Graham McPhail

The canon or the kids: Teachers and the recontextualisation of classical and popular music in the secondary school curriculum

This article reports on some of the findings from case studies conducted with six secondary school music teachers in New Zealand. The purpose of the study was to investigate and explain the ways in which teachers manage the relationship between classical and popular music in their elective classroom programs, utilizing a theoretical framework drawn from the work of educational sociologist Basil Bernstein and more recent social realist theory. In each case, the focus of the research was the teacher and the influences on their curriculum decision-making. Students in each music department were interviewed to triangulate teacher interviews and observations. The findings indicate that a significant tension is present between the affirmation and validation of students’ musical interests and pre-existing skills, and the development of the knowledge considered fundamental within the discipline. It is teachers’ ability to ‘find a balance’ between these central concerns of their educational work that is significant in maintaining the epistemic integrity of a subject which has become strongly influenced by socio-cultural influences.

Informal and formal knowledge: The curriculum conception of two rock graduates

Informal learning has become a prominent theme in music education literature in recent times. Many writers have called for a new emphasis on informal knowledge and pedagogy as the way forward for music education. The position taken in this paper is that a central issue for music education is the accommodation of a tension between types of knowledge and the ways of knowing strongly associated with popular and classical of music – socially acquired informal knowledge and socially developed but formally acquired disciplinary knowledge. Approaches to curriculum conception and realisation observed in a recent series of case studies in New Zealand secondary schools suggest that a key factor in student engagement is the degree to which teachers can create links between informal and formal knowledge so that students’ understanding and conceptual abilities can be extended across these knowledge boundaries. The teaching approaches of two recent graduates in rock music are discussed to support the social realist argument that a ‘progressive’ approach to curriculum involves creating links between informal and formal knowledge rather than replacing one with the other or dissolving the boundaries between them. Through seeing the two types of knowledge as necessarily interconnected within educational contexts, the epistemic integrity of classroom music is maintained. In this way students are able to recognise themselves and their aspirations while also recognising the potential and power of the foundational knowledge of the discipline.

From aspirations to practice: curriculum challenges for a new ‘twenty-first-century’ secondary school

ABSTRACT This paper reports on the initial stages of an empirical study of a new secondary school in New Zealand. The school vision and organisation reflect current international twenty-first-century learning discourse by confronting long-established beliefs concerning the nature of education and knowledge and the roles of teachers and students. The schools focus is on developing the dispositions and competencies of students through thematic, intersubject, inquiry-based learning. While these twenty-first-century ideas appear widely accepted worldwide, there is little research on the impact of these ideas on student learning. This study considers the challenges faced by the school in moving from aspirational vision to curriculum enactment during its first 18 months of operation. The focus of this paper is the curriculum design and development process. The issues faced by staff in this twenty-first-century school will be of interest to educationalists worldwide who are involved with the planning of new schools and curricular innovation within existing schools. Four key questions that arise from the study and that will form the focus of future research are identified.

Crossing boundaries: sharing concepts of music teaching from classroom to studio

This study demonstrates how action research can provide a means for teachers to undertake research for themselves to inform and enhance their work. The focus of the research was the self-critique of pedagogical practice in one-to-one classical instrumental music teaching within the context of the authors private studio. A series of lessons were videotaped and analysed, and each week goals were set for the improvement of practice in relation to theoretical propositions derived from both one-to-one teaching and general pedagogical literature. The author is an experienced classroom teacher as well as a violin teacher so is well placed to explore potential links between these teaching contexts. The development of a model of teaching modes, greater awareness of feedback quality and type and the challenge of monitoring change in action emerged as the key themes. Student engagement increased and teaching was enriched by perspectives and practices from wider educational theory and practice.

Developing Student Autonomy in the One-to-One Music Lesson.

As a practitioner in both the classroom and in the instrumental studio, I am interested in how one educational context might inform the other. Within an action research paradigm, I gave a violin lesson in front of colleagues as a means to gain feedback and to open up discussion on the concept of student autonomy within the one-to-one lesson. The enquiry was informed by recent literature within the music education field that calls for a new emphasis on informal learning principles and pedagogy for engaging students. I consider some of the key concepts of informal music learning from the influential Musical Futures classroom project as a means to reflect on the potential for developing student autonomy within the instrumental teaching context. Forms of knowledge and the distinction between knowledge content (the curriculum or “the what” of teaching) and the pedagogy (“the how”) are identified as significant conceptual distinctions for theorizing and realizing teachers’ work in the one-to-one context. I suggest that while traditional instrumental teaching models can be enhanced by informal and constructivist approaches to pedagogy, there are limits to the application of these principles because of the nature of the knowledge required in this learning context.

The right to enhancement: students talking about music knowledge in the secondary curriculum

In this paper the idea of social entitlement to conceptual knowledge is considered in relation to students’ views of music at secondary school in New Zealand. The data was collected as a means of triangulating the key focus of a study concerning the beliefs and actions of teachers in relation to curriculum. In interpreting the student data I utilise thematic categories developed in the study but also Bernsteins concepts of pedagogic rights and identities to consider whether students’ experience of the curriculum empowered them to look beyond what they already know to consider alternatives. Most students were able to recognise themselves and their aspirations within their school music departments while also recognising the potential importance of the theoretical knowledge of the discipline. The interplay between enabling pedagogy and curriculum content appears to be pivotal in developing these rights for students.

Curriculum integration in the senior secondary school: a case study in a national assessment context

Abstract This paper considers curriculum integration in the secondary school context and investigates the claims made that it can enhance learning outcomes for students. I argue that curriculum integration should be utilized not as a main means of curricular delivery but as a supplementary opportunity to put disciplinary knowledge to use in certain, well-planned contexts. In other words, disciplinary learning comes first and is then deepened through application in an interdisciplinary context. This argument is illustrated through a case study of a new ‘21st Century’ secondary school where interdisciplinarity is a cornerstone of the school’s philosophy. Methods for the study included weekly observations, interviews, focus groups and a survey. I conclude by suggesting that teachers require further time and assistance to develop programmes and evaluative criteria to ensure learning moves beyond thematically generated common sense knowledge, towards interdisciplinary insights.

Powerful knowledge: insights from music's case

ABSTRACT This paper examines Young and Mullers elaboration of Michael Youngs concept of powerful knowledge and considers musics alignment with the characteristics theorised as distinguishing this type of knowledge. Consideration of the concept in relation to music may be timely as music teachers continue to grapple with the problem of knowing what knowledge to include within the parameters of a school curriculum. The concept of powerful knowledge may provide us with a fresh way of considering what school music may have to offer in such a noisy and musically heterogeneous world. This curricular challenge, however, is by no means unique to music, even though it may be exacerbated in music which is so open to the forces of cultural change. I argue that access to this knowledge occurs by placing abstract concepts at the centre of curriculum conception as the means to mediate the space between everyday knowledge and the more vertical discourse of school knowledge. It is in this ‘academic’ space that students can come to understand and utilise music as a form of powerful knowledge, when epistemic understanding illuminates the experiential and aesthetic dimensions of musical experiences.

Music on the move: methodological applications of Bernstein’s concepts in a secondary school music context

In 2002 Parlo Singh outlined Bernstein’s theory of the pedagogic device, elaborating the potential in Bernstein’s complex theoretical framework for empirical research. In particular, Singh suggests that Bernstein’s concepts provide the means of making explicit the macro and micro structuring of knowledge into pedagogic communication. More recently, Power has noted that use of Bernstein’s ideas remains relatively unrepresented in the literature. This paper makes a case for the use of Bernstein’s ideas as a particularly rich resource for educational researchers. It provides illustrations of a number of concepts as part of a methodological procedure in a research project examining the approaches to curriculum and pedagogy of six secondary school music teachers within the dialectic of western art music and popular music. Through utilisation of Bernstein’s concepts of knowledge discourses, recontextualisation, and regionalisation, the study is able to identify, describe, and shed light on a key problem for music education and education generally: developing the pedagogical means for the utilisation of informal knowledge as a pedagogic resource within the secondary school curriculum. In turn, the music context suggests a number of extensions to Bernstein’s concepts.

A ‘fourth moment’ for music education? A response to Chris Philpott’s sociological critique of music curriculum change

The catalyst for this paper is the ongoing debate concerning formal and informal approaches to pedagogy within the music education literature. I utilise a chapter by Philpott ( 2010 ) as a means to continue discussion about the apparent dialectic between formal and informal approaches to music learning and the case Philpott raises for radical change in ‘three moments’ of music education history. In engaging with the concerns in Philpotts chapter I also seek to bring to a wider audience the ideas developed by a group of sociologists of education who draw on the work of Basil Bernstein ( 2000 ) and critical realism (Moore, 2013 ) to argue for a realist theory of knowledge. I utilise these social realist ideas as a means to engage with the theme of access to what Michael F.D. Young has recently termed ‘powerful knowledge’ (Young, 2012 ). As Bernstein ( 2000 ) suggests we must have an understanding of the recontextualising principles that come into play whenever the classification of knowledge undergoes change, as ideologies shift and change. I argue for a balance between powerful forms of pedagogy and powerful forms of knowledge based on an awareness of the essentially differentiated nature of knowledge.