The declining place of music education in schools in England

Abstract

This article addresses the provision of music education in schools in England, arguing that access to music education is the right of every child and therefore that a high‐quality and sustained curriculum offer must be provided in all state‐funded schools. Music education in England is widely recognised as being marginalised in state schools, despite it being a statutory requirement as part of the National Curriculum. This policy review examines several threats to music education, such as accountability measures, funding cuts, curriculum narrowing and erosion of the teaching workforce, identifying some of the key evidence in each case.

Editorial Research: Music education in a time of pandemic

“…Despite the best efforts of government to make schools responsible for everything, being accountable for poverty is not, and should not be laid at the door of schools during these extraordinary times, we hear daily of school teachers going 'the extra mile' to make sure pupils are fed. Yet in music we know that there are talented youngsters who possess talent, but lack money, and, potentially, opportunity (Bath et al, 2020). After all, as the late Duke of Westminster observed when asked about his recipe for success: 'Make sure they have an ancestor who was a very close friend of William the Conqueror', (Evans & Milne, 2016); sadly, this is not the case for many of our young people in flats, temporary accommodation and bedsits!…”

U-turns in the fog: the unfolding story of the impact of COVID-19 on music education in England and the UK

“…Given that these findings relate to a period before the 2021 national lockdown was imposed, the situation for the provision of music teaching in England and the UK will now be even more grave. Music's position as a subject in a broad and balanced curriculum in English schools was already precariously balanced before the pandemic (Daubney et al 2019;Bath et al 2020). It will be important to ensure that the devastation and disruption to teaching and learning exacerbated by COVID-19 are only temporary and to bring back and strengthen music in its many guises as a vital part of education and learning across the lifespan as soon as the situation allows.…”

“…A requirement was introduced for areas of study to include Western Classical Music, controversially defined as music composed between 1650 and 1910, although in reality the previous specifications already included this. A limited number of vocational qualifications are also included in the English Performance Tables, although the numbers of students taking such qualifications in music are far fewer than GCSE and A-level, which themselves are in decline (Bath et al 2020).…”

The challenge of ensuring effective early years music education by non-specialists

“…This triadic view of the role of the teacher persists to the present day, despite the contested nature of how to define 'music', 'development' and 'pedagogy', not least because each subsequent iteration of the National Curriculum in England since 1989 has continued to have a strong emphasis on subject knowledge, albeit biased towards certain subjects as 'core', such as English, mathematics and science, and with others, such as the arts, being somewhat more peripheral. This marginalisation has increased over the past decade with the introduction in Secondary schools of an 'English Baccalaureate' (EBacc) (DFE, 2010;DFE, 2019) in which arts subjects, including music, are not included (Bath, Daubney, Mackrill, & Spruce, 2020;Welch, 2011Welch, , 2012aZeserson, Welch, Burn, Saunders, & Himonides, 2014).…”