Cultivating Teachers of General Music Methods: The Graduate Years

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christa R. Kuebel ◽  
Lisa Huisman Koops ◽  
Vanessa L. Bond

The purpose of this autonarrative inquiry was to explore the professional identity development and mentoring relationships of three general music teacher educators during their time at one university. We present our stories of development and re-visioning as general music methods educators through our roles as educator, learner, and co-learner while having taught or team-taught general music methods at Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, Ohio) over the past 10 years. Data included individual journals and transcripts of monthly Google text chats and conference calls. We analyzed the data through the commonplaces of temporality, sociality, and place, and engaged in re-storying. Investigating the process of becoming a general music methods instructor provided important insights concerning the impact of time, people, and places on the transition from music teacher to music teacher educator.

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-38
Author(s):  
H. Ellie Wolfe

Preservice music teachers may devalue play as a teaching approach unless music teacher educators reintroduce them to play through role-playing, cooperative games, and other playful activities. I designed a 4-week unit on play as part of an elementary general music methods course. Student participants engaged in, reflected on, and planned play activities over the course of the unit. My data sources, which included video recordings, written responses, lesson plans, and researcher notes, were analyzed through the lens of Gray’s conception of play as intrinsic, imaginative, and mentally active. Participants reflected on play experiences and play-based teaching in individualized ways, but also appeared to increasingly value play over time. I discuss implications for implementing play in preservice music teacher education.


2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Derges Kastner ◽  
Jill Reese ◽  
Kristen Pellegrino ◽  
Heather A. Russell

In transitioning from the K–12 classroom to higher education, teacher educators often experience tensions and challenges, which may be due to a misalignment between their situational and substantial selves. While many researchers have explored identity transitions of teacher educators, more research is needed to understand this experience with music teacher educators. Using self-study, we explored our identities as four music teacher educators, plus one additional participant, in transitioning from being music teachers to early-career music teacher educators. Data included interviews and personal journals, and we developed restoried narratives, non-linear representations, and cartoons during data analysis. These revealed three themes: misalignment, adaptation and acceptance, and roller coaster of growth. Misalignment describes the disconnect we experienced between our substantial and situational selves as a result of three factors: balance, autonomy, and identity. Adaptation and acceptance describes the strategies we developed to respond to the factors leading to our misalignment and accept our developing identities as music teacher educators. Roller coaster of growth describes the indirect nature of the process we experienced as we shifted between misalignment and acceptance. Based on these findings, we suggest further research in the identities of teacher educators throughout their careers and recommend strategies for professional development and support.


Author(s):  
Michael Raiber

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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-70
Author(s):  
Crystal Sieger

Students choosing to enter the music teaching profession after having already obtained undergraduate degrees in other music fields may experience unique forms of socialization and teacher identity development. Participants were four students enrolled in a 3-year master’s program with a music teacher licensure component. Through individual and focus group interviews, participants shared their perspectives on program experiences, course elements, and interactions with peers and professors as important influences on their developing music teacher identity. I examined the data for emerging patterns and applied open and axial coding to the most prominent responses, resulting in themes centered on participants’ socialization experiences, desire for independence, need for self-justification, and “outsider” status among peers. To combat lack of peer recognition or support, participants developed strong, collaborative relations with each other. Implications for music teacher educators are considered.


2021 ◽  
pp. 105708372110245
Author(s):  
Karen Salvador ◽  
Mara E. Culp

Although many music teacher candidates begin university studies planning to teach secondary ensembles, most will ultimately be certified to teach younger children and may be called to do so. The purpose of this study was to examine how music teacher education programs prepare preservice music educators to teach music to children from birth through elementary school through coursework. We emailed survey invitations to representatives from 512 institutions accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music to prepare music educators. We received 134 usable responses (response rate = 26%). Nearly all respondents offered elementary general music methods (EGMM), and over three quarters required EGMM for all students in initial licensure programs. Only about one in ten responding institutions offered early childhood music methods (ECMM). We describe findings on EGMM and ECMM course structures, content, and materials as well as the employment status, degree background, and other qualifications of the person who typically taught this coursework


2021 ◽  
pp. 105708372110380
Author(s):  
H. Ellie Wolfe ◽  
Angela Munroe ◽  
Heather D. Waters

Music teacher educators have taken different approaches to enrich teaching-specific reflective practice through peer collaboration. In this study, three music teacher educators examined their experiences with the process of pedagogical documentation, a form of collaborative professional development from the Reggio Emilia Approach (REA). They met via video conferencing over the course of a semester to review key concepts related to the REA, share student artifacts, and discuss teaching contexts and considerations. Through this collaboration, participants found space for sharing successes, supporting personal reflection, troubleshooting, and revisiting ideas related to teaching and learning. They deepened their attunement to how teaching contexts continually shift and the affordances and challenges of incorporating the hundred languages (a concept from REA) in higher education.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 143-159
Author(s):  
Saheed Rufai ◽  
Adeola Oyenike Adeosun ◽  
Akinola Saliu Jimoh ◽  
Bello Musa

Of the three components constituting teacher education curriculum, namely general education, specialized education and professional education, the professional education component is arguably accorded the highest consideration in the scholarship of teaching. However, there is an emerging concern over the involvement of non-education specialists in the teaching of this component. Yet, there is little evidence of sufficient engagement with this concern in the Nigerian context. As a sequel to a study on pedagogical misconceptions by student teachers, this paper examines the impact of teacher educators' professionalism on student teachers' learning in Nigerian universities. Through the analytic method, the study engaged with data collected through the instrumentality of official records like Faculty brochures, lecture notes developed by teacher educators, systematic observations by the researchers, and semi-structured interviews involving selected participants.  The qualitative study employs a constructivist paradigm that methodically situates data and analysis in the context of the experiences and perceptions of both the participants and researchers, and focusses on the main theme, namely teacher educator's knowledge as a predictor of student-teacher learning, which emerged from the data for the earlier study as collected in three universities where the present lead researcher assessed prospective teachers on teaching practice in their third and fourth years, in his capacity as teaching practice supervisor. In exposing the effect of teacher educator professionalism on prospective teacher learning, the present study revealed instances of miseducation by some of the teacher educators involved in teaching professional education courses, which substantially accounts for the student teachers' pedagogical misconceptions


2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 497-510 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judy Williams

In this article, the professional learning of teacher educators leading international professional experience (IPE) is examined. There is a growing body of research on the learning of pre-service teachers who undertake a period of professional experience in international contexts, but much less is known about the experiences of the academics who lead these programs. This knowledge is important because the success of such programs for pre-service teachers depends largely on the quality of the planning, preparation, and leadership of these as educational experiences. Based on data collected in semistructured interviews with 10 teacher educators who have led IPE to a variety of global locations, this article outlines the professional learning gained from leading a group of pre-service teachers on 3-week IPEs. Findings include the importance of building professional relationships with others involved in the IPE, including the pre-service teachers, school staff, and communities, and the impact of the experience on the development of teacher educator identities and practice.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-55
Author(s):  
Tami J. Draves

The purpose of this particularistic case study was to explore Paul’s teacher identity in his first year as a music educator. I chose Paul purposively because, while a high school senior, he had participated in previous research about teacher socialization. Using Olsen’s sociocultural view of teacher identity as a lens, I examined Paul’s teacher identity including personal beliefs about teaching, how those interacted with professional learning and teacher education experiences, and how Paul made sense of himself as a teacher. Through data analysis I revealed three themes: Becoming Student Focused, Learning to Be Myself as a Teacher, and Taking Ownership. I recommend making preservice and cooperating music teachers more aware of teacher identity models and suggest activities to promote teacher identity development in music teacher education programs. Music teacher educators would benefit from having more teacher identity scholarship focused on music student teachers and beginning music educators.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-52
Author(s):  
Olivia Gail Tucker

Occupational identity development is an important, complex component of music teacher education. Preservice teachers may experience dissonance between and/or integration of their musician and teacher identities, and scholars have found early field experiences to be important in undergraduates’ transitions into the teacher role. The purpose of this instrumental case study was to examine the occupational socialization and identity development of preservice music teachers in an early field teaching experience with a focus on preservice teacher and P–12 student interactions. I conducted observations, interviews, and a demographic survey during a semester-long early field experience. Findings centered around (a) the dynamic nature of preservice teachers’ identities; (b) the importance of peers, music teacher educators, and students to preservice participants as they engaged in the process of becoming music teachers, and (c) the momentary embodiment of music teacher and student roles. I connect these findings to prior research and suggest implications.


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