Rebecca Berkley
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+44 (0) 118 378 2694
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Associate Professor
Institute of Education
- Associate Professor in Music Education, SFHEA
- School Director of Internationalisation and Global Engagement
- BA in Primary Education (QTS) with Music Specialism Subject Convenor
- Doctoral Supervisor
University
- Artistic Director Universal Voices, a community choir for children aged 7-11 at the ڹϳ. Find out more from universalvoices@reading.ac.uk.
- Assessor FLAIR HEA Fellowship scheme
Areas of interest
- Rebecca’s work focuses on the importance of musical literacy in creative classroom practice and musical cognition and the development of musical knowledge in music teachers and students. She focuses on reflection on professional practice and leadership training for musicians working in education, with a particular emphasis on developing confidence as a leader in the classroom.
- Rebecca is an experienced choral director with a wide ranging professional practice including conducing children’s, youth and adult choirs, music theatre and operatic repertoire. She has research interests in choral conducting, choral education and conducting training, and extensive experience working as a mentor to colleagues at all levels of their professional development.
- Rebecca is the Artistic Director of Universal Voices, a children’s community choir at the Institute of Education. Unique among schools of Education at UK HEIs, Universal Voices offers excellent choral and musicianship education to all children in the ڹϳ area; along with teacher training in choral education to teachers. Students at the ڹϳ can volunteer to work with Universal Voices in project management, teaching musicianship and choral conducting. Current projects include:
o Soundscape – Inclusive and therapeutic pedagogies for teaching musicianship to children co-created with IoE students reflecting on their own lived experiences of special educational needs
o Culturally Inclusive Music Education – developing access to singing repertoire for cultural awareness and diversity among music teachers - Rebecca teaches musicianship from Foundation to Advanced levels, both in undergraduate and postgraduate programmes at the ڹϳ and as a consultant for schools and music organisations. Her work focuses on the significance of developing fluent musical literacies in all individuals to support inclusive practice in formal and informal music education. She is in demand as a consultant for national music organisations, recently supporting the National Schools Singing Programme to develop a curriculum for teaching classroom music in primary schools across the UK.
- Rebecca is a convenor of the British Education Research Association Arts Based Education Research special interest group. She uses ABER in her own research.
Postgraduate supervision
Current and recently completed Doctoral Students, with Topics and Titles of their research:
- Yina Cai Applying the Kodály Methodology to Teaching the Pipa, A Traditional Chinese Instrument (with Dr Alison Silby)
- Xinrong Chen The development of music education students' pedagogical beliefs in the context of Chinese and British characteristic ideologies: Confronting the pedagogical beliefs of Chinese and British pre-service teachers of music education under different ideologies (with Dr Catherine Foley), completed 2024
- Andrea Jones What are we all looking for? An exploration of classical musicians’ perceptions and experiences of pre-entry processes to one UK conservatoire (with Dr Richard Harris)
- Amy Nokes Evaluating the impact of a skills-based intervention on the readiness of general class teachers in a special school to use and teach music (with Professor Cathy Tissot)
- Hilary Smethurst Evans How do I join the ‘professionals’ club? Instrumental music teachers’ aspirations for and perceptions of their role (with Dr Rachel Roberts)
Professional bodies/affiliations
- Senior Fellow of Advance HE, and a FLAIR CPD mentor and assessor at the ڹϳ
- Association of British Choral Directors
- British Education Research Association
- British Kodaly Society
- Independent Society of Musicians
- International Society of Music Education
- Music Mark
- Sing for Pleasure
Selected publications
Recent Conference Presentations:
- Berkley, R. (2023, 12-14.9.23). Musicianship for Teachers: Teaching General Primary Teachers to Teach Classroom Music [Workshop]. British Education Research Association Conference, Aston University.
- Berkley, R. (2024a, 27.7.24 - 2.8.24). Musicianship for Teachers: Measuring musicianship skills in General Pre-service Primary Teachers [Workshop]. The 36th World Conference for the International Society for Music Education: Advocacy for Music Education, University of the Arts, Helsinki.
- Berkley, R. (2024b, 27.7.24 - 2.8.24). Musicianship for Teachers: Tracking Emerging Pedagogical reasoning in General Pre-service Primary Teachers [Paper]. The 36th World Conference for the International Society for Music Education: Advocacy for Music Education, University of the Arts, Helsinki.
- Berkley, R., Johnson, J. A. R., Tutchell, S., & Taggart, G. (2024, 9-12.9.24). Disrupting pedagogies – creative approaches to initial teacher training [Panel Discussion]. British Education Research Assocation Conference 2024 and World Education Research Association Focal Meeting, Manchester University.
- Berkley, R., Johnson, J. R., Tutchell, S., Taggart, G., & Jay, M. (2024, 9-12.9.24). Disrupting pedagogies – practical ways to train creative educators [Panel Discussion]. British Education Research Assocation Conference 2024 and World Education Research Association Focal Meeting, Manchester University.
- Berkley, R., & Moran, N. (2024, 8-9.7.24). Musicianship for teachers: Measuring emerging musicianship literacy in general primary teachers [Paper]. Society of Music Analysis First Summit on Musical Literacy, St Catherine's College, Cambridge