Welcome to this edition of the British Journal of Music Education. It comes during a time of ongoing challenge around the world as the Coronavirus pandemic continues to cause widespread disruption to multiple aspects of our lives, including models of schooling. We have tried to capture some of the emerging situation relating to music education from a UK perspective in a brief editorial research article; the editorial of a journal offers us a unique opportunity to present emergent stories that provide a commentary on music education in the here and now and capture change over time.
We are delighted that the articles published in this edition once again demonstrate the breadth and depth of music education around the world and its important position across education, families and societies.
Luan Shaw’s study of instrumental teacher education in conservatoires and its role in preparing students for employment in the profession shines a spotlight on the importance of teaching as part of a portfolio career for many conservatoire graduates. The article reports on the subsequent impact of an optional ‘further pedagogy’ unit offered to final year undergraduates at an English conservatoire. This module is run in partnership with a Music Education Hub, offering authentic opportunities to gain ‘real-life’ experience as an instrumental teacher. From following up former students and eliciting their perceptions of the impact of the module on their teaching, the article draws out interesting considerations for the further development of instrumental teaching curricula during and after professional training.
The next two articles are related to different aspects of informal learning models. Anna Mariguddi’s research focusses on perceptions of informal learning from teachers and students in England following a Musical Futures approach and also utilises interviews with three key figures close to the development of informal learning with a Musical Futures context (ILMF). The article draws four key areas: ‘the phenomenon as a problem solver; adaptations and misconceptions; revolution within music education; and tensions of freedom versus authority and marketisation’.
Alison Butler, Kelly Bylica and Ruth Wright’s article Informal learning of popular music: gender monoglossia and heteroglossia reports on a small-scale study in Canada investigating ‘the relationships between students’ perceptions and practices of gender in popular music education with particular attention given to communication, instruments and technology and development of freedoms and constraints’. The findings of this study suggest that there is much more research required if we are to more fully understand the complexities of the issues raised.
The need for music education to be mindful of real-life experiences is often talked about in applied research. The next article focuses on eliciting the artistic and cognitive processes used in collaborative composition. From studying advanced students and professional electroacoustic composers engaged in creating new musical pieces through online collaboration, Michele Biasutti and Eleanora Concina elicit some interesting findings relating to the role of collaboration and make some suggestions for the importance of considering this within music education.
The next article draws out some interesting perspectives on the well-documented generalist/specialist distinctions and the differing focus of music education across different parts of the world. Edward Gubbins’ research, an international comparative examination of the Irish generalist and the American specialist models of music education from the teacher’s perspective, highlights differences and also shared visions and commonalities that exist, as well as bringing to the fore arguments for both to have an important role in weaving music education through the curriculum.
We conclude this edition of the British Journal of Music Education with a study from Spain by Rafael Valenzuela, Nuria Codina and José Vicente Pestana, who consider the notion of musical flow and its potential relationship with family musical practice. This research reminds us of the importance of all children being able to access sustained music during their primary education and considers ways in which families and situations potentially impact upon musical learning, as well as contributing to psychological research on flow.
