Music lessons in elementary school as an analog “safe space”?

A teacher survey on the status of digital media in primary school (music) lessons.

Abstract

The article examines the use of digital media in primary school music education based on selected data from the 2024 needs analysis conducted by the BMBF Competence Center KuMuS-ProNeD. To this end, primary school–specific evaluations of a quantitative teacher survey are triangulated with a qualitative content analysis of three interviews with primary school music teachers. The findings indicate that primary school teachers rate equipment as well as their own experience, confidence, and competence in dealing with digital media more negatively compared to colleagues from other types of schools. In particular, equipment is perceived as largely beyond their control and characterized by limited availability, organizational barriers, and technical unreliability – constituting a major obstacle to media use. Consequently, the potential of digital media for music education in primary schools has so far remained scarcely realized in practice.