Development of Music as a Foundation National Curriculum Subject - Coursework Example

Development of Music as a Foundation National Curriculum s Submitted by s: Development of Music as a Foundation National Curriculum Subject Introduction The National Curriculum of England and Wales that was established in 1988 (Butt, 2000, p. 125), dictated the purposes of education and the knowledge and skills that the school children were supposed to be taught as well as what was considered to be appropriate knowledge for them to learn in the schools that they went to (Middlewood and Burton, 2001, p. 128). In doing this, the central government heavily regulated what the teachers were allowed to do in terms of teaching in the schools. From the early 1990’s through a programme that entailed school inspection and in the early twenty first century through the National Literacy and Numeracy strategies, the central government has also attempted to direct how the teachers should go about teaching the key element of the formal academic curriculum in the schools in Britain. The National Curriculum can be looked at in terms of both academic subjects and personal and social criteria that the students need to develop and the Education Reform Act (ERA) 1988 stresses the significance of two goals that are needed for a curriculum that will be balanced and broadly-based. These are the preferment of the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical progress of the pupils at the school as well as those that are in the society and the training of the pupils for the chances, duties and skills that they will need in their adult life and this is underscored in the teacher’s guide to the National Curriculum. This made the core subjects to be given disproportionate amounts of time since there are perceived to be important to the national society and the foundation subject must be taught but they are supposed to only take up the time that is to spare after the core subjects have been given sufficient time. Changes in the National Curriculum Since the year 2000 a pre-school or foundation stage curriculum has been identified for the children that are below 5 years when they are supposed to begin their formal schooling in England and Wales and in addition to particular subjects, a variety of cross-curriculum skills and areas of knowledge that are normally taught through other subjects have been prescribed so that the children can learn them. Since 2002, citizenship which is one of the subjects that has been prescribed, must be allocated some space in the timetables that are created by the schools and since the Children’s Act there have been various transferrable skills that have been proposed by the central government which all the schools will have to deliver as part of the curriculum when the Act will be implemented wholly (Busher, 2006, p. 104). All the schools that are in England have gone through a re-assessment that has been stormy and have had to comply with the adoption of many changes in the past twenty years. The primary schools have been in the front position of the direction and control that is being constantly increased by the central government not only in the sectors that comprise of curriculum and assessment, but also the area that is associated with the teaching methods. Despite misgivings that may occur some of which are serious, the primary school teachers have conformed with the guidelines that were given by a view that perceived education like a commodity that was supposed to be delivered to the consumers through the use of accountability and political expediency. The bombardment of regulations, requirements and instructions have made the teachers that deal with the primary schools to feel undermined and stripped of the professionalism that they possess since most had chosen to become teachers in the primary schools because they believed that the primary school children had a lot of potential to learn and they wanted to be identified with this. The perceive the needs of the children not only in the context of acquiring knowledge and skills that are assessable but also the development of the confidence of the primary school child, the self-esteem, independence, their individuality, their creativity, the skills that the need to be collaborative and cooperative and also the respect for others. It is argued that if this belief that they had in their own professionalism is to be revived, they must be trusted to make professional judgements and decisions based on the knowledge that they have been able to gain from their experience in this sector which does not entail curriculum content only, but also the individual strengths and needs that the children possess and the understanding on the best way that learning can be improved in this section of education (Gearon, 2013, p. 79). The education Reform act of 1988 introduced the National Curriculum for both England and wales and it also encompassed Northern Ireland eventually with both England and Wales having English, mathematics and science as core subjects and welsh is also a core subject but this is only applicable un the schools that use the language as the mans of instruction. The same set of foundation subjects exist for both England and Wales and the include art, history, geography, music, physical education and technology with each subject having programs of study and attainment of targets which can be equated to the courses and goals in the United States Revisions that took place in 2000, 2002 and 2007 (Collins, 2013, p. 201). Specifications of general skills for Music For each of the foundation subjects there are specifications of general skills and understandings and descriptions that are detailed of targets that are supposed to be attained by the pupils and this were to be assessed at the culmination of each key stage of education and a big amount of documentation that contained the guidelines for all the areas that were covered by the National Curriculum was sent to all the schools while in service training was used to provide professional development for the teachers so that this could enable the National Curriculum to go through implementation (Döbert, Klieme and Sroka, 2004, p. 89). A National Curriculum that is statutory for music in England and Wales was established in 1992 and music being a foundation language (Brinson, 1991, p. 170), it became a curriculum subject that was compulsory for pupils all the way the key stage three and from the onset, it had been intended that music making within and beyond the curriculum is supposed to be intrinsically connected. It was proposed that the areas that involved aural awareness, technique, interpretation, composing, communication and critical awareness were completely compatible with those that were in a balanced instrumental curriculum and it was believed that to make sure that there was coherence in the learning across the whole width of the musical experiences, instrumental and class teachers had to consider ways that instrumental learning could be able to complement and enhance the music curriculum (Beach, Evans and Spruce, 2011, p. 12). It can be emphasised that there was need for class music to enhance and reinforce instrumental learning in the schools and the Federation of Music services and the National Association of Music Educators produced a document that was called A Common Approach: A Framework for an Instrumental/Vocal Curriculum (FMS/NAME 1998). It stressed the idea that all the children were supposed to get an opportunity to sing and be able to play a musical instrument and it also attempted to provide a common methodology to the planning of a curriculum that is advanced and comprehensible for instrument or vocal teaching which was able to complement and also meet the requirements that had been set by the National Curriculum. Playing and singing was the integral part of the framework, and just like in the national curriculum, performing and composing, listening and assessing were included at each and every stage and the principle of understanding sound before a symbol was emphasised. Consequently, in 2002 FMS,NAME and the Royal College of Music produced a series of documents which were complementary to A Common Approach which were specific to particular families of instruments that was called A Common Approach 2002: An Instrument/Vocal Curriculum and this had outcomes that had a dependable approach across music services to planning for the pupils’ progression in the instrumental and vocal learning and it also went an extra mile of facilitating links between the music that the pupils made in the curriculum music and in music lessons that were outside the classroom (Beach, Evans and Spruce, 2011, p. 13). The statutory National Curriculum for Music in England and was has been able for the first time in history to encourage schools to make formal the commitment that they have to the teaching of music as an entitlement for all the children across the primary age range that is five to eleven years (Riley and Prentice, 1999, p. 20). Changes in the National Curriculum for Music Both the nature and the content of the National Curriculum changed considerably during the period that it was going through its evolution and by the time the interim report for Music was published it had been declared that children would only be given external tests in English, mathematics and science and that music was to be a compulsory subject only up to the age of 14. In their original forms the Attainment targets for music were corresponding to the three main parameters of Swanwick’s model and this is the format that had been accepted in Wales but the constitutional process that was going on in England was not as smooth as it was in Wales mainly because Kenneth Clarke who was then the Secretary for Education was bent on reducing the total number of Attainment Targets to become two instead of the conventional three. He hoped that if he made the document shorter, then it would be relatively easier to understand but he had failed to predict the degree of support that the document was bound to receive from the teachers and eventually a compromise had to be reached. Although there were only two Attainment Targets, the second which entailed composing and performing was to be given twice as much weight as the first in any guidance on an assessment. Eventually, this weighing was not included in the either the 1992 Order for England or in the revised Order of 1995 although such a weighing can clearly be implied by the content and the layout of the curriculum. Despite these machinations, the two important developments had come to pass and for the first time since the 1870 Act every child that was between the age of 5 and 7 had a legal right to be taught and learn music and there were now agreements nationally that that the education of music should be based on principles that were similar to those that had been prescribed by Swanwick in 1979 and they were retained in 1994 Dearing revision of the National Curriculum (Pugh and Pugh, 1998, p. 16). Development of generalist and specialist ideas In the late seventies, the teachers that were able to play instruments other the piano or those that had a general interest in music either as consumers or practitioners that were amateur were encouraged to play a part in the music education that their pupils were supposed to take. The role that the music specialists had was amended to become music curriculum leaders or music coordinators and these terms brought a new definition of the changing role of the specialist to include that of the music supporter and enabler and this allowed more children to benefit from the music lessons that were concentrated in the classroom which were led by the teachers. This was not meant to deny the role that could be played in the music life of a school by the teacher who is a trained musician that was important and the school choir, the recorder group, the special percussion group and the instrument group among others are all opportunities that are enriching. There were instances where the successful teachers who did not look at music as their specialism but they have a good amount of expertise in some of the areas that are associated with the making of music where an example can be considered in the case of a mathematics specialist who as a keen amateur singer has experience of choral singing and performance. The children that are in this particular school sing well, confidently and are secure in part-singing and these kinds of teachers are an asset to any school as they bring to music-making the enthusiasm and joy which are at the heart of many of the amateur choirs and instrumentals groups (Riley and Prentice, 1999, p. 21). The revision of the curriculum in 2000 and 2007 can be expressed in terms of the development that the pupils need in understanding music through the integration of performing, composing and listening and the National Curriculum that will be amended in 2014 might go back to considering these as three different activities that are exclusive. The stress in understanding rather than the skills that is associated with them as the goal of the curriculum, and the active engagement of the pupils in the development of these understanding through performing, composing and listening escalated (Burnard, 2014, p. 12). The National Curriculum replaced a system whereby the music teachers were conventionally autonomous and were not obligated to respond to any calls for a direction that is common and had an agenda that could be considered to be politically conservative (Colwell and Richardson, 2002, p. 123). It can be concluded that there is a difference between the generalist and the specialist types of music education, the former making a contribution to the development of all the children as people and the latter to the training of the musicians and it can also be said that the generalist music education was supposed to involve the pupils in the development of music so that they could be able to practice to think the way that musicians do. The pupils that will go on and take up music later in their education and consequently to choose to train as teachers will have gone through the experience that will have made them familiarise with the generalist music education but as music continues to graduate, the will also become the products of the specialist music education. For the teachers that are starting as music teachers globally, the experience of higher music education has proved to be one that is established on their own ability and the interest that they might have in music (Burnard, 2014, p. 13). Implications of the revision of the National Curriculum The revised National Curriculum has served to provide clarification that is useful on how vital creativity is in the classroom that teaches music with a new rationale that also includes guidelines on inclusion that are very useful, PHSE and citizenship and a Statement of Values where each context there is the notion of building self-esteem, teaching self-respect, respect for difference, developing confidence and cooperation are key points. These are the skills that are exclusively exercised by teaching that require that the pupils behave in a particular way that is creative when they are in the music lessons and even though a lot of research has argued that music is important, the recent trends in the schools curricula and the Initial Teacher Training suggest that this is not what always happens as far as practise is concerned. Some hope can be derived from the National Curriculum that is revised which has value for music and also makes the requirement for pupils to take part creatively in a specific way but there is no way that teaching for development of creativity can take place in the schools when there is a base that is low and the teachers who have lost confidence against a background where the public has very little understanding (Philpott and Plummeridge, 2001). The teachers of music have been moving towards the incorporation of all the types of music to their cause and this freedom to select from the past and the present while making sure that they can be able to recognise the diversity that is in culture has developed to be an important of their credential and a characteristic of the escalating confidence and attention to diversity. The creation of a fundamentally different assessment at age 16 that identifies the interest of the children and involving all the types of music has been able to provide a model for the teachers to work with and for the community of music education to be proud of. While the debates that are vague continue to encompass culture, the traditional values and contested forms of knowledge once again are brought to the surface, music teachers took part in meetings that were convened so that to canvass their ideas on what form a National Curriculum for music is supposed to take. They did this with a lot of eagerness and zeal and with conceptions of music education to defend and promote and this generated a common opinion about the role of composition as an inventive and indispensible activity and a growing unanimity about learning music through practice. Above all is the conviction the in particular pupils have ideas and feelings in music that have the capacity to be expressed that are unique to each child and therefore music cannot be promoted as practical activity and this has to be defended if necessary. It seemed like the cultural capital that was associated with the middle class was the hub of the national curriculum foe music in England and Wales from the very beginning or from the beginning of the Working Group that had been created to come up with the curriculum. Even the scoffed liberalism of the initial proposals that included those that were adapted in Wales must be viewed in this predominant contextualisation. Wales went ahead and produced its national curriculum for music with three attainment targets that were original that included, performing, composing and appraising, now subsumed into one that is mandated with combining all the three areas as the same programmes of study. While it was true without any doubt that this aesthetic was forced in a manner that can be termed to be draconian in England, there is the possibility to question the extent to which curricular substance differed on the Welsh side of the River Severn. With relation to the music curriculum, it has been seen that western music favours children of the families who can afford or are in a position to pay the tuition on an orchestral instrument and other cultural factors also put the middle class children in a point of advantage in the studies that are mainly dominated by the western art music. It will emerge therefore that the story of the production of the national curriculum for music provides experiential evidence that support the claims that external power relations act to produce hierarchies of knowledge, opportunities and value within schools. The evidence appears to show that in the case of the music curriculum this tends to be inevitable the position since given the orientation towards a particular type of music that give the children of the middle class families an advantage and therefore the democracy of such a curriculum must be called to question (Wright, 2010, p. 42). Bibliography Beach, N., Evans, J. and Spruce, G. 2011. Making music in the primary school. London: Routledge. Brinson, P. 1991. Dance as education. London: Falmer. Burnard, P. 2014. Developing creativities in higher music education: International perspectives and practices. Abingdon: Routledge. Butt, G. 2000. The Continuum guide to geography education. London: Continuum. Busher, H. 2006. Understanding educational leadership. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Collins, I. H. 2013. Dictionary of music education. Lanham: The Scarecrow, Inc. Colwell, R. and Richardson, C. P. 2002. The new handbook of research on music teaching and learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Döbert, H., Klieme, E. and Sroka, W. 2004. Conditions of school performance in seven countries. Münster: Waxmann. Gearon, L. 2013. Education in the United Kingdom. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. Middlewood, D. and Burton, N. 2001. Managing the curriculum. London: Paul Chapman. Philpott, C. and Plummeridge, C. 2001. Issues in music teaching. London: RoutledgeFalmer. Pugh, A. and Pugh, L. 1998. Music in the early years. London: Routledge. Riley, J. and Prentice, R. 1999. The curriculum for 7-11 year olds. London: Paul Chapman Pub. Wright, R. 2010. Sociology and music education. Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate. Read More