Music education is a worldwide activity. Gatherings and conferences where music educators from around the globe meet together are always interesting arenas, with as many discussions going on in the various watering holes near the conference venue as take place in the sessions themselves. But what we actually mean by music education often becomes an absorbing topic in its own right, and one we have discussed previously in these editorials (inter alia Fautley & Murphy, 2015). Differences are not just about matters of delivery, however; they also reflect often complicated local contexts and histories. They are at once philosophical, concerned with policy, concerned with curriculum, with progression, with assessment, with delivery, with modality, with jurisdictional requirements, and with regulations. All this makes for an interesting subject base.

There is increasing international evidence that playing a musical instrument has a positive impact on attainment at school but little research has been undertaken in the UK. This study addresses this drawing on data on attainment at age 11 and 16 relating to 608 students, 115 of whom played a musical instrument. The findings showed that the young people playing an instrument showed greater progress and better academic outcomes than those not playing with the greatest impact for those playing the longest. The findings are considered in relation to the possible reasons for this, and the implications for education.

The study reported in this article investigates students’ experiences (n=41) of their primary school songcrafting, examining the potential to support creative agency within school music education programmes. Songcrafting refers to a collaborative composing practice in which everyone is considered to be a capable creator of melodies and lyrics, and where negotiation, collaboration, and openness to the situation are essential. Through semi-structured individual interviews with students who had experienced songcrafting in the past, analysed with qualitative methods, it was found that the students' narration of songcrafting included meanings related to general agency, creative agency, musical participation within the classroom community, and documented and shared collaborative musical products, or ‘oeuvres’.

The results of this study illustrate the various often unforeseeable meanings produced through participation in collaborative musical activities. Furthermore, they highlight the potential to enrich meaningful teaching practices and pedagogy through the examination of students' experiences, and exploring the potentials in narrating one's musical stories. These findings suggest that music education practices could benefit from the inclusion of a broader range of opportunities for the students to create their own music, and the sensitive facilitation of collaborative music creation processes.

The music industry in the 21st century uses digital technology in a wide range of applications including in performance, in composition and in recording and publishing. In this article, I consider how the impact of digital technologies may be affecting pedagogical processes adopted by secondary music teachers, particularly in the area of composition. This paper examines qualitative data gathered from teachers in four schools participating in a larger research project. Data collected in this paper came from a number of semi-structured interviews. Findings indicate that although the majority of teachers involved in this research remain fundamentally conservative in their approaches to teaching composition, focusing on more procedural rather than creative activities, some music teachers do make radical changes to their pedagogy in contexts where this is important to their students’ engagement and supported by their school.

Theoretical approaches to learning in practice-based jazz improvisation contexts include situated learning and ecological perspectives. This article focuses on how interest-driven, self-sustaining jazz learning activities can be matched against the concepts of stolen knowledge (Brown & Duguid, 1996) and landscape of learning (Bjerstedt, 2014). Based on an extensive interview study with Swedish professional jazz musicians, it argues that the multidirectedness involved in jazz improvisational practice calls for a rich learning ecology framework including several didactic loci.

The objective of this study is to address the important questions raised in literature on the intersections between formal and informal learning. Specifically, this will be discussed within the concept of ‘productive dissonance’ and the pedagogical tensions that arise in the effort of experienced teachers to transition from the formal to the informal. This case study discusses the issues that ensue when strict demarcations between formal and informal are perceived, and demonstrates that the former is vital to the facilitation of the latter. The blurring of formal and informal pedagogical approaches has shown that the concept of ‘critical musicality’ becomes more apparent in student learning and that engagement increases especially among at-risk students.

The benefits of lifelong musical participation have been repeatedly demonstrated through research and anecdote, and yet the challenging question of why more people are not engaged in these activities is rarely addressed. This project used interviews with eighteen current and past amateur ensemble members to explore themes of social acceptance, musical satisfaction and confidence, and to consider how personal determination and circumstances affect adults’ continuation of musical activities in the face of competing demands. By understanding how musical participation is viewed by those who no longer engage, or who have had long gaps in their engagement, the research aimed to reconsider the challenges of sustaining participation, and the perceived long-term effects of musical learning and experience. Conclusions are drawn about the role of music education in laying foundations for lifelong participation, and the benefits of providing all children with experience and understanding of making music.