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In this paper we give an overview of relevant findings of a three years long case study that was carried out in the Madeira Island, Portugal. It addresses a thirty years old project in music and drama education in primary schools, which involves all children within the school curriculum, but also in extra-curriculum activities. The study used mainly qualitative methodologies for the case study approach, and statistical analysis concerning the questionnaires that were sent out to classroom teachers, supporting teachers, and parents. Findings indicate the magnitude of the project, its educational relevance, and a strong sense of ownership and leadership as revealed both by results from the questionnaires and emerging themes in the interviews. Taking into account the contributions of activity theory, critical points were identified that may bring about a qualitative transformation capable of fostering good practices in music and drama education in primary schools in Madeira.

In this article, we present part of the results from a wide-ranging research study addressing Orquestra Geração (OG), a Sistema-like project set up in Portugal in 2007. Orquestra Geração strives to bring about, through collective musical practices, the social inclusion and social mobility of children and teenagers experiencing educational and social vulnerability. The data collected include semi-structured interviews with three OG mentors, one of whom currently serves as the OG director, the OG sub-director, former national coordinators, the current national coordinator, and school coordinators, as well as observations of music classes, orchestra rehearsals and intensive summer internships. We briefly describe the project before detailing the organization’s identity and the profile of its music teachers in a narrative highlighted by the actors’ own words. Finally, we analyse the OG through the lenses of two different and yet complementary conceptual frameworks: Mintzberg’s organizational typology, and Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, as expanded and applied by Engeström. Findings suggest an underlying tension between adopting El Sistema’s methodology, as implemented in Venezuela, and adapting this to the Portuguese context. Moreover, a concentration of power in a few key figures may possibly prevent Orquestra Geração from prospering within a framework where its identity stands out as an autonomous project from El Sistema.

If the logos of current pragmatism regulates and places and manages, the logos of metaphor and cadence deregulates and displaces and offers a migratory movement out. Pragmatism addresses the functional brain. Metaphor and cadence address the whole imagination. An age of pragmatism without imagination, and age of postmodernism without meaning, is and age without spirit, prophecy or hope. (Peter Abbs, 2003) At the beginning of the academic year, a student stops me in the corridor of our college and asks, “Do you know if I am already in Bologna?” After a short moment of a little perplexity, I answer jocosely, “Well, I would say that right now you are in Porto, Portugal.” Being in Bologna (or not) means, for our students, that their request to change from the pre-Bologna Treaty course syllabus to the new one, according to the Bologna guidelines, has been institutionally accepted. Bologna is in this sense a metaphor for a new graduation model—for some students, a better solution for their future ambitions of more easily entering the teaching profession and, who knows, perhaps even another European country. Beautiful Bologna, this lively Italian university city with its Renaissance palaces and its innumerous ochre-colored arcades, means little or nothing to my student. She simply wants to know how her graduation prospects will look in the next three years.

ResumoA formação de professores de música em Portugal e no Brasil é o foco deste texto, que tem por objetivo apresentar aspectos preliminares de um estudo que vem sendo realizado a partir de contextos de Ensino Superior nos dois países. Com inspiração na metodologia da educação comparada, o presente estudo vem investigando documentos oficiais e currículos para promover a reflexão comparativa sobre diferentes caminhos oferecidos em Portugal e no Brasil para a preparação de professores de música, com ênfase na educação escolar. A formação de professores de música nos dois países foi pontualmente analisada a partir dos seguintes elementos: contexto educacional em Portugal e no Brasil; preparação musical anterior ao Ensino Superior e os critérios de ingresso nos cursos de formação de professores de música; elementos curriculares dos cursos formadores; prática docente e perspectivas profissionais. Os resultados preliminares desta análise comparativa demonstram semelhanças e diferenças nos dois contextos: 1) professores de música para a educação escolar são formados em instituições de Ensino Superior nos dois países, sendo que em Portugal, além da licenciatura em música, é exigida a formação em nível de mestrado profissionalizante; 2) em ambos os países são realizadas provas específicas de ingresso nas instituições, exigindo conhecimentos musicais pré-vios; 3) o equilíbrio entre a formação musical e pedagógica é um dos objetivos curriculares; 4) a prática docente é componente enfatizado na formação de professores; 5) em Portugal a motivação para a atuação na escola regular é maior do que no Brasil.Palavras-chave: formação de professores de música, currículos universitários, prática docente.