Global Music Teacher Training
Dr Robert Gardiner, RNCM Senior Lecturer in Music Education and Programme Lead for Music Education (PGCE), partners with Olympias Music Foundation to explore culturally sensitive musical teaching and learning practices.

From right to left: Dr Robert Gardiner and programme participants Dr Rakesh Joshi, Atefeh Einali, and Sens Sagna.
This project aims to support the development of culturally sensitive music educators from global majority backgrounds. It explores the process and challenges of training diverse musical educators to work within diverse communities, and how this connects to associated cultural heritages and pedagogical practices.
The initiative strives to address the needs of those who often find it challenging to engage with and share their musical and cultural heritages, especially within conventional school or hub-based education programmes.
This collaboration builds upon an established educational partnership between the RNCM and Olympias Music Foundation, an award-winning charity working to “empower communities in Manchester” through delivering flexible music education for all.
In particular, it draws from Olympias’ Mapping Migrant Voices (2020) network as well as the Migrant Voices (2022) artist residency programme, bringing together artists and educators to celebrate Manchester’s diverse cultural offerings, and to collectively help improve teacher education programmes, models and practices in the region.
Following a successful pilot programme taking place in July 2024, the initiative has been awarded further funding from Arts Council England to support activities to take place between 2025-26. These include:
- a year-long training programme for three music educators to work with Olympias’ young musicians from across the diverse communities in Greater Manchester;
- producing a documentary film about the project, inviting further conversation around novel approaches to music teaching and learning that is authentic, culturally sensitive and person-centric.
Parallel to this teacher training programme, a fully funded, collaborative PhD studentship associated will commence in September 2025, inviting a dedicated doctoral researcher to work closely with the project team over three years, and is jointly supported by the Northern Charity Consortium and the RNCM.