Postgraduate Researcher
Current Status
First year of PhD
Research Topic
Inclusion and music education
Research Summary
My research examines the wider educational and social applications of music ‘as a tool’ to facilitate the development of the attributes of self-esteem, empathic understanding and acceptance of difference between children with moderate and severe learning difficulties or disabilities, and their mainstream peers. It contributes to debates about the nature of ‘inclusion’ in mainstream schools, and how curriculum and pedagogy enhances or undermines it. It also explores the ways in which specific subjects are seen as vehicles for diverse educational and social goals, and may offer important insights and additional ideas concerning the curriculum and teaching of music. The great majority of adolescents enjoy listening to and often performing music outside school, but inside, it is often problematic for many of them. This research could offer constructive ideas for an additional approach to secondary school music which encompasses a social justice theme. I am really looking forward to the depth of study that PhD study allows - and requires - over the coming three years.
Research Interests
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secondary school music education
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sociology of music education
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inclusion in and through music education
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mainstream and special school collaborations using music and the performing arts
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music in special education
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informal music learning
Research Supervisors
Professor Ann Lewis and Dr Kerstin Wittemeyer
External advisor: Dr Felicity Laurence, School of Arts and Cultures, University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
Funding
ESRC 1+3 scholarship
Membership of Research and Professional Organisations
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National Association of Music Educators (NAME)
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Musicians’ Union
Publications
Curran, S. (2011) ‘It got good in the end’: reflections on relationships in music teaching in a north Surrey secondary school. National Association of Music Educators’ Conference University of Cambridge.
Curran, S. (2011) Working towards inclusion in and through music: what’s the point, when music as a subject is struggling to hold its place in the secondary school curriculum? 10th School of Education Research Conference University of Birmingham.
Curran, S. (2011) Researching education: data, methods and theory in educational enquiry. Evaluation & Research in Education, 24:3, 218-219