Teachers' Perspectives about Implementing ICT in Music Education

This article provides insights into the current state of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) implementation in music classrooms throughout Queensland, Australia, through the perspectives of classroom music teachers with regard to organisational practices that influence the implementation of ICT in music education. Using explanatory sequential mixed methods, a quantitative survey gathered music teachers 'perspectives regarding the availability of ICT resources, ICT support, teacher confidence, current teaching practices and professional development. Six qualitative semi-structured interviews were then conducted to investigate further the identified themes. This paper discusses the analysis of the quantitative survey results. Findings suggest that the F-10 Australian Curriculum needs to define the term ICT to provide greater clarity for teachers. Further, due to a lack of ICT resources and support, classroom music teachers limit their pedagogy to whole class activities which rely on a limited number of ICT resources due to availability, familiarity and reliability. Teacher confidence is directly affected by professional development opportunities. The benefits of professional development opportunities are perceived to be short-term when ICT resources are inadequate. Classroom music teachers identified that the most significant barrier to ICT implementation is the need for access to adequate quantities of ICT resources, ICT funding and ICT support.