Implications of neoliberalism and knowledge economy for music education

This paper discusses the influence of neoliberalism and the knowledge economy in national curricula, and in school music education in particular, in order to cope with the role school music is playing and it could play in a curriculum conceived ‘to boost the knowledge economy’ currently in effect in most of the countries. For this, some economy theories are presented, with emphasis on neoliberalism, and also what knowledge economy means. Then the implications of these economic concepts for both education and school music education will be discussed. In the end, I will conclude that neoliberalism and knowledge economy, albeit usually presented as the same, are two different concepts with very different consequences for school music education: while the first brings out a decline of school music education, the latter could give a space for school music and arts and Humanities at large. I will also report some evidences of an improvement of the status of school music education as part of national curriculum supporting the knowledge economy.