Curricular governance and teacher professional learning in specialized arts education: a multiple-case study of classical guitar teaching in Portuguese public conservatories (with a comparative lens on Spain)

Abstract

This original research examines how curricular governance arrangements shape teacher professional learning in Specialized Artistic Education by analysing Classical Guitar teaching in seven Portuguese public conservatories through a qualitative multiple-case study. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with guitar teachers conducted in focus groups (P1–P12), interviews with pedagogical leaders (D1–D7) and policy stakeholders (S1–S3), student questionnaires ( n  = 19), and documentary analysis of curricular and regulatory instruments, the study compares within- and across-case patterns of curriculum design, assessment, and professional learning routines. The analysis is framed by Young's argument on the specialisation of knowledge and Apple's account of curriculum as official knowledge. Findings indicate that one-to-one instrumental pedagogy supports strong personalisation and a hybrid performer–teacher identity, yet curricular autonomy without instrument-specific national reference points contributes to uneven coherence, fragile assessment comparability, and constrained student mobility, especially in peripheral and insular contexts. Assessment architecture emerges as a central governance lever: where evidence is distributed across shared rubrics, intermediate performance moments, and low-burden process records, participants report clearer expectations and more robust moderation; where high-stakes public examinations dominate, teaching priorities narrow and opportunities for collaborative learning weaken. Technology is valued when it serves concrete artistic functions and is constrained when introduced as an administrative layer without pedagogical purpose or data-protection safeguards. A comparative lens on Spain is used for policy learning by contrast, suggesting that national descriptors and moderation mechanisms can coexist with regional and institutional autonomy. The article advances the concept of a “light curricular contract” — cycle-based learning outcomes, core assessment rubrics, peer moderation, and minimal organisational conditions — as a feasible leadership framework for aligning artistic rigour with curricular justice.