Research in Music Education

Abstract

MusIC has been taught in public education for well over a hundred years. ' A traditional characteristic of teachers of music has been a constant search for improvement. Years before the study of music was "admitted" to higher education-in fact, long be-fore most colleges were founded-a large body of literature, manuals, methodologies, festivals, and teacher-training institutes had developed. From the beginning, teaching of music has evolved from a single aim-the education of children in and through music. Ways and means of attaining it have varied, but the primary ob-jective has been constant. It remains fundamentally the same today although the "search " has become more complex and challenging. By the middle twenties of this cen-tury, broadened concepts of education expanding music programs, and de-gree requirements necessitated the es-tablishment of graduate programs. Re-search, in a contemporary sense, was initiated. Doctoral programs evolved, and the past twenty years have seen a significant disciplining of inquiry and basic research in the profession. The varied and many-faceted forces currently affecting education are well known: growing enrollments, imbal-ances in all curriculums, greater in-volvement of government and private