Knowledge and the curriculum: Music as a case study in educational futures

AbstractThis paper utilises the three theoretical scenarios or "educational futures" developed by Michael Young and Johan Muller as reference points for discussing the curriculum conception approaches observed in a recent doctoral study in music education. In using Young and Muller's model to move from case specifics to broader understandings of curriculum change I argue that cognisance of the relationship between informal and formal knowledge is a key issue in music education. Because of the growing role of popular music in the classroom (Green, 2008) providing access for students to varied forms of knowledge has become an important aspect of teachers' work. This work involves making connections between aspects of the everyday informal knowledge that many music students bring to the classroom, and the conceptual knowledge of the discipline. The challenges involved in refraining informal knowledge may be relevant in other curriculum areas, particularly where knowledge content is susceptible to socio-cultural influences.Keywords: informal and formal knowledge; music curriculum; knowledge; curriculum; disciplines.IntroductionIn a recent paper, Young and Muller (2010) add to the growing knowledge and curriculum debate within the sociology of education by providing an analysis of current trends in educational policy conceptualised as three possible approaches to knowledge or "educational futures". I utilise these futures, or scenarios, as a heuristic in considering the approaches to curriculum conception and realisation observed as part of a recent doctoral research project in music education (McPhail, 2012a). Young and Muller's argument seeks to elucidate the "intimate link between knowledge form and curriculum organisation" (2010, p. 20) and in this paper I consider how various forms of pedagogy are also implicated in the knowledge and curriculum debate. I begin by briefly outlining the research context and Young and Muller's (2010) three scenarios for educational futures. In the subsequent sections I take each of Young and Muller's three "futures" and relate these to the approach to knowledge exhibited by a number of teachers in their elective (option) music classes, arguing that cognisance of the relationship between informal and formal knowledge is a key factor in teacher effectiveness. This is particularly so in music which is strongly influenced by student interest and broader socio-cultural trends.In this paper I take informal knowledge to be that which is situated, context dependent, and predominantly non-verbal, as in Bernstein's horizontal discourse (Bernstein, 2000). This knowledge tends to be acquired through ad hoc experience rather than through "systematically related sets of concepts" (Young, 2010b, p. 25) and, while such knowledge may be acquired informally in very effective ways (Green, 2002), the centrai argument here is that, within the context of schooling, knowledge needs to be conceptualised and made explicit. Knowledge in many curriculum areas comprises both theoretical and procedural and experiential components and in music this is certainly the case. Practical doing (performing, composing, arranging, etc) is "embodied principled knowledge" (Gamble, 2010, p. 124), and within the more systemised and vertical discourses of the school it too becomes available for abstraction and conceptualisation.Changes in education over the last two decades have resulted in substantial reconstruction of curricula and of the identities associated with disciplines (Young, 2008). Secondary school music, once a "classical singular" (Bernstein, 2000) has undergone cumulative changes in New Zealand since 1993 that have been far reaching (McPhail, 2012b). Most significantly the music curriculum has been affected by the growth of popular music's importance in young people's lives and its ubiquitous presence as a cultural and social force (Bowman, 2004; Dunbar-Hall & Wemyss, 2000; Green, 2008; Walker, 2009). …