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Exploring the Global Decline of Music Education by Jose Luis Arostegui, written in 2016, pursues to explain the disconnection between the reduction and decrease of music education in schools and the significant effects music has on the growing popular youth culture in modern society. Throughout this article, Arostegui seeks to investigate the reasons why there is a decline in music education in the national curricula throughout the world through the derivation of information from major documentation from the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development and the European Union. In addition to these major organizations, Arostegui took a further step and reached out to leading music educators from all around the world, asking for their opinions on fundamental key questions about music education. Through the deep analysis of the documents explored in his studies and the responses from the music educators, Arostegui discovered that there was a significant decrease in music education due to four major reasons: “(1) the model of curriculum supported in educational reforms; (2) an emphasis on standardized evaluation; (3) fewer resources available; and (4) a wrong approach on music advocacy.”
Arostegui first seeks to address the model of curriculum and claims that “at least for the last fifteen years, national educational policies have been heavily influenced by transnational economic institutions such as the OECD or the WTO. One major contribution to shape a new model of curriculum is the promotion of a group of so-called basic school subjects considered crucial for the knowledge-based economy in modern OECD economies – consequently carried out to the detriment of other subjects.” Here, Arostegui elucidates that the idea of a ‘knowledge-based economy’ is built on the idea that only effective subjects are crucial to the educational system, thus the STEM subjects are considered the ‘main, core’ subjects of the national course of study.
The second major reason Arostegui explores is the standardized assessments of school subjects. Here, he highlights the perceived idea that literacy, numeracy, and science tests are the most effective in evaluating certain skills and potential, thus underlining that because of this, there is a decline in music education as it is not included in the evaluation test. This leads to the third problem Arostegui addresses. As music education is considered not worthy of being tested, it leads to the idea that there is less time and resources spent on music education. He articulates that less time and money is being spent, while most time and money are being spent on ‘core’ subjects. STEM subjects are allocated a larger number of hours within a school’s timetable, thus reducing the number of hours allocated to creative arts subjects.
The final reason Arostegui presents is the idea that the decrease actually comes from music educators themselves. He claims that music educators are still stuck on the traditional aspects of how to teach music and states the following comment: “As a field, music education is quite conservative. Perhaps due to the fact that music is in itself a complex domain, we are still very concerned about ways to teach it in a more accurate fashion.”
In response to these major issues, Arostegui proposed solutions in hopes of overcoming the decline of music education. Within these solutions, he proposes that in order for a change to occur, creative art subjects that cannot be tested for their effectiveness and success in ‘quantitative terms’ should still be allowed to be taught. Arostegui explains that the “effectiveness of music education is possible to be proved in a non-test-score manner, for example, with longitudinal studies in music and the effect on specific aspects of human development, while also trying to understand the symbolic negotiation of meanings and emotions that musical interactions involve by using interpretive tools.” Another key solution he provides stems from another writer, Pasi Sahlberg, where he suggests five different alternatives, such that: “(1) Global and creative learning versus emphasis on ‘core’ and soft subjects, (2) personalization versus standardization, (3) professional responsibility versus objective evaluation, (4) educational leadership versus implementation of business policies in education and (5) collaboration and confidence versus data and control.”
Arostegui utilizes data and ideas from the OECD and the World Trade Organisation as vital evidence to present the key ideas on why teaching music education is becoming less important. Furthermore, he also conducted research personally by emailing music educators and colleagues from around the world, therefore providing him with a variety of essential opinions needed when proposing this particular musical conversation they are joining forward.
Arostegui’s article managed to steer the conversation of the global decline of music education in a new direction by providing a crucial insight into the major reasons. Since the writing of Arostegui’s article, Rolando Angel-Alvarado, a Finnish writer, published The Crisis in Music Education Resulting from the Demise of Educational Institutions in 2020, building upon the findings of Arostegui’s article. Angel-Alvarado also agrees that “a common interest among supranational agencies are the fundamental principles related to equality and quality in education and acknowledge national governments as responsible for shaping and regulating the school system”, hence backing up the idea of Arostegui’s article. Angel-Alvarado also builds upon the impression that music is a complex subject to teach and as a result, there is less attention towards the subject when compared to the main subjects. In addition to this, he proposes two categories that reflect Arostegui’s ideas as to why there is a decline in music education; the two categories being that “(1) school infrastructure, which is understood as the equipment pertaining to the school for music education lessons and (2) teacher training for school music instructors.”
To conclude his viewpoint, Angel-Alvarado states that “music education loses curricular importance in the school system because national policies have been focusing on the improvement of academic results on standardized testing, with the intention of forming citizens that will successfully integrate into the job market.” The clear connection between the two articles presented strongly displays the idea that music education should be more highly valued and considered in the national curricula, steering the idea of music education into an important light.
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