Background/ Organisation
There are separate Music teacher training courses in England for those teaching in primary schools (children aged 4-11years of age) and secondary schools (children aged 11-18).
Prior to 1963, students with degrees could become teachers with no further study; those without degrees were required to study for 2 or 3 years in teacher training colleges to gain a Certificate in Education (Cert.Ed.). After a major governmental debate in that year - the Robbins Report - teacher training courses were augmented to 4 years in length and led to a Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.). In both Cert.Ed. and B.Ed. courses, students studied an academic subject and pedagogy simultaneously. Since 1983, all teachers have had graduate status and, in the 80s, a different route into secondary teaching became popular: studying for a Batchelor degree, in most cases for 3 years, and then completing the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE), one year, teacher training qualification.
In 1994, the Teacher Training Agency (TTA), now known as the Teacher Development Agency (TDA) was established. This is an executive, non-departmental public body which reports to the Secretary of State for Education and Skills and takes responsibility for all aspects of teacher training. It is this body that accredits and funds all providers of Initial Teacher Education. To improve the quality of training courses, regular inspections are carried out by government inspectors using a framework which was developed by the TTA together with the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted); these inspections have a bearing on the number of students that a course can take on and, consequently, on their funding.
Today, all teacher training courses – both primary and secondary - lead towards Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) which must be gained to teach in a state school; increasingly non-state schools (public schools) are also requiring QTS. The 3-year degree +1-year teacher training route is still the most popular for those wishing to become secondary school music teachers; students complete their undergraduate studies and then select their teacher training course. The one year PGCE can either be acquired by completing a university-based course or through a school-based School-Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) programme. Those courses provided by universities consist of taught courses at the institution and teaching placements in at least two of their ‘partnership schools’ where trainees have block periods of time termed ‘teaching practice’. Secondary teaching training courses must include a minimum of 24 weeks in schools. School-Centred Initial Teacher Training was set up in 1994; SCITT programmes are devised and run by a consortia of schools within the same geographical area. They sometimes choose to work with a range of partners including higher education institutions and local education authorities (LEAs). Most of the work takes place in a ‘lead’ school, with some teaching or development taking place in other consortium schools.
Another route into teaching is the employment-based route which was introduced in the 1990s to meet individual needs and to enable prospective teachers to qualify whilst working. There are three main types of employment-based routes: the Graduate Teacher Programme (GTP), the Registered Teacher Programme (RTP) and ‘Teach First’. Candidates for the GTP must have a degree; and will train in a school for about a year, although this can be shorter depending on any prior experience they have in teaching. Their school pays them an unqualified or qualified teacher’s salary, depending on responsibilities and experience and the TDA pays the school up to £14,000 and a training grant to help meet employment costs. The RTP is very similar in funding; it is usually two years in length and enables non-graduates with at least two years experience of higher education to complete their degree and qualify as a teacher at the same time. Both GTP and RTP students must be at least 24 years old. ‘Teach First’ enables graduates, who have attained high grades in their undergraduate degrees, to spend 2 years teaching in challenging schools, where they qualify as a teacher and also complete leadership training and work experience with reputable employers outside the field of education. Students entering employment-based routes are required to have the same qualifications as those entering a university or SCITT course.
There are currently 36 music PGCE, secondary level, teacher training courses in England; two of these offer the opportunity to specialise in instrumental work as well as classroom teaching: Manchester Metropolitan University which operates in conjunction with the Royal Northern College of Music Conservatoire and Birmingham City University.
In England, today, there are very few specialists courses aimed at training teachers for primary school work. Classroom primary school teachers are expected to teach music but the majority have gained a general primary school qualification through a 4-year primary teacher training course and most of providers of these offer very little music training and in some cases none at all.
The following 4-year undergraduate courses place a strong focus upon music:
- University of Plymouth: Music and General Primary 5-11 years;
- Birmingham City University: Primary Education with QTS;
- University of Reading: Education Studies (Primary) with Music;
- and there is a Postgraduate 1-year course in Primary Music at Exeter
University. - Canterbury Christ Church University Music Education course is the only course which trains for teaching music across upper primary and lower secondary.
Since 2006 there have been developments in university-based teacher-training courses so that they are able to offer a Masters route into teaching. Some secondary music teacher training courses have opted to retain their course leading to the Professional Graduate Certificate in Education (non-Masters), others only offer a route to the Postgraduate Certification in Education (Masters) and others offer both. Confusingly, both routes still have the widely-used acronym PGCE. Recently, there has been a shortage of music teachers such that the government has augmented the training grant for music trainees. The following sections describe the training route for a secondary school music teacher following the 3+1 route: completing an undergraduate study and then a one year teacher training course.