Using the Victorian Curriculum and Standards Framework in Music Education

This research examines the usefulness of the Curriculum and Standards Framework as the basis for school music education in Australia. More widely, it examines the process of state-mandated curriculum development and how it fails to meet the goals it sets. The research consists of a folio of reports on a set of related research tasks.The first of the research tasks uses discourse analysis to critique the philosophies of music education and aesthetic education that inform the Curriculum and Standards Framework. The same techniques are used in the second research task to trace the adoption and dissemination of the philosophy of music education as aesthetic education in a range of curriculum documents from around Australia. These two tasks show how centralised curriculum development often produces abstract and impractical goals and strategies.The Dissertation reports on a major research project in which interviews with both primary and secondary teachers sought to determine the extent to which the Curriculum and Standards Framework had impacted upon their classroom teaching practice.

Andrew Blyth is an Australian teacher and composer. He holds a Master of Arts degree in music from Latrobe University and a Doctorate in Education from Deakin University. Andrew has published a series books on music education as well as various articles on music education and education reform. His website can be found at www.andrewblyth.net .