The contributors to this book take a critical look at standards in music education based on rich international experience. This seems important considering the conservative undertone to the introduction of standards throughout the world, in a framework that goes far beyond the non-core subject music and can be observed in the UK, in the USA (with connecting lines running to and from MENC) or the conservative KAS foundation's move in Germany. So what this book is all about is not the theory of standards but rather how they function and what they do in practice – with schools and universities, students and teachers. The eight well-known authors have published important papers in their countries and fields, so they raise high expectations for readers.
Taking a linguistic approach, Cathy Benedict focuses on the power of the wording of the 1994 National Standards. She examines how talking about standards has changed and criticises their authors’ claim to be the first ones to set up standards by drawing the historical lines and sowing the continuity of behaviouristic descriptions. However, Benedict's critique seems somewhat superficial. She claims to ‘use Butler, Foucault and others’ (p. 5) to examine the ‘point of control and sovereignty of governing organizations such as MENC’ (ibid.) but falls short of her ambitions. The discourse that has been led in the 1990s is not thoroughly analysed; quotations from 1994 and 2007 are put on the same level although the political and educational context has changed fundamentally since. Therefore this preliminary chapter has interesting facts and thoughts but remains more cryptic than critical.
Patrick Schmidt analyses the deeper effects of standardisation on teaching. Although his search for its ‘logic’ provides interesting insights, his arguments fall somewhat short of his high aspirations. While on the one hand he states that ‘no extensive or longitudinal work has been done to delineate (. . .) extent and form in which the National Standards have been implicated in teacher behavior’ (p. 60), on the other hand it is simply alleged that popular music would make it possible to ‘re-enter the realm of politics and democracy’ (p. 81). For all we know about learning it matters how you learn in an open and flexible arrangement, it's not simply about picking a genre closer to youths’ media consumer behaviour.
Pamela Burnard's interesting chapter delineates the situation in the UK where the pressure on schools in reaching politically defined levels of artistic achievement is much bigger than in the USA or in continental Europe. Focusing on issues of ‘creativity’ she shows how teachers are caught between millstones of meeting standards and creating spaces and learning opportunities. Quotes from interviews with teachers demonstrate how they sense the pressure, at times cope with it, oftentimes though resign and/or drop out. Whilst Burnard points at the contradictions between official positions favouring ‘creativity’ and an assessment practice that destroys it she also outlines consequences for teachers and teacher educators.
Alexandra Kertz-Welzel has published several papers comparing German music education with the American system. Here she argues why music educators and practitioners in Germany have only just begun to think about standards. German traditions in humanities and educational sciences focusing on ‘Bildung’ and ‘Didaktik’ are identified as reasons as well as the unique structure of the German school system. In comparison to the aforementioned chapters it becomes obvious why perspectives and research results differ so much between countries. However, considering the attractiveness of the concept of ‘Bildung’ in other countries it remains unclear whether the ‘German philosophy’ would solve any of the problems addressed there.
In his own contribution to the volume, Paul Woodford characterises Canadian discourse which has to be viewed against the background of the US American. Insisting on an independent path adds to the critical impetus and enlightens the author's motives – but it does not end the international search for what to accept and what to reject.
The Australian perspective adds a special colour to the book as principles of education and concepts of learning are discussed. David Foster and Amanda Watson present a baffling story of standards in various states and phases. It is complicated to read but raises interesting questions as the Australian standards stress basic principles like depth of understanding across subjects. There are several hints in the text that this did not work well in schools but the reasons remain somewhat unclear. Re-thinking, however, should include an analysis of mistakes being made.
While the chapters lack overall coherence, the volume finishes with a comment by Ruth Wright which links international discourses. Unfortunately, she restrains most of the critical voices from the previous chapters, instead praising the national commitment of MENC, large-scale assessments and a move for equality. On the other hand, she rightly points to the simultaneous moves in attention from teaching to learning.
The reviewer shares great sympathies for the authors and their political position. However, at times a more self-critical perspective would be helpful. If we had music educators all over the world advocating critical thinking and creative ways of ‘musicking’, we would probably not need a debate on how to meet what standards or whether we should have them at all. If we all had a precise idea of how students learn to play music and how to reflect upon it, we would not need attempts to conceptualise and model musical learning. It is necessary to discuss standards and assessment in such a wide variety of contexts. There is also a need for a debate about the political implications in the various countries. It would be good to set a counterpoint against the ‘logic of standardisation’ (Schmidt, p. 69) that would re-discover the challenges of art (or rock) music, collaboratively outline useful standards and implement them on a broad basis in consent with teachers.
