Youth Voice in Music Education: 10 things to think about

How do you incorporate the voices of young people in your organisation? How can we truly listen to what young people are saying? And what might be barriers to their engagement?

As we support the music education sector in its pandemic recovery, our members are grappling with a range of challenges while they strive to build sustainable organisations for the future. Lockdowns across the UK, a widespread reduction in funding for local authorities and the cultural sector, and a fall in music being taken up as an elective subject are a threat to future of Music Education. Music hubs and services, and the wider music education ecosystem, have a key role to play in bringing the benefits of music to as wide a range of children and young people as possible.

Our Youth Voice in Music Education resource is the result of conversations we’ve had with people and organisations who are doing great work in this area and who have been generous with their time and knowledge, sharing the results of their successes and failures, to provoke, inspire and inform us of some of the key things they think we should bear in mind when we’re seeking to incorporate Youth Voice in our organisations. We’ve included some case studies from adjacent sectors too, as we think we can learn and adapt from their experiences. We hope you find them as inspiring and helpful as we do.