Key documents from European Union about Music Education in compulsory education

Abstract

The European Union, assuming UNESCO guidelines on the importance of Art Education in children’s integral development, has spent decades working for the full inclusion of this area of knowledge in the curricula of its member States and asking their educational institutions for a series of reports containing the current status of this matter in the educational systems of the twenty-eight, in order to know its configuration in their educational rules, and to launch appropriate proposals for improvement that will allow to consolidate its presence in the national curricula. Our work is based on collecting and analyzing most significant aspects published in these texts and selecting those which, due to their specific content, reflect the EU position on Music Education in basic teachings, providing a brief overview of the eleven documents they offer, in our view, the most relevant aspects of educational music policies that are being developed on the EU scale, how these ones have influenced national curricula and general conclusions derived from this analytical process.