“Students can have a really powerful role…�: Understanding Curriculum Transformation Within the Framework of Canon Critique and Critical Pedagogy

Abstract

Educational practice needs to continuously update the curriculum in line with both current theoreticalframeworks developed within academia and the lived reality of the coming generation. Thisarticle takes the student perspective on this issue, investigating a case from secondary music educationin England. In 2015, Jessy McCabe initiated a successful campaign for the inclusion of womencomposers on the A-level syllabus, in order to create a more gender-balanced curriculum. Drawingon a qualitative interview with Jessy McCabe, I elaborate on the significance of the campaignwithin the framework of canon critique and critical pedagogy. The case shows that balancing thecurriculum needs no longer to be a “future position” as Lucy Green suggested in 1997. The qualitativedata underscore the importance of the teacher as a role model and the effectiveness of thestudent as co-investigator within the process of curriculum transformation. In both cases, a genderperspective can be an appropriate and significant tool to achieving a more balanced curriculum.