Music teacher educators’ visions of music teacher preparation in Finland, Norway and Sweden

2015 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia Ferm Thorgersen ◽  
Geir Johansen ◽  
Marja-Leena Juntunen
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Preparation ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Music Pedagogy ◽  
Music Teacher Education ◽  
Music Teacher Preparation ◽  
Good Music ◽  
Functional Concept

In this study we investigated the visions of 12 music teacher educators who teach pedagogical courses called instrumental pedagogy and classroom music pedagogy in three music academies in Finland, Norway and Sweden. The data were collected through individual, semi-structured qualitative interviews. Drawing on Hammerness’ concept of teachers’ vision we concentrated on the educators’ visions of good music pedagogy teaching, an ideal graduate, and visions of their subject as a whole, as well as how those visions can be extended to denote some characteristics of the teaching traditions at play. The results indicated that visions were personal and not necessarily consistent between educators or across institutions. Rather, they were strongly related to, steered, and limited by established teaching traditions. We suggest that vision might constitute a functional concept in music teacher educators’ reflections on their work and that clear programme visions should be formulated in music teacher education institutions through collective collegial efforts.

Pushing the Boundaries from the Inside

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Colleen Conway ◽  
Shannan Hibbard
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Adaptive Expertise ◽  
Music Teacher Education ◽  
Classroom Relationships ◽  
School Based

This chapter situates the study of music teacher education within the larger body of music education and teacher education research. It problematizes the terms teacher training, teacher education, and best practice and introduces the concept of teaching as an “impossible profession.” Goals of teacher education, including reflective practice and adaptive expertise, are discussed. The chapter outlines the challenges that music teacher educators face as they try to prepare preservice teachers for the realities of P-12 school-based music education while instilling in these new colleagues a disposition toward change. It concludes with narratives that examine teachers’ descriptions of classroom relationships throughout the lens of presence in teaching as a way to remind teacher educators of the importance of their work to push the boundaries of music teacher education in order to serve the profession at large.

Music Teacher Education Program Practices: Preparing Teachers to Work With Diverse Learners

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 51-64
Author(s):  
Mara E. Culp ◽  
Karen Salvador
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Diverse Learners ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Music Teacher Education ◽  
Education Programs

Music educators must meet the needs of students with diverse characteristics, including but not limited to cultural backgrounds, musical abilities and interests, and physical, behavioral, social, and cognitive functioning. Music education programs may not systematically prepare preservice teachers or potential music teacher educators for this reality. The purpose of this study was to examine how music teacher education programs prepare undergraduate and graduate students to structure inclusive and responsive experiences for diverse learners. We replicated and expanded Salvador’s study by including graduate student preparation, incorporating additional facets of human diversity, and contacting all institutions accredited by National Association of Schools of Music to prepare music educators. According to our respondents, integrated instruction focused on diverse learners was more commonly part of undergraduate coursework than graduate coursework. We used quantitative and qualitative analysis to describe course offerings and content integration.

scholarly journals Initiating mobilizing networks: Mapping intercultural competences in two music teacher programmes in Israel and Finland

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Miettinen ◽  
Claudia Gluschankof ◽  
Sidsel Karlsen ◽  
Heidi Westerlund
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Music Teacher Education ◽  
Instrumental Case Study ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Educational Challenges ◽  
Holistic Understanding ◽  
Group Interviews

Societies worldwide are becoming more aware of the educational challenges that come with increased cultural diversity derived from ethnic, linguistic, religious, socioeconomic and educational differences and their intersections. In many countries, teacher education programmes are expected to prepare teachers for this reality and develop their intercultural competences. This instrumental case study is based on a project that aims to initiate mobilizing networks between two music teacher programmes to explore intercultural music teacher education. In this study, we map the intercultural competences that are required of music teacher educators and that are provided in the music education programmes at two higher music education institutions in Israel and Finland. The data consists of 11 focus group interviews with music teacher educators at the Levinsky College of Education in Tel Aviv and the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, conducted by a multinational research team. The data was analysed abductively, using content analysis as a method. While the interviewed teacher educators could articulate many aspects of their own intercultural competences or the lack of them, the findings indicate that in musical diversity and teaching students from different musical backgrounds the teacher educators found it difficult to explain what kinds of intercultural competences their respective programmes provided for the students. Based on the findings, there is a need for a more holistic understanding of intercultural competences in music teacher education as well as how our institutions produce power. There is also a need for the teacher educators in the programmes to collaborate and discuss among each other in order to create “knowledge communities” and to move towards addressing intercultural issues.

Considering Gender Complexity in Music Teacher Education

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 72-84
Author(s):  
Joshua Palkki ◽  
William Sauerland
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Music Teacher Education ◽  
Social Constructs ◽  
Gender Nonconforming ◽  
Complex Approach ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Many

Gender is one of the many social constructs that can influence teaching and learning. As trans(gender) people “come out” at earlier ages, an increasing number of teachers will have openly identifying trans and gender nonconforming students in their classes. Music educators and music teacher educators are often supporters of LGBTQA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, asexual/agender/ally) students; thus, these constituencies should expand their notions of gender away from a simplistic binary category toward a gender-complex approach in which all students—cisgender, trans, genderqueer, and questioning—can thrive. To that end, we provide an overview of vocabulary and teaching pedagogies pertinent to gender issues in music teacher education. In addition, we offer sample lessons and projects that could be incorporated into preservice music teacher preparation.

scholarly journals Professional reflexivity and the paradox of freedom: Negotiating professional boundaries in a Jewish Ultra-Orthodox female music teacher education programme

2021 ◽  
pp. 025576142198892
Author(s):  
Heidi Westerlund ◽  
Sidsel Karlsen ◽  
Alexis Kallio
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Education Programme ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Music Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Education Programme ◽  
Professional Boundaries ◽  
Instrumental Case Study ◽  
Jewish Music ◽  
Cultural Boundaries

Embracing an ethos of sharing music and practices across cultural boundaries, the multicultural vision of music (teacher) education has paid scarce attention to the paradox of freedom that arises between such freedoms and the complex politics that frame and constrain teachers’ choices and values. In this article, we explore these demands of professional reflexivity through an instrumental case study of music teacher educators working in an all-female, Ultra-Orthodox Jewish music teacher education programme in Israel. Through a thematic analysis of data generated together with six teacher educators, we illustrate how their context-responsive approaches to developing programme visions engage with processes of censorship and cultural translation, as teachers work to align their professional boundaries within established religious boundaries. This boundary-matching and hybridity required may be seen to result in intense processes of professional reflexivity that raises questions as to how all teacher education programme visions might engage with the moral order of a society and highlights the need for international music teacher education to develop a critical, reflexive awareness of how values shape professional work.

Music Teacher Educator Perspectives on Social Justice

2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Salvador ◽  
Jacqueline Kelly-McHale
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Music Teacher Education ◽  
Students With Special Needs ◽  
School Music

Given the shifting demographics in American education, the rising likelihood of students with special needs being taught in inclusive classrooms, and the increasing openness with which students are challenging gender and sex norms, social justice has become a prevalent research topic in music education. This survey sought to investigate the perspectives of music teacher educators with regard to social justice, music education, and music teacher education. Many of the 361 respondents indicated engagement with social justice and shared methods for addressing social justice topics in music teacher education as well as describing limitations that prevented them from doing more. However, about 50% of respondents defined social justice in “difference-blind” terms. A further 10% to 15% of respondents rejected the need to address social justice topics in music teacher education, stated it was not their job, and/or described social justice as a waste of instructional time that should be spent on content. In contrast, 10% to 15% of respondents expressed a desire for assistance understanding more about social justice in school music settings and/or suggestions how to teach about social justice topics in undergraduate music teacher education. This article concludes with a discussion of these findings and suggestions for future research.

Ten Years Later

2012 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 324-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colleen M. Conway
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Preparation ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Experienced Teachers ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Focus Group Interviews ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
Preservice Preparation ◽  
Music Teacher Preparation ◽  
Group Interviews

The purpose of this inquiry was to examine the current reflections of experienced teachers on their past perceptions of preservice music teacher preparation as documented in the author’s previous research. Research questions included the following: (a) How would participants describe their reactions to a present-day examination of 1999 or 2000 data (journals, individual and focus group interviews, and two questionnaires) and 2002 study findings? (b) How had their perceptions regarding preservice music teacher preparation changed since 1999-2000? and (c) On the basis of their recent work with preservice interns and student teachers, what could these experienced teachers say about preservice music teacher preparation today? Data collected in 2010 included participant journals and individual interviews. Findings categories include (a) general agreement with 2002 study findings regarding best and worst facets of preservice preparation, (b) experience is the best teacher, (c) teacher education is doing the best it can do, (d) preservice students will get out of teacher education what they put into it, and (e) specific suggestions for teacher education provided by participants.

Music Teacher Identity Development

2019 ◽  
pp. 267-293
Author(s):  
Kristen Pellegrino
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Identity Development ◽  
Teacher Identity ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Music Teacher Education ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Music Teacher Identity ◽  
Music Research

This chapter begins with a philosophical and research-based justification for facilitating teacher identity development in teacher education and music teacher education and then reviews related music teacher identity literature. After offering an overview of methods and theoretical frameworks associated with examining music teacher identity in research, the chapter highlights music research in four ways. First, it explores music identity research using symbolic interactionism theoretical frameworks, then using sociocultural/cultural-historical theoretical frameworks. Next, it presents some music identity research that focused on issues surrounding diversity, and lastly, it describes collaborations with members of the Society of Music Teacher Educators’ music teacher identity development Area of Strategic Planning and Action. Interspersed throughout the chapter are examples of activities and questions one might use with preservice music teachers. Finally, the chapter ends with a summary, suggestions for further research, and conclusions.

Curricular Frameworks in Preservice Music Teacher Education

2019 ◽  
pp. 203-230
Author(s):  
Paul F. Doerksen
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Common Interest ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
State Agencies ◽  
Music Teacher Education ◽  
Preparation Programs ◽  
Overall Design ◽  
Faculty Beliefs ◽  
Standards And Guidelines

A common interest among music teacher educators is the curricula by which they deliver their preparation programs, and through which their preservice candidates qualify for instructional certifications. Music teacher education (MTE) curricula reflect distinct aims and methods. Yet all certification and licensure programs share the challenges of outside mandates and periodic reviews. This chapter examines such matters. Informing the content and structure of MTE curricula are program requirements and recommendations, benefits and challenges from the development process, and diverse approaches to the overall design. Across these broad areas are the topics of past practices, faculty beliefs, program integrity, content pressures, design process, anticipated challenges, standards and guidelines, course requirements and sequence, and degree/nondegree (certificate) options. Additionally—given the significant function of accreditation in MTE curricula—a focus on regional, national, specialized, and state agencies is provided. The chapter concludes with suggested readings.

Values, Agency, and Identity in a Music Teacher Education Program

2021 ◽  
pp. 105708372110305
Author(s):  
Olivia Gail Tucker ◽  
Sean Robert Powell
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Identity Development ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Music Teacher Education ◽  
Agency And Identity

Many view music teacher education as a locus for socially just transformation of music education through the development of preservice teacher agency and identity development. However, few have directly examined values in music teacher preparation programs, and values are implicit in agency. The purpose of this exploratory, intrinsic case study was to investigate the visible values in music education courses at one institution to add a new dimension to research and practice. We collected data from four instructor and five undergraduate participants through observations, interviews, and syllabus review. Themes of critical thinking, agency, student centeredness, positive teacher-student relationships, and skills and knowledge for teaching emerged from the data. Findings indicate that values may be relative in practice despite shared language among preservice teachers and music teacher educators. We provide guiding questions for program review and future research through the lens of values.

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