Abstract
This thesis investigates music education as it is currently theorised and practiced in New Zealand primary schools. The project arose from professional concern for the quality of music teaching in primary schools. The aim of the project was to gather ideas from some key informants about perceived barriers to the effective implementation of the music component of the current arts curriculum and, most importantly, to consider possible solutions to these barriers, so that an effective model of music education for primary schools might be identified and described. The key informants were people working in leadership roles for music education at a national level. They were selected because of their breadth of knowledge and experience within early childhood, primary, secondary and tertiary settings, and for their involvement in advocacy, school advisory work, teaching and research in music education. Each key informant participated in a semi-structured interview. They each suggested that music education is a specialist area requiring a teacher with a depth of pedagogical content knowledge. They advocated for specialist pathways within generalist teacher education qualifications leading to an implementation model where specialist teachers work collaboratively with generalist teachers to provide effective music education programmes.