ABSTRACT
This chapter sketches out some of the historical influences on contemporary music pedagogy in English State schools, and explains how they are seen in the work of six teachers. During the post-war years in England, Local Education Authorities (LEAs) assumed responsibility for organising music education within State-funded schools. During the 40 years following the Second World War, classroom music for older students in England and Wales prepared them for public examinations at 16 and 18. After the Second World War, musical pedagogies in England were also influenced by the work of the German composer Carl Orff (1895–1982) and the Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly (1882–1967). In the years after the introduction of the National Curriculum, the greatest influence on school music pedagogies was probably the growth of digital technologies. Music pedagogies can be seen as practical attempts to answer some of the philosophical issues which have surfaced and re-surfaced throughout the history of music education.
