Minerva Elements Records
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Item'It's music and we came to play instruments': teaching for engagement in classroom music(ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2022-08-08)Over the last five decades there have been persistent concerns about low levels of student satisfaction with school music. Small numbers of students participate in elective and co-curricular school music, yet student enjoyment and involvement in music outside school is well documented, primarily through listening to music. There has been interest in adopting teaching practices that originate in out-of-school contexts and bringing these into classroom music. Approaches to increase engagement have focussed on adopting a more student-centred approach that incorporates the real-world learning practices of students’ everyday musical cultures and provides greater opportunities for creativity. One approach thought to make classroom music more meaningful for students by drawing their outside musical lives into their school music experiences is the Musical Futures program. Musical Futures consists of complementary approaches arising from out-of-school contexts, including those of popular musicians and community musicians. It is characterised by learning that is student-driven with an emphasis on learning through immersion in music making. Despite student engagement being regularly mentioned in research as a key outcome when teachers adopt Musical Futures, less is known about the specific teacher practices that foster engagement from a classroom perspective. This ethnographic study investigates teacher practices that encourage engagement in classroom music. The data collection was undertaken in a primary (elementary) and a secondary school in the outer south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, and focussed on the classroom practice of two teachers in four classes of students aged ten to sixteen years. The two teachers invited to participate in the study had been identified as being influenced by the Musical Futures approach following their participation in a professional learning workshop. The findings draw on participant-observation of music lessons, interviews and focus groups. Although the two teacher participants both employed practices which were identified as being conducive to engagement in their classrooms, the study revealed differences in their approach. The relationship between student engagement and classroom music teaching is complex, fluid, and situational and the analysis revealed a complex picture of engaging teaching presented as five characteristics: fostering a positive student response, maximising involvement in music making, navigating autonomy and participation, enacting a repertoire of teacher roles, and negotiating school policy in day-to-day assessment practices. The findings are drawn together under three themes - acknowledging cultures and real-world practice, emphasising a student-centred creative approach, navigating prevailing beliefs and systems and practice - that represent principles of engaging classroom music teaching drawn from an historical investigation of the music education literature. A model of teaching for engagement in classroom music arising from this research is proposed.