The papers presented in this special issue grew from a symposium on the topic of ‘Informal Learning and Post-Compulsory Music Education’ convened at the Reflective Conservatoire Conference, 2nd International Conference-Building Connections hosted by the Guildhall School of Music from February 28th–March 3rd 2009. In this symposium, scholars from many countries came together to give views on issues presented to post-compulsory or post-sixteen education institutions with the growing interest in informal learning in music education. As one of the most frequently cited academics in this field, and because many of the papers referred to her work, Professor Lucy Green has summarised the key debates she considers each paper to present and voiced her responses to these issues. Not wishing to duplicate Professor Green's work therefore, this editorial does not introduce the content of each paper but rather attempts to look to the bigger picture within which issues of informal learning and music education are located. It attempts to set the stage in a broad sense for the discussions which follow.

Traditionally, and perhaps inevitably, a person's journey to becoming a teacher is a complex one. Concerns about how music teachers are prepared raise questions about the quality of programmes that prepare pre-service teachers to teach. Within this context we are invited in this issue to reflect upon all phases and experiences of music teaching.

Two themes emerge from the articles in this issue. First and foremost is that of the centrality of the learner and the importance of the development of learner agency in any music education context that seeks to lay claims to inclusivity and diversity. The second is the most effective pedagogical approaches to supporting the development of composing.

This paper explores the preliminary outcomes of research into the place and role of cultural diversity in primary music classes at five International Schools in Singapore. It highlights the ways in which school philosophy, policy, curriculum and in-service training influence teacher practice. The research provides insights into the challenges teachers face when diversifying their music programmes in addition to the areas of support that allow a programme based on cultural diversity to flourish and remain successful. The results of interviews with music specialists at these schools suggest that music programmes at International Schools in Singapore provide examples of best practice in culturally diverse music education. The success of these programmes is due to several identifiable factors such as strong philosophical and curricula foundations, quality in-service training and the regular involvement of culture bearers and visiting artists.

John Paynter's death this year has deprived British music education of its most inspirational advocate during the second half of the 20th century. John's teaching in primary and secondary schools during the 1950s played a major role in shaping his vision of music at the heart of the curriculum. With his ear for an apt phrase, John loved to quote American novelist Toni Morrison's description of the wonderful presence and power of music as ‘a way of being in the world’. During the 1960s, John trained teachers in colleges in Liverpool and Chichester, before joining the innovative music department at the University of York, where he remained until his retirement in 1997. It was with the publication in 1970 of Sound and Silence that his years of pioneering work with children and older students came to fruition and the force and originality of his ideas about music education made their first big impact.

How do student teachers learn to use informal learning and pedagogy in their teaching? Through focusing on Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in England, this paper will explore the possibility of developing a meta-pedagogy which embraces informal learning and pedagogy in music. The paper is in two parts, the first of which examines the background to Informal Learning and Pedagogy (ILP) in English music education and some attendant issues surrounding initial teacher education. The second will report on some approaches to developing a meta-pedagogy for ILP in music, before speculating on future areas for research in music ITE. The concepts of ‘living’ and ‘excavating’ learning will be proposed as important meta-pedagogical tools in the process of student teachers learning how to teach music.

Drawn from a larger mixed methods study, this case study provides an account of aspects of the music education programme that occurred with one teacher and a kindergarten class of children aged three and four years. Contrary to transmission approaches that are often used in Hong Kong, the case depicts how musical creativity was encouraged by the teacher in response to children's participation during the time for musical free play. It shows how the teacher scaffolded the attempts of George, a child aged 3 years and 6 months, to use musical notation. The findings are instructive for kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong and suggest ways in which teachers might begin to incorporate more creative approaches to musical education. They are also applicable to other kindergarten settings where transmission approaches tend to dominate and teachers want to encourage children's musical creativity.

In this article, we argue that the musical schooling of immigrant students could be seen as forming a healthy test for any educational context in terms of how democracy is enacted. We engage in a discussion linking music education, agency, pluralism and democracy. In our theoretical reconstruction of multicultural music education we first make a review on how music education literature has approached the cultural and musical schooling of immigrant students. We then attend to sociological theories to discuss why development of musical agency may be of particular importance to first generation immigrant students and how agency-enhancing music education may be connected to the development of sound democratic practices in the 21st century schooling.

The embedding of informal practices in music education in school relates to significant issues concerning students' engagement, participation, inclusion and the role of the teacher. This article addresses these issues by presenting and discussing current music education in compulsory comprehensive schooling in Sweden. It does so by drawing upon music pedagogical research, music education studies conducted during the last 10 years and national evaluations. Examples of practice from upper secondary schools are also used to clarify and illustrate the issues under consideration. It has been said that Swedish music education has gone from ‘School Music’ to ‘Music in School’. This development has been characterised by greater influence of students on curriculum content resulting in increased use of popular music, and, consequently, teaching strategies acquired from informal music playing contexts. The curriculum states that the core of the subject is practical music playing, through which personal development can occur – both musically and socially. Music education in several other countries is developing a more practical approach, and the role of popular music in schools, and what is sometimes called informal learning, is featured in international music pedagogy debates. This article considers the musical, pedagogical and democratic consequences of this pedagogy from a Swedish perspective. As a result of a sharp focus on personal social development and individual students' musical interests, music education in Sweden has become relatively limited in terms of repertoire, content and teaching methods. Recent evaluations and studies also demonstrate that music education lacks direction, and is short of creative engagement with music. The role of the teacher is unclear and sometimes lacks validity in a practical music education situation. Viewed from an international perspective, the kind of music education that has developed in Sweden is unique. Thus, when the possibilities and limitations of music education in Sweden are discussed, it has the potential to be of interest to international music education research.

Research has shown that undergraduate disciplinary study provides new teachers with knowledge schemas derived from their discipline. The key question considered in this article is: what existing disciplinary knowledge do pre-service music teachers call upon to construct their schemas of global education? This is a critical question as global education is introduced to a range of national curriculums. Further, this article investigates ways music disciplinary schemas connect with knowledge, skills and values for pre-service teachers of high school music, and how this influences their approach, understanding and future teaching of global education. The conclusion is that global education, with its knowledge, skills and attitudes, pervades all school subjects and that teaching music incorporates global knowledge, skills and attitudes in quite specific ways.

The article reports on a 2-year higher education music programme for young rock musicians in Sweden called BoomTown Music Education. The pedagogical philosophy behind this programme is developed from the findings of two Swedish music education researchers, and the programme exemplifies how knowledge about popular musicians' learning strategies in informal contexts can be utilised when designing post-compulsory music education. The aim of the article is to problematise the BoomTown environment in relation to its informality and authenticity. In addition to a description of the programme, the author's experiences from visiting this education programme are laid out in order to provide the ground for such a problematisation.

Almost every Finnish child and adolescent takes an interest in music in some form. However, many young people feel dissatisfaction with what music education institutions provide and fail to find them motivating. According to the results of a series of empirical studies, school music education can have a negative effect on many pupils and undermine their musical self-esteem. At the music education institutions where this research was undertaken, music was narrowly defined and there was an absence of contemporary music cultures. Forms of music making were limited and active music listening absent from lessons. Assessment too was a problem with many pupils feeling that the evaluation of their work lacked legitimacy and fairness.

This study aims to assess the perceived impact of Post-Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) music students' engagement in music making outside school on their teaching. Fifty-one students training to become secondary school music teachers in England were asked to report on the perceived impact that their participation in music making outside school had on their lives during their training and on its expected impact as a qualified music teacher. They believed that being musically involved outside school has both personal and professional benefits for them as it has the potential to increase their anticipated job satisfaction as qualified teachers and help them become better teachers. They all expressed a desire to be involved in such musical activities as qualified music teachers because they felt that these can help them maintain their enthusiasm, be more confident and motivated, and keep their technique and performance standards to a high level.

This work derives from a doctoral research study which looked at the differences in students' attitudes towards learning music in a Brazilian music higher education institution, while taking into account their different music learning backgrounds. The students' backgrounds (which consist of their set of musical experiences and music-learning processes that had been acquired and developed in their lives before entering the university course) are divided into three types: (i) those who have acquired their skills and knowledge mostly through informal learning experiences, particularly in the world of popular music; (ii) those who have only experienced classical training either within institutions such as music schools, or privately; and (iii) those whose backgrounds consist of both informal learning and classical training. These different backgrounds are termed here formal, informal and mixed. The research also discusses the gap between the way music is conceived and taught within the university and the reality students will have to face outside university. It further suggests that the traditional teaching approaches for music in higher education are possibly inadequate for educating university students from varied music learning backgrounds, especially those with informal music learning backgrounds. After examining some findings of the research, the paper proposes pedagogical strategies in which informal music learning practices might help the integration of students from different backgrounds, encouraging students' diversity and their inclusion in the university music school environment. The suggested strategies exemplify approaches that enable the students to bridge the gap between their own musical practices and those they are expected to learn in their institution. In this case, the students have more autonomy and the teacher becomes a facilitator of the process.

This paper discusses an exploration of the working lives of musicians working in a range of musical genres in the North East of England, revealing the factors that contribute to their ability to obtain a musical livelihood. These factors can be understood in terms of various forms of social, cultural and symbolic ‘capital’ (Bourdieu, 1986), which musicians amass throughout their lives, from early childhood and family influences to starting out in the music world and beyond. The accrual of such ‘musical capital’ is shown to be associated with the quality of musicians’ learning experiences and the findings are offered as having potential relevance to music education policy and practice. It is concluded that a wider range of teaching methods, including the recognition of different types of music and ability, could encourage more young people to remain involved in music learning and give musicians clearer signposts for embarking on a career in music.

In 1872 John Hullah was appointed Inspector of Music in Training Colleges and his first act was to introduce a practical examination for each of the students. Each year he visited all of the colleges receiving financial aid from the Government to examine the students after which he wrote up his findings in a report for the Committee of Council on Education. These reports, and those of his successor John Stainer, give a unique account of music in the training colleges in the period 1872 to 1899.

This paper explores models of teaching and learning music composition in higher education. It analyses the pedagogical approaches apparent in the literature on teaching and learning composition in schools and universities, and introduces a teaching model as: learning from the masters; mastery of techniques; exploring ideas; and developing voice. It then presents a learning model developed from a qualitative study into students’ experiences of learning composition at university as: craft, process and art. The relationship between the students’ experiences and the pedagogical model is examined. Finally, the implications for composition curricula in higher education are presented.