Instrumental Music Education in Ireland: How Subsidiarity and Choice Can Perpetuate Structural Inequalities

Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals

Y

17

Foreign Countries; Music Education; Musical Instruments; Equal Education; Costs; Government Role; Access to Education; Extracurricular Activities; Private Education; Educational Policy; Religion; Cultural Influences; Ideology

10.1080/03323315.2022.2093255

0332-3315
1747-4965

In Ireland access to instrumental music education (IME) largely operates through the private market. Unlike other European countries Ireland does not have a music school law or policy position. The purpose of this article is to examine how a long-established history of subsidiarity which is enshrined in the Irish Constitution together with the ideology of choice, has underpinned the provision of IME. This has led to the growth of a market-led system of provision that promotes inequalities. The data suggests that parents seeking IME for their children are compelled to act as customers and competitive citizens and that the private choices of those who can pay to play, masks the dearth of state-supported universal IME provision. In conclusion, it is argued that by continuing to adopt the principles of subsidiarity, the State is both exonerated from being fully responsible and accountable for the adequate provision of IME and is complicit in perpetuating structural inequalities that favour access to capitals-rich families, be in the state-supported IME, or IME in the private education market.

As Provided

2024

EJ1435377