Music Workshops: would be academic education necessary?

Abstract

The spaces where music teachers work today include the school and many other educational places. One of them, the music workshops, was selected for an investigation, which was developed in the Post-Graduate Music Program of Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Aiming to characterize this educational space, a small survey was made in 16 workshops of “Projeto de Descentralização” [Decentralization Project] promoted by the Municipal Secretary of Culture, from the Administration of Porto Alegre. From the interviews of the “oficineiros” (professionals that teach music) about the abilities required for professional performance, I made links between the items they related and the music teachers’ education. In this way, the theoretical framework was constituted by concepts of non-formal education. This modality of teaching includes all educational activities which take place outside of the school (GOHN, 1999; LIBÂNEO, 1999). Even though to work at these places a formal academic education is not required, Colom (1998b) calls attention to the necessity to educate professionals to work at non-formal spaces. It was possible to infer, from the data collected, that the abilities indicated necessary to build the “oficineiros” outline, also reveals that the music teachers can use these educational spaces.