Taking distance and getting up close: The Seven-Continuum Transmission Model (SCTM)

Abstract

From the early 1980s, many institutes for formal music education across the world have formally abandoned the view that Western classical music from the common practice period should be the only reference for music education. Terms like doing justice to the multicultural environment abound in policies and statements of principle. This has led to a journey of discovery for many music educators and institutes into understanding new sound worlds and sharing these in teaching. A significant number of initiatives have been realised; some of these have proven quite successful, others less so. But after twenty-five years of practice, the question arises: to what extent have we been successful in incorporating the new musics we have discovered and do we really present them on a basis of equality? Answering this question truthfully obliges us to dig deep into the values underlying our beliefs, approaches and organisation of music education.