Also see: Our Guiding Principles
Background
Formed in 2000 as a loose confederation of major schools of music, schools of education, arts organizations, and public school partnerships, the MIENC’s mission is to promote the evolution of music teaching and learning practices, advocacy, research, and policy, so that music can provide its essential contribution to promoting a culture of equity and excellence in every school.
Current Initiatives of the MIENC
The commitment to an ongoing evolvement of “music-in-education” teacher preparation and professional development programs for musicians.
Guided by the Artist/Teacher/Scholar Framework and its implications for both the education of musicians and their evolving roles in society we are committed to:
- Developing training guidelines and guided internship practices for music majors, education majors, and professional musicians in the school community
- Codifying and evaluating innovative professional training and development practices that support a more comprehensive and interdisciplinary view of music’s place in the public school curriculum
- Assembling a community of artist-teacher-scholars in the university and arts organization communities who provide multiple levels of mentorship to support the expanding role of community-based experiences in teacher preparation programs
- Documenting and assessing the impact of a more comprehensive role for music in education
- Advocating for and promoting a new view of the musician/citizen in society.
The Commitment to Collaboration among Universities, Arts Organizations and Partnering Schools.
Guided by the recent effectiveness of arts education partnerships in many local communities, we are committed to:
- Evaluating the impact of innovative forms of teacher preparation resulting from cross-institutional collaborations in urban and rural settings
- Documenting and sharing curriculum and professional development practices that emerge from the collaborations among partnering organizations
- Redesigning higher education coursework and teacher preparation programs in ways that encourage the collaboration among guided interns, teaching artists, and classroom teachers as a way to maximize resources for furthering music in education programs in public schools.
The Shaping and influencing of public school policy and practices
Guided by the Ten Guiding Principles of the MIENC, we are committed to:
- Building on the distinction between Music Education and Music-in-Education programs as an evolution of teaching practices that serve as a catalyst for school community reform
- Documenting, assessing, and disseminating the emergence of successful practices of innovative programs in laboratory schools, charter schools, and networks of public schools committed to evolving music’s place in the public school curriculum
- Employing various media-based networking resources that illuminate the essential role of music in the K-12 curriculum through the quality of communications and information sharing among institutions and persons contributing to successful Music-in-Education practices
- Assisting educators to work in the larger context of school reform through the scaling up of programs, resources, and partnerships emerging from an expanding community of Music-in-Education Consortium members that become more accessible and useful to public school communities.
