Assessment and the Dilemmas of a Multi-Ideological Curriculum

The Norwegian compulsory school formal curriculum consists of two separate parts, implemented in 1993 and 2006. The older Core Curriculum provides guidelines for the broader aims of education and for its cultural and moral foundations. Ideologically, it is marked by the humanist Bildung tradition and progressive education ideas, emphasizing holistic development of the human being as the primary goal. The newer curriculum part, named Knowledge Promotion, consists of individual syllabi for all subjects, including music. While the first page of the music syllabus mirrors values expressed in the Core Curriculum, the latter part is an operationalization of a positivist-oriented ends-means approach to music education. This chapter explores this multi-ideological split of the music curriculum, pursuing a twofold interest: What are the consequences of ends-means related assessment criteria shaping the context of music teaching and learning? What other assessment criteria exist that would align better with the Bildung and progressive education foundations of the curriculum?