MODELS FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF MUSIC TEACHERS IN THE ITALIAN FIRST LEVEL SECONDARY SCHOOL

Professional development and in-service training represent fundamental elements of the work of a teacher. This is more true for those who teach artistic subjects including music: areas of knowledge which by their very nature are linked to the experimentation and investigation of their peculiar contents, methods and horizons.

In the context of Italian basic school (kindergarten, primary and first level secondary school) the ‘culture’ of the ‘continuous’ in-service training of teachers in the area of music varies on account of the different competence of each teacher and, more generally, the different concept of ‘music’ applied by teachers in their teaching/educational practice. In fact, even though the National Guidelines [2004] explicitly indicate specific objectives for music learning and content, many of these aspects are left to the discretion of the individual teacher thus leading to a wide variety of approaches and interpretations of music teaching/learning.

Consequently the models of professional/in-service training of teachers to be found throughout Italy differ widely from one another and are in fact strongly linked to various factors: socio-anthropological conceptions of musical experience, historical models of music and its teaching, the teacher’s competence (pedagogic, musical and didactic), the working context, etc.
Within this highly varied picture one must also add the effect of the varying types of measures issued at a central level by various organisms (European Community, Ministry of Public Education etc.) and which mainly take the form of prompts and guidelines. Therefore the initiatives of professional/in-service training presented yearly by those institutionally entrusted with the matter - the ministry, public or private training agencies - are quite diverse and tend, rather than satisfying the emergent training needs of the teachers, to promote the diffusion of preconstituted cultural and theoretical models.

This study - through an examination of historical and normative data, and the analysis of recent literature and of the prevalent practices in the realm of music teaching/learning and professional/in-service training - proposes guidelines for an approach to training which seem crucial for the institution of effective educational models in line with contemporary society and its challenges as well as for the establishment of a model of schooling that is authentically European.