Abstract/Summary

This thesis explores the lived experiences and perspectives of four generalist teachers from one special school in England as they engage with a skills-based training and mentoring intervention aimed at increasing their competence and confidence for teaching music, by focusing specifically on their classroom musicianship. This is important because there is a distinct lack of research-informed music education discussion focusing on pedagogy led by such teachers and on special school music provision in general. A survey that was distributed to other generalist teachers in the research school frames the main intervention that took place over eleven months. Various tools were used to collect a wealth of qualitative data. Visual methods track and measure a change in participants’ practice. A consistent approach to analysing qualitative data started with open and focused coding, before sensitising concepts were identified, leading to constant comparison that elicited discussion around a set of three core themes and several sub-themes. Key findings revealed participants’ limited and negative experiences of music education and training pre-intervention, causing significant gaps in their music subject knowledge, musicianship and music teaching. These poor experiences had triggered feelings of low self-efficacy for teaching music and concerning belief systems related to the importance of music within core Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) curriculum provision, their own music teaching responsibilities and the musical potential of pupils with SEND. Training participants in key areas of music subject knowledge and classroom musicianship led to developments in their SEND music pedagogy and increased their levels of competence as teachers of SEND music. Adopting a strengths-based approach by drawing upon aspects of SEND pedagogy that were familiar to participants firmly supported the development of their practice. The SEND music expertise of the mentor was crucial within the training process. Subsequently, participants developed a sense of ownership of their practice and reformed expectations of both themselves and their pupils, along with feelings of increased resilience, enjoyment and confidence for teaching music. This study offers a significant contribution to professional knowledge and practice because it presents a model of music Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for in-service special school teachers, tailored specifically to music pedagogy for teaching SEND children. This is not commonly offered in professional or academic training. This research asks special school leaders to ensure that high-quality music provision is placed at the forefront of school policy and practice moving forward. Those involved in setting national policy and agenda are also called upon to urgently review general curriculum policy and music’s place within this, along with SEND curriculum policies and music education policy in light of the range of issues and complexities this research highlights.