Manuscript received August 2, 2026; accepted September 23, 2026; published October 21, 2026.

Abstract—In recent years, with the continuous advancement of basic education reform, core literacy, practical ability, and the comprehensive development of students have gradually become important directions for curriculum construction. The role of music education has therefore changed. It is no longer just about teaching students to sing, read music notation, or master basic musical theory, but it places more emphasis on students’ aesthetic experiences, emotional expression, creative abilities, and understanding of different cultures in music learning. Especially at the compulsory education stage, the music curriculum is aimed at all students, and its main purpose is not to select and cultivate a few professional music talents, but to enable students to gradually develop the ability to perceive, understand, and participate in music activities through sustained music learning, and to enrich their emotional experiences and establish a certain cultural identity in this process. This study conducts a comparative analysis of middle school music education policies between China and Italy, focusing on curriculum design, educational resource allocation, and practical implementation challenges in the two national contexts. Both countries officially recognize music as a valuable part of education, but they go about it in very different ways. China takes a top-down approach—the national curriculum standards spell out exactly what to teach and how to assess it, all in the name of keeping quality consistent across the board. Italy, on the other hand, affords schools and teachers considerable autonomy: the national framework sets broad goals, but the day-to-day decisions about what happens in the classroom are left to the educators on the ground.
 
Keywords—junior high school music education, curriculum policy, textbook function, classroom implementation, China-Italy comparison

Cite: Xinchen Wang, "A Comparative Study on the Music Education Curriculum Policies of Chinese and Italian Middle Schools," International Journal of Learning and Teaching, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 330-334, 2026.

Copyright © 2026 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).