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!

Download background documents here!


23rd October 2023, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS), Glasgow

24th October 2023, Creative Scotland, Edinburgh

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


more...

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.

more...

Symposium 2021

Cover Symposium.pdf

Theme

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

Including First Nations' Perspectives in the Music Curriculum in Brazil, presentation by Magda Pucci, 2021

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.

Program & Presentations  |  Summary 

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.  

Symposium documentation

Presentations & Documentation

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