Essay: Exhausted from Educational Reform

Brand, M.

Published in No. 180, Spring 2009

Abstract

In this modern world of information technology, globalization, and economic competition, music teachers' work and lives are affected by the maddening whirl of change characterized by development of everything touted as new—new curriculum, new instruction, new technology, new assurance and monitoring of education quality, and new shifts toward school-based management. Music teachers are part of this enormous web of competing and often conflicting goals labeled as educational reform.

The impact of government-imposed educational reform can lead to music teachers' belief that their views are generally forgotten and their professional wisdom is not respected. Above all, significant educational reform hinges on the creation and attainment of a shared vision and a trust, collaboration, and consultation between policy makers and teachers. Music teachers do have the energy, enthusiasm, and desire for change, but such change only comes when music teachers are included in policy discussions and involved in the planning for educational reform. This essay argues that far too often, music teachers are made to feel left out of the very change they are expected to guide and implement.