Women, Music and Culture: Equality Issues in Music Education at Key Stage Three.

Case studies and action research are used to investigate the music education of girls at key stage 3 (11-14), in five different secondary schools within one Greater London borough. Relevant literature indicates the significance of gender in European art music's history, musical aesthetics and education. Girls and women are found to have been excluded from certain musical roles. The study shows how European art music's history is rooted in a male ideology which proscribes a female musical role for women and how these meanings along with other more general gendered knowledge is transmitted in schools. This study finds strategies to improve the music curriculum so as to remove the gendered disadvantages. This may allow women in music to achieve success in all areas of music making. The case studies include close observation, interviews and account gathering. This provides necessary background information for action research in which teachers become involved in the research, reflect on the issues, and make changes in their classrooms. Action research raises awareness amongst practitioners and contributes to further debate on the subject. The empirical research focuses on girls' experiences in the music classroom, and social class and race are seen as other major explanations for differentiation in music education. The values and assumptions and previous experience of students, teachers, schools and the wider society are compared, and considered in relation to gendered disadvantage in music. The thesis concludes that it is possible to make education less gendered at key stage 3 in individual classrooms. However, there are wider institutional and societal influences which impede progress. A number of possible changes are proposed for a holistic music education practice