Teaching music unmusically: The impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on secondary school music curricula in England

Abstract

The COVID‐19 pandemic, which emerged during 2020, had a wide‐ranging impact on all forms of social engagement in England until February 2022, when all COVID restrictions were lifted. Schools were widely affected during this time in both tangible and tacet interactions. The impact of COVID restrictions on curricula for 11–14‐year‐olds in the Key Stage 3 secondary music classroom in schools has been among the more hidden educational impacts, and research in this area has been limited. This article discusses research conducted between November 2020 and June 2021, which took the form of an online survey with 59 classroom music teachers and semi‐structured interviews with 12 music teacher participants. Adopting a methodology of descriptive coding and thematic analysis for interviews and open‐response survey questions, the findings reveal 10 unintended consequences of COVID‐19 safety measures for curriculum music teaching in schools. The article concludes by developing the concept of the ‘funnelling’ of music teaching during this time and explores the lasting impacts of such treatment, tracing the implications for the future of music curriculum in school and policy contexts.