Background / Organisation

Three types of graduates appear to be teaching music in schools in Greece:

Table 1: Types of graduates for teaching music in school in Greece.

Graduates from Educational Departments at universities can teach music as generalists only, in Early Years or Primary settings according to their focus of study for Early Years or Primary teaching. Within their 4 year course they attend compulsory modules on Music education.

Specialist music teachers in Greece are graduates either from university music departments or conservatoires. Since the first university music department in Greece was founded in 1984, an increasing number of specialist music teachers are graduates from university music departments. A lot of music teachers have also graduated from conservatoires, with a focus during their studies either on theory (harmony, fugue or counterpoint) or on performance with a diploma on an instrument. However, the conservatoires do not belong to Higher Education and their syllabus has remained unchanged for fifty years now with only a limited focus on music pedagogy.

Since the music departments aim to become the main route to music teaching in schools in the near future, they include some sessions on music pedagogy. However, due to the way the Greek universities are organised and structured, their overall teaching, research policy and planning are determined by each university. Therefore, there is not a unified approach towards music education and syllabi differ; each department identifies and covers what is needed for academic staff for specific posts. For an overview of educational departments with undergraduate courses in music teacher training see table 2):

Table 2: List of undergraduate university courses in which Music Teacher Training takes place.

Departments of Music studies in universities in Greece (5 year course / Bachelor)

1     Athens, University of Athens

2     Thessaloniki, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

3     Corfu Ionian University , http://www.ionio.gr/depts/music/

4     Thessaloniki, University of Macedonia, Department of Music Studies and Art

5     Arta, University of Epirus, Department of Traditional Music (higher technological educational institute) 4 years / BA:

The number of students admitted to music teacher training courses each year depends on the department and the type of teachers (generalists or specialists). The music teacher training programme for generalists includes a large number of students ranging from 300 per year in the universities in big cities (Athens, Thessaloniki) and 100 per year for smaller universities. The music teacher training programme for specialists accepts on average 50 students per year at one institution.