Instructional Expertise and Micropolitics: The Social Networks of Instrumental Music Teachers

2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 328-350
Author(s):  
Ryan D. Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Career Stage ◽  
Specialized Knowledge ◽  
The Social ◽  
Instrumental Music Teachers ◽  
Semistructured Interviews

The purpose of this study was to understand the social networks of three instrumental music teachers in a midwestern school district. Research questions were (1) How do instrumental music teachers describe their formal/instructional networks? and (2) How do instrumental music teachers’ social networks differ by career stage? I used a qualitative ego network design to map social networks of information sharing with a focus on the flow of social capital. Data sources included a name-generating questionnaire to construct networks and two semistructured interviews focusing on the nature and significance of teachers’ ties. Findings suggest that social networks showed particularities in terms of number of ties and tie strength. On matters of instruction, participants sought out music teachers whom they respected or who possessed specialized knowledge. Participants spoke of the importance of forging micropolitical ties to secure needs related to resources and scheduling, using ties strategically. Finally, participants felt that networks differed by career stage with advice seeking decreasing over time and networks becoming more close-knit. Implications are offered for music teachers and music teacher educators.

Instrumental Opportunities: Music for All

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 48-57
Author(s):  
Linda Thornton ◽  
Mara E. Culp
Keyword(s):  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Music Teaching ◽  
Music Teacher Education ◽  
Inclusive Settings ◽  
Instrumental Music Teachers ◽  
Teacher Students ◽  
The Face

Although resources exist to help instrumental music teachers assist learners in inclusive settings, students’ voices may be absent from those resources. As such, music teachers may struggle to honor the needs and experiences of students with physical differences. Students with physical differences may be steered away from instrumental music or toward an instrument that may not be the student’s preference. The purpose of this study was to understand the stories of students with physical differences and their teacher to examine how participation in instrumental music was enabled in this setting. Data were generated through examining artifacts and completing interviews with the instrumental music teacher, students, and students’ parents. Interview data were analyzed using process/action coding. Main themes that emerged were (a) previous experiences and prior knowledge, (b) recognizing strengths and challenges, (c) perseverance toward desires in the face of uncertainty, (d) help and support from others, and (e) materials. Implications for future research and possible applications to music teaching and music teacher education are discussed.

“Staying On Our Feet”

2013 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 431-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine G. Bell-Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
New Music ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Emotional Needs ◽  
Specific Content ◽  
School Year ◽  
Instrumental Music Teachers

Multiple forms of support for teachers new to the profession are important and necessary. The use of an online community by 11 novice instrumental music teachers at the middle school and high school levels was investigated in this case study. The teachers exchanged messages and information within the online community during the 2010–2011 school year; data sources included all transcripts from the online community and multiple interviews with each participant. The participants’ experiences in the utilization of the wikispace as an online community of practice was analyzed using Wenger’s three components of domain, community, and practice. The findings suggest that the online community appeared to have met novice teachers’ emotional needs as they learned to become music teachers but that their positions were often also quite different in terms of specific responsibilities and music curricula they taught. Thus, online conversations focused more on the affective issues that surround being a new music teacher rather than on curriculum and classroom-specific content.

scholarly journals Music Teacher Knowledge: An Examination of the Intersections Between Instrumental Music Teaching and Conducting

2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 461-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sommer H. Forrester
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Knowledge ◽  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Music Teaching ◽  
Instrumental Music Teachers ◽  
Multiple Case ◽  
Specialized Form ◽  
The Moment

The purpose of this study was to examine the complexities of instrumental music teacher knowledge as they relate to the intersection between instrumental music teaching and conducting, and to explore how participants describe and perceive these intersections. The key research question guiding this study was, How do high school instrumental music teachers describe the intersections between instrumental music teaching and conducting? This study focused on the participants’ ( N = 4) perceptions and descriptions of the intersections between instrumental music teaching and conducting. A multiple-case-study design was used. The central finding of this study suggests that the practice of instrumental music teaching demands a specialized form of knowledge that reflects the integration of, rather than the intersection between, both teaching and conducting. This specialized form of knowledge informs the participants’ in-the-moment decision making, judgments, decisions, and communication with students and the ensemble as a whole. The findings of this study suggest implications for music teacher education and conducting education, specifically in the areas of devising professional development opportunities that are systematic, multilevel, and multifaceted and that mirror the integrated nature of teaching and conducting that occurs in practice.

Developing Effective Dispositions for Teaching Music

2019 ◽  
pp. 321-344
Author(s):  
Michael Raiber
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Systematic Approach ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Developmental Stages ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Teacher Dispositions ◽  
Teacher Concerns ◽  
Teaching Music ◽  
The Impact

The impact of teacher dispositions on the professional development of preservice music teachers (PMTs) has been substantiated. This chapter describes an approach to dispositional development within the structure of an introduction to music education course. A teacher concerns model is used to organize this systematic approach through three developmental stages that include self-concerns, teaching task concerns, and student learning concerns. A series of 11 critical questions are presented for use in guiding PMTs’ dispositional development through these developmental stages. Activities to engage PMTs in the exploration of each of these questions are detailed for use by music teacher educators desiring to engage PMTs in dispositional development.

Instrumental Music Educators’ Experiences in a Professional Development Course

2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 38-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tami J. Draves
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Development ◽  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
Teaching Situation ◽  
Instrumental Music Teachers ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Engaged Teachers ◽  
Development Course

The purpose of this research was to investigate the experiences of instrumental music teachers in Designing Arts Instruction, a 4-day professional development course in a large urban school district. Specifically, I was interested in which activities participants (a) found most relevant and applicable to their current teaching situation, (b) believed would most benefit student learning, and (c) believed would contribute most to their overall music teacher development. Multiple forms of data were collected including participants’ reflections, researcher-facilitator journal and field notes, and structured individual interviews. Curriculum development and rubric writing were relevant to participants’ teaching situations and also engaged teachers’ personal musicianship. Participants recognized creative activities as motivating for students. Collaboration emerged as the course feature that contributed most to participants’ overall development. Those who plan and facilitate professional development might consider including aspects that invite collaboration, deep thinking, engagement, and reflection, particularly within the context of teachers’ musicianship.

scholarly journals “Where the Social Stigma Has Been Overcome”: The Politics of Professional Legitimation in Nepali Music Education

2021 ◽  
pp. 119-132
Author(s):  
Danielle Shannon Treacy ◽  
Sapna Thapa ◽  
Suyash Kumar Neupane
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Appreciative Inquiry ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Social Stigma ◽  
Professional Responsibility ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
New Horizons ◽  
The Social ◽  
Collective Imagination

AbstractThis chapter explores the actions musician-teachers in the extremely diverse and complex context of the Kathmandu Valley imagine that might hold potential for contesting and altering processes of marginalisation and stigmatisation in Nepali society. The empirical material was generated in 16 workshops involving 53 musician-teachers and guided by the Appreciative Inquiry 4D model (e.g. Cooperrider et al. Appreciative inquiry handbook: for leaders of change. Crown Custom, Brunswick, 2005). Drawing upon the work of Arjun Appadurai, we analysed the ways in which engaging the collective imagination (1996) and fostering the capacity to aspire (2004) can support musician-teachers in finding resources for changing their terms of recognition. We identified five actions that musicians and musician-teachers take to legitimise their position in Nepali society: (1) challenging stigmatised identities, (2) engaging foreignness, (3) advocating academisation, (4) countering groupism, and (5) promoting professionalisation. We argue that these actions suggest the need for music teachers to be able to ethically and agentively navigate both the dynamic nature of culture and questions of legitimate knowledge, which may be fostered through an emphasis on professional responsibility (Solbrekke and Sugrue. Professional responsibility: new horizons of praxis. Routledge, New York, 2011) in music teacher education.

scholarly journals Music Teacher Rankings of Selected Core Teaching Practices

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-99
Author(s):  
J. Si Millican ◽  
Sommer Helweh Forrester
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Teaching Practices ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Music Teaching ◽  
Pedagogical Content ◽  
Technical Vocabulary ◽  
History Of ◽  
Service Music

There is a decades-long history of music education researchers examining characteristics and skills associated with effective teaching and assessing how preservice music teachers develop those competencies. Building on studies of pedagogical content knowledge and the professional opinions of experienced music educators, researchers are now attempting to identity a body of core music teaching practices. We asked experienced in-service music teachers ( N = 898) to think about the skills beginning music teachers must possess to investigate how respondents rated and ranked selected core music teaching practices in terms of their relative importance. Developing appropriate relationships with students, modeling music concepts, and sequencing instruction were the top core teaching practices identified by the group. Results provide insights into knowing, naming, and framing a set of core teaching practices and offer a common technical vocabulary that music teacher educators might use as they design curricula and activities to develop these foundational skills.

Exploring Access, Intersectionality, and Privilege in Undergraduate Music Education Courses

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 22-37
Author(s):  
Samuel Escalante
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Education Students ◽  
Teachers Beliefs ◽  
Basic Qualitative Study ◽  
Education Courses

Music teacher educators often work to prepare preservice music teachers to be socially conscious and adopt dispositions toward teaching in socially just ways. Preservice teachers’ beliefs, attitudes, and dispositions toward social justice issues may not be sufficiently challenged, however, unless coursework is appropriately conceived. I designed a three-part workshop to introduce and explore the concepts of access, intersectionality, and privilege, and then conducted a basic qualitative study to examine undergraduate music education students’ understandings of and attitudes toward sensitive social justice issues, as well as their experiences with the workshop. I found that exploring sociological concepts related to social justice through interactive activities and allowing students safe methods for expressing themselves, such as journaling, may facilitate the adoption of positive dispositions among preservice teachers toward toward social justice issues.

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