Symposia
The MEP Group organises annual symposia to provide an interactive space for networking, learning, reflection and discussion.
MEP Group Annual Symposium
23 - 25 October 2023
Scotland
In partnership with Creative Scotland
Joint Action for Music Education:
Collaborations & Partnerships
Theme
This 5th symposium focuses on the importance of collective efforts and collaborations in the field of music education. It brings together music education professionals to delve into the potential of partnerships and explore innovative and effective ways to enhance music education policies and practices globally.
In the realm of music education, networking, collaborating, and partnering hold immense potential for overcoming challenges, for instance those posed by limited policy support and insufficient resources, including financial backing. By fostering connections and alliances, music education actors can tap into a range of benefits that contribute to the growth and sustainability of the field, and do this in line with the principles laid out in the Global Compact for Music Education.
Participants from different continents will explore existing strategic alliances that provide insights into how the collective voice of music education actors can be amplified to address such challenges and to advocate for policy changes and increased support.
Agenda & Venues
Download draft agenda here!
23rd October 2023, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS), Glasgow
Keynote Address by John Wallace CBE
Workshop on "Accessibility and Partnerships" led by Professor Stephan Broad, Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange, RCS
Lunchtime concert at the RCS - woodwind & brass
Opening Panel Discussion: National Insights: The Power of Strategic Music Education Partnerships in a GCME Perspective
External visits followed by Afternoon Tea at the RCA
Concert at National Piping Centre and/or event at the Scottish Storytelling Festival
24th October 2023, Creative Scotland, Edinburgh
Welcome by Iain Munro, CEO, Creative Scotland
Panel discussions on new developments in terms of partnerships & collaborations from MEP Group Members and invited experts
MEP Group Workshop on Signing up to the Global Compact
Meeting at the Scottish Parliament with Michelle Thomson, Convener of the Cross-Party Group in the Scottish Parliament on Music
Visit to local music initiative
Whisky tasting followed by MEP Group dinner
25th October 2023, Creative Scotland, Edinburgh
General Meeting of the Scottish Music Education Partnership Group (MEPG), a network of over 70 music-based organisations with a Scottish focus which brings together the diverse music teaching constituencies, formal, non-formal, informal, in the public and third sectors - opportunities to meet and exchange information and contacts with all the main music education actors in Scotland!
Symposium ends at 1pm
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MEP Group Annual Symposium 2022
30 Sept & 01 Oct 2022
Portugal
Implementing the Global Compact
Venue
The Symposium took place at one of the most beautiful seaside towns on the Portuguese Riviera at the Museum of Portuguese Music, which is a small museum housed in the Casa Verdades de Faria in Estoril, municipality of Cascais, Portugal, just 20 km outside of Lisbon.
National Music Museum of Portugal
Casa Verdades de Faria, Av. de Sabóia
1146, Monte Estoril - 2765-580 Estoril, Portugal
Theme
For over 2 years, more than 40 experts from around the world worked together to draft 6 universally valid, shared and proven principles of music education in the form of a Global Compact (GCME) that could serve as a common reference for all music education stakeholders. The Symposium brought together MEP Group members and invited experts to discuss how to engage with the GCME and use it for sharing best practice globally.
Download the GCME here.
Program
Designed to provide lots of space for networking, collaboration and reflection, the program provided the opportunity to meet professionals who share an interest in the GCME in a truly international context.
Symposium 2021
Cover Symposium.pdfTheme
This symposium provided best practice examples and an opportunity for open discussion of recent developments in the music education policy sphere in different countries and regions. Addressing the different stages of the process underpinnning the development and implementation of music education policies, the symposium showcased and analyzed different approaches to evaluating existing policies, influencing agenda setting, formulating policies, monitoring implementation, or engaging stakeholders. Bringing together music education specialists and policy-makers, it offered inspiring and critical insights on how some of the shared problems affecting the music education field are being addressed at the policy-level and help to identify possible steps for future policy actions.
Program
Presentations and panels from Australia, Canada, Brazil, the US, Scotland, Finland, India, Singapore and the OECD. More...
Supporting documentation
Finnish Music Education Vision 2030
Overview of Finnish Music Education System
OECD Presentation: Fostering Creativity and Critical Thinking in Music Education
Symposium 2020
The e-symposium “Rethinking Policies for Music Education in a Post-Pandemic World”, organized by the Music Education Policy Group from 28-30 October 2020, brought together 69 MEP Group Members and external experts from the music, culture and education ecosystems from 25 different countries. Discussing issues related to workforce development, music in schools and equitable access and participation in three virtual sessions, participants explored how the disruption caused by the pandemic may provide a unique opportunity to rebuild and reshape the field of music education and to rethink policies, including funding policies. Reflecting on how the pandemic has exposed and exacerbated critical inequalities and vulnerabilities, accelerated change in certain domains and brought into clearer focus areas that need further attention, discussions looked at what influential stakeholders across different levels would have to do to ensure that music – as a powerful form of cultural expression – can be used as an engine of reconstruction and, beyond that, what needs to be done so the global music education community can fully embrace a “new normal” that is based on equity and diversity and driven by its collective values.
Symposium 2019
The MEP Group held its inaugural symposium on "Policies for Unlocking Potential: Music & Creativity in Education" on 14-15 October 2019 in London, United Kingdom.
The symposium was hosted by the Arts Council England, one of the chairing organizations of the MEP Group. It was open for MEP Group member organizations and invited experts; it brought together policy-makers, practitioners and academics to share insights and culturally diverse perspectives with a particular focus on the link between music education policy and creativity within and beyond the public education system.
Info materials provided by participants:
Send, Inspire - Great Music for Every Child in UK Special Schools, Live Music Now
Projects Guri from Brazil and Arte para Crecer from Peru (video) and website of Teca Alencar de Brito
The Durham Commission on Creativity and Education, Final Report, 2019
Scotland’s Creative Learning Plan (2013) and related: ‘Creativity is the skill of the future’
‘A note of concern: The future of instrumental music tuition in schools’ Report. (Jan 2019), The Education and Skills Committee of the Scottish Parliament
Fostering Students' Creativity and Critical Thinking - What it Means in School, (book), OECD, 2019
ArtsEqual Research Initiative, Finland, Results
Presentations:
Shaping the Next 10 Years: Creative People, Cultural Communities and a Creative and Cultural Country; presentation by Hannah Fouracre, Arts Council England
Current Music Education Policies and Creativity: The FLADEM Perspective; presentation by Adriana Rodrigues Didier, Latin American Forum for Music Education (FLADEM)
The Embedded Artist: Challenges Higher Education Music Institutions Have to Face Against the Background of a Changing Job Market; presentation by Stefan Gies, Association of European Conservatoires
The OECD-CERI Project on Creativity and Critical Thinking Skills in Education; presentation by Carlos Gonzalez-Sancho, OECD
The Dilemma of International Regional Collaboration in a Global Artistic Scene, presented by Eline Wernberg Sigfusson, Nordic Culture Fund
A Norwegian Perspective on Teacher Education, presented by Jonas C. Romme, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences
The Portuguese Association of Music Education and the Cantar Mais Project: Building Teacher Capacities, presented by Manuela Encarnacao, APEM
Music Education in Scotland, presented by Morag MacDonald, Creative Scotland