Editorial

Abstract

Looking back to the editorial in the very first edition of BJME, back in 1984, there are a number of striking resonances which belie the thirty years which have passed since Volume 1, Issue 1. Take this paragraph as an example: Many problems in music education are the result of the insularity of our practice. In Britain music teachers are often hesitant about sharing their ideas. Then again, the roots of our teaching methods reach back far into the past, so that we tend to function on the basis of precedent; we do things because they have always been done, and only rarely perhaps do we make the effort to reflect upon what is done. Now, perhaps because of economic restraints, we are becoming more aware of the need to justify the place of our subject in the educational curriculum and the need to examine closely the reasoning behind our teaching methods. (Paynter & Swanwick, 1984) So much remains the same, yet at the same time the music education landscape is entirely different from then! In the UK since that editorial was written we have had, inter alia, new examinations at 16+, a National Curriculum (in a number of very different versions), changes in governance of schools, an entirely different financial scene for schools, the establishment of music hubs, changed relationships for music services with pupils and schools, a diminishing role for Local Authorities, the establishment of new types of schools – Free Schools and Academies, the removal of the requirements for teachers to hold a teaching qualification, and the shifting of teacher training out of universities and into schools. Quite a list! And there is a lot more besides that has not been included. Also important to note is that the BJME is now, and has been for a while, very much, as its strapline says, ‘an international journal’, and so there are interactions and synergies with many other national systems and music education types across the world.