Teachers' attitudes towards representation and significance of Serbian spiritual music in music curricula in the second cycle of general education

Abstract

Spiritual music is said to have many functions: from religious, pedagogical, to educational and developmental functions. Reducing spiritual music, particularly Serbian spiritual music, solely to a tool for awakening one's religious feelings had a negative impact on studying this type of music in Serbian education in the post-war period. However, in the last decade of the previous century, Serbian spiritual music was incorporated in the curricular content of Music Education in primary schools. Bearing this in mind, the authors of the paper set the aim of their research - to determine the representation of Serbian spiritual music in teaching Music Education in the second cycle of general education, as well as its significance according to teachers' opinions. In order to contribute to this endeavour of national importance, the authors conducted research to investigate how much is Serbian spiritual music present in the current curricula, recommended contents, and music lessons, and what is its function from teachers' perspective. The research results, obtained on a sample of 24 teachers from the territory of the city of Niš, show that teachers attach importance to covering this content in their music lessons, they believe that this type of music is sufficiently represented in the curricula, and that they self-educate on this topic. The results illustrate the current situation which can be a starting point for potential modifications of the curricula in terms of expanding the content related to Serbian spiritual music.