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Associate Professor Robin Stevens BMus, BEd, PhD Melb., FASME Principal Fellow Melbourne Conservatorium of Music Faculty of Fine Arts and Music The University of Melbourne
Professional Profile Robin Stevens was formerly Associate Professor of Music Education in the Faculty of Education at Deakin University, Burwood Campus, and is currently a Principal Fellow in the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music at The University of Melbourne. His early school music teaching appointments included class music teacher at Box Hill Technical College (1970-71) and Director of Music at University High School, Parkville (1972-73). He was also Tutor in Music Education in the School of Education at The University of Melbourne (1972-73). Stevens completed undergraduate degrees in music majoring in school music teaching (1970) and in education majoring in educational psychology and the history of education (1973). He then completed a PhD (1978) at The University of Melbourne with a thesis on the history of school music in New South Wales and Victoria, 1848-1920. He also undertook graduate studies in computer-based  education at Charles Sturt University in 1984. His teaching at Deakin University and The University of Melbourne has been at undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate levels and has included master and doctoral level research supervision.  He has also taught at Melbourne Polytechnic, Fairfield Campus. He has undertaken  various administrative and course co-ordination roles and also served on numerous university and professional committees. Stevens was a Visiting Professor at School of Music and the Computer-Based Education Research Laboratory (CERL) at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne (March–June 1980), and a Visiting Scholar at a University of Michigan. Ann Arbor (July–August 1980), having been awarded a Special Purpose Award by the Music Board of the Australia Council for the Arts.  The focus of this overseas experience was the application of computer technology to music teaching and learning. This was followed by a period as a Visiting Fellow in the Microtechnology Unit at the Faculty of Education, University of Reading in the United Kingdom (October 1986–March 1987).  Stevens pioneered the use of computer technology for music education through major research and development activities that followed these periods at overseas institutions. During the 1980s and 1990s, Stevens presented over sixty professional development workshops and conference presentations advocating the use of computers for music teaching and learning. for Victorian and interstate schools and professional organisations, both in Australia and overseas.  He was also involved in the development of computer-based music learning programs and published articles on computers in music education in scholarly and professional journals.  He also produced a widely-distributed newsletter, the Australian Computers in Music Education Group Newsletter, and was convenor and organizer of two major seminars on utilizing computer technology in music education at the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science Festival of Science at Monash University in 1985 and at the 18th World Conference of the International Society for Music Education Conference in Canberra in 1987. During 1981-83, Stevens—with a Deakin University colleague—undertook a consultancy for Control Data Australia Pty Ltd who were the marketers of the PLATO Computer-Based Learning System in Australia. This  resulted in customizing PLATO curriculum programs in Earth Sciences, Physics and Reading for the Australian educational environment. In 1996 he was a member of team awarded a $186,000 National Professional Development Program Grant  (Australian Government Department of Employment, Education and Training) for the Art-E-Mus Technology Education Course Development and Evaluation Project.  He was a consultant (one of two external members of the Core Team) on Technology and Music Education, Hong Kong Institute of Education, in the preparation of a grant application for HK$23.6M for a Technology-Based Creativity in Performance-Related Education Centre in 1998. More recently, Stevens was involved in a project entitled ‘Creating musical futures via the NBN through iMCM for students in rural and remote communities’ (iMCM Project) undertaken by the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music with a  $32,000 grant from the Institute for a Broadband- Enabled Society at The University of Melbourne. For an article summarizing Stevens’ work in promoting computer applications in music education, click HERE. During 2002 and 2003, Stevens took the role of chief investigator in a $22,000 project entitled Trends in School Music Education Provision in Australia commissioned by the Music Council of Australia in association with the Australian Society for Music Education and the Australian Music Association.  For a summary of the report of this project, click HERE. He was research editor of the Australian Journal of Music Education from 1989 to 2002. His interest in the nature and extent of music education research in Australia resulted in the development of the Bibliography of Australian Music Education Research 1936-2013 for which he was compiler and editor. Stevens has supervised the post-graduate research of numerous MEd, MMus and PhD students as well as mentoring students and colleagues in their research projects. Stevens’ major research interest following on from his doctoral research is the history of music education in Australia and subsequently South Africa, India, South-East Asia and the Pacific with particular focus on the promotion of the Tonic Sol-fa pedagogical and notational methods and on the life histories of prominent Australian music educators.  Aside from numerous articles on music education history, he was co-editor with Gordon Cox of a book entitled The Origins and Foundations of Music Education: Cross-cultural Historical Studies of Music in Compulsory Schooling (published by Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd, London, 2010).  This book was subsequently translated into Mandarin and published by Peking University Press (2014). A second edition of this book, re-titled The Origins and Foundations of Music Education: International Perspectives,was published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2017. He is also a member of the History Standing Committee of the International Society for Music Education and compiler/editor of the International History of Music Education website, a project of the History Standing Committee.  His most recent research articles are ‘The Introduction of a Protestant Choral Music Method to Melbourne’s Jewish Community: Raphael Benjamin and Joel Fredman’ and ‘A Missionary Inheritance: Tonic Sol-fa in India’.  He is also undertaking on-going research into the life and work of nineteenth-century Australian music educators including Samuel McBurney, Emily Patton and Ada Bloxham. Stevens has published several national and international journals including The Australian Journal of Music Education, The International Journal of Music Education, Research Studies in Music Education, Journal of Historical Research in Music Education, Journal of Music Research Online, The Asia-Pacific Journal for Music Education, and Context:  Journal of Music Research well as several historical entries in The Oxford Companion to Australian Music  (1997).  He was Founding Editor of the Australian Online Journal of Arts Education and has been a member of the Editorial Boards of several international scholarly journals. He was also editor of Music in Action. A Magazine for Australian Educators, published by the Australian Music Association (2008-10). Stevens has been president of the Australian Association for Research in Music Education, chairperson and then treasurer of the Victorian Chapter of the Australian Society for Music Education and a member of the National Council of ASME.  He served as a member of the Steering Committee for the National Review of School Music Education (2004-05), of the Australian National Music Workshop Advisory Group (2006), and of the Australian Government’s Music Education Advisory Group (member 2007-08 and chairperson 2008-09). He was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Australian Music Examinations Board in Victoria (1993-2007) as well as chairperson of its Examination Advisory Committee (2008-2013). He was inducted into the Music Education Hall of Fame of the Association of Music Educators (Victoria) in 2014 and awarded a Fellowship of the Australian Society for Music Education in 2023.
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©  Robin S. Stevens 2020
Robin Stevens was formerly Associate Professor of Music Education  in the Faculty of Education at Deakin University, Burwood and is now  a Principal Fellow in the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, Faculty  of Fine Arts and Music at The University of Melbourne. His early  school music teaching appointments included being class music  teacher at Box Hill Technical College and Director of Music at  University High School, Parkville.  Robin Stevens completed undergraduate degrees in music and in  education and then a PhD (1978) at the University of Melbourne with  a thesis on the history of school music in NSW and Victoria, 1848-  1920. Reflecting his interest in music education history, Robin has  published in The Australian Journal of Music Education, The  International Journal of Music Education, Research Studies in Music  Education, and The Journal of Research in Music Education, as well  as writing several historical entries in The Oxford Companion to  Australian Music. He was Founding Editor of the Australian Online  Journal of Arts Education, Research Editor of The Australian Journal  of Music Education, editor/compiler of the Bibliography of Australian  Music Education Research 1936-2013 and a member of the Editorial  Boards of the International Journal of Music Education (Research),  Music Education Research International, Research Studies in Music  Education. Australian Kodaly Journal and The Asia-Pacific Journal for  Music Education. He was also Editor of Music in Action, a magazine  for Australian music educators. Robin Stevens is a member of the History Standing Committee of the  International Society for Music Education, is a past president of the  Australian Association for Research in Music Education, and has been  Chairperson and then Treasurer of the Victorian Chapter of the  Australian Society for Music Education. His university teaching has  included pre-service teacher education, graduate and post-graduate  music education courses, and supervision of Higher Degree by  Research students in music education. He was Principal Investigator  for the Music Council of Australia’s research project on “Trends in  School Music Education Provision in Australia” (2002-03) and has  served as a member of the Steering Committee for the National  Review of School Music Education (2004-05), of the Australian  National Music Workshop Advisory Group (2006), of the Australian  Government’s Music Education Advisory Group (Chair 2008-09) and is  a member of the School Music Action Group (sMAG). Robin was also  a member of the Board of Directors of the Australian Music  Examinations Board (VIctoria), 1993-2007.  He is co-editor of a book entitled The Origins and Foundations of  Music Education: Cross-cultural Historical Studies of Music in  Compulsory Schooling (published by Continuum International  Publishing Group Ltd, London, 2010) with Gordon Cox of the  University of Reading.  A second edition of this book re-titled The  Origins and Foundations of Music Education: International  Perspectives was published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2017. He is  also compiler/editor of ISME’s International History of Music Education   website. He was inducted into the Music Education Hall of Fame of  the Association of Music Educators (VIctoria) in 2014 and awarded a  Fellowship of the Australian Society for Music Education in 2023.  Research Output  ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1883-6880  Google Scholar Citation Profile:   https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=c2Hjw5AAAAAJ&hl=en
Associate Professor Robin Stevens BMus, BEd, PhD Melb., FASME Principal Fellow, Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music,                    The University of MelbourneMelbourne