El contenido de la obra y sus limitaciones

teaching it is necessary to understand teachers' thinking. More specifically, teachers' subject knowledge, as a part of that thinking in relation to the classroom curriculum, plays an important, albeit not clear-cut, role in all stages of the teaching cycle of planning, delivery (content and approach), assessment and reflection. In the context of the subject-based National Curriculum subject knowledge is an important issue. However, in this country there is a scarcity of research into primary teachers' thinking and subject knowledge in music. This study helps to fill that research gap.

Finally it was intended that this chapter should provide the basis for this research journey and so has introduced several strands that weave in and out during the rest of this thesis, informing the study both methodologically and substantively.

Firstly from this literature review comes the conceptual premise underpinning the whole research project: namely, that everyone constructs his or her knowledge in response to his/her particular context (in a broad sense). Such knowledge is thus unique to each individual, although may share common features with that of other individuals. Knowledge affects action. In order to understand teaching, it is necessary to understand teachers' thinking Teachers' beliefs are powerful influences on their actions. A key focus to this research involves the individual perceptions of specific teachers regarding subject knowledge.

Views concerning a constructivist approach to the acquisition of knowledge will be seen to influence both the general methodological approach and the particular data collecting tools used in the fieldwork section of this study, with a qualitative interpretive approach being taken in an attempt to understand the thinking of teachers in a small-scale case study. As an example at a more specific level, a concept mapping

exercise also relates, via personal construct psychology, to the same conceptual premise (see 3: 4, below) and provides a visual symbolic representation of structured knowledge. Similarly, an acknowledgement of the effect of various kinds of context is reflected in areas in the interview schedules that cover previous and current experiences relating to music education. Contexts of learning and of knowledge use become an important strand as this study progresses.

The terminology used in connection with teachers' thinking is various and this study takes a broad perspective including, for example, beliefs and attitudes as well as knowledge. There is a subsequent implication that teachers' espoused thinking will include a similar range of aspects expressed in a variety of ways. This will need to be considered in the later Findings (Chapter 4), Discussion (Chapter 5) and model-building (see Chapter 6) phases of the study. Similarly any investigation of teachers' thinking needs to take into account that knowledge can be held in various forms, for example as case studies, metaphors and images, and such aspects may lead to fruitful research insights. That some knowledge may be held tacitly; and that 'espoused theories' may not reflect implicit 'theories in use' (Argyris and SchOn, 1974) provides added challenges to the fieldwork and analysis stages.

SchOn's (1983) conception of the reflective practitioner suggests it is possible and, indeed, desirable for an individual to access, reflect on and express — to a certain extent — professional knowledge. However, he is not alone in identifying different types of knowledge and knowing and the following ways of categorising different forms of knowledge will be used throughout the study:

Shulman's (1986a; 1986b; 1987) ways of dividing subject knowledge into subject matter knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge (including knowledge of children's likely responses) and curricular knowledge;

Reimer's (1989; 1997; 2003) expositions of possible different views on the nature of music and music education, particularly as they relate to intrinsic and extrinsic values; and

Swanwick's (1994) four types of musical knowledge: knowing that (propositional), knowing how (skills with materials), knowing it (expression and form) and knowing what's what (attitudinal and valuing).

Music in education has been explained as including knowledge about music, about music education and about music within education. Knowledge about music comes under Shulman's (1986a; 1986b; 1987) subject matter knowledge and might include aspects to do with the nature and value of music, as described by Reimer (1989; 1997; 2003), as well as aspects relating to Swanwick's (1994) four types of musical knowledge. Knowledge about music education includes aspects of Eraut's (1994) public knowledge, transformed into personal 'action knowledge', as well as of Shulman's pedagogical content knowledge and curricular knowledge. Music within education also includes aspects from the Shulman categories, but, in addition, might draw on more general, that is, non-subject specific, pedagogical knowledge. It will be interesting to see which aspects of these theoretical frameworks the teachers in this study exemplify in practice.

Various aspects to do with feeling permeate this study as part of thinking, teaching and experiencing music. As already described, knowledge inherently links affect with cognition. Of particular interest in this study, given the conflicting evidence relating to

teachers' confidence, will be teachers' affective, attitudinal responses to the subject, and this also links with teaching itself being fundamentally an 'emotional practice' (A. Hargreaves,1998). As an inherent part of music, emotion can be both recognised, consciously or not, by the participant, and be induced in the participant.

The National Curriculum along with other officially imposed structures, provide one of the levels of context within which teachers operate. Their perceptions of these and other contextual influences means that notions to do with self and identity will also form an important strand, together with related aspects such as self-efficacy and autonomy.

This study is intended to fill a gap in the research literature by investigating teachers' thinking regarding music in education. The aim is to add to the knowledge about teachers' thinking in music education by providing evidence and insights based on empirical research.

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