Faculty Perspectives on the Master’s Degree in Music Education

2022 ◽  
pp. 105708372110677
Author(s):  
D. Gregory Springer ◽  
Kari Adams ◽  
Jessica Nápoles

The purpose of this study was to examine music education faculty members’ perceptions of the master’s degree in music education (MME). A total of 76 music teacher educators completed a researcher-designed survey instrument. Participants believed their MME students’ top four motivations for pursuing MME degrees were to become a better teacher, to gain a higher salary, to create a possible pathway to doctoral study in the future, and to gain academic stimulation through graduate level coursework. Faculty also indicated the MME degree was focused on both teaching/pedagogy and research. Participants explained that their students primarily learn about research through reading and discussing research articles in class, and that their students learn about pedagogy primarily from reading pedagogical articles and reflecting on personal teaching videos. In addition, participants presented various opinions regarding the purpose of MME degrees. Implications for music teacher educators are discussed.

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-92
Author(s):  
D. Gregory Springer

The purpose of this study was to investigate currently enrolled students’ perceptions of the master’s degree in music education (MME). A national sample of 136 MME students completed a web-based questionnaire. The most common motivations for enrolling in MME programs were to become a better teacher, to get a higher salary, to gain academic stimulation through graduate-level coursework, and to create a possible pathway to doctoral study in the future. However, motivational differences were evident based on respondents’ degree format (academic year, online, summer, or hybrid). Respondents indicated that they learned about research primarily through reading and discussing research articles, and learned about pedagogy primarily through reading articles on pedagogy/teaching strategies and watching and reflecting on personal teaching videos. I explore implications for music teacher education given these findings as well as respondents’ reports of MME program strengths and areas needing improvement.


2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen Pellegrino ◽  
Colleen M. Conway ◽  
J. Si Millican

To examine music education faculty members’ promotion and tenure experiences, we interviewed ( N = 9) and surveyed ( N = 124) music teacher educators (MTEs) who were pretenure or tenured within the past 3 years. Findings highlighted MTE’s perceptions of evaluative criteria and standards, mentoring programs and experiences, professional identity, and work-life balance. We found that MTEs valued three aspects of their professional identity: teacher educator, researcher, and musician, although most reported that music activities did not count as scholarly activities. We also found that MTEs need multiple mentors: someone familiar with institutional tenure policy and expectations and MTEs within and/or outside of the same institution. MTE survey respondents (70%) reported feeling stress related to the tenure process. Male respondents were more likely to feel satisfied (63%) with the balance of teaching, research, and service than female respondents (33%), and more likely to feel satisfied with the balance achieved between personal life and professional life (57%) than their female counterparts (36%).


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shohre Nourizadeh Dehkordi ◽  
Ali Ghorbani ◽  
Maryam Shahabi ◽  
Seyedeh Zahra Nazardani

BACKGROUND Evaluating the master’s degree program in Sports Physiotherapy in order to improve the quality of education in this field. The need to pay attention to the effectiveness and efficiency of the education and improving the system of higher education by becoming more aware of the factors involved is necessary. The aim of this study is to evaluate the educational program for master’s degree in Sports Physiotherapy. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to evaluate the educational program for master’s degree in Sports Physiotherapy. METHODS This is a hybrid study in which qualitative and quantitative methods for data collection were used. The research team consisted of faculty members and sports physiotherapy students. In the first part of the study, due to a lack of standard questionnaires, the method of an expert panel was used to build the tools. In the second part, the questionnaire was distributed among 22 professors and students, and the data was collected. RESULTS The findings showed that according to the viewpoints of the faculty members and students, the courses in the program are necessary and facilitates the students to become qualified in meeting their future professional requirements. The findings of other research indicate the desirability of the content, implementation, and educational facilities of the program from the viewpoint of the professors, and unfavourable from the viewpoint of the students. Moreover, from the perspective of the professors and students, the teaching methods is appropriate to the type of course and there is no need to add a new course to the program. The findings of student evaluation methods showed that these methods were considered to be favourable from the viewpoint of the professors, and unfavourable from the viewpoint of the students. CONCLUSIONS As a result, the program of Sports Physiotherapy was evaluated, in terms of its favourability, with the existing courses. Nevertheless, the addition of practical and clinical units helps to improve the quality of the curriculum.


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.


Author(s):  
Colleen Conway ◽  
Shannan Hibbard

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.


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 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 51-64
Author(s):  
Mara E. Culp ◽  
Karen Salvador

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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-99
Author(s):  
J. Si Millican ◽  
Sommer Helweh Forrester

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.


2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Miettinen ◽  
Claudia Gluschankof ◽  
Sidsel Karlsen ◽  
Heidi Westerlund

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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 22-37
Author(s):  
Samuel Escalante

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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