Abstract
The Sage Handbook of School Music Education is a timely collection that repositions school music within a rapidly changing educational landscape. The book editors have chosen to frame the conversation in four parts: philosophical foundations (Christophersen); equity and social justice (Nichols); curriculum (Aróstegui); and teacher education (Matsunobu). The main argument is that music education must both reconnect with the wider school curriculum and engage with societal realities, moving beyond narrow, performative metrics in order to cultivate creativity, citizenship, and criticality.
The opening chapter sets the frame: Aróstegui and colleagues suggest that, after decades of neoliberal performativity, a “new era” is emerging in which well-rounded education and transdisciplinarity restore the arts to a central role. The authors argue that this is needed following neoliberal policy cycles, the 2008 financial crisis, and COVID-19, contending that a broader, transdisciplinary curriculum is emerging in which the arts regain relevance alongside STEM (often as STEAM). The editors position school music as a site for holistic learning: integrating ICT and creativity; valuing qualitative forms of assessment; and educating “free citizens” capable of deliberation and critical thinking. This case is made through clear links to shifts in international policy (e.g. Every Student Succeeds Act’s [ESSA] “well-rounded education”) and national reforms (e.g. Finland, Norway, Spain’s new Education Act Ley Orgánica de Modificación de la Ley Orgánica de Educación [LOMLOE], Jefatura del Estado, 2020), while warning that the rhetoric of adaptability can be captured by economic imperatives unless anchored to substantive educational values.
Philosophical contributions (e.g. Johansen Chapter 2; Kertz-Welzel Chapter 3) explore navigating “chaos” and advocating utopian thinking in/through school music. Rather than reverting to narrow measurement, the chapters argue for cultivating hope, democratic dialogue, and aesthetic spaces where students imagine alternative futures. Importantly, Kertz-Welzel reframes school music education as both socially responsive and aesthetic. This dual emphasis is a strength – recovering aesthetic experience while sustaining social purpose.
Part II centres equity, class, and democracy in a forthright manner. Bylica’s Chapter 12 problematises “voice and choice” pedagogies that reduce democracy to procedural participation, proposing Biesta’s (2005, 2006, 2013) notion of coming into presence – relational, interruptive encounters with difference. Dyndahl’s chapter on social class is quite provocative and challenges the field’s tendency to ignore class compared to race, gender, or disability, introducing “musical gentrification” to show how popular music enter academia in ways that sometimes marginalise working-class cultures.
Curriculum chapters argue for a holistic school music: integrating science–arts learning, soundscapes, creative technologies, and assessment that values process as well as product (e.g. Model Cornerstone Assessment; theatre/dance frameworks). The chapters are not anti-assessment but more about not reducing curriculum and assessment approaches so that composing, improvising, and reflective practice is captured alongside performance. That is, approaches that capture process as well as product. While much of the policy mapping is European/US-centric, the implications for Australian schools where general capabilities, cross-curriculum priorities, and Arts learning areas already exist are obvious. Music can be a partner in wellbeing, sustainability, and intercultural understanding, provided assessment and accountability are rethought allowing for richer evidence of learning.
Teacher education (Part IV) confronts preservice and in-service learning, urging decolonising pedagogies, activist identities, and sustainable professionalism. The chapters highlight navigating unpredictable futures, building resilience, and expanding technological literacy. The call to develop civic professionalism which links high-quality musical practice with democratic purposes is apt for current debates about initial teacher education in Australia.
For the Australian audience, Julie Ballantyne’s Chapter 42 in Part IV “Preparing for an Uncertain Future: Proposing a Reflective-Practice Pathway Towards Productive and Reflexive Professional Identities” is particularly relevant. This chapter discusses teacher identity and agency, culturally responsive pedagogy, and professional development and advocacy. She introduces frameworks like the reflexivity and professional identity development cycle (RAPID) (Bain et al., 2002; Beijaard et al., 2004; Korthagen & Nuijten, 2022; Van Manen, 1995) for critical reflection, advocates for decolonising music education, discusses the need for arts-based learning as essential for teacher growth, and urges educators to engage in grassroots advocacy alongside policy conversations. This chapter provides practical and philosophical tools for educators to support Indigenous voices in music education, address equity and inclusion for diverse learners, and how to maintain creative and ethical practices whilst facing other systemic pressures.
Overall, this handbook – although long – works well due to the editorial architecture across philosophy, justice, curriculum, and teacher education. Its international range offers comparative lenses that Australian educators can adapt with local refinement and input. Its refusal to treat democracy as mere voting or “student voice”, its insistence on class analysis, and its recovery of the aesthetic are notable contributions. At times, the policy examples lean heavily on certain European and US contexts meaning that the realities of Australian schooling, such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives, and remote and very remote schooling, are missing from discussions. Not all chapters offer practical frameworks or models which you would expect from a handbook. However, the thought-provoking reframing of music education in schools can offer leaders, teachers, and teacher educators ways to embed music more deeply and justly in schooling without sacrificing musical integrity.
