Research Roundups: Recent Music Education Research January 2024

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

The first round-up of the new year finds us on a snowy day for much of the UK, as the Music Mark office is comparing ways to keep warm (electric blanket here!). Let’s get right to the world of Music Education research and recent publications, we’ve got a bumper edition of two months’ worth of material to enjoy.

Schools Focused Work

Regina Murphy and Claire Shortall’s recent research report ‘Exploring Processes of Inclusion and Creativity in Music Education Showcases in Schools‘, funded by Creative Ireland, is well worth a read, they found ‘Competition inspired a unique type of creative and collaborative music making, heightening the experience of school as a community of music makers for all participants in varying, positive ways.’

Elsewhere, an article on determining factors in the career choice of music high school students, focused in Hungary, explores young people attending specialist music secondary schools, asking them about their ‘career choice, their vision of the future, and the external and internal professional motivational factors’ is a useful reminder of the importance of a supportive environment for students to progress.

Some nice new books popping up too, Clint Randles’ new book Milestone in Music Education (2023, Routledge) is now out which looks to be a great guide and overview. Also with Routledge, Gabrielle Kielich’s The Road Crew: Live Music and Touring.

HE and Conservatoire Focused

Teaching free improvisation in higher music institutions might be of interest to secondary and HE educators (Una MacGlone and Guro Gravem Johansen, peer reviewed, open access). Helen English, Jon Drummond and Susan Kerrigan’s journal article in The Australian Educational Researcher, which ‘investigated the experiences of women in a music degree programme at a regional university’ (peer reviewed, paywalled). Elsewhere, Alexis Anja Kallio considers the role of music education researchers in wider public discourse. (peer reviewed, open access).

Finally, sneaking these two. The first is headed to ebook (affordable) and hardback (academic pricing, so somewhat less so) land very soon, a new ISME Series in Music Education edition: Music Schools in Changing Societies: How Collaborative Professionalism Can Transform Music Education. As an edited collection it looks like an overview of practice across Europe, and will be out on Feb 1st. The second you’ll have a bit longer to wait for, by Lori A. Custodero, Before We Teach Music: The Resonant Legacies of Childhoods and Children over with Oxford University Press. Custodero’s book aims to reveal ‘how our capacities to live musically and to cultivate a musical life are derived from the legacies of childhood’ and is sure to be of interest to many of us.

Otherwise wrap up warm, and join us next week for another Research Short.

Dr Sarah K. Whitfield – Research Lead for Music Mark