ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the roots of curricular integration, benefits of integration and contemporary definitions that are applicable to music teaching in the primary classroom. It also looks how music can be integrated into a broad thematic development that honours both the subject of music as well as the conceptual understanding of the other subjects. The chapter draws the ideas together to emphasise how creativity intersects in the integration endeavour and is realised in ways that are both concrete and compelling. It explores some of the theory behind curriculum integration and its roots in broader educational movements such as progressivism and constructivism. The relationship between the teacher and the pupil is central to any model of integration that builds on social constructivist principles. Music teaching in primary schools is often supported by more than one teacher – the class teacher primarily, but often a specialist teacher or an external teacher for instrumental teaching, choral music or dance.
