What are harmful experiences in music education?

Recognising and labelling harmful experiences in music education is important not only to prevent future abuses from occurring, but also anyone who has experienced harm in the past to come to terms with what has happened and how it has impacted them.

Harmful experiences may be caused by illegal behaviours such as sexual abuse, as well as discriminatory behaviours such as racism or sexual harassment. However, they may also include experiences that are not illegal or discriminatory but still have a profound impact on someone’s experience of music education, negatively affecting their musical engagement, confidence, creativity, or career trajectory as well as mental health. Examples include bullying or controlling behaviour from music teachers.

How common are abusive experiences in music education?

My Guitar Lessons don’t have any data on how common abusive or harmful experiences in music education are. However, the Musicians’ Union, together with Equity and the Independent Society of Musicians surveyed 680 students in higher education in 2018 and found that students within music, drama and dance higher education are at risk from inappropriate behaviour, bullying, sexual harassment and discrimination – however many do not report these experiences to their institution.

The 2023 Musicians’ Census found that 20% of student respondents have been sexually harassed and 31% have either experienced or witnessed sexual harassment. Almost half of student respondents experienced or witnessed gender-based discrimination or harassment. Only 23% of student respondents reported that they hadn’t experienced any forms of discrimination.