Musical Futures in New Zealand: A study in recontextualisation

Abstract

Musical Futures (MF) is an internationally recognised approach to music teaching aimed at developing high levels of student engagement through practical music making. Set up in the UK in 2003 Musical Futures is typical of approaches to education aimed at increasing levels of student autonomy through a strong emphasis on student-led discovery learning. A study was undertaken in 2020 to 2021 in New Zealand which investigated how a small number of teachers understand and utilise Musical Futures as an approach for classroom music teaching. The data was obtained through semi-structured interviews with teachers in New Zealand and leaders of the Musical Futures International team in Australia who offer training in New Zealand. Green’s original conceptualisation of informal learning was used as the main theoretical bench-mark against which teacher practices were compared and the findings reveal a shift away from the original idea of a discovery approach into the deep end, to more systemised learning. Bernstein’s concept of recontextualisation is used to make sense of this process of adaptation and change in the curriculum making process.