by Author HallamR

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Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose: part 1

This epigram by Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr was in the January 1849 issue of his journal Les Guêpes (“The Wasps”). Literally “The more it changes, the more it’s the same thing.” So why include it here?

I received an email from a colleague who was clearing out her house and came across a 12 year old piece of research involving moving things forwards for young people with Special Educational Needs. The issues identified were:

  • Subject expertise of music co-ordinators
  • Access to music therapy
  • Availability of relevant CPD
  • The lack of a common foundation music curriculum for this pupil population
  • The large age range in this pupil population
  • The lack of music education materials for this pupil population
  • How do pupils link the music used in these situations to the actual music sessions?
  • How is music selected for these purposes?
  • The extent to which the specialist beam technology is used for musical purposes.
  • The monitoring of reactions to sound input in work in multisensory areas.
  • How all this musical activity provided by “outsiders” links to the planned and monitored music education provided by teachers.
  • What kinds of musical behaviour should teachers be expecting?
  • Are there any patterns of musical development traceable in these observations?
  • Provision made and monitoring for pupils selected by staff as having flair or particular interest in music.
  • How the school experience of music links to the rest of life for these pupils.

And the report asked: WHERE NEXT?

  • Examination of the musical behaviour of some of these children, looking at development in individuals, to see if any show “normal” patterns of musical development over a protracted period, or any other patterns.
  • Construction of a musical curriculum framework for those children based on the evidence of musical behaviour gleaned and the research base of early musical development. Testing of the framework in situ.

As I prepare to take on my 3 year post as Chair of the Music Education Council from July I hope to move forward on issues relating to SEND and other matters of interest and concern to the music education world. Let’s identify where things have improved and what we need to do to ensure the power of music really can make a difference to everyone’s lives. We can’t do everything at once, but, if each year we aim to make sure we leave things better than they were before then, over time, significant improvements will appear!

Do comment below or get in touch via my profile if you have a view – and look out for ‘plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose: part 2’.