Musical Heritage as a Means of Sustainable Development: Perceptions in Students Studying for a Degree in Primary Education

Education is an essential vehicle for valuing cultural legacy, and musical heritage is a part of that cultural legacy that we must protect as it is one of the main areas of intangible cultural heritage, a reflection of cultural diversity, and a conveyor of meaning, and social, cultural, and economic values contributing to sustainable development. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to evaluate the perception students studying for the Degree in Primary Education at the University of Zaragoza and the Autonomous University of Madrid have of the value, significance, and importance of the sustainability of musical cultural heritage. This non-experimental and descriptive research is based on the statistical descriptive method, with a sample of n = 202 preservice teachers. A questionnaire consisting of fifteen items was designed and validated as a data collection instrument. The data analysis shows differences in the analyzed categories and points to the need to take action to solve them. It also reveals the importance students attach to musical cultural heritage, to including it in the curricula of the various educational stages, and to the need to protect it as an essential requirement for sustainable development.