About

ASME National is pleased to present the fourth webinar for 2025 featuring Callaway Award Winner Dr Brad Fuller, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney

In memory of Sir Frank Callaway, the founding President of ASME, the Callaway Doctoral Award is presented on a biennial basis to the best doctoral thesis from an Australian university in the area of music education.

Riding the Wonky Donkey of Evidence-Based Practice: Resisting the Neoliberalisation of Education Through Active Work in the Music Classroom

ABSTRACT

Research suggests that the neoliberal vision for the global reform of education through a Neoliberalised version of Evidence-based Practice (NEBP) has been smuggled into education policy in NSW and the government is using NEBP to make unwarranted, ideologically driven interventions into the practices of classroom teachers. This shift in policy has resulted in a pendulum swing towards a back-to-basics approach to classroom teaching which is incompatible with progressive music education ideals. This incompatibility is demonstrated through documents such as What Works Best (WWB), which provides conflicting information to classroom music teachers (CMTs) about “what works best” compared to the advice provided in their syllabus documents. My dissertation argues that NEBP is not what works best for classroom music education and that CMTs must resist the neoliberal agenda and the associated unwarranted expectations about the role of evidence in our practices. Instead, I propose an educative evidence-based practice (EEBP) approach using pedagogical reasoning to integrate information from research evidence; classroom expertise; the student’s values, preferences, and circumstances; and the classroom context. To arrest the regression to passive and inert recipiency championed in documents like WWB, I urge CMTs to form EEBP-informed communities of practice centred around dialogic critically reflective practice to foster care-full, active, and creative classroom music education based on the belief in the unique power of music to make life special, meaningful.

BIO

Dr Brad Fuller is an electric bass guitarist who lectures in music education at the University of Sydney. His research spans educative evidence-based pedagogy, digital musicianship, and popular music. Publications include JMTE (2024) and an OUP chapter (2025). Awards include the University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor’s teaching prize (2022) and the ASME Callaway Doctoral Award (2025).

https://www.sydney.edu.au/music/about/our-people/academic-staff/brad-fuller.html 

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