3 Minute Literature

The focus of this special issue is the changes to Initial Teacher Education (ITE) that have been instituted in Wales over the last two years. At the heart of the new approach is the insistence that in the future all programmes of ITE should be planned, led and delivered not by universities alone, but by universities working in close collaboration with a number of partner schools. But what is the justification for these radical changes? Why is a collaborative approach between universities and schools needed? This paper, which takes the form of a personal literature review, sets out the research evidence on which I drew in contributing the reform process. It considers evidence on three issues: the role of schools; the role of universities; and the ways in which they can effectively work together.Furlong, J., (2020) “Re-forming Initial Teacher Education in Wales: A Personal Review of the Literature”, Wales Journal of Education 22(1), 38-59. doi: https://doi.org/10.16922/wje.22.1.3-en

Abstract: In 2022 both England and Wales released policy documents entitled A National Plan for Music Education. While the English policy was a long-awaited update to a similar policy published in 2011, the Welsh policy was unexpected and seemingly lacked precedent. Despite some attempt to align itself with the concurrent implementation of the new Curriculum for Wales, it more closely mirrored the English policy in seeking to address inequity in music education provision through the development of local music services providing extracurricular instrumental and vocal tuition. In light of these similarities, in this article we undertake a comparative policy analysis framed using Carol Bacchi’s “What’s the Problem Represented to Be?” approach. We explore the way in which the English policy problematizes access to “excellent” music education and proposes new discursive and institutional structures to “level up” opportunities. In contrast, we highlight how the equivalent Welsh policy conceptualizes the problem of music education as relating solely to access to “learning to play a musical instrument” and proposes the expansion of extracurricular music tuition through a national music service as the solution. Finally, we compare these two political approaches and ask whether the notion of “good-enough” music education could disrupt elitist notions of training in high-quality art musics and unlock new possibilities for music education.MacGregor, E. H., Breeze, T., & John, V. (2025). A National Plan for Music Education: A comparative “What’s the Problem Represented to Be?” analysis across England and Wales. Arts Education Policy Review.https://doi.org/10.1080/10632913.2025.2541817

Abstract: This article is a sequel to the conversation on learning initiated by the editors of Educational Researcher in volume 25, number 4. The author’s first aim is to elicit the metaphors for learning that guide our work as learners, teachers, and researchers. Two such metaphors are identified: the acquisition metaphor and the participation metaphor. Subsequently, their entailments are discussed and evaluated. Although some of the implications are deemed desirable and others are regarded as harmful, the article neither speaks against a particular metaphor nor tries to make a case for the other. Rather, these interpretations and applications of the metaphors undergo critical evaluation. In the end, the question of theoretical unification of the research on learning is addressed, wherein the purpose is to show how too great a devotion to one particular metaphor can lead to theoretical distortions and to undesirable practices. Sfard, A. (1998). On Two Metaphors for Learning and the Dangers of Choosing Just One. Educational Researcher, 27(2), 4-13.  https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X027002004

Abstract: While worldwide policy attention turns to mentoring to develop new teachers' practice, researchers have not investigated mentoring exchanges that support novices' teaching of historical reasoning and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) development. Drawing on case studies of U.S. mentor-novice pairs, authors ask: How, if at all, is the teaching of history represented in mentoring conversations? How, if at all, do mentoring exchanges support novices' teaching of historical reasoning? Authors illustrate how mentoring conversations can support PCK elements through guided conceptual and practical representations of disciplinary history instruction; and reveal a form of mentor PCK for diagnosing and supporting novices' PCK development. Achinstein, A. and Fogo, B. (2015) 'Mentoring novices' teaching of historical reasoning: Opportunities for pedagogical content knowledge development through mentor-facilitated practice', Teaching and Teaching Education, 45, pp. 45-48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2014.09.002  

Abstract Although teachers and researchers frequently acknowledge that music education can benefit pupils’ academic achievement, health and well-being, and social development, classroom music-making can have long-lasting, detrimental impacts. Individuals’ experiences of failure, disappointment, and exclusion in the music classroom highlight an urgent need for music education to be reframed by an understanding of “musical vulnerability”: individuals’ inherent and situational openness to being affected—positively or negatively—by the semantic and somatic properties of music-making. Drawing on existing vulnerability studies, I evaluate how classroom music-making can foster both positive receptivity and negative susceptibility, depending on its delineation of identity and physical embodiment. I then present reductive analyses of phenomenologically-informed interviews in which 12 secondary music teachers described their past experiences of being pupils, and their present experiences of teaching pupils, in music classrooms in the United Kingdom. Using excerpts from their observations of teaching pupils, I describe how interactions between individuals’ interpersonal and personal vulnerabilities—including personality, musical, and neurological differences—affected occasions of musical receptivity and susceptibility. As individuals negotiated conflicting musical expectations, they sometimes fostered fruitful resilience but sometimes encountered profound resignation. I draw on these findings to construct a preliminary typology of musical vulnerability and emphasize the need for future research into proactive differentiation in the music classroom. MacGregor, E. H. (2023). 'Characterizing musical vulnerability: Toward a typology of receptivity and susceptibility in the secondary music classroom.' Research Studies in Music Education.  https://doi.org/10.1177/1321103X231162981

Abstract In June 2015, the British government presented ‘the social justice case for an academic curriculum’ as the justification for recent radical changes to educational policy. However, this justification failed to account for both the key changes in the newly-revised National Curriculum for Music and the place of music in the National Curriculum as a whole. Through a critical evaluation of the National Curriculum for Music, this study will propose how the place of music could successfully be justified within an education system wholly committed to ‘social justice’. Using the ‘habit concept’ of classical philosophical pragmatism, it will assess how and why music's educational value should be understood not through its ‘academic rigour’ but through its distinctive, inherently destabilising nature. Bate, E. (2020). Justifying music in the national curriculum: The habit concept and the question of social justice and academic rigour. British Journal of Music Education, 37(1), 3-15. doi:10.1017/S0265051718000098

Abstract Within a theoretical framework drawn from sociologists of education Bourdieu and Bernstein, this paper will examine some of the findings of an ethnographic case study conducted with a secondary school music teacher and one class of her pupils in Wales. This teacher attracted 25% of Year 10 (14-year-old) pupils to study music as an optional subject against a national background of 8% average. The study attempted to examine the lived experiences of the participants in music at home and school. Teacher and pupils had much to say about music teaching and learning in the classroom and beyond. Much of the success of this particular music curriculum model appeared to stem from the teacher's ability to empathise with her pupils’ musical interests and recontextualise the National Curriculum for music to reflect these. Pupil voice was instrumental in curriculum design and delivery and the teacher showed the empathy required to ‘kick’ her Western Art Music-informed habitus to enable her to enter her pupils’ musical worlds. There were however points of tension between teacher and pupil evaluations of the curriculum reflecting differences of habitus and unequal distribution of power: the ultimate power over curriculum and pedagogy rested firmly with the teacher. Furthermore, in order to work with her pupils in the time allowed the teacher had to make compromises as to the instruments she could allow the majority of her pupils to play. For many of her pupils, this did not appear to present a problem but for a significant number it alienated them from their music education. ‘Informal’ pedagogy might offer a solution to these problems by locating the production and development of musical knowledge with the pupils themselves – for the pupils at the research school this would mean, among other things, allowing groups of pupils opportunities to choose their own curriculum material, providing opportunities for pupils to work in groups sharing knowledge of ‘real’ instruments and techniques and a substantial alteration of the balance of power in lessons, allowing pupils increased control over the pace and sequence of their learning. If such pedagogy is to become more widespread, there are big questions to be asked about the type of person suited to becoming a music teacher and the sort of music education and initial teacher education and training they require. How we as a profession respond to the challenges ahead may well be crucial to the future survival of music in schools. Wright, R. (2008) Kicking the habitus: power, culture and pedagogy in the secondary school music curriculum, Music Education Research, 10:3, 389-402, DOI: 10.1080/14613800802280134

Abstract: This paper will share the arts-integration methodology used in Project AIM and address the question; “How is translation evident in interdisciplinary arts instruction, and how does it affect students?” Pruitt, L., Ingram, D. and Weiss, C. (2014) 'Found in Translation: Interdisciplinary Arts Integration in Project AIM', Journal for Learning through the Arts: A Research Journal on Arts Integration in Schools and Communities, 10(1). https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1050606.pdf

Philpott, C. and Spruce, G. (2012) Debates in music teaching. London: Routledge. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203117446.

Abstract The premise of this paper is that the acknowledged gap between research and practice is primarily a gap between two sharply contrasting kinds of knowledge. The nature of this contrast is described and it is suggested that these two kinds of knowledge are at the opposite ends of a spectrum of kinds of knowledge related to classroom teaching and learning. Three possible ways of bridging this gap are explored. The first of these is derived from research. To bridge the gap, it is suggested, several steps are necessary from each of the two extremes before a balanced dialogue is likely to be possible. The process culminates in the critical trial by teachers of research‐based suggestions in the context of their own practice. A second complementary way of bridging the gap is through the choice of research strategies designed for that purpose. Three principles that might guide the choice of such strategies are suggested and exemplified; and it is noted that relatively little educational research in the UK has been in line with these principles. It is also noted that this second approach can facilitate, but not replace, the first. The third way of bridging the gap is through the development of ‘knowledge‐creating schools’ and the related idea of ‘Mode 2’ research. Being located near the middle of the continuum, and being designed to incorporate the complementary strengths of both ends of the continuum, such research might eliminate the gap entirely. Despite major issues concerning the validation and dissemination of knowledge claims, the development of all schools as knowledge‐creating schools is seen as an attractive idea, but not one that can replace the first approach. Donald McIntyre (2005) Bridging the gap between research and practice, Cambridge Journal of Education, 35:3, 357-382, DOI: 10.1080/03057640500319065

Abstract The paper begins by arguing that knowledge-blindness in educational research represents a serious obstacle to understanding knowledge-building. It then offers sociological concepts from Legitimation Code Theory – ‘semantic gravity’ and ‘semantic density’ – that systematically conceptualize one set of organizing principles underlying knowledge practices. Brought together as ‘semantic profiles’, these allow changes in the context-dependence and condensation of meaning of knowledge practices to be traced over time. These concepts are used to analyze passages of classroom practice from secondary school lessons in Biology and History. The analysis suggests that ‘semantic waves’, where knowledge is transformed between relatively decontextualized, condensed meanings and context-dependent, simplified meanings, offer a means of enabling cumulative classroom practice. How these concepts are being widely used to explore organizing principles of diverse practices in education and beyond is discussed, revealing the widespread, complex and suggestive nature of ‘semantic waves’ and their implications for cumulative knowledge-building. Maton, K. (2013) ‘Making semantic waves: A key to cumulative knowledge-building’, Linguistics and education, 24(1), pp. 8–22. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2012.11.005.

Maton, K 2013, Knowledge and Knowers : Towards a Realist Sociology of Education, Taylor & Francis Group, London. 

Abstract Education reform requires the commitment and investment of teachers if it is to succeed. Recognising the importance of teacher engagement, some countries have made teacher agency a feature of their curricula. Wales has embraced the notion of teacher agency within the building of its new curriculum by creating a body of Pioneer teachers to shape its new curriculum framework. This paper considers the nature of teacher agency experienced by a group of these Pioneers working on the expressive arts area of the curriculum. It does so through an exploration of the ecological nature of teacher agency, as theorised by Emirbayer and Mische (1998), and it considers agency through a framework of different levels: the micro-level focuses on the individuals and their personal contributions; the macro-level considers Pioneers’ work at national level, liaising with teachers from across the country and taking responsibilityfor creating the curriculum; the meso-level refers to where the two former levels come together, i.e. the Pioneers’ work within their own institution, trialling the new curriculum. The evidence indicates that teacher agency was easier to achieve at micro-level and macro-level, than at meso-level. This paper suggests, therefore, that achieving teacher agency at institutional level is more complex and challenging than is the case at the other levels. Greater understanding and attention are, therefore, needed about how to achieve teacher agency in teachers’ different spheres of work, particularly when working at institutional level. Kneen, J., Breeze, T., Thayer, E. et al. Pioneer teachers: How far can individual teachers achieve agency within curriculum development?. J Educ Change (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-021-09441-3

Abstract Curriculum integration is a feature of many new curricula that have emerged in different countries since around the turn of the millennium. It focuses on removing the boundaries between traditional subject specialisms, to enable more holistic and ‘joined-up’ learning opportunities. This study draws on the experiences of a group of primary and secondary teachers in Wales, engaged in creating a framework for an integrated curriculum for expressive arts. Whilst the teachers are united in their ambition for establishing a curriculum that gives greater status to the arts, curriculum integration presents significant challenges, notably in how subject knowledge is understood and presented within an integrated curriculum. The teachers take different approaches to curriculum integration, with primary teachers favouring a transdisciplinary approach, with child-led learning and themes taking precedence, and secondary teachers opting for multidisciplinary approaches, where the themes are organising devices but where subjects take priority. Differing practices suggest differing conceptions of subject knowledge and mastery within an integrated curriculum. Drawing, in particular, on Bernstein’s concepts relating to knowledge discourses, this paper suggests that the danger of an integrated curriculum is weakened disciplinary knowledge. Whilst this paper relates to the arts, the messages about curriculum integration might be applied more widely. Kneen, J., Breeze, T., Davies-Barnes, S., John, V. and Thayer, E. (2020), Curriculum integration: the challenges for primary and secondary schools in developing a new curriculum in the expressive arts. The Curriculum Journal, 31: 258-275. https://doi.org/10.1002/curj.34 https://figshare.cardiffmet.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/Curriculum_integration_the_challenges_for_primary_and_secondary_schools_in_developing_a_new_curriculum_in_the_expressive_arts/18532673/1

Abstract This article presents an analysis of various language policy mechanisms currently circulating in secondary schools in England, with a particular focus on those that intermingle ‘language’, ‘standard English’ and ‘discipline’. Although the connections between language, ideology and behaviour are well established within critical educational linguistics, this has not been explored in relation to current education policy in England, which is characterised by an overt focus on standardised English and behaviour ‘management’. In a grounded approach, I explore how the disciplining of language correlates with the disciplining of the body, based on ethnographic-orientated fieldwork undertaken in a London secondary school and drawing on a broad range of policy mechanisms such as curricula, textbooks, classroom artefacts and Doug Lemov’s Teach Like a Champion industry. I show how the current linguistic conservatism found within government policy gets reproduced in school-level policies, pedagogies and classroom interactions, and highlight these relations within a network of policy actors and key terms associated with so-called ‘zero-tolerance’ and ‘no-excuses’ schools. I show how teachers are positioned as language policy managers who work within a system of surveillance, compliance, coercion and control. As such, this article contributes to current thinking within critical language policy and the sociology of education by offering an expanded view of language ideologies in schools, whereby connections between language and discipline are explicitly illustrated and critiqued. Cushing, I. (2021), Language, discipline and ‘teaching like a champion’. Br. Educ. Res. J., 47: 23-41. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3696

Bernstein, B. (1975) Class, Codes and Control Volume III: Towards a Theory of Educational Transmissions. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul https://people.bath.ac.uk/edspd/Weblinks/MA_CS/PDFs/Session%202/Bernstein%20volume%203%20chapter%205.pdf