Strategies to Overcome the Low Status of Music in the Curriculum

Abstract

Strategies to overcome the low status of music in the curriculum is based on an investigation undertaken late in 1993 into the music programs of three different schools. The intention was to quantify the changes which had been made to traditional programs and the participants' perceptions of these changes. The cases demonstrated the impact of recent Victorian Government initiatives in the Curriculum Standards Framework (CSF) and the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) and the way in which these have led to the introduction of practically-based performance music programs (usually rock music orientated) in the schools studied. The study indicates that a greater flexibility in approaching the teaching of secondary music has improved the access of students to music, and their enjoyment of it. The paper examines the implications behind the events in the schools observed, and notes common features which served to raise the status of music in the curriculum restructure which occurred. Factors such as high student participation in middle school elective music programs and closer links between classroom and instrumental music are noted. The paper suggests that strategies for increasing the status of music in the curriculum can be derived from the events observed. It is believed, for example, that VCE Music Performance is preferred to VCE. music as a subject because it is performance based. The relevance of the music studied to the students cultural background and the need for a shift in teachers' professional self- image is also noted. The paper concludes by establishing the links between clientele and subject matter, and between teaching strategies and the craft of music as important elements in raising the status of music in the curriculum.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 4 citations exist upstream.