Composition in music education: a challenge for French primary and nursery school teachers

The music education curricula for Cycles 1, 2 and 3 (pupils aged 3 to 11) in French schools represent the institutional aspect of disciplinary epistemology, which comes into conflict with the personal and practical epistemology of French primary and nursery school teachers. The tension between the two forms of epistemology would seem to be a source of incommensurable points of view on knowledge and practices, particularly in the field of musical composition with primary school pupils.What are the implications of this incommensurability for the teaching of music when teachers tackle the process of musical composition in the classroom? What pedagogical and musical skills does it call into question?To answer these questions, a survey was conducted among primary and nursery school teachers in the département of Bouches-du-Rhône, (France). The results of this study offer some answers and a few avenues for reflection.