Student-oriented syllabuses are not enough to attract children or young people with migrant backgrounds. Table 3 shows the monthly tuition fees approved by the municipality of L’Hospitalet for 2017 (Ajuntament de L’Hospitalet 2017). The three last programs include different subjects:
The basic program includes instrument and ensemble, the deepening program includes instrument, ensemble and a complementary subject, and the advanced program includes instrument, ensemble and different complementary subjects as preparation for the entrance examination to higher education.
Another factor to guarantee open access is the number of school instruments.
EMMCA has more than twice as many school instruments as the average in municipalities of similar size. L’Hospitalet has instruments for rent for 55 percent of the students. The average in Catalonia is 24 percent (Diputació de Barcelona 2016).
However, for families in vulnerable situations, the price of the service or the difficulty of buying an instrument is not the only barrier. There are also symbolic obstacles. Most music schools in Europe attract white middle-class students and few music schools mirror the social composition of the cities they are located in. To achieve the same range of social groups at the music school, the municipality of L’Hospitalet developed a particular policy: to establish EMMCA’s educational activities in the most problematic primary schools as part of the official curriculum.
An important aspect to consider when discussing the Spanish educational policy is the following: There are two different types of public schools: direct state schools whose teachers are civil servants, and publicly subsidized private schools. The number of teaching hours varies: publicly subsidized schools offer one additional hour per day. This extra hour enables the school authorities to charge the families an extra fee. This extra fee de facto ex-cludes the most vulnerable families from this part of the school system, concentrating them in the purely state-run schools in the same neighborhoods.
SOCIAL COHESION: WHY MUSIC SCHOOLS MATTER / NÚRIA SEMPERE
Ensemble playing EUR 15.91 Deepening program EUR 53.26 Early education EUR 26.53 Advanced program EUR 79.07 Basic program EUR 39.74
Table 3: EMMCA monthly tuition fees
Due to the abovementioned educational policy, state schools in the northern neighborhoods of L’Hospitalet have a high share of children whose parents are non-EU citizens (90 to 98 percent). These were the kind of schools chosen to start EMMCA’s activities, giving new opportunities to students with migrant backgrounds.
The first question was: Which music should we offer? Considering that the purpose of this extension of music education was to counteract economic and cultural inequalities regarding the access of vulnerable children to music education, the two principals responsible for implementing the program (primary school and music school) faced the following dilemma: world music or classical music?
On the one hand, it was argued that world music could be relevant for them and connected to their cultural environment, connecting the art to their families and providing a pleasant atmosphere to these newcomers. However, this option could broaden the gap between their origins and their new cultural reality, underline the cultural differences, and maximize the identity outlines.
On the other hand, even though these children are new European citizens, they are seldom exposed to its culture due to school class segregation.
Classical music could be a tool to make them feel as members of the European culture. But implementing classical music runs the risk of establishing what Gaztambide-Fernández calls a “civilizing approach” to urban music education, in which the aim is to further assimilate marginalized or otherwise uncivilized students through opportunities to participate in dominant modes of music-making (Gaztambide-Fernández 2015).
So, which one to choose? Western or non-Western culture? Classical music is one of the more internationally recognized European cultural products.
The decision was taken: Playing classical music could be a way to make those children feel empowered in European culture.
The second question we faced was: How to organize the program? Focusing on music generally or on instrumental skills? At this point, teachers were integrated into the discussions. The teaching staff wanted to use music to enrich school life, give children better opportunities, create closer the ties between the class members, and enlarge the students’ cultural worlds. At the same time, the teaching staff was aware that improving the students’
academic success was a challenge and that it was, therefore, necessary to counteract the lack of attention, concentration, and discipline. Playing an instrument could help improve the students’ academic performance.
The result was that the first four primary schools involved in the program established string orchestras and the fifth school organized a wind orchestra, following the music school’s pedagogical approach.
After the school orchestras had been running for four years, it was time to remove barriers from the rest of the styles and disciplines offered by EMMCA outside school hours. Besides the five schools focusing on classical music, another four schools gradually became part of the program, offering drama, dance, and jazz. In 2017, EMMCA sent teachers to nine primary schools during school hours, providing lessons to 1,112 children in primary school.
This part of EMMCA’s activity is connected to a local educational policy called Tàndem.
We will provide details on the impact on the academic results, the parents’
participation, and the social composition of the music school in the second part of the paper.
The Association of Music Schools in Catalonia (ACEM) spread the
implemented policy in L’Hospitalet by creating a working group called “One child one instrument” (UIUI), constituted by representatives of twenty-one municipalities. This group is still analyzing management and pedagogical strategies for implementing the activities of music schools in primary and secondary schools. It has not yet published any results, but more than 3,500
SOCIAL COHESION: WHY MUSIC SCHOOLS MATTER / NÚRIA SEMPERE
TÀNDEM-EMMCA SCHOOLS 1,112 students
Activity Style Number of students involved
TÀNDEM L’H - MUSIC 867
Escola Charlie Rivel
String orchestra
122
Escola Ausiàs March 117
Escola Lola Anglada 120
Escola Pau Vila 146
Escola Ramón y Cajal Wind orchestra 201
Escola Ernest Lluch New Orleans jazz 93
Escola Josep Janés Jazz manouche 68
TÀNDEM L’H - DRAMA 141
Escola Màrius Torres Drama 165
TÀNDEM L’H - DANCE 104
Escola Gornal Dance 104
Table 4: Activities and styles offered at Tàndem-EMMCA schools
students in primary schools currently have instrumental tuition of varying intensity with a music school.