Experiencing music 2200 online: a critical case study of the curriculum transfer process

Abstract

Driven by the need to provide all high school students, regardless of geographic location, equal access to provincially prescribed curriculum, the government of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, undertook to deliver a selection of its high school programming via web-based delivery formats. Representing a groundbreaking initiative for music education in the province, this web-based delivery format presents a new context for the teaching and learning of music in rural public schools. Through the lens of critical theory and using a critical case study approach the researcher collected and analyzed data from (1) interviews with persons directly involved in transferring Experiencing Music 2200 from a face-to-face instructional delivery to an online format, (2) field notes, and (3) pertinent government documents. Abstractions emerging from the data were clustered, themed, and then analyzed and interpreted using categories derived from the work of critical theorists and within selected literature in the area of critical educational research. Synthesis and analysis of data includes the development of timelines, discussion of the process of transference of curriculum to online formats, the identification of challenges, opportunities and implications in this specific case and in future developments, and the posing of critical questions pertaining to curriculum development in online contexts. Suggestions for further research in this area are provided in the concluding section.