Social Change, Culture and Creativity: Music Education in China

With particular reference to school music education in China, this study will examine the under-researched relationships between social transformation, cultural diversity, creativity, and education reforms. Education, knowledge, information, and creativity are progressively becoming driving forces behind our new social, cultural, and educational structures. In response to social change, this study will examine the development of school music education in China, focusing on culture-based creativity. The concept of culture-based creativity in education goes beyond artistic achievements in thinking imaginatively or metaphorically, challenging the conventional, and calling on symbolic and affective elements to communicate. Based on an examination of the nature of creativity and its diverse cultures in music education and forms, this study will explore the challenges of fostering creativity in school music education in general. The essential elements of music education include perception and creativity, stimulation, the enjoyment and adventure of seeing and hearing and of trying things out, the integration of musical creativity in diverse cultures, and achieving new effects in school education. These initiatives and changes have also seen ever-increasing dynamism in the artistic creation of cultural reforms in school music education.

To analyse the impact of relevant social change on creativity in music education, this study will employ multiple research and data-collection methods, including the analysis of official documents and official approved music textbooks; other relevant literature; a student questionnaire; in-depth and semi-structured interviews with students, teachers, and school leaders; and non-participant observation of music lessons in primary and secondary schools. The empirical research will be based on observed and measured phenomena, and this will enable pragmatic recommendations for creative cultural and music education to meet the music education challenges of the twenty-first century in China. This empirical approach will focus on the investigation of how teacher training and knowledge is related to informed pedagogical decisions, and how specialist knowledge can guide teachers’ subsequent teaching actions in classroom music teaching. In this context, besides exploring the views of school students regarding their learning of creativity through music education, this study will also look at how music teachers, other subject teachers, and school leaders who are involved in creative arts education or creativity education think and behave in their approaches to school music education to promote creativity in students.