With particular reference to school music education in China, this study will examine the under-researched relationships between social transformation, cultural diversity, creativity, and education reforms. Education, knowledge, information, and creativity are progressively becoming driving forces behind our new social, cultural, and educational structures. In response to social change, this study will examine the development of school music education in China, focusing on culture-based creativity.

The concept of culture-based creativity in education goes beyond artistic achievements in thinking imaginatively or metaphorically, challenging the conventional, and calling on symbolic and affective elements to communicate. Based on an examination of the nature of creativity and its diverse cultures in music education and forms, this study will explore the challenges of fostering creativity in school music education in general. The essential elements of music education include perception and creativity, stimulation, the enjoyment and adventure of seeing and hearing and of trying things out, the integration of musical creativity in diverse cultures, and achieving new effects in school education. These initiatives and changes have also seen ever-increasing dynamism in the artistic creation of cultural reforms in school music education. To analyse the impact of relevant social change on creativity in music education, this study will employ multiple research and data-collection methods, including the analysis of official documents and official approved music textbooks; other relevant literature; a student questionnaire; in-depth and semi-structured interviews with students, teachers, and school leaders; and non-participant observation of music lessons in primary and secondary schools. The empirical research will be based on observed and measured phenomena, and this will enable pragmatic recommendations for creative cultural and music education to meet the music education challenges of the twenty-first century in China.

This empirical approach will focus on the investigation of how teacher training and knowledge is related to informed pedagogical decisions, and how specialist knowledge can guide teachers’ subsequent teaching actions in classroom music teaching. In this context, besides exploring the views of school students regarding their learning of creativity through music education, this study will also look at how music teachers, other subject teachers, and school leaders who are involved in creative arts education or creativity education think and behave in their approaches to school music education to promote creativity in students.

This research project explores the dynamics and complexity of the relationship between the state, nationalism and globalisation in music teacher education in Hong Kong and Taipei. Hong Kong and Taiwan have long been crucibles of cross-cultural encounters between Chinese and Western cultures. They have different political ecologies (in terms of level of democracy), and have different relationships with Mainland China. These two factors have affected the meaning of “home country”, and therefore the promotion of national identity and nationalism in education and music education in both Chinese societies.

In this project, nationalism is an important social and political phenomenon that involves creating, for Hong Kong and Taiwan, a definable identity through participation in singing and listening to both national anthems, and by developing Chinese and/or Taiwanese traditional and folk music in school music education. The dynamic effects of globalisation on teacher education are found in the integration of world music and popular music in both in-service and pre-service teacher education. To date, no studies examining the similarities and differences in music teacher education in Hong Kong and Taiwan have been found in relation to the double paradigm of nationalism and globalisation. The research methods will involve a survey questionnaire to a significant number of students (in the hundreds) attending a music education programme, as well as in-depth interviews with music teacher trainers, and pre- and in-service primary and secondary school teachers in the two localities. The core question for each of the different sectors of informants is the extent of their response to cultural shifts in the educational policies and music practices involved in the double process of nationalism and globalisation.

This research will advance our understanding of the concepts of nationalism and globalisation in music education, not only by comparing Chinese localities with different socio-political contexts, but also by contrasting these experiences with those in other parts of the world. By reframing the major concerns of comparative education around the dynamics of national and global forces, the theoretical significance of this study is to provide insight into, and new explanations for, how changes in national and international systems and relations result in changes in the values and musical cultures of music teacher education. Why, and to what extent, education systems in different parts of the world are similar to and/or different from one another are major questions for scholars in the field of comparative music education.