A Survey on Chinese Music Teachers’ Attitudes towards World Music Teaching

Abstract

This study used a questionnaire as a research instrument to investigate the attitudes of 1 368 Chinese primary and secondary school music teachers towards world music teaching. The questionnaire includes single- and multiple-choice questions. It was used to examine the music teachers’ definitions of ethnomusicology and world music, their understanding of the major rationales for world music teaching, the world view of music, and the purpose of world music education, teaching approaches, and effective teaching activities as they perceived, and the challenges faced by Chinese music teachers in world music teaching. The results showed that Chinese music teachers did not have a clear and profound understanding of the aspects examined above. Instead, the teachers are more influenced by Western centralist values. They are less affected by ethnomusicology, which interprets human music from a cultural perspective, and multicultural music education. In general, the music teachers lacked confidence in teaching world music.