Popular Music in School A Point of View from Bulgaria

As part of a panel presentation at the 2008 AERA Conference, this paper seeks to advance a critical examination of research on the informal learning practices that are associated with the way so-called popular musicians learn. A call for a " second-wave " of research studies on the teaching of popular music in schools is made. Contra instructional practices that adopt informal learning wholesale, the author argues that a sound educational framework must be in place should teachers and teacher educators wish to " operationalize " the practices of popular musicians. Arguing that there is a distinction between " informal learning " and " informalism, " and critiquing the disappearance of the teacher in Lucy Green's new book Music, Informal Learning and the School (2008), the concept of democracy – in the form of a laboratory school – is offered as a way of locating education in the practice of teaching and learning popular music.

Képzés és gyakorlat

Development of musical taste in public school music education: do we really need Western trends? To involve popular music inschool music education is not an unknown phenomenon in Western European Countries. Education in the first ten years play crucial role in human cognitive development. At the same time the majority of our pupils meet valuable musical materialsonly at public schools. This is the reason, why popular music should never get an exclusive place in the tuition of primary-school aged children. Theoretical background of my paper are Kodaly's sentences. I intend to support my hypothesis by the means of a questionnaire among primaryschool-teachers and pupils coming from different social and geographical background. Epigraph: "Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace, and making the soul of him who is rightly educated graceful… while he praises and rejoices over and receives into his soul the good, and becomes noble and good.

The Musical Quarterly, 74/3, 385–410., 1990

PME is an integral component of the paradigm shift towards a more diverse and inclusive education. The diversity of ensembles and pedagogical styles the continually changing musical landscape has provided is one of the hallmarks of a well-rounded music education. Estelle Jorgensen, considering curriculum renovation in her book Transforming Music Education, notes that “each generation needs to renew education and culture for its time and place…and this renewal constitutes the seeds of musical, cultural, and societal transformation.” (Jorgensen, 8) If our mission is “encouraging the study and making of music for all,” shouldn’t we continue to diversify the styles of music we study, create, and perform? Our NAfME preamble states, “Music allows us to celebrate and preserve our cultural heritage”. The inclusion of popular music genres affords us the opportunity to broaden our understanding and appreciation of styles and cultures that might be unfamiliar to us while, at the same time, allowing us to connect with our students while modeling a culturally responsible environment. How do we go about shifting the educational paradigm, and the conversation, to one of inclusivity, diversity, and cultural responsibility in regard to our students’ experiences, musical preferences, socioeconomic status, and demographic? That is the $64,000 question.

Visions of Research in Music Education, 2008

As part of a panel presentation at the 2008 AERA Conference, this paper seeks to advance a critical examination of research on the informal learning practices that are associated with the way so-called popular musicians learn. A call for a "second-wave" of research studies on the teaching of popular music in schools is made. Contra instructional practices that adopt informal learning wholesale, the author argues that a sound educational framework must be in place should teachers and teacher educators wish to "operationalize" the practices of popular musicians. Arguing that there is a distinction between "informal learning" and "informalism," and critiquing the disappearance of the teacher in Lucy Green's new book Music, Informal Learning and the School (2008), the concept of democracy-in the form of a laboratory school-is offered as a way of locating education in the practice of teaching and learning popular music.

British Journal of Music Education, 2001

Musiikkikasvatus 01 2012 vol. 15 55 ociology and Music Education is a collection of essays international in scope, aiming to establish and promote links between music education and various facets of sociological theory. This book is a much-needed addition to sociologically informed literature, and it constitutes a serious effort to employ sociological tools in productive and fruitful ways within the field of music education. With only two exceptions, the authors of this book are all music educators who have decided to delve through the wealth of sociological thought, looking for insights that may be applied to their own field. The book is original, accessible and well grounded. It shows us what are the possible inroads that can be opened when sociological lenses are employed in order to deal with current issues that concern music educators, both within academic and school contexts. It provides a broad and multilevel focus that draws on theoretical and applied research from a variety of international contexts. More specifically, it examines two sets of issues; the first relates to issues of power and control, their function within music education contexts, and their potential as conceptual tools for researching various music education encounters; the second deals with the possibilities for advancing alternative music education practices as a result of a sociologically informed understanding of music, musical experience, music teaching and learning.

The handbook of COURAGE: Cultural opposition and its heritage in Eastern Europe (eds. Balázs Apor, Péter Apor, Sándor Horváth). Budapest: Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 2018

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Popular Music and Policy, 2022

In this chapter we explore links between popular music, policy, and education from two broad perspectives. We examine the impacts of popular music and cultural policy on music education, and links between education policy and popular music education (PME). Our use of the term ‘education’ in this chapter is deliberately broad and multifaceted. In addition to considering education by focusing on institutions and stakeholders, for example, we also focus on the way in which policy impacts or drives wider economic and ideological issues, thus functioning as a form of ‘public pedagogy’ (Giroux 2003). Our focus is as much on economic, political, and social policies as de facto educational texts and discourses. Due to the inherent ambiguity of the terms ‘policy’ and ‘PME’, consideration of these areas is potentially problematic. Additionally, we are aware of almost no policy texts pertaining specifically to popular music education or on popular music in education, with the exception of a white paper from the Association for Popular Music Education (APME). Given the small size of that organization, its minimal reach, and the dearth of references to, or apparent impact of its paper, we note for now simply that ‘the mission of the Association for Popular Music Education (APME) is to promote and advance popular music at all levels of education both in the classroom and beyond’ (Association for Popular Music Education, 2020a). We have found no other documents so clearly intended to address, or indeed to promote, popular music and education.

Educational Philosophy and Theory, 2005

Music educationalists are probably agreed upon one thing if nothing else: that theory and practice in the field urgently need to embrace diversity. This might encompass the diversity of musical styles which the globalisation of the music industry with one hand is making widely available, and with the other hand is threatening to swamp; the localisation of traditional musics being bolstered by that same industry as well as by governments and pressure groups in response to such threats; the appropriation and reworking of global musical styles in local settings, with and without the 'help' of commercial interest; the diverse responses to and uses of musics in different places, by different ethnic groups, religions, social classes, genders, 'sub-cultures', 'scenes' and other social groups; the rapidly changing array of music technology which is impacting on approaches to music-making; or the diversity of musical reception practices and approaches to music teaching and learning. How can music education philosophers and theorists, let alone practitioners, come to grips with such factors? At the present time, the Adornian project of discerning within music, traces of the structure and ideology of the society from which that music springs, has been largely discarded. Sociological interest in music is focussing instead on questions of how musical meanings are constructed through discourse, use, education, the media and other social practices and institutions, at the levels both of face-to-face interaction and of wider social

Educate, 2013

2022

The arts and particularly music are well-known agents for social change. They can empower, transform, or question. They can be a mirror of society’s current state and a means of transformation. They are often the last refuge when all attempts at social change have failed. But are the arts able to live up to these expectations? Can music education cause social change? This book offers timely answers to these questions. It presents an imaginative, yet critical approach. It is optimistic and realistic. It rethinks music education’s relation to social change and offers a new vision in terms of music education as utopian theory and practice. This allows to unearth the utopian energy of the music education profession and to openly imagine how the world could be otherwise – while at the same time critically scrutinizing respective conceptions. Since it has been an important topic in sociology and political science, utopia offers a new tradition of thinking and a scholarly foundation for music education’s relation to social change. However, music education is not only a means for social transformation. It also has artistic and aesthetic dimensions. Thus, connecting music education with utopia leads to two approaches in terms of politically or socially responsive music education and esthetic music education. Rethinking music education and social change within the framework of utopia offers much-needed opportunities for reconceptualizing music education in the 2020s.

A transition from School Music to Music in School to School Music once again? Over the last 40 years the music curriculum in Sweden has undergone major changes. These have been described as a transition from ‘School Music’ to ‘Music in School’. Musical genres as well as musical practices which have emerged from informal settings, are today part of music pedagogy in Sweden, both in compulsory and post compulsory music education. In a music class in secondary and upper secondary school, students work in small groups together with the peers they choose to collaborate with. They select the songs they prefer, and work in a manner based predominantly on that of rock and pop bands. In recent years this music pedagogy approach has been questioned and discussed nationally. In this paper we intend to illuminate this ongoing debate and will particularly consider two main issues. Firstly, one objective with this pedagogical approach is to emphasise the individual student’s personal experiences and his/her freedom to choose. However, even though music teachers’ general intention is to consider the students’ own music, studies show that this purpose is not fulfilled. Instead, a new school music repertoire including pop and rock songs like One of Us and Enter Sandman seems to have occurred. Studies concerning music education in Sweden also reveal that the focus is on musical activities, skills and reproduction, rather than on the development of artistic and creative competences. Secondly, although researchers and national evaluators of education approve that a variety of students’ personal experiences should be included in the school context, the main issue in the ongoing debate is whether the objectives of participation, inclusion and democratic values are achieved through the current way of carrying out music education.