THE HIDDEN CURRICULUM IN MUSIC TEACHING IN GENERAL EDUCATION SCHOOLS

Many definitions of the hidden curriculum and its research cited in the last fifty years indicate the complexity, but also the exceptional importance of unintentional, implicit messages that are spread in schools and classrooms every day. In this study, music teachers from the Osijek-Baranja, Brod-Posavina, Požega-Slavonia, and Vukovar-Srijem Counties highlighted the elements that they believe influence music teaching through their actions, as a hidden curriculum. The study results show that teachers, by reflecting on their own work, notice the influences of the hidden curriculum in the structural aspect of teaching, that is, the number of teaching hours of subjects, school equipment, and the organization of extracurricular music activities.Teachers particularly note the cultural and educational aspects of the hidden curriculum, which have impact music teaching more strongly than the organizational aspect. They note that, despite the recognized significant and various contributions of artistic activities to student development and the current European and national educational initiatives that promote the artistic field in education, the scientific discourse still dominates the schools and teaching curriculum. This is evident in the cultural and aesthetic values that are sought to be transmitted through school culture. The teachers emphasize that societal attitude towards art and culture also affects the motivation of teachers and students, and that it is difficult to mitigate the negative influences of these elements, regardless of the exceptional efforts of teachers. Teachers also note that student overload caused by large curricular and extracurricular demands also affects student response to extracurricular music activities as well as the teaching atmosphere.The conducted study has highlighted the need for a greater examination of the hidden curriculum’s influence on teaching in the artistic field in order to respond properly to the challenges that arise due to the social and educational changes of the modern era.