Current and Future Challenges

There is great concern about many of the changes that have been proposed. Many educators believe that, in order to improve the current status and to achieve a »real convergence« in music education in the frame of the European Space for High Education following the Declaration of Bologna, Spain has to consider the following seriously:

• The current degree in Music teacher training aimed at music specialists for primary school (classes 1 to 6) should\not disappear at all, is planned by the year 2010. There is no pedagogical reason for this political decision.

• It is very important to test the musical abilities of students who wish to enter the course and introduce an entrance exam similar to that one that already exists in the many European countries.

• It is urgent that Spanish universities plan a degree (Bachelor and Master) in Music teacher training for the secondary school (classes 7 to 12) similar to those that for years have already existed elsewhere in Europe. This degree should have nothing to do with the current degree in musicology (not aimed to the school) and should be in the hands of the Departments of Music Education of the Faculties of Education.

• Neither musical pedagogy nor music didactic can be seen as an applied musicology. Music education is an independent scientific field with the mission to contribute to the improvement of the quality of the lives of all European citizens through music. These aims are both theoretical and practical as well.

• Professors and lectures who are teaching in the field of music education ought to research in this field as well. It does not make sense, that this research is not linked with the improvement of the quality of the music education at the different levels of the current Spanish educational system (from kindergarten to university). That means, many lectures must change their minds about the way music education is understood nowadays in a European context.

• In order to become more professional, free and independent, professional activity of the members of the Departments of Music Education should be assessed by members of the same field and not by others who do not work explicitly in music education such as musicologists and general educationalists.

• It is necessary for our discipline to be open-minded, to look at the current international contributions and to work closely with other universities in a European dimension.^[5]