Do you speak… music? Facing the challenges of training teachers on integration

Integrated work on different parts of the curriculum is a major challenge for teachers who have been trained within a system that views the different subjects in isolation. This article describes the characteristics and criteria underlying the Continuous Professional Development courses for European teachers (lasting 30 hours), designed within the framework of the European Music Portfolio: A Creative Way into Languages Comenius Project in order to teach music and foreign languages together. Specifically, these courses have been developed using the training models applied in Switzerland and Catalonia (Spain) during 2011 and 2012. At the same time, the results of some in-depth interviews (conducted with participants on a course) are presented, which were intended to gain a deeper insight into the different ways teachers (from kindergarten to secondary education) cope with the challenges of integrated music and language teaching. The discussion highlights the usefulness of the feedback provided by the interviews as an inspiration for new ideas to develop more effective and higher quality professional development.