This chapter discusses the value to professional teachers of being able to relate teaching to pedagogical thinking as well as to broader social and philosophical perspectives. The text focuses on some of the challenges that are faced by music education in schools. Those who are about to face these challenges have been trained within the music teacher education system, so that these issues are also directly relevant to music teacher education. The challenges vary from country to country, according to their different educational systems and conditions. However, there are generic and basic music educational challenges that are common to most countries.
In the early sections of this chapter we explore: (i) music teaching as a profession; (ii) the professionalization of the job; and (iii) professional knowledge in the sense of a critical and reflective approach to teaching. Following this are three sections which gradually develop the arguments of earlier sections from a general perspective to a more specific one. It is important for professional educators to be able to relate their teaching to theoretical and philosophical considerations in order to be able to participate in the general debate on education. Moreover, at a more specific music educational level, such knowledge is crucial in order to be able to make informed choices and decisions; this is important both for the status and legitimacy of the subject and for music educational practice.
My goal is to suggest ways for music teachers to face current and future challenges by connecting aspects of the central arguments in this book.