scholarly journals “I’m Doing the Best I Can”: Teaching General Music in the Time of Covid-19

2022 ◽  
pp. 875512332110677
Author(s):  
Christa Kuebel ◽  
Elizabeth Haskett
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
School Administrators ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
First Year ◽  
General Music ◽  
Job Responsibilities ◽  
Personal Lives ◽  
Multiple Case

The purpose of this multiple case study was to examine the experiences of four elementary general music teachers (first year, early-career, mid-career, late-career) during the time of COVID-19. We considered impacts on the participants’ instruction and professional lives from data that were collected throughout the 2020–2021 academic year. Participants reported changes to their teaching environments, schedules, and job responsibilities. They shared the technology resources they implemented and highlighted inequities that emerged for virtual versus in-person students. Participants provided insight into the impacts of the year on their personal lives as well. Our implications include considerations for music teachers, music teacher educators, and school administrators as a result of participants’ experiences.

scholarly journals A Case Study of Preservice Music Teachers’ Experiences With Play in a General Music Methods Course

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-38
Author(s):  
H. Ellie Wolfe
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Methods Course ◽  
General Music ◽  
Written Responses ◽  
Video Recordings ◽  
Music Methods ◽  
Teachers Experiences

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.

The roller coaster ride: Our music teacher educator identity development

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Derges Kastner ◽  
Jill Reese ◽  
Kristen Pellegrino ◽  
Heather A. Russell
Keyword(s):  
Identity Development ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Roller Coaster ◽  
Linear Representations ◽  
Self Study ◽  
K 12

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.

“CONSIDERABLE STRESS and MISERY”: A first-year music teacher’s experiences

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-98
Author(s):  
David A. Stringham ◽  
Alden H. Snell
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Hierarchical Structures ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Future Research ◽  
First Year ◽  
Instrumental Music Education ◽  
Based Instruction

Preparing, inducting, mentoring, and retaining new music teachers remain concerns in our profession. This article began as a study of first-year music teachers who made regular entries in secure electronic journals and participated in mid- and end-of-year interviews. We initially sought to understand these new teachers’ experiences related to mentoring, professional development, collaboration, and standards-based instruction. Findings related to these topics were eclipsed, however, by challenging experiences that Elise, a first-year instrumental music teacher who participated in our study, reported. We used a narrative inquiry methodology to present Elise’s experiences in context of literature related to workplace incivility, gender, hierarchical structures, and emphasis on performance in instrumental music education. Based on findings, we offer recommendations for future research related to four stakeholder groups: pre-service teachers, early career in-service teachers, experienced in-service teachers, and administrators.

Elementary General Music Teachers’ Preparation in Classroom Management

2021 ◽  
pp. 105708372110621
Author(s):  
Jennifer Potter Gee
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Classroom Management ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Teacher Education Programs ◽  
General Music ◽  
Course Content ◽  
Elementary General Music ◽  
Management Preparation

The purpose of this study was to examine elementary general music teachers’ classroom management preparation within music teacher education programs. Participants ( N = 341) were active elementary general music teachers as identified by the National Association for Music Education (NAfME). Descriptive data included frequencies, percentages, and cross-tabulations. The most frequently reported sources of classroom management preparation were mentoring from a licensed teacher and supervised fieldwork, while creating classroom rules and expectations and teaching procedures were the most frequent examples of within-course content. Participants were most satisfied with their preparation received through licensed teacher mentoring and supervised fieldwork. Implications for music teacher educators are presented.

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.

Characteristics of Early Childhood and Elementary General Music Methods Coursework for Preservice Music Teachers

2021 ◽  
pp. 105708372110245
Author(s):  
Karen Salvador ◽  
Mara E. Culp
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Teacher Education Programs ◽  
General Music ◽  
Music Teacher Education ◽  
Music Methods ◽  
Elementary General Music

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

A Longitudinal Perspective of Early Career Music Teachers: Contexts, Interactions, and Possible Selves

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 52-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Dabback
Keyword(s):  
Student Teaching ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Possible Selves ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Multiple Case ◽  
Possible Selves Theory

The purpose of this multiple case study was to follow the development of three music educators during their student teaching semesters and into the first years of their careers. Possible selves theory provided a framework for exploring the links between cognition, expectations, and motivation. Interviewees negotiated their social and physical contexts, which in turn shaped their self-images and conceptions of teaching and learning. Identities were constructed through personal experiences and formal study with significant others, including influential teachers, cooperating teachers, and colleagues. In these respects, classrooms served as the laboratories in which teachers learned how to build crucial relationships with their students, tested and reshaped emerging identities, and based actions and evaluation on their possible selves.

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
Keyword(s):  
Identity Development ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Mentoring Relationships ◽  
General Music ◽  
Conference Calls ◽  
Music Methods ◽  
Or Team ◽  
The Impact

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.

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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