Information technology is having a profound impact upon the music curriculum, and there is general agreement that boys and girls should have equal opportunities to benefit from it. Although music has traditionally been a subject in which girls predominate, technology is clearly stereotyped as a male preserve. The present paper reports some findings from the Leverhulme Trust-funded ‘Gender and educational computing in the humanities’ project at the University of Leicester, which is using survey and interview techniques with a large sample of pupils and teachers in the Midlands to investigate these questions. The preliminary results suggest that boys are more confident in their use of music technology; that they are showing an increasing interest in music as a result of it; and that teachers have a crucial role to play in ensuring that girls are not disadvantaged in the use of music technology.

This article seeks to create further professional debate on the practical, political and historical significance of girls' experience in music education, and to suggest possible ways for change.

A secondary schools research project on Music and Gender is outlined and work in one project school where language (especially the words in songs) was the focus is discussed in detail.

This study examines the effectiveness of combining video self-assessment, peer-assessment, instructor feedback, and the use of a Conductor Peer/Self Evaluation form, in the instruction of conducting gestural technique. Twenty-five P.G.C.E. music students from the University of London Institute of Education were videotaped while conducting. Concurrently, they were being assessed by a peer, and given feedback by the instructor. The peer and the conductor reviewed the videotape and determined three areas of strength and three areas that need improvement in the conductor gestural technique. The experimenter tabulated the results and surveyed the group as to the effectiveness of the teaching process. Results indicate that the instructional process was effective, and the inclusion of peer-assessment helped to present a more accurate view of each conductors skills.

Whilst public music-making is generally perceived as largely a male domain, the perception of school music is that, at all levels, it is dominated by females. This article describes the author's attempt to find out how A-level music students see themselves in relation to their past experiences as musicians, their current work for A-level, and their potential musical future. The aim of the research was to identify differences that might exist between the perceptions of girls and boys in the sample, and between those at state-maintained and private schools.

Apart from generating a psychological and autobiographical profile for the cohort as a whole, results from the students' responses were analysed by using a quantitative statistical measure. Then the autobiographies of the constituents of these groups were examined, and this threw up interesting and unlooked for similarities within them.

This paper considers the effects of children's gender associations on their preferences for musical instruments, and questions whether the limited range of instrumental selection made by boys can be regarded as a result of such associations.

The research project was devised to investigate the responses of infant school children to male and female musicians. The findings indicated that instrumental preferences were influenced by gender associations which could be lessened by providing positive role models. Whereas girls were more able to cross over gender divisions than boys, boys had a narrower range of interests in instruments. It was shown that the provision of an opposite gendered role model helped to overcome the associations made with particular instruments.

Sexual difference expresses itself not only in the musical practices and tastes of boys and girls in schools, but also in teachers' discourse about pupils' musicality. The following article explores this discourse through interpreting the findings of some questionnaire research, which was intended to tap teachers' common-sense and sometimes unspoken assumptions about gender, music and education. A considerable amount of both overt and implicit consensus between teachers is revealed. Questions are raised about the implications of such a consensus, both for the musical education of children, and for the musical roles of men and women. This article was originally written and published as a Research Report in the London University Institute of Education.

Music making in Africa has been, and is, an essential aspect of living. The philosophy and process of music making in South African schools bares no relevance to this idea. The present situation is that South African music educators are propagating western music education methods, while so-called ‘western’ music educators are turning to Africa to find answers to their perplexing problems. This paradoxical situation highlights the importance of evolving a philosophy and process of intercultural education through music for South Africa which draws upon research into music making in Africa.

The third biennial British Music Educators' Conference, ‘New Skills for a New Era’, organised by the UK Council for Music Education and Training, was held at Stoke Rochford, Lincolnshire, in July 1993. One of the conference days focused on 'Managing New Forms of Provision of Support Services'. This report is a collation of notes from speakers, whose contributions are included, as they spoke, in the first person and flipchart notes from participants' discussion groups.