Finding the balance: teachers as recontextualising agents in the struggle between classical and popular music in the secondary school curriculum.

Abstract

Many commentators have argued that Western music education is in a state of crisis. Within the field, traditional views centred on classical traditions and cultural reproduction, are contrasted with alternative conceptions centred on popular music and rights of ownership. This paper discusses the application of Basil Bernstein’s concept of recontextualisation to an exploratory study of seven experienced New Zealand secondary school music teachers’ perceptions and experiences of these two accounts of music education. It considers the role that pedagogic autonomy plays in maintaining the tension experienced by these teachers in their curriculum realisation as they continually seek balance in recontextualising musical and educational values for pedagogic purposes.