Background: the predominance of music literacy and vocal performance in Irish primary music documents

In a centralised system, knowledge tends to be presented in the formal education setting as a standardised syllabus. The selection and organisation of this knowledge is typically made at official policy level and published in the form of curriculum documents. These documents can offer a valuable insight into the evolution of a subject in a system of education, tracing how the values and dispositions towards a subject, for example music, are promoted from the top down for enactment at local level and tracking the way in which, over time, changes and revisions are made to this official version of knowledge. In the case of Ireland's primary school system, a series of official versions of knowledge has existed since the inception of the system in the 1830s with music included from the 1840s. An examination of the music syllabus in official policy documents which appeared since the introduction of a national system of education in the 19th century (Commissioners of National Education in Ireland, 1900; National Programme Conference, 1922; Department of Education, 1934; Department of Education, 1971) reveals the extent to which music has continued to be defined as meaning the development of vocal performance and music literacy. Attaching great importance to the cultivation of vocal music as a branch of general education, the commissioners for national education drew on Hullah's (Reference HULLAH1841) manuals of instruction and textbooks and these formed the basis of the curriculum. The Hullah method was based

The social context in which the first syllabus emerged in the mid 1840s was characterised by an agrarian economy and an intention to provide numeracy and literacy for all the inhabitants of the island. Together with the significant developments since then, including from the 1840s to 1900, the establishment and implementation of a standardised curriculum, with the prominence of music literacy and vocal music, and from 1900–1970s the dominance of tonic sol-fa and the provision of graded material for the acquisition of music literacy, music education became synonymous with vocal performance and the development of music literacy. Since the 1970s, the emphasis has been on childcentredness in education. Using the categories song-singing, vocal technique, ear training, notation, creative activity and integration, the 1971 curriculum (Department of Education, 1971: 211) aimed at developing

The introduction of a new version of official knowledge in 1999 represents a significant departure from previous versions. Music is presented as an activity which is tripartite, consisting of composing, listening/responding and performing. As part of a purposeful arts education programme which is ‘life enhancing and invaluable in stimulating creative thinking and in promoting capability and adaptability’ (National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, 1999a: 2), teachers are encouraged to ‘participat[e] in listening, singing, playing and improvising activities’ (National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, 1999b: 29). This new, multi-faceted model, is significant for a number of reasons. Firstly, in including composing and improvising, it represents a radical departure from previous versions of the curriculum which focused on vocal performance and musical literacy. Secondly, the suggestion to classroom practitioners that they engage in composing and improvising is predicated upon an assumption that they have some level of acquaintance with these activities. Finally, although the revisions purported to be a response to a perceived need to change music education practices in the primary system, there was little evidence of systematic research available – in the public domain – to support this.

Against this background, a study (Stakelum, Reference STAKELUM2005) was undertaken by the writer which was predicated on the fact that, whilst each of the curriculum documents can reveal much about official policy, a centralised (or national) curriculum is limited in what it reveals about the enactment of this policy at local level. Nor is it known how far the predominance of music literacy and performance is likely to be sustained in teacher practice, particularly in light of the added weight given to composing and improvising in the version of the official curriculum (NCCA, 1999a, 1999b) currently being phased in.

Application of a Bourdieuan approach to the research study

In order to understand this phenomenon whereby certain practices have endured through cultural, social and economic changes, and to look at the impact the revisions are likely to have on teachers, a Bourdieuan approach was adapted. Bourdieu used the term ‘habitus’ to describe the ‘durably installed generative principle of regulated improvisations . . . [which produces] practices’ (Bourdieu & Passeron, Reference BOURDIEU and PASSERON1990: 78). According to Bourdieu, this operates at an unconscious level and yet its impact is significant. In the study being reported here, the habitus is used to refer to the generative principle which ensured that vocal performance and the development of literacy skills have endured through official versions of knowledge. Starting with the introduction of the Hullah method to Irish education, the habitus has been reproduced at official level in subsequent documents. The move towards a tripartite model of music education defined as composing, listening/responding and performance is seen as an attempt by official policymakers to change the habitus.

The term ‘cultural field’ is used to describe the contexts, both social and historical in which the habitus has emerged and from which it evolves. For the purpose of the study, Ireland's primary school system is considered to be the cultural field. It includes the settings, both formal and informal, in which the teachers have had their formative experiences and the settings in which they carry out their professional activity. Each teacher that has been immersed in the Irish system of education, from primary through to teacher training level is considered to be part of this cultural field.

Within this field, where practice may be located in time and in place, and can be referred to as having ‘a feel for the game’, involving fluidity from ‘rules’ to dispositions in the classroom, it is also possible to identify which of those values and dispositions held by teachers are given more prominence than others. They are imbued with ‘capital’, a term used by Bourdieu to denote power or added value. For Bourdieu, participation in the arts imbued people with capital. That this is the case in official policy is evidenced by the inclusion of music as a subject in each version of official knowledge since the inception of the national system of education. In the study being reported here, the term ‘cultural capital’ has been adapted to explain the dominance of some experiences over others in teacher practice.

In terms of research on teacher practice, this Bourdieuan framework can allow a means of moving away from implementation studies (Department of Education, 1983; Conference of Convent Primary Schools, 1976; Irish National Teachers Organisation, 1975) which tend to take as their starting point the official version of knowledge. It recognises that, whilst teachers operate within ‘the rules of the game’ in a closed system, they are also originators of knowledge (Elbaz, Reference ELBAZ1991). It offers a means of understanding why some respondents, while negotiating the same parameters may have different approaches to their practice. It can also help to identify differences between those values and beliefs promoted at official policy level and those held by the teachers at a local level, and to explain why such differences may result in tensions at local level. This warrants a view of the teacher as inhabiting two settings, one – the institutional setting – within which the selection and organisation of musical knowledge has customarily been presented in a top-down situation; and the other – the idiosyncratic setting – where the teacher is interacting in a particular milieu, drawing on a conception of knowledge which is multi-faceted.

Ray, Ultan, Norma and Fiona are four generalist teachers who participated in the study. Criteria for selection were based on the willingness of each informant to participate and their eligibility to teach within the cultural field. The settings ranged from inner city to rural. Denomination was Roman Catholic, with a mixture of schools which had historically been under the authority of religious orders and those which were secular. Fiona taught in a convent school, mixed in the early years (from age 5–8) and single-sex (girls only) in the senior classes (from age 8–12). Ultan and Ray taught in mixed-sex schools, both of which were traditionally secular. Norma taught in a boys' school, originally run by Christian Brothers. Of the schools, three had entry at age five, but Norma's school had entry at around the age of seven.

Phases in the study

There were two phases in the study with the methods of semi-structured interview and observation used. In phase 1, the purpose was to build a profile of each teacher. This was compiled from their account of their formative experiences, both in-school and out-of-school, together with their views on music education, and their attitude to the official curriculum. Phase 2 comprised classroom observation and a second interview, conducted post-observation. Each teacher was observed teaching what they would consider to be representative for them of a ‘typical’ music lesson, of about 30 minutes duration. It was agreed with each informant that the observed lesson would become the focus of the post-observation interview where those aspects of the lesson would be discussed which held a particular emphasis or importance for them. The data from the two interviews and observation formed the basis of a ‘story’ or interpretive account. These were returned to each respondent for verification and following this, in phase 2 a third interview was held in which the respondents could amend or clarify aspects where appropriate. These accounts then became the basis for discussion on commonality and difference at inter-informant level.

In the next section, the data from each phase are presented in summary form in an interpretive account. In the case of each respondent being reported here, the interpretive account contains a summary of their formative experiences, a summary of their views on music education, and their attitude to the official version of knowledge, as outlined in the curriculum. Each account ends with a summary of their typical lesson, as observed by the researcher. Words within quotation marks are those of the respondents.

The interpretive accounts

Ray was given an accordion at the age of nine and ‘tipped around, learned the odd hornpipe, the odd jig and tunes from an old tape’. His father played the accordion too, ‘. . . a few waltzes and so on’ and his brothers played a variety of instruments. The siblings regularly got together to play traditional Irish tunes and to sing folk tunes and ballads at informal music sessions. The vibrancy with which Ray described his musical world in the informal setting was nowhere to be found in his description of his experiences of music in a formal setting. Music in school was ‘soul-destroying’. His teacher ‘used to have a tuning fork and he had a stick and would rap out the beat’. His experience of music in pre-service teacher education was equally negative, which he described as being ‘really detached from . . . no enjoyment, no social aspect to it . . . and all I ever picked up from it was a few clapping exercises’. He was amazed to realise that, whilst there were traditional musicians amongst his fellow students in the year group, they never got a chance to play when they were in college. He felt this was a waste of potential. ‘Let them be good or bad but give them a sort of feel for the instrument’.

Ray is careful to foster a particular attitude to music in his professional practice. As head teacher of a four teacher school, with about hundred pupils, he considers it vital that children are exposed to music. His philosophy that music is not just a school subject is evidenced in the emphasis he placed on the ‘social aspect to it’. He loves the camaraderie and considers the school to be like one big family, with ‘. . . the older ones helping out the younger ones’.

In addition to his role as head teacher, he is class teacher with responsibility for the most senior class in the school (aged 11–12). By arrangement with his colleagues, he teaches music to four of the eight class groups, combining the senior classes (aged 10–12) and the middle grades (aged 8–10) to form one large group, comprising half of the pupils of the school. He works hard to blur the distinction between in-school and out-of-school activities. This is achieved by giving the school an identity within the village community, by organising music events in the community, and by arranging for the pupils to play in hospitals, in local halls, and at fund-raising events organised in the locality. For Ray, the emphasis is on instrumental music and he was working with a variety of tunes in progress at any one time, each in a different state of readiness to perform.

On the occasion of the observation, pupils arrived from another classroom to join the pupils in Ray's class. As they entered Ray was writing a new tune on the blackboard, with letters of the alphabet used to identify the notes. The same material was distributed on sheets to everyone present. Each pupil had a tin whistle, and worked either individually or with others in small groups. As Ray started writing the notes of the new tune on the board, small groups of pupils gathered together and began to work out the tune. Some were able to do it at considerable speed, while others took longer to find fingerings. Occasionally a pupil would ask for help. The atmosphere was ‘not regimental in any way . . . no inhibitions whatsoever, [with everyone] tipping away playing’. The lesson ended with a performance of some tunes which they had learned in previous lessons. Ray joined in on guitar.

One of four children, Ultan was the only one of his family to show any interest in picking up the songs his father used to sing. He remembers how his father ‘couldn't read but he had a great ear for it and he would say ‘no, no, no, Ultan, you are singing that wrong. It goes like this’. And [Ultan would] pick it up’. In terms of formal schooling, Ultan described how the method used in the development of music literacy used to mystify him, particularly the use of tonic solfa in favour of staff notation. He used to pay little heed to the teacher and music lessons were time for a ‘sneering session’. Later on, he became increasingly frustrated by his own lack of facility in reading music, particularly when it would have been useful in learning to extend his repertoire of dance tunes on the banjo.

The memory of the music classes in his own primary schooldays has continued to haunt him and he regretted the amount of laughing and sneering he did when his teacher was – ardently but unsuccessfully – trying to teach the class songs from solfa. He wants to avoid replicating that scenario at all costs in his own teaching. As a principal teacher, Ultan is conscious of his influence on the ethos of the school. There is an old Cistercian Abbey in the village, with a choir which regularly performed sacred music of a polyphonic tradition. In his teaching, he believes that ‘the curriculum would serve the school community well if children would have the opportunity to leave the school with some bit of musical literacy and maybe an appreciation of music’. While Ultan is in favour of the formal curriculum, in principle at least, he did not want to ‘flog’ it in the classroom context. He emphasises a ‘voluntary’ aspect, hoping that the pupils will pick up his enthusiasm for music.

Ultan wants to give prominence to the local.

He makes every effort to instil in his pupils this sense of place, and to inculcate in his pupils a pride in their local heritage and their local school. For him, this involves three aspects of life, namely traditional music, the game of hurling and the Irish language. He is conscious of a powerful connection between the song and the locality. ‘I think the song tells a marvellous story . . . and is nearly a spiritual thing’. This has extended to the composition of a school anthem which he has taught the pupils over a number of years. He recalled with great pride how his former pupils still cherish the song and the sentiments it expresses. The power of this in his own life came through in his story of how a song had the power to galvanise the whole village. He recalled how, at times of celebration in his home village, when the supporters of the local hurling team would gather to greet the victorious team, they would all:

Ultan's hope is that they would pick up his enthusiasm for music. Largely on a voluntary basis and self-directed, the children in Ultan's school tend to play traditional music during breaktime and before class in the morning. During the school day, at Ultan's suggestion, they would occasionally take up the instruments ‘to break the tedium of the day’. ‘I could be trying to deal with a parent or up in the office and I'd hear the bit of music going along outside [which is] nice’.

Ultan had organised the ‘typical’ lesson in advance and each pupil had been given instructions about the order of events. For example, in songs that had many verses, it had been decided in advance who would sing which verse and in which order. The lesson was organised such that there would be a variety of activities to present, ranging from group singing and instrumental performance to enactment of a short dramatisation of a scene from history, with the use of ballads to add meaning to the story. At the end of the lesson, the pupils demonstrated their knowledge of the use of crotchets and quavers using home made instruments. Ultan tended to take a back seat in the lesson, leaving the organisation to one pupil in particular. Directing from the keyboard, this student gave directions, cueing pupils in as appropriate and generally taking responsibility for the lesson.

Norma was educated in a convent primary school where music was encouraged. ‘I had teachers who were really interested in it and loved it.’ As a pupil in primary school, she was ‘roped in’ to sing in the church choir. She has clear memories of classes and choir practice at weekends where she learned to interpret neumes and the five line stave. She learned to sing motets and Latin sacred music, in three and four parts. Sometimes, the quest for perfection led to moments of great tension. She recalled how, at one rehearsal, somebody was singing a wrong note and everybody was asked to sing on their own in order that the ‘culprit’ might be identified. She described how her heart was pounding at the thought that she might be blamed for making the mistake. The incident has stayed with her and serves to remind her of the high standards expected of and achieved by children in her day. She notes big changes in the standard and content of music lessons in school since her days at school and attributes the high standard in her formal education to the nuns who taught her. The interests fostered in her early years have remained with her throughout her life. She has continued to pursue her studies in music and has taken a number of courses, including at the time of the interviews, a diploma course in sacred music. She also formed a choir in her local church which has played a significant part in local religious services.

Norma teaches in a boys' school with entry at age seven. A keen advocate of the official curriculum, she has introduced choral music to the school. She found this particularly challenging and experienced strong opposition from colleagues with whom she had ‘real, real rows’. She persisted ‘. . . because there are so many children who are not into sport’ and she wanted to provide an alternative to this and to change the long established ‘four hymn syndrome’ which preceded her. She received encouragement from the parents of those pupils who have benefited from having been given the option to sing rather than to take part in games or competitive sports. Feedback from former choir members was also an indicator of the success of her work. Each year, on the night of the choral concert, a group of older boys, long since left the primary school would return to give their support to the present choir members. In addition, she is heartened by the messages from former pupils passed on to her through her own children. ‘Tell your mother that being in her choir was the best thing that ever happened to me.’

Norma has set high standard for herself and her pupils. When she gets a boy who doesn't sing in tune, she adapts the following approach:

According to Norma, this approach is successful: ‘it has worked with so many’ and to prove her point, Norma indicated to some of the boys in the class who were given this treatment in the early days and were now singing confidently and sweetly. At the time of the lesson observation, Norma was preparing a repertoire for performance at a religious ceremony to be held later that evening and was working with a small group of boys. They began with some vocal exercises and worked on two part pieces, each line being rehearsed separately. She reminded the boys to articulate the words, especially the beginnings and endings. While they were singing, she occasionally walked around the room, pausing to listen to individual singers and to check their accuracy of pitch and tuning.

Fiona's formative years were spent in a rural village on the west coast of Ireland. Support for music was encouraged both in school by the nuns and out of school by her parents. Formal piano lessons were provided for her from the age of six and continued throughout her schooldays, culminating in the attainment of a teaching licentiate during her first year in preservice college. She also took lessons in harp and voice coaching. Fiona's main interest has been in western classical music but her experience has also included traditional Irish music. She recalled two different approaches in performance practice, namely the oral transmission in traditional music and the notation-based approach in classical music. Her overall impression is that she came to teaching with ‘a very good background to teach’. She has been teaching there for over 30 years and, for as long as she can remember, there has been a great emphasis put on music in the school. She attributed it to the convent-school culture where ‘. . . in general where there are nuns they have always fostered music’. The school is set in a designated disadvantaged area in an inner city setting and originated from a need to ‘cater for the poorest of the poor’ in the city. She recalled that, when she started teaching at the school the pupils would sing ‘songs from the shows, stagey stuff . . . the music of the area’. She has succeeded in replacing that with music which reflects her own tastes. These are predominantly western classical in nature. For Fiona the opportunities open to pupils in the area are limited and very few of them reach third level education. Their membership in her choir provides them an opportunity to travel to other schools and areas, to critically appraise performances of other choirs and to take pride in themselves and their efforts. They can hold their head up high and get ‘a sense of the good’. The choir wins at festivals and receives endorsement from parents, the head teacher and colleagues both in school and in the wider community. The pupils themselves have ‘bought into’ Fiona's musical world, as the following story illustrates.

Fiona believes that there should be a great emphasis on songs and on music making and that . . . notation . . . should spring from that’. During the lesson observed, Fiona was ‘polishing’ the pieces her choir would perform later that week at a choral festival. The setting was quite formal with pupils standing in their designated places on a platform. A professional accompanist was present and the pupils were reminded to listen carefully to the piano, to remember to ‘tell a story’ and to observe expression marks. Although they had been using printed music earlier on in the learning process, for the lesson they were singing from memory.

Discussion: commonality and difference in the response of teachers to the official curriculum

The interpretive accounts show that each teacher was versed in the official version of knowledge as presented in the curriculum, with its emphasis on the development of music literacy and vocal performance. Both Norma and Fiona were keen advocates of the official curriculum, and worked hard to develop skills in vocal performance and music literacy in their practice. Each of them focused on choral singing and on the production of a ‘choral sound’. This included a focus on notated music and on training the pupils to listen accurately for tuning and intonation. Norma and Fiona drew on childhood experiences to support their views and these experiences were drawn exclusively from the formal setting.

Ultan and Ray agreed with aspects of the official curriculum at least in principle, and wanted the pupils to have ‘some bit of musical literacy and maybe an appreciation of music’. Ultan believed in vocal performance but not the tonic-solfa based version promoted in the official curriculum. For him, the song has the potential to forge a deep, ‘spiritual bond’ or connection with the community, and it is the ballad with which he concerns himself in school. For Ultan, the words of the ballad were key and consequently, there was little account of a rigour in training the pupils in intervals in a manner described by him of his own schooldays. His hope was that the pupils would ‘pick it up’ or learn by ear, just as he picked up the tunes from his father as a child.

Ray wanted ‘nothing whatsoever to do with the curriculum’. His experiences of music in the formal setting were soul destroying and he concerned himself with a repertoire of traditional tunes from a ‘living tradition’. Ray cares not so much about the standard of skills – his attitude is ‘let them be good or bad’ – but emphasises the importance of giving his pupils ‘a sort of feel for the instrument’.

There is an element of commonality among the teachers, particularly in their preoccupation with performance and music literacy, and in their omission of any reference to composing and improvising. Given that they share a common cultural field, working within the parameters of a prescribed curriculum, one which has emphasised performance and music literacy, this is not surprising. For each of them too, however, there were differences in their response to the curriculum and the application of a Boudieuan perspective in the study has enabled some explanatory power for this. It will be seen that a ‘habitus’ – the set of generative principles which shapes practice – was reproduced by each teacher in a variety of ways, using strategies that were informed by each teacher's formative experiences in music, whether acquired in a formal or informal setting.

Reproducing habitus

Each teacher in the study had a legacy of cultural practices on which to draw. Their attitude to these cultural practices was shaped by their own formative experiences and ranged from negative to positive. From this legacy they have selected which of these cultural practices and skills are worth reproducing in their practice. They tended to reproduce the practices which they valued as relevant in their own lives, and considered to hold cultural capital for the pupils they teach.

For Ray, access to music is open to everyone, regardless of their ability. In order to ensure that this is achievable, he takes steps to remove obstacles to full participation by tailoring the music and supplying arrangements which take into account each pupil's level of ability. Underlying this is Ray's experience of music, characterised by the association with community, handing down a set of cultural practices from one generation to the next. For Ray, participation in music ensured that the pupils were ‘in with a chance’ for their future. Playing together in school would give them a feeling of camaraderie and a sense of belonging. In order to connect the music with the children's lives, he devised strategies such as naming tunes after some of the pupils. They responded to this with enthusiasm and it contributed to a relaxed and ‘laid-back’ learning environment, and encouraged the pupils to be largely self-motivated. Ray gave legitimacy to this ‘musical world’ by calling on former pupils – particularly those who exhibited the particular attributes he promoted – to share their knowledge with pupils currently in the school. Thus the pupils get a glimpse of the ‘big big world’ to which they were headed.

Like Ray, Ultan has placed great value on his formative experiences. Ultan is keen on participation, although in his case it is somewhat vicarious. He supports musical activity but tends to take a back seat in organising it. In his school, participation in music occurs on a voluntary basis. There were songs he picked up from his father, local ballads and songs which celebrated his locality. He takes great trouble to pass these on to his pupils, effectively reproducing the musical world in which he was brought up, one which highlighted a sense of place. For him music was one of a number of cultural practices which he promoted in the school.

Everything Ultan did was intended to instil in the pupils a sense of connectedness to their own cultural heritage, to the sense of the local. This connection with a world that was real underpinned his attitude to his practice, as his anecdote about the ‘hardwood forests of Bosnia’ indicates. The game of hurling, the Irish language and the local ballad bestowed capital. Taken together they would give the pupils a unique connection with their locality. He was very conscious of his own ‘narrowness’ but felt confident that one of his colleagues would expose them to other types of music.

Whereas Ultan and Ray share a view that participation – at whatever level – is of value and bestows capital on their pupils, for Norma and Fiona there is a sense of exclusivity attached to participation in music at school. Norma's strategy is in some cases to prevent participation until the pupils have achieved some prerequisite level of skill. Once this has been achieved, they are granted entry and from then, they are given lots of exposure to music. For Norma, participation in music gave the pupils an alternative, particularly in a boys' school when there was little else to do apart from sports. The values would remain with them long after they had finished in school, as evidenced by the story of the past pupils who turn up every year to support the ‘choir’. Norma is driven by her memory of her own experiences as a child. As she described them, these were very much in the guise of the apprentice where the emphasis tended to be on getting the notes right at all costs. Having derived such enjoyment from this as a child, it is not surprising to find that Norma replicates this practice, taking steps which may be considered somewhat draconian today.

For Fiona, ‘it all comes from the school’. She considered that participation in music in school would give the pupils options, and act as a means of moving from their home environment – described by her as impoverished, both economically and culturally – to a better one. Fiona enjoyed her formative experiences in choral music and has reproduced these in her professional practice. In Fiona's school, pupils are required to acquire the attributes of a choral singer and this extends even to changing their accent from ‘common’ to ‘posh’. In so doing, she has replaced the musical world of the area – ‘stagey stuff’ – with that of her childhood. She made no attempt to include the cultural practices from the pupils' out-of school lives. Although the world of classical music – including music colleges and concert venues – was geographically only a stone's throw from the school and the children's home environment, culturally it was very remote and Fiona considered that, but for the intervention of the school the children would never gain access to this ‘big, big world’ of music, held in such high regard by her.

Creating a musical world in the school

Within the cultural field, the school occupies a special place for these four teachers. It is where they can reproduce the values and dispositions they hold in music. It is where they can create a musical world for the pupils in their class or school. In each case, this musical world is built on a foundation of the teacher's values and dispositions towards music. As school principals, Ray and Ultan were in a position of power and thus could influence the type of values being promoted in the school. For Ray, the school was like a family and he was conscious of passing on the values and ethos of a community of traditional musicians. In this community, camaraderie was important and it was important that everyone was made to feel welcome. Because he was a head teacher, he had the power to create this world, organising the timetable to facilitate a time for music in which half of the school could participate as one ‘community of musicians’. Similarly, as head teacher, Ultan had considerable influence in the school and could prioritise a sense of the local, as defined by him. This excluded the musical world of the abbey, standing in the same locality as that in which the school was situated. Ultan felt somewhat unattached from this component of the local culture and his sense of the local was one in which he had been immersed, namely a world inhabited by hurlers and Irish language speakers, a world preserved and celebrated in the local ballad. As a result, although he was keen to reflect the sense of local culture in his school, he was somewhat selective.

For Fiona and Norma too there was a degree of autonomy. Although neither of them held a position of authority, they had been in the school for a long time. For Fiona, there was recognition of her continuation of the long tradition of choral music established by the founders of the school. This recognition was publicly conveyed, and civic authorities regularly lauded the successes achieved by the choir and by individual singers at a competitive level at festivals. For Norma the instigation of an alternative to the sports culture predominant in the school was strongly endorsed by parents and this imbued her professional activity with cultural capital. So too did her contribution to the religious ceremonies in the local church and the participation in national choral events. So although she experienced ‘real real rows’ with her colleagues, ultimately she was in a position where she could overrule them and act with a degree of autonomy in the school.