Editorial

The emergent themes from this research – environmental context, emotional connectedness and interpersonal connectedness – are explored in relation to flow theory and previous findings from research in sport and music. There are some interesting implications for music educators to consider in relation to their role and the potential importance of challenging some assumptions about the performer's relationship with both the music and the performance. Using a test at the beginning and end of the year, the authors researched the extent to which participants singing in a university choir acquired or improved theoretical understanding of music without a conscious learning process, for example, to identify note names and durations and to write intervals.

Editorial Research: Music education in a time of pandemic

This article, written at the time it was taking place, discusses the effects that the COVID-19 pandemic is having on music education in schools, focusing on the UK. It discusses how schools and teachers have had to make a sudden shift to a largely on-line modality, and the effects of these on teaching and learning in music. It asks questions of curriculum and assessment, especially with regard to the fact that classroom teachers in England are having to use their professional judgment to provide grades for external examinations, where hitherto these would have come from examination boards. It questions the ways in which teachers have been inadequately prepared and supported for this, by years of neoliberal undermining of confidence. It goes on to question accountability, and teacher training, raising issues which, at the time of writing, are of significant concern or music education.

Editorial

Using these articles as a stimulus, nearly 50 teachers from around the world offered their reflections and perspectives on topics such as composing and improvising in the classroom, singing for mental health and wellbeing, formal and informal learning situations, the ‘good enough’ music teacher and inclusion. Rachel White’s study uncovers many interesting aspects of the musical learning processes taking place in schools and the learner-centred approaches described, with a focus on process, purpose and making meaning provide an antidote to the direction of travel for those of us currently involved in curriculum music education in England. In the current climate of COVID-19 lockdowns, and the difficulties of seeing friends and loved ones, we hope that music education will continue to be a beacon of togetherness, and that the days will soon return when we can make music in the same rooms and spaces as each other, and that the joys of music learning and music making can once again be experienced by all our young people, learners and musicians of all ages.

BJME 37-1 Editorial: Music-making continues during the pandemic

In this article the authors reach the interesting conclusion that “that the autonomous motivation of music teachers in classroom settings is satisfied or thwarted by ideas that the members of the school community have about music education”. From Hong Kong we move next to mainland China, where Chiao-Ting Feng explores ‘Chinese college chamber music education: a case study of students’ conceptions’. “Chamber music education” we are told, “is a relatively new teaching course in China”, and this article describes how attitudes in supporting chamber music learning can affect student learning outcomes.