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Music Teachers’ Perceptions of General Music as a Required Middle Level Course

Abstract In most middle level schools, the curriculum includes a range of elective courses, often called exploratory courses. General music is one of the many exploratory courses commonly offered in middle level schools across the United States. Educators who teach exploratory courses face numerous challenges related to enrollment, scheduling, budget, curricular content, and more. Exploratory courses are designed to enable middle level students to explore an area of interest or an unfamiliar subject, and the question of whether they are required is often a school- or district-level decision. Using an emergent, qualitative approach to content analysis, I investigated the perceptions of 1,316 middle school music teacher respondents regarding whether general music should be required for all middle grades students. While the music educator respondents were divided on this issue, their reasons revealed interesting perspectives on the purpose of music education and the functioning of middle level schools. Implications of this study include suggestions for school-level discussions about scheduling, budget, and the purposes of general music within the interdisciplinary middle level curriculum.