A comparative study of primary/ elementary school music curricula in Australia (NSW), in the UK (England), in the Russian Federation and in the United States of America

In different countries, the music curricula for primary/ elementary school children has been influenced bymany diverse factors including a number of progressive educational practices and a variety ofpsychological theories. This research gives a detailed analysis of a number of primary/ elementary schoolprograms for general music in Australia (New South Wales, i.e. NSW), in the UK (England), in the RussianFederation and in the United States of America. The research aims to find out to what extent musiceducation in different countries is based on or follows psychological theories of child development andprogressive educational practices.Firstly, to acquire an adequate understanding of child education this research examines the philosophicalroots of primary/ elementary education and a set of psychological ideas of Piaget and Vigotsky about thenature of children and the nature of knowledge. This provides insight of how children learn (the nature oflearning) and the role of the teacher in learning music.Secondly, the research examines the musical content of the syllabae (the nature of subject). It criticallycompares the following components of curricula and syllabae: philosophy, objectives and contentsincluding musical concepts, activities and music repertoire. This is then subjected to further analysisexamining these contents in relation to theories of child development (Piaget and Vigotsky) and traditionaland progressive educational practices (where it is applicable).Finally, a questionnaire is aimed at primary school teachers in NSW. These teachers are generalistteachers, there are no specialist music teachers employed as such in public primary schools in NSW.Music is taught in the NSW primary schools by class teachers. The problem is that NSW university facultiesof education do not train music teachers as specialists at primary level. They only train generalist teachers.In other countries the situation is different. There are music specialists in the USA, UK and Russia teachingin primary schools. There are also such teachers in primary schools in Queensland, SA, Victoria, and WAand there are some in NSW. The questionnaire was, therefore, designed to enquire into the specificsituation in NSW. Finally, issues of further investigation and research of curricula and syllabae in theprimary/ elementary school are outlined