The Struggle for Culture: a sociological case study of the development of a national music curriculum

The article presents a case study of the development of the National Curriculum for music in English schools. This illustrates a relatively rare phenomenon, whereby the content of academic debates within the sociology of education, music education and musicology attain national importance through widespread coverage in the media. It is argued that the very public nature of the debates concerning what should count as school music exemplify an ideological struggle concerning the nature of ‘Englishness’ and what should lie at the heart of English culture. The analysis suggests that the precise role which institutions or the State play in the maintenance and reproduction of societies is contradictory and elusive. It also illustrates the ways in which the unintended consequences of government intervention in the educational process may provide outcomes severely at odds with their ideological intentions.