An exploratory study of primary music teachers concerns about inclusive music teaching'

It has been almost a decade since the implementation of mandated policy of the Education Bureau on inclusive education that mainstream schools should admit students with special educational needs [SEN]. The idea of inclusive education is relatively new in Hong Kong, and there are only a few studies about the experience of language teachers in teaching students with SEN. The purpose of this two-phase, sequential mixed method study will be to explore music teachers’ concerns regarding inclusive music classrooms in Hong Kong. According to the experience of western countries, many regular teachers have difficulties in teaching students with SEN and need to receive specific training to tackle the needs of these students. Some researchers have developed scales for investigating teachers’ concerns about inclusive education in general but none is related to music teaching. Among the available studies on the inclusion of students with SEN in music classrooms, there is only one qualitative study done to examine music teachers’ concerns about teaching severely disabled students in inclusive music classrooms (Darrow 1999). Most of the music teachers’ concerns mentioned in the study are related to teaching in general rather than music teachers’ specific concerns about teaching music in inclusive music classrooms. As there is no available instrument to measure music teachers’ concerns about inclusion of students with special educational needs in music classrooms, there is the need to explore the concerns of music teachers about inclusive music teaching and to develop a valid instrument to measure music teachers’ concerns about inclusive music teaching as well as their generic concerns about teaching students with SEN. As such, an exploratory study that involves qualitative investigation into primary music teachers’ concerns of teaching in inclusive music classrooms in Hong Kong, and a quantitative examination with the development of a Music Teachers’ Concern of Inclusive Music Teaching Scale, will be developed to address the issue concerned. Among analyses, exploratory factor analysis in particular, will be conducted for reliability and validity purposes.