Both in concept and in practice, policy has permeated the deepest recesses of civil society and has had particular impact on the lives of those who are actively connected to the educational process. For music teachers in particular, policy can evoke images of a forbidden environment beyond one's day-to-day duties and responsibilities. Nothing, however, could be farther from the truth. In this book, author Patrick Schmidt offers a variety of ways for K-12 music educators to engage with, analyze, and develop effective policy. Schmidt first demystifies the notion of policy and the characterization that it is out-of-reach to teachers, before exemplifying how policy, both big-picture policy and policy as a daily encounter enacted at the local level, share many similarities and are indeed co-dependent fragments of the same process. The first provides extensive and detailed contextual information, offering a conceptual vision for how to consider policy in the fast-pace and high-adaptability reality of 21st-century music education environments. The second delivers a practical set of ideas, guidelines, and suggestions specific to music education for a closer and more active interaction with policy, directed at providing 'tools for action' in the daily working lives of music educators. This approach enourages those who are novice to policy as well as those who would like to further explore and participate in policy action to exercise informed influence within their field, community, and school, and ultimately have greater impact in pedagogical, curricular, administrative, and legislative decision-making.

Patrick Schmidt's profile page

Patrick Schmidt is Chair of Music Education at the University of Western Ontario. Schmidt's innovative work in critical pedagogy, urban music education, and policy studies is recognized nationally and internationally. His most recent publications can be found in the International Journal of Music Education; Theory into Practice; Arts Education Policy Review; Research in Music Education, Journal of Curriculum Theorizing; Philosophy of Music Education Review; Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education; ABEM Journal in Brazil; and the Finnish Journal of Music Education. Schmidt serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of the Council of Research in Music Education, Arts Education Policy Review, the ABEM Journal, the Revista Internacional de Educacíon Musical published by ISME, and the Journal of Popular Music Education. He co-edited The Oxford Handbook of Music Education and Social Justice (2015) and Policy and the Political Life of Music Education (2017).