, this article focuses on the nature of feedback and compositional intent during a soundtrack composing experience as viewed through the lived experiences of a teacher (Mary), a student composer (Ellen) and Ellen's peers. Tensions embedded in their shared experiences are analyzed for insights that may help other teachers of music composition in schools provide more successful feedback through valuing and responding to the student's musical agency and compositional intent. These insights illustrate the complex interplay among teacher feedback, learner agency and students' compositional intent, with particular attention to implications aimed at helping teachers to facilitate and design composing experiences in more inclusive ways.

The drive for `inclusion' has become a prominent feature in UK educational policy agendas and school improvement programmes. The term refers to all children achieving and participating despite challenges stemming from poverty, class, race, religion, linguistic and cultural heritage or gender. While much has been written about inclusion, evidence on how teachers perceive inclusive education practices among young people who are disengaged from learning and educational opportunity (as manifested by non-attendance or under-achievement at school) has been less thoroughly explored. This multiple case study draws on research on secondary school music teachers in `poorly performing', so-called `under-achieving' schools, including three comprehensive secondary schools in the east and south-east regions of England. It reports on what it is that three music teachers can tell us about their beliefs and approaches to inclusive teaching and learning in their pedagogical settings. A phenomenological approach utilizing semi-structured interview was employed to explore music teachers' perceptions of what it is that they think they do in responding to and overcoming the challenge of re-engaging disaffected youth — their perceptions of their own inclusive pedagogic practices. In order to explore the teachers' perceptions further, some artefact prompts in interviews, such as curriculum planning documents, were employed to provide an opportunity to discuss key factors concerning the content of the music courses. The findings emphasize that, for these teachers, inclusive pedagogies involve more than the accumulation of teaching strategies employed by teachers for supporting troubled and troublesome learners. These teachers' pedagogies are informed largely by particular views of music, views of musical learning and learners, views of the kind of knowledge that is created and the educational outcomes that are desired in overcoming the particular challenges of attuning to and re-engaging disaffected learners. Inclusive pedagogic practices in this study were foregrounded and framed by attuning to and re-engaging disaffected learners by: (a) democratizing music learning as social practice; (b) foregrounding high-status creative projects; and (c) using digital technology as pedagogic levers for re-engaging learners. The emergent themes provide a preliminary basis for theorizing about the role of music education in the schooling of disaffected youth.

Teacher education plays a significant role in influencing generations of future teachers. This article aims to explore the role of pre-service teacher education in promoting socially just and inclusive practices in music education. Six pre-service teachers were interviewed before graduating, and then again six months into their first year of teaching. The interviewees reflected on their understandings of what constitutes being inclusive in the music classroom and how these understandings have been influenced by their perceptions of both university and school experiences. The article provides insights into the ways that teacher education programmes might equip early-career teachers to engage in a variety of teaching practices that are socially just, within the music classroom.