Impactmus Project

Our current PROFMUS project is the natural consequence of the one previously carried out on The Impact of Music Education for the Society and Knowledge Economy (IMPACTMUS).

Impactmus, an R&D project carried out between 2015 and 2018, is a research approached from a retrospective and at the same time prospective perspective, which has investigated the impact of school music education on new generations and on the role music has played within the Spanish national curriculum. This research also allowed us to ask questions based on evidence on the role of music in the compulsory curriculum within the new framework of educational policy reforms. Based on empirical data, the aim was to evaluate the place that school music education has had as part of the compulsory curriculum. In other words, the project pursued to determine the impact that music education has had on compulsory education in the last decade (2000-2010), as well as documenting its possible contribution for the education system and the young people it trains to face the challenges of the society and the knowledge economy.

Project on school music education in Spain from which PROFMUS arises

Most relevant publications from this project has been:

Different articles dealing with the impact of Music Education on society and the knowledge economy from different perspectives, such as: neoliberalism in education; Bourdieau’s intellectual capital; the impact of music education in society; the meaning of music education as part of a curriculum conceived to boost the knowledge economy; the defense of music education from the neurosciences; and technology and compulsory music education as references for the implementation of good practices. These works have been published in issue #14 if the Revista Electrónica Complutense de Investigación en Educación Musical Year: 2017. Available at https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/RECI/issue/view/3156

Aróstegui, J. L. Rusinek, G. y Fernández-Jiménez, A. (Eds.) (2021). Escuelas musicales. Buenas prácticas docentes en centros de Primaria y Secundaria que educan a través de la música. Barcelona: Octaedro. Summary and table of contents are avaliable here.

Pérez-Moreno, J. y Carrillo, C. (Eds.) (2019). El impacto en educación musical: una mirada retrospectiva. Barcelona: Octaedro. Table of Content and the Introduction are available here.

Divulgative documentary to disseminate results:

We hereby present a documentary series on “The Impact of School Music Education in Spain”, one of the products of the IMPACTMUS project. We gather the testimony of different schools that for one reason or another (for their project based learning through music, for the school choir…) can be tagged as ‘magnet’ in this field of music education. We also offer the opinion of former students about how school music influenced their lives .