The national curriculum is a concise 428-word document. This could be seen as both positive and negative, but ultimately gives curriculum leaders a level of autonomy in their curriculum decisions and design. There is a lot of room for interpretation, and the influence of teacher identity certainly plays a large part in the design, implementation and structure of each school's music curriculum. Here, I hope to highlight some of the key differences between Key Stage 3 and 4 and the disconnect between courses currently on offer in Further Education (FE) and Higher Education (HE).
The current state of secondary music
The release of the Model Music Curriculum (MMC) in March 2021 set non-statutory guidelines for teachers to follow when making curriculum decisions. Chris Philpott (2022) reminds us that this document is heavily influenced by Western classical traditions with a focus on content rather than the nuances of what it means to construct a curriculum. To me, the MMC missed an opportunity for KS3 music curricula to be made relevant and readily accessible to many of our students, echoing the discourse that Gary Spruce identified when critiquing the original National Plan for Music Education (NPME) published in 2011.
Further to this, the new NPME has been released – another non-statutory document – in which there are some positive points made with regards to music provision across KS1, 2 and 3. Unfortunately, it feels as though not a lot has changed since 2011. Spruce highlighted that although the wording of the original NPME lives and breathes inclusivity, it still has an underlying intention of sustaining social and educational inequalities. Fundamentally, this is true of the new Plan. This is even more prevalent considering that this document is merely a guide to schools.
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HE and FE offerings
There is no denying the decline in the national entries for GCSE Music over the past few years. Is this accountable to the changing shifts in what is considered musical academia, what is popular, what is relevant or accessible to our students? Popular music studies are nothing new in FE and HE institutions and conversations date back to as early as the 1930s, when jazz was deemed ‘popular’. Gareth Dylan Smith (2016) points out that we now deem jazz as a style and genre of music worthy of scholarly attention.
The escalation of vocational and popular music courses at FE and HE seems to be taking over the music education sector, but is secondary music education following suit? A very real example can be seen in the offering (or lack of) of A Level Music in my city of Portsmouth, which over time has become non-existent. Instead, courses such as Music Performance, Music Technology and Performing Arts BTECs seem to be the courses of choice. There must be reasoning behind this choice of courses, whether it be a lack of need for more ‘academic’ music courses, a lack of relevance to the modern-day musician, or simply that A Level and GCSE courses could be perceived by students as outdated and traditionalist in their values.
What can be done about the increasing decline of GCSE Music entries?
Several attempts have been made to counteract and reinvent the music curriculum over the years. Notably, the seminal works of Lucy Green ultimately contributed to and heavily influenced the development of the Musical Futures movement in the early noughties. This was funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and was set to engage students in the secondary classroom. A series of resources and supportive documents for curriculum leaders was released with a focus on informal pedagogies and this project was seen to engage students positively. One challenge is introducing popular music styles of learning and only offering the strong Western traditional music focus of the GCSE route. This could be seen as counterproductive and elitist in its design due to what teachers deem ‘academic’ courses.
KS4 music currently has two main options at secondary school level, the GCSE route or a more vocational pathway, whether that be in the form of RSL, BTEC or other vocational-based courses. These courses predominantly focus on performance skills or music technology-based coursework tasks. It is up to us as practitioners to choose and engage with the correct courses for our students.
My recent MA dissertation shows that teacher attitudes towards these qualifications differ quite radically. Synonymously the vocational courses were deemed less ‘valuable’ or ‘academic’ than the GCSE; but why, if A Level Music has become a declining phenomenon? This is something that baffles me, because we as teachers should want to encourage our students to find their own musical identity. Surely, as practitioners, we should encourage what is best for the development and growth of our departments. And finally, should we not follow the unignorable trends for musical academia that are being set by our FE and HE counterparts?
References and links
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Anderson, A., 2021. Curriculum power positioning in classroom music education: music curriculum design in the secondary music classroom in England. Arts Education Policy Review, pp.1-14.
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Bath, N., Daubney, A., Mackrill, D. and Spruce, G., 2020. The declining place of music education in schools in England. Children & Society, 34(5), pp.443-457.
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Fautley, M. and Daubney, A., 2019. Some thoughts on curriculum in music education. British Journal of Music Education, 36(1), pp.1-4.
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Green, L., 2017. Music, informal learning and the school: A new classroom pedagogy. Routledge.
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Hallam, S. 2017. Musical identity, learning, and teaching. Handbook of musical identities, 475-492.
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Hallam, S., Creech, A. and McQueen, H., 2017. Teachers’ perceptions of the impact on students of the Musical Futures approach. Music Education Research, 19(3), pp.263-275.
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Smith, G.D., 2016. Popular music in higher education. In Advanced musical performance: Investigations in higher education learning (pp. 65-80). Routledge.
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Spruce, G., 2013. ‘The national music plan’ and the taming of English music education. Arts Education Policy Review, 114(3), pp.112-118.
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www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-secondary-curriculum
