Music Instruction at Selected State Normal Schools during the Nineteenth Century

2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 413-439
Author(s):  
Phillip M. Hash
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Music Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Teaching Profession ◽  
Music Instruction ◽  
School Students ◽  
Normal School ◽  
Normal Schools ◽  
K 12

The purpose of this study was to explore music instruction in selected normal schools of the United States during the nineteenth century. The sample consisted of all eighteen state normal schools organized before the end of the U.S. Civil War and provided insight into the earliest period of music at these institutions. Research questions focused on normal school music (a) faculty, (b) curricula, and (c) diploma/degree programs, as well as (d) influence on the teaching profession, normal school students, and society at large. Normal schools prepared future classroom teachers and eventually specialists to teach music to K–12 students throughout the United States. They also helped professionalize the role of music teacher, solidify music’s place in K–12 curricula, and improve the efficacy of instruction among America’s youth. The preparation normal schools provided contributed to the national culture and the ability of average citizens to experience music as both listeners and performers. Although teacher education has evolved a great deal since the nineteenth century, practices related to music instruction in state normals during this time might hold implications for solving current problems in music education and preparing generalists and specialists today.

Statewide Public School Music Competitions/Festivals in Kansas and Oklahoma: The Beginnings of the School Music Contest Movement in the United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
George H. McDow ◽  
Daniel L. Stiffler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public School ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
School Students ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
University Of Oklahoma ◽  
School Music

Music competitions have an ancient history dating back some two thousand years. In the United States, early music contests mimicked the German Saengerfests and Welsh Eistoddfods; however, some of the earliest continuously running music competitions held in America are the state contests for secondary school students. This article identifies for the first time Kansas and Oklahoma as holding the two earliest state school music competitions and corrects some long-standing erroneous information. It studies these two state events through historical analysis of primary sources and triangulates the data with secondary sources. Frank Beach at Kansas State Normal School in Emporia and Fredrik Holmberg at the University of Oklahoma were found to be the two initiators. These two state music contests were influenced by several things including the state track and field meets, previous music contests, the western pioneering spirit, European music systems, and the music specialties of the founders. In the end both contests were seen as promoting the cause of public school music by increasing both the quality and numbers of music education programs and as leading to the exponential growth of state music competitions throughout the United States.

Swiss-German Music Books in the Mason-McConathy Collection: Accounts from Europe to the United States

2000 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-38
Author(s):  
Sondra Wieland Howe
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Music Education ◽  
School System ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Music ◽  
Cultural Center ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Swiss German ◽  
Music Books

This article describes an examination of the Swiss-German music books in the Luther Whiting Mason—Osbourne McConathy Collection, undertaken to learn about music education in nineteenth-century Switzerland and its influence on American music education. Pfeiffer and Nägeli introduced Pestalozzi's ideas to Swiss schools, teaching the elements of music separately and introducing sounds before symbols. Swiss educators in the mid-1800s published numerous songbooks and teachers' manuals for an expanding school system. Foreign travelers praised the teaching of Schäublin in Basel. In Zurich, a cultural center with choruses for men and women, music directors continued to produce materials for schools and community choruses in the 1800s. Because travelers like Luther Whiting Mason purchased these books, Swiss ideas on music education spread to other European countries and the United States.

History of Testing in the United States: PK–12 Education

2019 ◽  
Vol 683 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maris A. Vinovskis
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
The United States ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
National Education ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
K 12

This article provides a brief history of K–12 education testing in the United States from colonial America to the present. In early America, students were examined orally. After the mid-nineteenth century, written tests replaced oral presentations. In the late nineteenth century, graded schools gradually replaced the single-teacher, one-room schools. In the beginning of the twentieth century, standardized intelligence tests were increasingly used to categorize and promote students. State departments of education have played a larger role in local school funding and policies in the past hundred years. Since the 1960s, the federal government has expanded its involvement in national education while also promoting the role of states. During the past three decades, the federal government and states increased the use of high-stakes national testing with initiatives such as America 2000, Goals 2000, No Child Left Behind, and Every Student Succeeds.

Warring for America

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
Physical Parameters ◽  
School Students ◽  
Cultural Productions ◽  
Political Independence ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Nation ◽  
The Many

The aftershocks of the American Revolution reverberated through the early nineteenth century, leaving the new country unsettled and at odds with itself. The essays in Warring for America offer a kaleidoscope of perspectives on the internal divisions amongst the inhabitants of the early Republic that hindered the emergence of a coherent American nation as much as did the lingering impact of British imperial influence. Traditional understanding of the War of 1812 era as a moment that reaffirmed the political independence of the United States, thereby ushering in a neat period of stability, have failed to explain the enduring struggle to define the social and physical parameters of the new nation that dominated much of the nineteenth century. By turning from high politics to cultural productions and material problems, the authors in this volume explore the many social and economic conflicts within the United States that were fought on cultural terrain. Wartime calls for unity only cast into sharper relief the arduous efforts of varied Americans to control the terms of inclusion or exclusion within their country. From presidents to African Free School students, from hack magazine writers to Choctaw mothers, Americans fought for country on the battleground of belonging.

Modern Band: A Review of Literature

2021 ◽  
pp. 875512332098852
Author(s):  
Bryan Powell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
The United States ◽  
Music Programs ◽  
Future Research ◽  
School Music ◽  
K 12

The recent increase in popular music education in K–12 school music programs is in part due to the expansion of modern band programming throughout the United States. Modern band is a term used to describe school music ensembles that include popular music instruments and focus on performing music that is meaningful to the students while incorporating songwriting. The purpose of this literature review was to examine relevant research related to modern band music programs in the United States and provide implications for music teaching and learning. Music researchers and professionals have recently addressed specific issues related to increasing the diversity of school music programs, addressing elements of culturally responsive curricula, and positively affecting the social and emotional development of students through modern band. Throughout this literature review, I provide implications for music teachers and discuss areas for future research.

The state of guitar education in the United States

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Pethel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Traditional Music ◽  
The United States ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Substantial Body ◽  
Practical Advice ◽  
Service Training ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Guitar Class

Guitar education has emerged as a discipline in K-12 institutions alongside ‘traditional’ music education such as band, orchestra and chorus in recent decades. Despite the substantial body of literature containing practical advice on teaching guitar, research-supported scholarship is lacking. The purpose of this study was to provide an evidentiary-based understanding of the professional profiles of guitar educators. A large sample (n = 1269) of guitar educators participated in the Guitar Educator Questionnaire (GEQ). Findings from the GEQ suggest a low per cent (7.9%) of music educators who teach guitar class consider themselves to be ‘guitar specialists’. A substantial number of respondents (68.5%) indicated that they rarely or never participated in guitar-related professional development, and 76.1% of respondents reported that their pre-service training provided little or no preparation for a career in guitar education.

Reconsidering School Songbooks in the United States during the Post–Civil War Period (1865-1899)

2019 ◽  
pp. 153660061987611
Author(s):  
Paul D. Sanders
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Music Instruction ◽  
Education History ◽  
History Texts ◽  
School Music ◽  
The Individual

Many of the first public school music teachers in the United States came from the singing school tradition and taught from the same tune books that had been used in singing schools. After the war, renewed interest in education and the establishment of graded schools soon led to the introduction of music series that were designed to serve the individual needs of each grade and the classroom teachers who often assisted with music instruction. The major music education history texts in the United States claim that music series soon replaced single-volume songbooks since they better served the needs of the new graded school system. Music series represented the new progressive views of education in the years following the Civil War, and the single-volume songbooks that descended from antebellum tune books of the singing school movement are largely dismissed as relics of a bygone era. This study explores the use of these school songbooks in the years following the Civil War, extending many years beyond the introduction of the first music series.

Western educational historiography and the institutionalization of normal schools in modern China (1901–1944)

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wang Chen ◽  
Luo Wei ◽  
Wu Yuefei
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Teaching Profession ◽  
Transitional Period ◽  
International Exchange ◽  
Normal School ◽  
Normal Schools ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Educational History ◽  
Circulation Of Knowledge ◽  
School Curricula

PurposeThis paper traces the incorporation of western educational histories in the development of normal-school curricula during the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China (1901–1944). It uses publication networks to show how the study of comparative educational history facilitated the international circulation of knowledge in the teaching profession, and how the “uses” of educational history were shaped by larger geopolitical forces.Design/methodology/approachThis paper analyzes the international exchange of texts between normal schools in China and Japan and, subsequently, between normal schools in China and the United States. A database of 107 publications in the field of western educational history that were adopted in China reveals specific patterns of textual citation, cross-reference, and canon-formation in the field of educational historiography.FindingsWith conclusions derived from a combination of social network analysis and clustering analysis, this paper identifies three broad stages in China's development of normal-school curricula in comparative educational history: “Japan as Teacher,” “transitional period” and “America as Teacher.”Research limitations/implicationsStatistical analysis can reveal citation and reference patterns but not readers' understanding of the deeper meaning of texts – in this case, textbooks on the subject of western educational history. In addition, the types of publications analyzed in this study are relatively limited, the articles on the history of education in journals have not become the main objects of this study.Originality/valueThis paper uses both quantitative and qualitative methods to uncover the transnational circulation of knowledge in the field of comparative educational history during its formative period in China.

Encouraging Students to Consider Music Education as a Future Profession

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 12-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann M. Porter ◽  
Phillip D. Payne ◽  
Frederick W. Burrack ◽  
William E. Fredrickson
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
United States ◽  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Teaching Profession ◽  
Music Teaching ◽  
Career Option

The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes, communication, and opportunities provided by music teachers to encourage consideration of the music teaching profession. Survey participants ( N = 436) were music educators from the Southeast (235), Midwest (51), and Southwest (149) National Association for Music Education regions of the United States. Fifty-two percent of respondents reported encouraging students to explore the music teaching profession, one third reported uncertainty about their encouragement of a music education career, and 21% indicated active discouragement. Personal job satisfaction, student music abilities, and constraints/forces outside the profession were factors for respondents who discourage students from the profession. A majority reported providing opportunities to explore the profession as a viable career option and those experiences reflected the authentic practices of the teaching profession. Professional development opportunities for in-service teachers in the encouragement of students toward music teaching should be strongly considered.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document