National Review of School Music Education - Murdoch Research ...

America take some form of music up to Year 10 and ‘probably less than half of that by Year 12’
(Walker, 2005, p. 36). In Hong Kong, McPherson (2004, cited in Walker, 2005) reports less than
1% for both the 16-plus and 18-plus cohorts participating in the centralised school music
examinations. The issues of accessibility and participation in Australian music education have been
raised by Bonham (1984). She writes:
When music education is not freely available to all socio-economic groups it follows that
considerable numbers of musically gifted and talented young people will remain unidentified,
to become frustrated in later life when it will be too late for them to pursue a career in music.
When music education can be bought in the private sector by parents who are willing to pay,
the music professions can only draw on this one class in the community for the next
generation of members, and for moral support. The consequence is that the pursuit of fine
music as a field of endeavour, is rightly open to charges of elitism because it is only available
to the affluent. Elitism based on high standards must be preserved at all costs, but how can
we support exclusively based on the ability to pay? (p. 103)
Although a key strength of Australian music education lies in the recognition that ‘music should be
available to all children throughout their schooling’ (McPherson & Dunbar-Hall, 2001, p. 23), the
Stevens’ Report (MCA, 2003) found that Australian students could complete 13 years of education
without participating in any form of music education. This is especially possible in Victoria,
Western Australia or the Australian Capital Territory where there are no mandatory or prescribed
requirements for music education. The South Australia and Queensland curricula prescribe music
education only in Year 8 while New South Wales stipulates 100 hours of music study for Years 7
and 8.
Two recent studies in Australia have revealed widespread interest in music and arts education. The
Australia Council’s national study, Australian and the Arts, found that 85% of Australians agreed that
the Arts ‘should be an important of the education of every Australian kid’ and 86% would feel
more positive about the Arts if there were ‘better education and opportunities for kids in the arts’
(Costantoura, 2001, p. 311). The Australian Attitudes to Music survey (Australian Music
Association, 2001) found near unanimous concurrence that the study of music should be part of a
well-rounded education (95%) and all schools should offer an instrumental music education as part
of the regular curriculum (91%). The study also found that 87% of respondents supported the
notion that music education should be mandated by the States to ensure every child has an
opportunity to study music in school.
An important study by Lepherd (1994) reports that the economic recession of the 1980s had
‘placed greater pressure on teachers to perform better with fewer resources’ (p. 5) and saw ‘the
lowering of esteem for music’ (p. 13). It acknowledges the difficulty of ‘universal access to music
education’ due to the problems of distance and isolation within Australia (p. 42). Respondents in
the study express concern that ‘less musically qualified people were making policy decisions’ as the
move towards devolution diminished the role of central administration (p. 49) and axed specialized
music advisory personnel who used to provide professional development and support for music
teachers (p. 50). The issue of insufficient funding for music has been brought up ‘almost
unanimously’ by respondents to the study who cite the need for more support for talented
children, maintenance and replacement of equipment, in-service training and ‘fully qualified
teachers at the primary level’ (p. 55).
Two landmark studies of Australian music education undertaken by Bartle (1968) and Covell
(1970) concluded that the status and conditions of music education in Australian schools were
poor and recommended major changes. Both made recommendations regarding having specialist
teachers in primary schools, and the undertaking of reforms to syllabus documents and teacher
training. Bartle also recommended the deployment of itinerant instrumental teachers in
government primary schools to lay the foundation for the subject in secondary schools.
Some twenty years later, primary music teaching was still found wanting by researchers such as
Gifford (1993), Russell-Bowie (1993), Jeanneret (1994), Lepherd (1994) and Stevens (2000). The
major findings of these largely quantitative studies consistently revealed that music in Australian
primary schools suffered a low status within the general curriculum, receiving little support or
direction. The 1995 Senate Enquiry into Arts Education reinforced the earlier findings, concluding
that for music to be taught effectively: (1) curriculum changes needed to be monitored; (2)
professional development programmes needed to improve in quality and quantity; and (3) the
number of specialist or advisory (consultant) teachers available to primary schools should be
increased. The Enquiry notes that ‘[g]eneralist primary classroom teachers, because of their own
poor arts experience at school, and because of inadequate teacher training, lack confidence to teach
the arts. As a result… there is a strong impulse to marginalise the arts in their teaching’ (p. 49).
FINAL REPORT 7