Tales of change: effective professional development in the light of educational systems reforms in Austria and England

Abstract

The authors of this article each present the current situation of their respective educational systems regarding music teacher education, schools and professional development: all of which have undergone massive changes in the last decades. In the UK, this lead to a shift of teacher education away from universities toward school-based training and an orientation toward accountability and performance. In Austria, teacher education that had formerly been divided into two—academic courses for secondary education, and a nonacademic teacher training program in primary education—became streamlined and integrated into all academic BA-MA based programs at universities and pedagogical colleges. The authors trace the ramifications of these changes in the provision of professional development programs for music and arts teachers that mirror these organizational changes. They criticize the artificial divide that exists between learners in formal education and post-college lifelong learning, and propose a change in mindset: one in which tertiary education students are seen as continuing their lifelong learning path. They present current frameworks for effective in-service professional development as they have been discussed in international literature. An overview of research then allows them to highlight five different forms of effective in-service programs that have recently been implemented in music teacher professional development around the world. These five forms are discussed and linked to current developments in both countries before the article closes with recommendations for policy, which reflect the differences in political situation and educational contexts in both countries and their implications for future development of lifelong learning.

Keywords:

• Music teacher training
• professional development
• lifelong learning
• educational systems
• policy recommendations

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The timeframe put education officials under pressure, with only a few months to develop the complete curriculum together with practitioners and policy makers. This was verbally reported during the yearly conference of music teacher educators and education officials in spring 2019.

2 I researched several university and pedagogical college courses and did not find any mentions of professional development as a topic.

3 https://www.bundeszentrum-zsk.at/zsk/home/english

4 https://www.chorseminar-zell.org/

https://www.schulmusik-rinderer.at/

5 https://at.yamaha.com/de/education/blaeserklasse/index.html

https://www.helbling.at/?pagename=sommerkurs-2019

6 A look at the literature used for this article shows clear affiliation and emphasis of one type of research visible from the title alone.