The privatization of higher education in Spain is an increasingly prominent theme in educational and political debate, especially as tensions between the public and private sectors intensify. This phenomenon affects not only universities in general but also more specific fields such as higher arts education. I’m sharing an excerpt here from an article where I analyze this specific situation, addressing how the late and partial implementation of this specialty in Spain—and particularly in regions like Madrid—has favored the expansion of the private sector to the detriment of public offerings. There is a link to the full text at the end:
[…] Music education is one of the many pieces that make up our educational system. It is a paradoxical piece: always essential, yet often neglected. A piece that seems to be in a constant race toward objectives that, in practice, prove unattainable. Among these objectives is the realization of a pedagogical renewal that aligns music education offerings with the needs of a society changing at an ever-accelerating pace. The object of this study—the implementation of jazz studies in Spain—is situated within this context of pedagogical renewal. Despite being essential, this renewal has proven to be, simultaneously, inevitable and ineffective. Inevitable, because with the arrival of the LOGSE in the nineties, these studies were considered for the first time in Spain, while other European countries had already implemented them decades prior. And ineffective, due to the fact of «starting the house from the roof»: higher education programs were created, but preparatory ones were not. The specialty was implemented late and only in a few public centers, which limited the supply and opened a market opportunity for private education.
Thus, this descriptive work aims to illustrate the current situation regarding the jazz specialty, inviting a reflection on the how rather than the what. That is, a reflection that analyzes how a pedagogical renewal—indispensable as it may be—has been carried out in a way that caused side effects deserving of attention and study, as they could prove counterproductive. However, this is not intended to disparage the need for such renewal, but rather to emphasize that, in the face of this urgency, the path has been paved toward results that fall far short of the initially proposed goals. There is no doubt that the emergence of new musical genres like jazz in the 20th century challenged many pillars of the prevailing musical pedagogical tradition; consequently, educators, institutions, and governments were forced to undertake a renewal that opened spaces for learning these genres, thereby transforming classic conservatory models and the music taught within them.
To illustrate this situation, this work proposes as a starting point the specific case of the jazz specialty in the Community of Madrid—an autonomous community with an idiosyncrasy marked by the role of conservative governments and private education, which, as will be seen later, are playing a crucial role in the development of these studies in the region. Thus, the primary objective of this study is to describe the current state of the jazz specialty within Higher Music Arts Education (EEAASS) in the CAM, in order to analyze both the development of its implementation at the regional level and the role of the private sector in that process.
JAZZ IN HIGHER MUSIC ARTS EDUCATION
Authors such as Murphy (1994) or Snyder (1999) point to the 1940s as the most significant decade regarding the inclusion of jazz in the university sphere. It was during this decade that the first programs were born at the University of North Texas and Berklee College of Music. However, the emergence of these programs was not an isolated event, but part of a progressive process of including jazz in academia. Authors like Carter (1986), McDaniel (1993), or Murphy (1994) describe a series of events that fostered the arrival of jazz in universities as a degree. Among these events is what occurred at the University of Alabama and the West Lake military base, led by musicians and pedagogues W.C. Handy and Len Bowden, respectively.
From the 1940s to the present, jazz education has not stopped growing. In the U.S. university sector, reports from Higher Education Arts Data Services (2004, 2020) reveal that the number of NASM-accredited institutions offering jazz degrees has grown by 37.5%, while the master’s level has increased by 32%. Thus, the NASM currently recognizes 373 bachelor’s degrees in jazz, 211 master’s degrees, and 14 doctorates.
The situation in Europe is similar. Since the beginning of the 21st century, there has been an increase in the number of institutions offering this type of qualification (Posthuma, 2001; Parkinson, 2017), with the United Kingdom being the country with the highest growth, reaching a total of 77 institutions in the 2014/2015 academic year (Weston, 2022, as cited in Coopers and Berkers, 2023). This data proves that jazz has managed to legitimize itself not only at the academic level but also at the governmental and corporate levels, capturing the attention of the sector that invests in education (Coopers and Berkers, 2023).
In the case of Spain, until the end of the 20th century, jazz was only studied in schools that, despite having a solid pedagogical tradition, lacked official recognition by the State (Andueza 2012, 2017, 2019; Caro 2010), following the trend of Southern European countries:
The first thing I noticed during the research was the major difference between jazz and pop education in North, West and Central-West Europe and that in South, East and Central-East Europe. In the North, West and Central-West, most professional training programmes and their diplomas/degrees are recognised by national governments. Many of these programmes are part of or are themselves conservatoires or music academies/universities. But most conservatoires and other higher music education institutes in the South, East and Central-East do not provide any jazz or pop provision. Jazz and pop education in these regions mainly takes place in private or general music schools. Several of these schools provide conservatoire level training, yet curricula and diplomas are not recognised (Posthuma, 2001, p. 7)
With the arrival of the LOGSE in the nineties, this situation changed, and higher jazz studies were officialized for the first time in the country. This pedagogical renewal aimed to fill gaps in the musical training of the time and, simultaneously, respond to a growing social and professional demand:
But what is undoubtedly most novel is that, for the first time in our country, other specialties not directly related to Western «art» music make their appearance in this type of study, such as «jazz,» «flamenco,» «ethnomusicology,» and «traditional and popular music instruments,» in line with current demands derived from an open attitude of respect and protection toward diverse cultural manifestations, thus filling an important gap and responding to a great social and professional demand (Royal Decree 617/1995, of April 21, p. 16607)
Nevertheless, despite official recognition, the effective implementation of higher jazz studies did not occur until 2001, when the Generalitat de Catalunya, through Decree 63/2001, distinguished ten specialties in higher studies, among which are “Instruments de jazz i de la música moderna” (Decree 63/2001, of February 20, p. 3). In this way, jazz studies were implemented for the first time in Spain within the EEAASS of music. Following this late implementation, Posthuma (2001) points to the Spanish case as interesting because, despite having a legal framework, few schools adopted the specialty, placing Spain at the tail end of Europe—where countries like Austria, Germany, or Switzerland had already done so in the sixties, and others like Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, or the UK in the seventies and eighties.
The implementation process of the jazz specialty is not the only controversial fact surrounding these studies. When analyzing the situation chronologically, inconsistencies are also observed. As stated previously, the jazz specialty first appeared recognized in Royal Decree 617/1995 alongside 34 other specialties. However, Royal Decree 631/2010—one of the documents currently governing the Degree in Higher Music Arts Education—modified this arrangement. The Composition specialty was maintained, and others like Pedagogy, Conducting, or Performance were expanded, absorbing various previously recognized specialties. In the case of the Performance specialty, all instrumental specialties were grouped within it. For the new specialties of flamenco and jazz, only the relocation of flamenco specialties was specified (Flamencology into Musicology and Flamenco Guitar into Performance), thus leaving jazz in a legislative limbo whose effects will be analyzed later at the regional level.
THE PRIVATIZATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND MUSIC EDUCATION
Unlike other European capitals, the Community of Madrid has historically been governed by conservative governments, which have conditioned the region’s educational policies, favoring a market-driven system with a strong private sector presence (Bonal et al., 2023). In 2017, eight out of ten private schools received public funding, and the money allocated to subsidized private education (educación concertada) increased by 43% (Aróstegui, 2017).
Privatization processes cannot be analyzed solely based on private sector funding, as they involve multiple mechanisms. According to Guerrero (2001), Ball and Youdell (2007), Verger et al. (2016), or Carrasco-González (2022), these processes are divided into two types: on one hand, those that adopt business methods to manage education, and on the other, those that involve a transfer of responsibilities from the State to the private sector. This second approach, defined as exogenous privatization (Ball and Youdell, 2007), will be the theoretical framework of this study, as it implies greater private sector participation in public education.
Regarding higher education, Bonal et al. (2023) indicate that various national and regional legislative reforms have required private sector participation in their development, while conditioning decisions on market movements. Thus, education is considered just another service subject to buying and selling, rather than a citizen’s right, as proposed in the WTO’s General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) (Aróstegui, 2017, p. 17). Carrasco-González (2022) states that the expansion of the private sector began with Royal Decree 557/1991, which allowed for the recognition of private universities, and intensified in 1995 with the transfer of educational competencies to the autonomous communities. This process accelerated with Royal Decree 420/2015, which further flexibilized the creation and recognition processes for private universities, added to the measures of Royal Decree-Law 14/2012, which shifted a large part of the educational cost to the student body, thus constituting «the political reform that has most accentuated the privatization of the Spanish public university» (Carrasco-González, 2022, p. 151).
These measures caused an increase in the percentage of students enrolled in private universities, from 13% in 2002 to 21% in 2018. Likewise, the 2018 SUE report shows how the number of private universities grew from 7 in the 1994/95 academic year to 34 in 2017/18, while public ones only went from 46 to 50 in the same period. This trend is also observable in other European countries between 2002 and 2016 (Carrasco-González, 2022).
Music education has also been affected by these processes. Regarding the social perception of music, one of the interviewees in Aróstegui (2016) states that music is only important “for the very poor (music provides them with an opportunity to ascend socially) and for the upper class (it represents status and culture)” (p. 98). Aróstegui (2017) points out that neoliberal privatization policies are causing a global decline in music education, partly because its cultural capital does not impact the results of standardized tests. Authors like Aróstegui (2017), Henley and Barton (2022), and Ángel-Alvarado (2023) argue that this mismatch has led to outcome-centered educational models, where music is excluded or outsourced, widening socio-cultural gaps and contradicting UNESCO recommendations in the Seoul Agenda, which promotes continuous teacher training and the integration of arts education into educational development.
Full text: Merino, M. (2024). The jazz specialty in the Autonomous Community of Madrid: between pedagogical renewal and the privatization of higher music education. In Docent Innovation in the University Classroom: New Solutions for Old Problems (pp. 1421-1444). https://hdl.handle.net/10115/135637