Equity and inclusion in extracurricular musical activities: empirical findings from Germany and implications for teaching music in secondary school

ABSTRACT

Equity issues in the field of arts and culture play an important role when it comes to extracurricular activities in education. Students with special educational needs (SEN) seem not provided with equal access. Using nation-wide random samples of fourth- and fifth-graders courtesy of the German National Education Panel Study (NEPS), the main analysis compares the amount of extracurricular musical activities of students with SEN placed in special education schools (n = 365), in general schools (n = 143), and of students without SEN in inclusive settings (n = 4048). Students placed in special education schools were significantly less likely to take classes in music schools than students with SEN placed in regular schools (and than students without SEN). There were no significant group differences regarding the attendance of concerts and theatre plays. Finally, implications for special education schools and inclusive settings are proposed.

KEYWORDS:

• Extracurricular activity
• special educational needs
• music education
• equity and inclusion
• participation

Disclosure statement

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

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available for research purposes from the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) at http://doi.org/10.5157/NEPS:SC2:9.0.0 and http://doi.org/10.5157/NEPS:SC3:10.0.0. The syntax for the data management and all analyses in the present paper is openly available at https://osf.io/jm3np/.

Notes

1 In Germany, most primary schools end after grade 4. Only in one of 16 federal states (i.e., Berlin) does it end after grade 6.

2 doi:10.5157/NEPS:SC2:9.0.0 and doi:10.5157/NEPS:SC3:10.0.0. From 2008 to 2013, NEPS data was collected as part of the Framework Program for the Promotion of Empirical Educational Research funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). As of 2014, NEPS is carried out by the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) at the University of Bamberg in cooperation with a nationwide network.

3 Question: ‘Were special educational needs for <name of target child> determined prior to or during school attendance?’ (If the respondent has questions regarding their understanding of special educational needs: Special educational needs mean that these children have a reduced ability to learn, see, hear, behave, or with regard to language, or exhibit a physical disability).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ina Henning

Ina Henning, Dr, studied music, music education, and music therapy in Trossingen and Heidelberg, Germany and Toronto, Canada. Her development was fostered by stipends from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) as well as fellowships by the University of Toronto and the Paul Sacher Foundation, Switzerland. Parallel to teaching courses in the music department at the University of Education in Ludwigsburg, Germany, she became a special needs teacher and worked in public schools with a focus on the inclusive classroom. Publications include artistic research, inclusive music education, music therapy and the co-edition of a book on inclusion in the arts. This fall, Ina started her position as Assistant Professor of Music Education with a special focus on inclusion and heterogeneity at the University of Music, Drama and Media Hanover.

Johannes Schult

Johannes Schult studied psychology in Konstanz, Germany, and data analysis in Brussels, Belgium. His doctoral thesis (defended in 2013) dealt with the gender fairness of college admission tests. From 2012 to 2016 he worked as a post-doc at Saarland University in Saarbrücken, Germany, investigating school-related stress, intelligence, problem solving, and response format effects. He is currently working for the state of Baden-Württemberg, developing, administrating, and analysing large-scale educational assessments. In his free time, he is a singer in a wizard rock band.