Local authority instrumental music tuition as a form of neo-liberal parental investment: Findings from a deviant, idiographic case study

Abstract

Local authority music services have held a central place in the UK’s music education landscape since the end of the Second World War. Nonetheless, the provision of these services has always been a non-statutory responsibility, and local levels of opportunity have varied in response to prevailing economic and political climates, along with broader developments in educational policy. The first half of this article focuses on the implications of two key policies enacted during the 1990s. Both were linked to perceived changes in the profiles of young people who engaged with music service tuition. The latter half presents an ecological study of practical implications of the second policy – the Music Standards Fund – on primary-aged children’s take-up of and persistence with the tuition in one English local authority. At both area and school levels, the children’s engagement cohered with various socio-economic and contextual factors. This coherence is considered from the perspectives of Connell’s ‘neo-liberal parent’ and related Bourdieusian-influenced theories. The conclusion offers implications from the implementation of the policy in the contemporary era of Music Education Hubs, the successor organisations to local authority music services, and the schools these Hubs serve.