This paper examines the production, legitimation and governance of curricular knowledge in specialised arts education, using Classical Guitar teaching in public music conservatories as a critical case through which to interrogate broader questions about knowing and acting in education research. It addresses how educational knowledge is generated, validated and mobilised in contexts that operate at the margins of dominant evidence regimes characterised by standardisation, performativity and data-driven governance.

The study is guided by the following research question: How is curricular knowledge produced, legitimised and enacted in specialised arts education systems operating under conditions of high institutional autonomy and weak national regulation? This question responds directly to contemporary concerns regarding the changing conditions of education research, particularly the growing tension between locally situated professional knowledge and increasingly centralised expectations for policy-relevant, standardised evidence.

The paper is theoretically grounded in curriculum studies that conceptualise curriculum as socially organised knowledge (Young & Muller, 2016), combined with critical and post-critical perspectives that foreground power, legitimacy and professional agency in curricular decision-making (Apple, 1979; Pinar, 2004). These frameworks are mobilised to question narrow epistemic hierarchies that privilege quantifiable and comparable forms of knowledge while marginalising practice-based, contextual and professionally grounded curricular expertise. From this perspective, curriculum is approached not merely as a technical instrument, but as a site of cultural negotiation and political regulation.

Empirically, the paper draws on a qualitative multiple case study conducted in seven public music conservatories located in different Portuguese regions, selected to ensure institutional and territorial diversity. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with school leaders and Classical Guitar teachers, questionnaires administered to students, and systematic analysis of curricular, regulatory and institutional documents. The analysis combined thematic content analysis with cross-case comparison, enabling the identification of patterns and divergences in how curricular knowledge is constructed and justified across institutional contexts.

The findings indicate that curricular knowledge in specialised arts education is predominantly produced at the local and professional level, relying heavily on tacit norms, shared artistic traditions and teacher–performer identities. While this locally embedded knowledge supports pedagogical autonomy and artistic specificity, it also generates significant disparities between institutions, limits student mobility and weakens the transparency and public accountability of curricular decisions. The study further shows that educational research knowledge is frequently mobilised instrumentally, either to legitimise pre-existing practices or to symbolically comply with external evaluation demands, rather than functioning as a driver of reflective curricular development.

By situating these findings within wider European debates on the governance of education research, the paper argues that specialised arts education exposes key limitations of dominant knowledge-production models based on standardised indicators and scalable evidence. At the same time, it demonstrates the potential of qualitative, curriculum-oriented research to generate policy-relevant insights without reducing educational complexity. In this sense, specialised arts education is positioned not as an exception, but as a revealing site for examining how education research can meaningfully bridge professional practice, institutional autonomy and public accountability.

The paper contributes to the ECER 2026 theme by advancing a context-sensitive understanding of how educational knowledge is produced and enacted under changing conditions marked by decentralisation, epistemic pluralism and educational inequality. It argues for the recognition of curricular knowledge as a legitimate form of situated expertise and calls for research approaches capable of addressing the current poly-crisis in education while safeguarding academic autonomy and methodological rigour.

The paper is grounded in a qualitative and interpretative research design, framed as a multiple case study (Yin, 2014; Stake, 2006), developed within a doctoral research project on curricular construction in specialised arts education. This methodological approach was selected to enable an in-depth and context-sensitive examination of how curricular knowledge is produced, legitimised and enacted in institutional settings characterised by high autonomy and weak national regulation. The study was conducted in seven public music conservatories operating within the Portuguese system of specialised artistic education. The cases were purposefully selected to ensure institutional, geographical and territorial diversity, including schools located in different regions of mainland Portugal and the Autonomous Regions. This sampling strategy sought to capture both shared structural conditions and locally specific configurations of curricular practice. Data collection combined three complementary sources. First, semi-structured interviews were conducted with pedagogical leaders and Classical Guitar teachers, focusing on curricular decision-making processes, professional rationales and perceptions of autonomy and regulation. Second, questionnaires were administered to students in order to access their experiences of curricular coherence, assessment practices and mobility between institutions. Third, a systematic documentary analysis was undertaken, examining curricular plans, internal regulations, assessment frameworks and relevant policy documents. This multi-source design enabled triangulation across actors, methods and institutional artefacts. Data analysis followed the principles of thematic content analysis (Bardin, 1977), supported by iterative coding procedures that combined inductive category construction with theoretically informed interpretation. Analysis was conducted in two complementary phases: intra-case analysis, aimed at preserving the integrity and specificity of each institutional context, and cross-case comparison, designed to identify patterns, divergences and structural tensions across cases. Particular attention was given to how curricular knowledge was justified, stabilised and transmitted in the absence of explicit national curricular reference frameworks. Ethical considerations were integral to the research design. Informed consent was obtained from all participants, anonymity and confidentiality were ensured, and the study received formal ethical approval from the relevant institutional bodies. While the present paper foregrounds analytical and interpretative findings related to knowledge production and governance, these insights are firmly anchored in this rigorous qualitative research design, ensuring methodological transparency and analytical credibility.

The findings of this study show that curricular knowledge in specialised arts education is predominantly produced, stabilised and transmitted at the local and professional level, rather than through formalised national reference frameworks. In the case of Classical Guitar education in public conservatories, curricular decisions are largely grounded in tacit professional norms, shared artistic traditions and teacher–performer identities, which operate as influential, though often invisible, mechanisms of curricular regulation. While this locally embedded mode of knowledge production supports pedagogical autonomy and artistic specificity, the study demonstrates that it also generates significant institutional and territorial inequalities. In the absence of shared curricular reference points, disparities emerge in learning expectations, assessment practices and access to collective and performative experiences. These differences limit student mobility between institutions and weaken the transparency and public accountability of curricular decisions. The analysis further reveals a complex relationship between educational research knowledge and curricular practice. Research-based knowledge rarely functions as a driver of reflective curricular development; instead, it is often mobilised instrumentally to legitimise pre-existing practices or to respond symbolically to external policy and evaluation demands. This finding highlights a broader tension between dominant evidence regimes, which privilege standardised indicators, and the situated, practice-based knowledge characteristic of specialised arts education. From a theoretical perspective, the study reinforces conceptions of curriculum as socially organised and politically governed knowledge rather than as a neutral technical artefact. In relation to the ECER 2026 theme Knowing and Acting, the paper positions specialised arts education as a revealing site for examining the changing conditions of education research, demonstrating both the limits of standardised knowledge-production models and the potential of qualitative, curriculum-oriented research to inform policy without reducing educational complexity.

Apple, M. W. (1979). Ideology and Curriculum. London: Routledge. Bardin, L. (1977). L’Analyse de Contenu. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. Creswell, J. W. (2010). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Giroux, H. A. (1997). Pedagogy and the Politics of Hope: Theory, Culture, and Schooling. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Pinar, W. F. (2004). What Is Curriculum Theory? Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Stake, R. E. (2006). Multiple Case Study Analysis. New York: Guilford Press. Torres, C. A. (2015). Education and Neoliberal Globalization. New York: Routledge. Yin, R. K. (2014). Case Study Research: Design and Methods (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Young, M., & Muller, J. (2016). Curriculum and the Specialisation of Knowledge: Studies in the Sociology of Education. London: Routledge.