Disaffected learners and school musical culture: an opportunity for inclusion

Abstract

In order to understand why adolescents who fail in all other subjects can be highly engaged with music learning, a case study was conducted in a compulsory general music class at a Spanish public secondary school. In the context of this study, the students' general disengagement from learning seemed to be a reaction to teachers' declarative, textbook-based, teaching strategies. Contrastingly, the music teacher had generated student enthusiasm through an inclusive pedagogy in which the principle of `music for all' created the expectation of the orchestral performance of arrangements for percussion instruments in 4 to 12 parts of pop, classical and film music by each class. The subject narrative, `the goal is the concert', was shared both by the teacher and the students, and had been widely accepted as an important part of the school culture. Through observations and video-stimulated interviews with the teacher, the students, parents and administrators, it was found that although the group of students rejected the school academic culture, in the end they decided to work diligently to be included in the school musical culture.