Music Teacher Training
Music teacher training in Austria takes places at the three music academies Vienna, Salzburg (with additional courses in Innsbruck) and Graz and at the 13 state-run, private or church-run teacher training colleges. Trainee music teachers are taught at either a music academy or a teacher training college depending on their selected target group (type of school):
Teacher training colleges | Music academies |
Primary education (elementary schools) | Secondary education 1 & 2 (academic secondary schools) |
Secondary education 1 (general secondary schools) |
|
Degree attained: Bachelor | Degree attained: “Magister” |
Table 1: Areas covered by the institutions with degrees attained
In Austria (8 million inhabitants) 9,882 students took a teacher training course[1] at a teacher training academy (the forerunners of the teacher training colleges) in 2006/07. Of these, approx. 2,000 trained as general secondary school teachers, with 10% of them choosing the subject “Music Education” – in the other categories (elementary and special needs schools) there is no specialisation in particular subjects (see below).
In the same academic year 209,416 students took degree courses at state-run universities, with 7,750 of them taking a teacher training course. Of these, 528 studied music education.[2]
At the teacher training colleges the three-phase course structure has already been introduced, whereas teacher training courses at universities have so far been left as they were and thus retain the “Diplom” system (see below).