2007-03-21

“Back to the future”: The Impacts of Educational Policy of the New Right on Canadian Music Education

In Canada there is no official equivalent to The National Standards for Music Education. However, The Canadian Band Association has recently developed a similar document entitled National Voluntary Curriculum and Standards for Instrumental Music (Band).

This document, newly revised in January 2006, emphasizes that the standards listed are strictly voluntary and meant to aid music educators in an attempt to improve their programs (Canadian Band Association, 2006). Even though there is no talk of making this document an official national initiative, its very existence can be seen as an outcome, albeit if only indirectly, of the New Rights effort to regulate standards for all subjects. It will be interesting to see how long it takes Canadian organizations to follow the American model and develop a blanket set of standards that will affect how music education is taught to all children nationwide.

Complete reading: http://www.music.uwo.ca/pdf_documents/L.%20Clarke-%20CMEA%20Essay.pdf

Author: Lesley Clarke
Honours Bachelor of Music (Music Education) of University of Western Ontario, Canada