So many expectations: A study of Australian early-career secondary school music teachers

2021 ◽  
pp. 1321103X2110093
Author(s):  
Jennifer Anne Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Career Stage ◽  
Early Career Teachers ◽  
School Communities ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
School Music ◽  
Survey Responses

Early-career music teachers are described in the literature as being in the first few years of the profession. This research explores the motivation, sense of value, and areas of stress affecting early-career music teachers in Australian secondary high schools. The research is a part of a larger qualitative study which contains a national survey ( n = 263) and interviews ( n = 41) of secondary school music teachers across a number of career stages. This article reports on the survey responses ( n = 59) and interviews ( n = 11) of teachers in the early-career stage (0–5 years). The findings revealed that, while the majority of early-career teachers were motivated to teach, being valued by the school led to a stronger commitment to the workplace. Motivating aspects of work included seeing students grow musically, lesson planning, and providing performance opportunities. While stressors were identified, the early-career music teachers had developed a number of effective strategies to cope with the demands of the profession. This article provides a national snapshot of the influences on the working lives of Australian early-career secondary school music teachers and provides suggestions to school communities and education authorities in ways to support them.

Australian super veteran secondary school music teachers: Motivated and valuable

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 226-239
Author(s):  
Jennifer Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
Teaching Experience ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Career Stage ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
School Music

Veteran teachers are defined as having over 15 years’ teaching experience. This research introduces a new career stage of ‘super veteran’ for music teachers that have worked for 30 plus years and seeks to identify the influences on, and contributions of, Australian secondary school music teachers of this career stage. This article reports on survey data gathered in a larger qualitative study that contained a national survey and interviews. The analysis of the interview data in the larger study is yet to be completed. Likert-type scale questions were used for demographic data collection and open-ended questions explored influences on music teacher work practice. Of the responses, 32 were from super veteran secondary school music teachers. These teachers were motivated by working with students and felt valued by them and their parents. Super veterans continued to be engaged in professional development, found work–life balance a constant challenge and many were planning to continue teaching. This research has implications for school leaders in encouraging, valuing and utilising the expertise of super veteran secondary school music teachers. It suggests tailoring professional development for this career stage, gives feedback on the implementation of new curriculum and indicates strategies for stress management and work–life balance.

Early career challenges in secondary school music teaching

2011 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Welch ◽  
R. Purves ◽  
D. Hargreaves ◽  
N. Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Music Teaching ◽  
School Music

Using Mobile Technologies and Problem-Seeking Pedagogies to Bridge Universities and Workplaces

2017 ◽  
pp. 574-580
Author(s):  
Julie Ballantyne
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
Learning Tools ◽  
Early Career Teachers ◽  
The Real ◽  
University Training

The task of providing future music teachers with the capacity to respond effectively in changing teaching environments and the related issues of retention and job satisfaction of early-career teachers present an ongoing challenge to teacher educators. Engagement in a process of systematic problem-solving arguably builds the kind of complex understanding of the real-world workplace that inoculates against praxis shock. This chapter addresses the problem by demonstrating how the utilization of simple technologies as learning tools can enhance the quality of the teacher education process. The Mobile Technologies Project encapsulates a two-way process of having future teachers become comfortable with new technologies, thereby increasing the likelihood that they will use them effectively in their classrooms. The aim of this pedagogical trial was to increase the relevance of tertiary study to the “real world,” linking the reality of teaching with university training.

Addressing the concerns of conservatoire students about school music teaching

2005 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Mills
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Royal College ◽  
Positive Attitude ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
First Year ◽  
Music Teaching ◽  
School Class ◽  
Secondary Music ◽  
School Music

While most of the students who graduate each year from the Royal College of Music (RCM) in London build performance-based portfolio careers that include some teaching, very few of them enter secondary school class music teaching. This article describes how young musicians' concerns about the career of secondary class music teacher develop as they move from sixth former to first year RCM undergraduate to third year undergraduate, and proposes some ways in which these concerns may be addressed. RCM students often agree strongly with statements consistent with a positive attitude to teaching, such as feeling a sense of achievement when pupils learn, and considering that teaching is about helping pupils realise their musical potential. However, they also tend to think that secondary class music teaching is not ‘doing music’. Successful secondary music teachers may take a different view, and the effect on RCM students of working with such teachers is reported descriptively.

OPINIONS OF SECONDARY SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHERS ON THE USE OF EBA (EDUCATIONAL INFORMATION NETWORK): SAMPLES OF ŞANLIURFA

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (45) ◽  
pp. 2253-2264
Author(s):  
Cihan TABAK ◽  
Ümit BOZ
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Information Network ◽  
Music Lesson ◽  
School Music ◽  
Access Problems ◽  
Keywords Education ◽  
Academic Year

With this research, it is aimed to determine the opinions of secondary school music teachers about the use of EBA. In line with the purpose of the research, the opinions of secondary school music teachers were taken by using the scanning model. The study group of the research consists of 22 music teachers working in ġanlıurfa in the 2021-2021 academic year. In order to collect data in the research, a semi-structured interview form was applied to the teachers. The data obtained as a result of the application were processed and descriptive analysis was made. As a result of the research, teachers related to EBA; They frequently use 'Live Lessons', 'Lessons' and 'My Page' modules, EBA contributes to them and the students, they do not have access problems to EBA, but students have access problems, they prefer 'Mobile Application' when using EBA, ' It was concluded that they performed the 'Live Lesson' module over the 'Zoom' application and did not record it, that they did not find the music lesson contents in the EBA sufficient, that they produced content and made the contents produced outside of the EBA accessible to the students. Keywords: Education Information Network, Distance Learning, Music Lesson

Composing and performing in the key stage 3 classroom: a study using multi-trait, multi-method analysis

2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Fowler
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Convergent Validity ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Teacher Rating ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Musical Activity ◽  
School Music ◽  
Assessment Guidelines ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Musical Understanding

‘Music is both a creative and a performing art’ (Hallam, 2006, p. 70). Many musicians and music educators maintain that composing and performing, although related, are essentially different aspects of musical activity. In the professional musical sphere, composition and performance are almost invariably separated; academic studies have treated them discretely; GCSE and ‘A’ level specifications assess them distinctly, and many music teachers assess them in the classroom as if they were separate disciplines. It is common practice for students in the lower secondary school in England to work in a more integrated way, however (Philpott, 2001; Major, 2008), composing, performing to the class, and appraising each others’ work. Recently produced assessment guidelines for secondary school music teachers in England (NAME, 2011) encourage this more integrated view, accepting the assumption made by Swanwick and Franca (1999, p. 12) that ‘musical understanding is a broad conceptual dimension’ by considering composing and performing as inter-linked ways of demonstrating and communicating musicality. This study sets out to investigate the links between composing and performing in the secondary school classroom, through peer-rating, teacher rating and students’ self-report attitudinal questionnaires, analysing these using a multi-trait, multi-method technique.Evidence for convergent validity was found between performing and composing in the classroom, suggesting that they are closely linked and may indeed be related parts of the same trait. This may have implications for the ways in which composing and performing are taught and assessed. A larger-scale study could be undertaken to investigate this further.

The training of specialist secondary school music teachers in England, 1945–75

2003 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-71
Author(s):  
Michael Lynch
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Music Teaching ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
Youth Leaders ◽  
The Future ◽  
School Music ◽  
Schools Of Music ◽  
And Training ◽  
Archive Material

In 1942 the McNair Committee was appointed to consider the ‘supply, recruitment and training of teachers and youth leaders and to report what principles should guide the Board in these matters in the future’. Special attention was given to the needs of music teachers, and the proposals put forward by the Committee provided the framework for the pattern of training for the next 30 years. This article considers the reactions of the Ministry of Education, the Royal Schools of Music and the Incorporated Society of Musicians, making extensive use of archive material. Comparisons are drawn with the training received by music teachers today, with a call for further discussion of the essential skills necessary for effective music teaching.

Adolescents' Expressed Meanings of Music in and out of School

2007 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 220-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Shehan Campbell ◽  
Claire Connell ◽  
Amy Beegle
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Music Programs ◽  
School Programs ◽  
School Music ◽  
Character Building ◽  
Out Of School

This study aimed to determine the significance of music and music education to middle and high school adolescents, including those enrolled and not enrolled in school music programs. Of particular interest were their expressed meanings of music both in and out of school, with attention to adolescent views on the role of music in identity formation, the musical and nonmusical benefits for adolescents of their engagement with music, the curricular content of secondary school music programs, and the qualities of music teachers in facilitating music-learning experiences in middle and high school classes. An examination of essays, statements, and reflections in response to a national essay content was undertaken using an inductive approach to analyze content through the triangulation of interpretations by the investigators. Five principal themes were identified within the expressed meanings of music by adolescents: (a) identity formation in and through music, (b) emotional benefits, (c) music's life benefits, including character-building and life skills, (d) social benefits, and (e) positive and negative impressions of school music programs and their teachers. Overwhelming support was expressed for music as a necessary component of adolescent life, with support for and comments to probe concerning the work of music educators in secondary school programs.

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