Organisation: Music Council of Australia

Website: www.mca.org.au/web/content/view/102/6/#audit

Details: The key finding is that on average, only 17 hours of mandatory training in music and music pedagogy is provided in preservice training of Australian primary school teachers.

The audit follows preliminary surveys of online university handbooks of mandatory music courses for preservice primary and early childhood teacher programs, undertaken by the Music Council of Australia in February 2008, which demonstrated that 19
universities out of 24 measured, placed less than 2% of value of a total degree on mandatory music for primary teaching programs. However, this figure does not "measure quality of education, musical or pedagogical aspects taught, or abilities of students when they graduate." This current audit aims to inform these unknown areas so that a fuller picture of the current situation of mandatory music in preservice primary teaching programs is known.

Teacher accreditation, teacher training programs accreditation, and curricula aims are also examined to determine where decisions about music in education originate. It is possible that what is being measured in this audit is not only the situation of music in teacher training programs, but also the expectation of music educational standards and responsibilities from government with the outcomes being seen in teacher training programs, and ultimately in the schools themselves. The preference to merge music into the subject of creative arts reflects research and pedagogies in teaching the arts, but also meets budget-saving and timesaving requirements. But the disadvantage of this is that music fundamentals may be overlooked by interdisciplinary teaching, and subsequently, benefits of music are almost inevitably are lost.

Structure of the Report:

The issue of mandatory music for preservice teachers is a shared issue that involves teaching institutions, curriculum writers, teacher registration boards, and government.
The way these organisations contribute to how and what music is taught to preservice primary teachers is outlined in the section on �€œAccreditation and Curricula�€�.

A survey of mandatory music in preservice teacher programs, titled �€œPrimary and Early
Childhood Programs in Online Handbooks 2009/2010�€�, gives the basic descriptors of the subjects concerned as published in universities online handbooks for 2009/2010. Overwhelmingly these are subjects that cover arts rather than being specifically on the discipline of music. In �€œExamples of Past Handbooks 1989, 1990�€�, examples of comparable subjects from ten and twenty years ago are also given so that trends towards
the current situation can be observed.

The �€œAudit of Current Arts/Music Education Subjects�€� then is presented question by question, with responses from arts/music lecturers given and analysis made. Universities
have been of great assistance with the audit, and their help has been greatly appreciated. Following these responses, conclusions and future directions are given.

Contact details: Dr Richard Letts, 64/1 Macquarie St., Sydney 2000, Australia

Email: mca@mca.org.au

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