Music Education Research

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Exploring the unmeasurable: valuing the long-

term impacts of primary music education

Koji Matsunobu

To cite this article: Koji Matsunobu (2020): Exploring the unmeasurable: valuing
the long-term impacts of primary music education, Music Education Research, DOI:
10.1080/14613808.2020.1834524

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2020.1834524

Published online: 02 Dec 2020.

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MUSIC EDUCATION RESEARCH
https://doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2020.1834524

Exploring the unmeasurable: valuing the long-term impacts of

primary music education
Koji Matsunobu
Department of Cultural and Creative Arts, Assessment Research Center, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai
Po, Hong Kong

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

This study aims to explore the long-term impacts of primary music Received 17 September 2019
education in a progressive school in Tokyo where cooperative learning, Accepted 6 October 2020
democratic decision making, and mutual sharing of interests and
KEYWORDS
purposes by students form the pedagogical basis. Establishing a causal Long-term impact;
relationship between music learning and its impact in later life is a longitudinal case study;
challenging task, due to many confounding factors. Rather than looking impact study; valuation
for measurable effects, this study draws on students’ retrospective self- process; progressive school
accounts. Although the latter may be viewed as less reliable, it
possesses the benefit of allowing the students to assess what they
consider to be the true value of their education. Positing that
retrospective accounts can form the focus of a long-term impact study,
this research targeted former sixth-grade students who became
university students ten years later. While at primary school, they were
actively involved in music making. A decade on, they were asked to
reflect on their primary school music learning experiences. Based on
their, and their teachers’, self-accounts, the research explored what they
had learned in their music classes and how they valued their learning
experiences.

This study is an attempt to explore the long-term impacts of primary music education in a progress-
ive school on its students. Justifying progressive education requires a great deal of effort due to its
departure from traditional methods of teaching in favour of student-centred, project-based learning
(Kliebard 1995). The Eight-Year study, which was carried out in the United States, was a response to
such demands: The results of 3600 students from 30 progressive schools were analysed, in the pro-
cess demonstrating not only that their academic performances were as good as those of the com-
parison groups from regular schools, but also that their college preparation was similarly unaffected
(Aikin 1942; Pinar 2010). Characteristics of progressive education include a deliberate lack of
reliance on textbooks, a rejection of the traditional barriers between different subjects, the cultiva-
tion of problem solving, critical thinking skills, and the promotion of collaborative, cooperative, and
democratic learning. Influences of progressive education have been noted in various aspects of
music education, such as creative music making (Plummeridge 2001), democratic learning (Allsup
2003), creative teaching (Caballol 2003; Shevock 2015), and the process-based, integrated curricu-
lum (e.g. Barrett and Veblen 2012), all of which are today practiced in regular schools. To date,
however, little is known about the enduring impacts of music education in progressive schools.
Describing his view on music education as progressive education, Miller (1966), former presi-
dent of the National Association of School of Music, pointed out: ‘Today music education is

CONTACT Koji Matsunobu kmatsunobu@eduhk.hk Department of Cultural and Creative Arts, Assessment Research
Center, The Education University of Hong Kong, 10 Lo Ping Road, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong
© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 K. MATSUNOBU

being challenged to prove its worth in a system of public education become ‘quality’ conscious [sic]
… education has come to value measurable material more highly than that which cannot be readily
tested and quantified’ (3). Driven by the need to measure outcomes, research has since examined
both the intrinsic and extrinsic elements of music learning, including students’ achievements in
cognitive development, IQ, creativity, and auditory skill. For instance, while measuring the long-
term benefits of music learning on intelligence and cognitive abilities, Costa-Giomi (1999, 2014)
identified statistical differences between the randomised control and treatment groups of piano stu-
dents during the first few years of instruction. The impact of music learning on students’ social and
personal development is also of concern among music educators (Ilari et al. 2018; Tze 2019), even
though such inquiries are not as extensive as those on cognitive development (Hallam 2010).
Neuroscience has provided further insights (Gruhn and Rauscher 2008; Hodges and Gruhn
2012). Longitudinal studies have shed light on the impact of musical training on child brain devel-
opment in areas such as speech and linguistic abilities (Chobert et al. 2014; Kraus and Strait 2015;
Moreno et al. 2009), suggesting that active engagement in music, especially music making activities,
facilitates brain plasticity, while the Harmony Project in Los Angeles (Kraus and Strait 2015) has
borne witness to the power of music as an agent of empowerment. Summarising the research
findings in these areas, Hallam (2010) noted that students’ success in music may increase their
motivation for learning, both in general and in other subjects, because it enhances their feelings
of confidence, self-esteem and belonging.1
Despite these studies, evidence for causal relationships between music learning and its impact in
later life have yet to be established. In addition to the methodological challenges in long-term trans-
fer research, which have been reported in previous studies (Costa-Giomi 2014; Schellenberg and
Peretz 2008), it is difficult to confirm causality between learning in music and achievement in
other areas because, as Pitts (2012) observed, the relationship is influenced by many factors,
such as parental support, financial resources, and cultural and social capital in relation to school
engagement and attainment. In short, the relationship between music and academic performance
is more interactive than unidirectional (Catterall and Rauscher 2008).
Rather than looking for measurable effects of music learning, then, the present study draws on
students’ retrospective self-accounts. Although self-reporting may not be as reliable as objectively
measured data, if students are able to reflect on their learning experiences and, in the process, assess
what they consider to be the value of such education, long-term impact can be demonstrated. The
present study explores the memories of former sixth-grade students who were actively involved in
music making. Ten years later, when they became university students, they were asked to reflect on
their primary school music learning experiences. Together with their teachers’ self-accounts, we
tried to understand what they learned in the music classes and how they valued their learning
experiences. While the majority of the extant literature’s long-term education impact studies are
either quantitative research or interview-based qualitative research in nature, providing little to
no observational data in relation to students’ learning processes, we examined students’ musical
activities in primary school, as well as their retrospective reflections on primary music education
in later life. This study follows previous retrospective studies in education, especially those that uti-
lise interviews and analyse students’ self-accounts (e.g. Brock and Wiest 2012), in particular Bar-
one’s (2001) longitudinal case study based on the life narratives of high school art teacher Don
Forrister and a cohort of his former students in North Carolina. Drawing on the impact of the tea-
cher on his former students, Barone attempted to answer questions ‘about whether and how tea-
chers can indeed make lasting differences, and about what those differences might be’ (1).
Instead of submitting an easily understandable description of educational outcomes, Barone cap-
tured what former students believe they learned from their teacher, as well as what the teacher
learned from his students, framing both as lasting lessons. His study suggested that valuation
takes retrospective forms because a teacher’s influences on students are ‘easily hidden from the
view of a biographer-stranger and even … from the learners themselves’ (125). This suggests a
need for life history approaches that shed light on narratives and the lived experiences of individual
 MUSIC EDUCATION RESEARCH 3

learners. A similar attempt was made by Pitts (2012), in which the chronological analysis of UK
citizens’ data highlighted the long-term effects and outcomes of school music education, as well
as the influences of home, family, and out-of-school music-making activities on a variety of aspects
making up their later musical lives.

Research goals and context

The purpose of this study was to understand the enduring outcomes of music education by explor-
ing students-turned-alumni participants’ memories of musical engagements in primary school and
examining the ways in which they valued their learning experiences.
The case school is located in Tokyo and known for its focus on progressive education. From its
origins as an experimental school attached to a public university, it currently attracts many students
as a result of its unique standing locally. While other schools in the region tend to be private and
highly selective, this school admit students through a lottery system without considering their aca-
demic performance or family background. Many parents choose this institution for their children
not only because they themselves are graduates but also because of its progressive curriculum and
affordable tuition fees, which are comparable to those of public schools. Of particular interest is the
observation made by middle school teachers that the students, while not necessarily excelling aca-
demically when they are first admitted compared to students from other primary schools, have
improved greatly by the end of their tenure in the lower secondary because they are well trained
to think and learn independently.
The music teacher is Mr. Saito. He holds an undergraduate degree in music education and has
been teaching at this school since 1994. Contrary to normal practice in Japan, Mr. Saito is fondly
addressed as ‘Saisen’ by his students (Saisen is a shorter version of Saito-sensei (‘sensei’ means tea-
cher)). When the researcher visited the school in 2000 for another project, Mr. Saito was a class-
room teacher teaching all subjects. Surprised by his ‘non-teaching’ approach, the researcher’s
field notes at the time were full of question marks: ‘Why doesn’t he intervene now?’ ‘Why doesn’t
he give specific instructions to students?’ Although Japanese pedagogy is often characterised as
being non-interventional (Hayashi and Tobin 2015) and adopts the ‘watching and waiting’ method
(Hayashi 2011, 118) in early childhood education, Mr. Saito’s approach seemed extreme. It took
some time to understand that his teaching philosophy was an intentional strategy which was in
line with the school’s vision of education:
Children who have good sensibilities make better choices by themselves and for themselves. In this regard,
they are not different from adults. Their capability to feel beauty is the same as adults. Let them grow. If
their sensitivities are not sharp yet, let’s wait. They will soon cultivate their sensitivities through interacting
with others whose sensibilities are sharper.

The motto of the school is the cultivation of individuality, creativity and inner motivation. To this
end, most of the teachers do not employ a ‘top-down’ model; rather, students take an active role in
the democratic decision-making process.

Methodology
Following the researcher’s initial visit to the case school in 2001, he began his involvement with the
present study. Unbeknown to him at the time, this turned out to be the start of something consider-
ably bigger, specifically a ten-year impact study. For about a year between 2001 and 2002, the
researcher formally observed a sixth-grade music class taught by Mr. Saito twice a week. Through-
out the year, observations and analysis of the students’ involvement in musical activities were car-
ried out, all while keeping field notes and video data. Ten years later, the researcher and Mr. Saito
decided to interview former students of this class, utilising a focus group setting. Mr. Saito talked to
one student, who then invited the other students. A total of eight former students eventually joined
4 K. MATSUNOBU

the focus group interview: Some of them had been in touch with each other during the course of the
intervening decade, while others were meeting again for the first time.
The researcher took the role of moderator during the focus group interview (Krueger 1998; Mor-
gan 1996) in order to ensure that all the participants would have a say, would listen to each other,
and would not get carried away by topics that were unrelated to the research focus. While the
researcher asked broader questions, such as ‘What do you remember about your musical activities
in school?’, to initiate group interaction, Mr. Saito asked more specific questions, such as, ‘Do you
remember how you practiced “The Firebird?”’ The session was an effective tool in terms of stimu-
lating the participants’ memories of shared experiences. Not only did they have plenty to say about
their primary education that the interview lasted 4.5 h; their recollections were further stimulated
by video clips, recorded at the time, of their final, on-stage performances, as well as their daily
activities in the music rooms.
In the ten years following the class observations, the researcher and Mr. Saito met regularly in
order to discuss the meaning of music education, typically using this class as an example. Borne
from a desire to understand what purpose such education served among his students, Mr. Saito
asked many important questions during these meetings, in the process coming to fully understand
the purpose of the present study. Indeed, it was as a direct result of Mr. Saito’s increasingly involved
role, together with his potential for generating and gathering useful data, that the idea of interview-
ing his former students formally came about. A summary of the sequence of significant events is
provided in Table 1. Time was an added value to this project, in much the same way that Plath’s
(1980) understanding of maturity and ageing in Japan developed over a period of six years, in con-
trast to the originally-planned six months following his fieldwork. It also gave us space to be open
and flexible, in the process assisting with the emergence of new interpretations.2
The data were triangulated between field notes, video data and interview data, and analysed by the
author and an independent researcher, who also shared their subsequent interpretations. Specifically,
the interview data was organised into three categories: (1) what the students remembered (the stu-
dents’ perspective); (2) what the students did (the teacher/researcher perspective, together with sup-
porting video data and field notes); and (3) what values the students identified as most important.
The first category refers to what the participants remembered. During the focus group interview,
the students shared their memories by talking with each other. Different recollections emerged,
with some having no memory of particular events that other participants claimed to remember
vividly. However, students’ memories were not necessarily the same as what actually occurred. Con-
sequently, the second category draws on the researcher’s and teachers’ records, including the field
notes, lesson plans, and video data, in order to reflect more accurately what actually took place in
the classroom, and thus either corroborate or contradict the students’ memories. The third category
refers to the values that the participants formed during and after the interview by reviewing their
memories (the first category) and the adults’ perspectives (the second category). Such a process is
illuminated in an example below. In this interview vignette, each participant added their partial
memories about their group music practice (the first category) by saying:

Mimi: We practiced a lot after school.

Shin: Yes, I remember that we only worked on ‘The Firebird’ during the music lesson.

Table 1. Summary of the sequence of events.

Year Events Data
2001–2002 Regular music classes; school performances Class observations; video analysis; field notes
2003–2007 Relocations of Mr. Saito to Malaysia and the Informal discussion
researcher to the US and Australia
2012 Focus-group interview Interview data; re-analysis of field notes, teachers’ records,
lesson plans, and video data
2013–2017 Writing and informal sharing of a report Informal discussion
2018–2019 Presentations at academic conferences
 MUSIC EDUCATION RESEARCH 5

Momo: We were in the music room practicing even during the 20-minute recess. Otherwise, we normally
stayed in the school yard.

What each student was able to recall here seems partial and unrelated. However, once Mr. Saito and
the researcher supplied the contextual information (the second category) that it was the students
who requested to perform more popular songs, and that as a result of negotiations they decided
to spend the music class time on ‘The Firebird’ and use the afternoon for practicing popular
songs, the interview participants began to value the fact that their decision had given them increased
ownership in their music learning (the third category).
By analysing the whole data set, we identified certain themes, such as motivation, self-efficacy,
and autonomy in learning, cooperation, democratic decision making, flow, practice pattern, chal-
lenges, specific skills and knowledge, as well as active engagement with music. These themes are
presented in the findings below. By including participants’ voices as much as possible – in order
to capture crucial moments of the interviews, rather than present their individual responses in a
structured manner – the aim is to permit readers a ‘vicarious’ experience of the moment and nat-
uralistic generalisations about the case (Stake 1995).
Since Mr. Saito was present and played an important role during the focus-group interview, an
independent, experienced researcher was asked to examine the interview session and field notes to
determine if Mr. Saito’s presence influenced the students’ responses. He was also asked to check for
any biases or skewed interpretations of data. He agreed that the aforementioned themes were
strongly evident in the data. He also noted, upon watching the video data of both music activities
in the school and the focus-group interview, that the students were highly engaged in the school’s
activities and appeared relaxed during the interview. He believed that the paper should highlight
Mr. Saito’s stance as a non-authoritarian individual.3

Findings
Vignette 1 [The researcher’s field notes, 14 December 2001]
37 students of Mr. Saito’s class are on the stage of the auditorium. They have been practicing the pieces since
October. Two student-narrators introduce the classmates while the first group is getting ready to perform on
the stage. The auditorium is full. Parents are staring at the stage, expecting that the program will begin shortly
… Students in small groups will perform (a) the theme of Mission Impossible, (b) Truth by T-Square, (c)
Cheery by Spits, and (d) The Firebird by Stravinsky. These are all difficult pieces to play, but the students
were well prepared. The last piece in the program, The Firebird, is the most challenging piece of all. Even
during the rehearsal the day before, they needed to work on the various sections where they lost control of
the music. Mr. Saito is nervously watching from the side of the stage. Following conductor Aku’s dynamic
motion, they began the first bar of the piece …

Vignette 2 [On 6 February 2012]

10 years later, the grown-up former students are staring at the TV monitor, deeply drawn to their perform-
ances, like their parents 10 years ago. They still remember every part of the pieces. They watch their own per-
formances for the first time in 10 years. The video clips bring them back to those intensive days when they
spent so much time practicing the music. The Firebird comes to the end and finishes with a dynamic glissando
played on the piano and xylophones. They cannot help but utter: ‘Bravo!’ ‘Unbelievable!’ says Mimi. ‘This is
goose bumping’. Shin remarks, ‘I can’t believe we did this?’ Others follow, ‘I don’t think we can do it now [even
as adults]’. ‘Even if we can do it individually, it’s impossible to do it in a group of 40.

The achievement was the result of the mandatory general music class. According to the music cur-
riculum guide at the time, only 90 min were assigned for music each week: Based on such con-
straints, no one believed that sixth grade students could prepare and perform these complicated
works in the space of one semester. Although the pieces were arranged by Mr. Saito in such a
way that the children could play using the instruments available within the school (e.g. electronic
keyboards, harmonicas, a drum set, xylophones, and percussion), the arrangements were still quite
6 K. MATSUNOBU

demanding. ‘The Firebird’, in particular, contained many polyrhythmic time changes, complicated
melodic lines, and harmonies split across multiple instrumental parts.
One may wonder how they were able to perform such difficult pieces, a question that was put to
the students:

Mimi: I remember I wrote down important remarks on the sheet music. I do remember Aku giving me a
sheet of music. He asked me to write down all the notes such as ‘Do’ and ‘Re’ on the sheet music [as
we could not read music].
Momo: I asked the girls to teach me. I had no idea how to play. [Since I couldn’t read music] I needed to
memorise the music by hands [without depending on reading the notation].
Saito: How about you?
Oki: My mother taught me on the piano. It was not done at the school.
Mimi: I remember Oki didn’t like to be seen by other kids while he was practicing.
Shin: Many of us put sticky notes on the keyboard.
Mimi: Yes, it was only ‘Do’ and ‘So’ that we could recognise in the beginning.
Momo: Even with the help, I still couldn’t understand. I was terrified. I practiced the pieces so many times. I
memorised everything so that I could focus only on [looking at] the keyboard.
Mimi: We practiced a lot after school.
Shin: Yes, I remember that we only worked on ‘The Firebird’ during the music lesson.
Momo: We were in the music room practicing even during the 20-minute recess. Otherwise, we normally
stayed in the school yard.
Shin: Aku and Saisen (Saito) told us where to concentrate on, where to show off. In retrospect, each sec-
tion had at least one highlight, and we practiced a lot of those parts. As a whole, the performance
itself became dynamic because we played those important sections well, if not all.
All: Yes, yes.
Shin: I had no idea why we could put so much effort into it.
Nana: Well, I think we all could sing well. In the early stages, we focused on the whole rather than indi-
vidual sections. Later, we focused on our own sections. But we knew not only our individual part
but also other sections as a whole. I do remember talking about the other sections in our part
practice.
Saito: In what ways?
Nana: Someone sang the other parts or melodies while we practiced our parts. We knew ‘this is the place
where Shin always makes mistakes;’ ‘this is the part when Gen comes in’, like that.
Shin: Yes, we all knew who were playing which sections and what.
Momo: Unlike ‘Bolero’ [by Ravel, which they played a year earlier], parts often overlapped in ‘The Firebird’,
and so we needed to listen carefully. We could notice easily when someone made mistakes, like ‘No
way, this should be like this!’ It was obvious when the whole didn’t go well. It was obvious when I
was not in time. For some reason it was obvious, and we sensed it clearly.
Saito: Do you remember that we used sheet music that showed all the parts rather than individual parts so
that you could see the entire score?
All: No.

As the interview data suggests, the strength of these students’ memories is evident in the level of
detail being recalled. They first emphasised that their music learning was cooperative. Those
who could not read and play music learned from those who could, and they memorised the pieces
through repeated practice. Second, they indicated that part of their success derived from their sing-
ing practices that allowed them to remember the whole piece before they began learning their own
sections and parts. Today, terms such as ‘informal learning’ describe the nature of music learning in
Mr. Saito’s class. In short, the students studied popular music by ear. They spent numerous hours
deciding what pieces to play, their active choice of repertoire appearing similar to what Green
(2008) describes. However, Mr. Saito’s teaching was not specifically oriented toward popular
music pedagogy. Indeed, his students chose to play ‘The Firebird’ before moving on to popular
music, thereby proving that sixth graders could tackle challenging classical music if they had a
high degree of motivation and a sense of self-efficacy.
While it is clear that the students were musically and actively engaged, the reason for their
high degree of motivation was not due to their musical backgrounds. No more than half of them
had taken private music lessons. For instance, among the eight students who participated in the
 MUSIC EDUCATION RESEARCH 7

focus group interviews, only three raised their hands when asked if they were taking private
music lessons. Each of them said things like, ‘I took piano lessons for three months;’ ‘I took
piano lessons till fourth grade, but my hands were too small to play piano, so I gave up;’ ‘I
was still taking piano lessons when I was in the sixth grade’. Their training was anything but
extensive.
The process of deciding on the main repertoire for the concert programme is worth noting. The
students listened to a collection of recordings in the music room, as well as CDs that they had
brought from home. After listening to over 50 musical works, they narrowed their choices down
to two: Igor Stravinsky’s ‘The Firebird’ and Gustav Holst’s ‘Jupiter’ from ‘The Planets’. After a series
of discussions, they eventually chose the former. As Renwick and McPherson (2002) observed, stu-
dents gain motivation when they choose pieces to play by themselves rather than having others (tea-
chers or parents) select for them. Mr. Saito’s students in his general music class achieved this
collectively through a democratic forum. Besides, it was not just about choosing what they liked.
They also needed to negotiate with each other, thereby compromising some individuals’ wishes.
Sometimes, these desires were expressed very strongly, typically when choosing which pop songs
to play. Due to the available practice time, Mr. Saito suggested choosing two pieces for the final
performance:
Saito: Do you guys remember why you played the theme of ‘Mission Impossible’?
All: No … Not at all.
Saito: Someone said in the class. ‘Please let us play one more song’. I said, ‘No’. But the response was like
this: ‘We won’t use the music class time. We will practice by ourselves after school. So, please!’ It was
not that you all had a particular piece in mind. The desire for performing one more piece came first,
and then you started discussing what piece to choose. I gave up the idea of limiting to two pieces
only. Keeping that promise, you didn’t practice the new piece during the music class.
Shin: That’s why! Much of the music lesson time was spent for working on ‘The Firebird’.
Mimi: Because we promised to do it, we were obliged to complete it.

The group of former students came to realise that what they achieved was the result of a series of
negotiations in a democratic environment created by Mr. Saito, something which they had not been
aware of previously.
During the interview, another music teacher, Mr. Ishikawa (pseudonym) who also taught these
same students at different times during the course of their primary music education, joined the dis-
cussion. The students’ learning autonomy and Mr. Saito’s support were witnessed by Mr. Ishikawa4,
as he revealed:
Ishikawa: All of you often practiced the piece ‘Truth’ with me, assuming that I could teach you [as a vocal
specialist]. I do remember spending much time helping Shin in the balcony.
Saito: You all didn’t come to me when it comes to singing. Mr. Ishikawa often reported to me, ‘They
again came to me today!’ You guys were so interdependent. You knew where to go for advices.
When it comes to singing, it was definitely not me.
All: (laugh).
Ishikawa: Mr. Saito always posed some ‘doubt’ to students. He wouldn’t say ‘yes’ easily. If students propose
to play three pieces, he would say ‘no’ to test the water. That’s how students develop a strong
drive, because unless they have strong a desire and motivation their wishes wouldn’t get fulfilled.
The entire class shares the same motive from the very beginning. You guys were a perfect
example of this. You all would get even more excited when your request is rejected, wouldn’t you?
Mimi: It was not even a ‘no’ but we were told, ‘It’s impossible. No way you guys can do it!’
Shin: Right.
Mimi: Saisen [Saito] always let us decide.

The students’ agency as learners was often so strong that Mr. Saito needed to compromise his own
wishes, too. Specifically, he recalled an incident that took place the year before, when the students
played Ravel’s ‘Bolero’. He felt compelled to share this story when one of the students expressed his
belief that music was an unfair subject because of the disparity of skill levels between music learners
and non-music learners.
8 K. MATSUNOBU

Saito: Do you remember why you all decided to have an audition for ‘Bolero’? It was not my wish. I
assumed that soloists would naturally emerge as you practiced. I didn’t want to select soloists
based on existing skills [because otherwise music learners would be selected]. Those who practiced
a lot should be nominated as soloists. However, Shin insisted that you guys should have auditions.
[But Shin was not good at any instrument, having had no musical training]
Some: Oh, yes. It was Shin!
Saito: Having a musical audition was not what I planned out. And this is against what Shin just said a
moment ago. What he suggested at that time was to select soloists based on skills. He was so stub-
born. But eventually, after discussion, you all agreed that you should go for an audition. Four of you
stood up and did the audition. Shin was one of them. He was never good at music. But he practiced a
lot, and he did a good job on stage without any mistakes.
Shin: Well, I don’t remember at all.
All: (laugh).

As Shin’s case illuminates, the students had a strong sense of self-efficacy. Although many of them
lacked musical training, they believed they could play demanding pieces, as long as they put in
enough effort, both individually and collectively. Mr. Saito supported their learning by arranging
those pieces and facilitating their democratic decision-making.

Valuing primary music education

As we interviewed the students, they recalled many things that had previously been buried in their
subconscious minds. How did their emergent memories help them form an impression about their
primary music education? How did they then value the meanings of those experiences? The follow-
ing conversation provides some clues:
Researcher: What do you think you acquired through your primary music education? Is there anything that
you wish to talk about?
Shin: We learned how to cooperate together and achieve something big, which could not have been
achieved alone. It was not so much of specific skills and knowledge.
Sakura: Whatever we say now [whether we learned something specific or not], it’s obvious that we did
something unbelievable. That’s for sure.
Mimi: We tried many instruments. We decided what pieces to play, what instruments to play. What
we learned, I believe, was to take initiative to enjoy music.
Sakura: Because of the music classes that we went through, we got closer to music. Music became our
friend, not like something scary.
Aku: I came to like playing music in a big group, so much so that I started taking up jazz at the
university.
Maky: It was not musical skill or anything that I can think of. But the fact that I was an active par-
ticipant in the middle and high school choirs probably means that the foundation was already
formed through my primary music education.

These former students indicated that what they acquired in primary music was not so much a
specific skill set or knowledge but cooperation, a positive attitude toward music, and the joy of
group music making that helped them develop a life-long interest in music.
Saito: Do you play music now?
Momo: Yes, I play the drums. I played it a little here [in this school]. I continued to play in middle school
and joined a rock band in high school with my friends. It was not that I played a lot. But my friends
and I practiced together in a music room.
Nana: I played the marimba in this school, and that motivated me to study the bata drums [at the Tokyo
University of Fine Arts]. I am now involved in many live music events.
Shin: I had no musical involvement at all. But early this year I somehow became tempted and bought an
electric piano. I am hoping to play some J-pop songs. Actually, I’ve been into Nintendo games such
as ‘Dance-Dance-Revolution’. I got tired of it. So, I am now into real music making.
Aku: I do jazz.
Oki: I got into listening to jazz on high quality speakers. It was a gradual process. The beginning of this
process probably came from this class. I listened to ‘Firebird’ CDs so many times. I borrowed more
 MUSIC EDUCATION RESEARCH 9

CDs from my parents and I developed a habit of listening to recordings of the same piece repeat-
edly. The choirs in middle and high school did not discourage me, either.

Mr. Saito was once criticised by teachers of other schools who had little sympathy for, or under-
standing of, progressive education. Such criticism was typically along the lines of students not learn-
ing anything; that the teacher should have focused more on developing students’ musical skills,
theoretical understanding, and musicality. The former students reacted strongly to such a criticism:

Aku: If these teachers believe that music education should focus on those things, what we did was not so
much what they mean by music education. But what we did was far more valuable.
Maky: They are not necessary for everyone. If students want to learn those things, they can do it. If they
want to become professional musicians or music teachers, they have to learn them.
Mimi: I have a brother who went to another school. He had to take music tests and study scales and har-
mony. He was given music homework to do as well. We never had such things in this school. From
their viewpoint, we probably didn’t learn anything, appearing as if we were goofing off. ‘What were
you learning?’
Saito: What happened to your brother? Did he learn music?
Mimi: No way! My brother came to dislike music. It was me who actually helped him with his music
homework. He never experienced what we did here in this school. They probably learned a lot
of scales, but in vain. He only listens to music, limited to his favourite kind of music. He doesn’t
play music. I actually doubt if forcing them to study music would have helped. We learned to enjoy
music here.
Momo: Now, I am teaching academic subjects in an after-school cram school. My students don’t have
internal motivation in learning, which for me is unthinkable, because that’s what we learned
here. Something very important is missing in their education.
Nana: Last year I helped out in a workshop for primary school music teachers. We provided some really
creative stuff. But these teachers seemed so rigid. They only talked about students’ reactions and
assessment. They didn’t know how to enjoy music themselves, really. They were only concerned
about assessment and measurement. I had only Saisen as my music teacher. I thought Saisen
was the norm, but came to realise that he was very unusual. He was unique. He enjoyed music
and let us enjoy music.

As the interview data indicates, one way in which these former students’ valuation processes of their
primary music education were facilitated lies in the comparison with their siblings and friends who
went to other primary schools. Not only were they able to objectify their own learning experiences
and begin to value the music education they received from Mr. Saito, but they insisted that what
they did was far beyond simply having fun, or limited to learning musical skills and elements.
Another aspect that facilitated their valuation process was the conversation they had with the
music teachers who remembered the details of their musical engagement ten years ago. Hearing
stories from the teachers’ side, and realising the nature of their music learning through an older
lens, they came to reflect more deeply on the value of their own musical engagement.
Interestingly, while observing the interactions between Mr. Saito and the former students during
the focus-group interview, the researcher noted that the students conversed with Mr. Saito in the
same way they did ten years ago, addressing him by his nickname. Similarly, while watching the
video clips, Shin noted that he used the same tone of voice, gestures and manner with Mr. Saito
till this day.5 Aku observed that Mr. Saito and former students were on the same ‘eye level’, indi-
cating that their relationship was not authoritative or teacher-student like but ‘adult-like’. During
the interview, Aku mentioned, ‘I don’t remember Saisen teaching us this and that about music’. His
choice of the Japanese word ‘toyakaku’ was interesting: Students do not normally use such an
expression to describe teachers, since it typically carries a negative connotation (e.g. ‘his toyakaku
advice was a pain in the neck’). It would have been inappropriate to use such an expression if it were
not for Mr. Saito. Other participants responded to Aku’s remark with smiles. Mr. Saito said a few
moments later, to much laughter: ‘None of you mentioned that you learned music from me. You only
mentioned that you practiced at home by yourself; your mother taught you; your friend taught you,
and so on. Where was I?’
10 K. MATSUNOBU

Following the interview, Mr. Saito reflected on the discussion in the following way: ‘They raised
very good questions today, just as they did ten years ago, and by raising good questions they let me
think’. The nature of the relationship between Mr. Saito and his former students corroborates Bar-
one’s observation that the impact of education ‘is ultimately about qualities in teacher-student
relationships and educational outcomes that are not specific to subject matters or content areas’
(4). Although such relationships were formed during high school in Barone’s case, the same may
apply to the primary level. Clearly, rich and meaningful teacher-student relationships were formed
within the democratic environment created by Mr. Saito.

Discussion
Mr. Saito and the researcher were surprised by the depth and the extent of the participants’ recall of
specific events that happened a decade ago. We did not expect that these former primary school
students would be able to provide, in great detail, memories of their music classes. Clearly, the
video recordings shown during the focus-group interview triggered their memories and facilitated
their meaning-making process both inside and outside Mr. Saito’s class, while the focus group itself
helped them realise that they had achieved far more than they initially expected. By reflecting on
specific moments, listening to peers’ stories, and discovering what they were previously unaware
of, they were able to evaluate what their education meant to them. The fact that these former stu-
dents could say so much about their primary music education may suggest, in line with Gabriels-
son’s (2011) work, that musical experience is much more than just music: It can encompass strong
memories of remarkable life events, including primary music education. Supporting this claim, Mr.
Saito’s students were able to spell out the impacts of his teaching through their musical engagement.
Many of the outcomes that the former students mentioned were concerned with making music
together through cooperation and negotiation and managing their own learning through a strong
sense of self-efficacy, motivation and ownership. If the goal of progressive education is to extend
democracy by facilitating individuals’ decision making and developing students’ personalities
through the mutual sharing of interests and purposes, this was successfully achieved by Mr. Saito’s
students. The students addressed these achievements and activities rather than specific musical
skills. Like Pitts’ (2012) participants, they did not acknowledge specific musical skills learned in
school music education. At the same time, unlike Pitts’ participants who did not mention much
about transferable skills, ‘such as those related to discipline, collaboration, confidence, self-
efficacy’ (166), Mr. Saito’s students addressed them. Such differences may have been brought
about by the emphasis on progressive education in Mr. Saito’s school.
We attempted to solicit the students’ memories of Mr. Saito’s teaching and how, as a result, they
delineated and valued their learning experiences. Learners cannot evaluate the value of their own
education while they are still immersed in it; this can only be achieved through retrospection
and reflective thinking. Barone’s (2001) participants showed that valuation takes retrospective
forms. Moreover, Dewey (1939) argued that valuation involves past-future perspectives:
In the degree in which existing desires and interests (and hence valuations) can be judged in their connection
with past conditions, they are seen in a context which enables them to be revaluated on the ground of evidence
capable of observation and empirical test (59).

The participants in this study, like those in Barone’s, underwent a revaluation process of their pri-
mary music education experiences through participating in this study. This process was facilitated
in part when they realised the need to promote their own growth through progressive education.
They utilised others’ experiences of primary music education as points of reference for comparison,
such as their siblings and friends from other schools. This led them toward a realisation of newly-
formed values regarding their own learning. To use Dewey’s example, when they were primary
school students, they were like one ‘who has found a bright smooth stone. His sense of touch
and of sight is gratified. But there is no valuation because no desire and no end-in-view, until
 MUSIC EDUCATION RESEARCH 11

the question arises of what shall be done with it’ (38). That happened ten years later, when the
researchers asked them to articulate the meaning of their experiences. For them, what they experi-
enced in their primary music classes transformed their meaningless stone into a valuable treasure.

Conclusions
As this is the first study of its kind to investigate the long-term impact of primary music education
in the context of a progressive school, the study has to be considered as exploratory. The number of
participants in this study was eight, while the whole class size was 37, inferring that nearly 80 per-
cent of the former students’ voices were missing. Due to the participants’ unavailability, we were
also unable to fully explore emergent themes that arose in the focus-group interview. For instance,
although most of the participants detailed their strong memories of Mr. Saito’s teaching and their
music education, we were not able to explore what these meant to them before and after the
interview.
Despite these limitations, the worthiness of this project was clearly evident. First, Mr. Saito’s
teaching took place within the sphere of classroom music education. His class embraced all stu-
dents, not simply selected musical individuals. This is noteworthy because the arts are often
offered as elective or optional subjects in many schools, and the impact of arts education typically
prevails upon arts students. Forrister, the inspiring art teacher in Barone’s study who was portrayed
as deeply dedicated, with endless support and care for students, was trapped by this issue. Barone
raised concerns regarding the limited impact of Forrister’s teaching: Who were included (excluded)
and who benefitted from his influences? This project, looking as it does at the long-term impact of
classroom music education, calls for further explorations into the impact of music education upon
all students.
Second, Mr. Saito’s students achieved a remarkable musical result that caught the attention of a
university academic. What if the students’ performances had been mediocre? Would it have still
been worthwhile to investigate their retrospective accounts? We believe so because the outcomes
of education, especially at the primary school level, may not necessarily be visible and measurable.
Barone argued in his book that many of the enduring traces of education (even during high school)
are elusive. They are ‘tentative, partial, and incomplete’ (125). This also holds true in primary edu-
cation. There is a real and pressing need to further explore the elusive nature of educational out-
comes if we want to unravel the impact of primary music education. As Pitts (2012) similarly
points out:
the curriculum content and opportunities to which young people are exposed in school have a lasting effect on
the extent to which music seems accessible, relevant, and desirable to them—and while a simple causality can-
not be determined, the long-term impact of music education is worthy of more research attention than is cus-
tomary. (33)

As the former students in this study proved, a positive attitude and active engagement with music in
school can help students to continue to love music. More attention needs to be given to its impact at
both research and policy levels.
Finally, the author would like to mention the effects of this project at a personal level. Initially,
beginning as a small study by the researcher, who was trying to understand Mr. Saito’s pedagogy,
the two met and discussed with one another over an extended period of time. The project developed
into a long-term impact study in which our own narratives as teachers, along with their understand-
ing of the different meanings of education, were framed. It was considered particularly meaningful
that the students were able to develop a sense of continuity between their primary music education
and their musical engagement a decade later. As of 2019, reflection on the meanings of Mr. Saito’s
music education as it relates to the past, the present, and the future is still ongoing. We reflect on
what these students will think of the value of their primary education when they have children, if
they will seek the same kind of music education for their offspring, or else – once they become
parents – their opinions on such matters will change. We should be open to such changes.
12 K. MATSUNOBU

To conclude, we would like to invite readers to ponder the most fundamental questions that
emerged in this study: How much will our students remember in ten years’ time about what
they learn today? More pertinently, what do we want them to remember ten years from now? Try-
ing to find answers to these questions can–and should–strengthen our music education and its
teaching. Additionally, and perhaps most crucially, the study suggests the need for further research
on the long-term impact(s) of music education and investigations into the methodology of self-
account inquiry.

Notes
1. Interestingly, the same paper by Hallam (2010) is the most downloaded article within the International Journal
of Music Education, suggesting a strong demand for such findings within our profession.
2. The research began as a life project based on the researcher’s and teacher’s mutual interest in pedagogy, and
served as an opportunity for professional development. We were genuinely interested in understanding stu-
dents’ learning experiences and their retrospective perceptions. We wrote a reflective paper first in Japanese. It
was then extended to a full paper and also translated into English. This was presented at an international con-
ference in 2018. There were a series of events that hindered us from proceeding (e.g. relocations and family
difficulties). Each time we began, sometimes from scratch, and talked to students and teachers, this deepened
our discussion. For instance, during the ten year periods, Mr. Saito taught in a school in Malaysia. The
researcher also spent time abroad. These experiences brought to the project new understandings and perspec-
tives of the impact of music education over the years.
3. Other issues that he identified include the efforts that Mr. Saito made to facilitate students’ learning, e.g. the
transcription of music in response to students’ requests, even though dictation was not his strength; Mr. Sai-
to’s realisation of students’ learning activities that he was unaware of ten years ago, e.g. students’ home prac-
tice, and the comparisons with other public schools and the dominant music pedagogies.
4. As the only music teachers in the school, Mr. Saito and Mr. Ishikawa became close colleagues. Since the
researcher did not observe and record his classes at the start of the project, Mr. Ishikawa was not treated
as a primary participant in the project. However, during the focus-group interview, which took place in
the school’s music room, he stopped by and joined the interview mid-session. He stayed for about 40 min,
sharing his memories and his perspectives, and talking with the students. The researcher remained as a facil-
itator, trying not to disturb the flow of the conversations. The completion of the research owed much to the
sincere willingness of these teachers to understand and explore the impact of music education at their school.
5. The researcher noted this point in particular because the Japanese language has a complex system of using
specific honorific suffixes and various communication styles to properly address people, including someone
of senior status such as a teacher.

Acknowledgement
“I thank Liora Bresler, Tom Barone, Margaret Barrett, Julie Ballantyne, Matthew Thibeault, Alex Ruthman, and Khin
Yee Lo for inspiring this research and sharing valuable feedback. I want to extend my sincere appreciation to Yutaka
Saito, the hero in this study, who kindly shared the heart and wisdom of teaching throughout this journey.” This
paper is dedicated to him.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor
Koji Matsunobu is currently Assistant Professor, the Associate Head of the Department, and Senior Research Fellow
(Assessment Research Centre) at the Education University of Hong Kong. He is also Honorary Research Fellow in the
School of Music, University of Queensland, Australia. A former member of the Board of Directors of the Inter-
national Society for Music Education (2016–2018), Fulbright scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Cham-
paign, he currently serves on the advisory boards of the International Journal of Music Education, the Bulletin of the
Council for Research in Music Education, and the Korean Association of Qualitative Research. He is particularly
interested in spirituality, indigenous knowledge, qualitative research, world music, creativity and mindfulness. His
publications can be found in Harvard Educational Review; British Journal of Music Education, Music Education
 MUSIC EDUCATION RESEARCH 13

Research; International Journal of Music Education; Journal of Aesthetic Education; Journal of Research in Music
Education; and handbooks and edited books.

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