1,720,964 research outputs found
Experiences of multi-musical music educators in/through U.S.-based preservice music education programs
Get PDF2025Schools of music in the United States often frame a singular notion of “musicianship” as legitimate, thus constructing barriers for potential applicants. Although programs may point towards broad definitions of musicianship, substantial changes have yet to be made when imagining musical understandings from non-normative and wide-ranging knowledge and perspectives. Despite this, multi-musical backgrounds exist throughout an inter-relational network in the world today, and many seek to attend schools of music to gain music education teacher licensure. Rather than viewing themselves in a single, specialized musical role, multi-musicians create, arrange, and perform that involve a variety of tools, techniques, and approaches. Hybridized environments allow musicians the opportunity to engage in these roles through musical understandings as performer, composer, arranger, or producer, however schools of music rarely operate in such a manner. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is to understand the perspectives and values of multi-musical preservice and inservice music educators in U.S. based preservice education programs.One way to understand multi-musical individuals is through the concept of cosmopolitanism. Cosmopolitanism recognizes that members of a community – or a community of practice such as a preservice music education program – are multifaceted and have various needs, while at the same time appreciating the possibilities for interconnectedness and cooperation amongst members. Embracing conceptions of cosmopolitan musicianship has the potential to realign how the field of music education conceives of the boundaries between creator and audience, maker, and consumer, which has implications for both how and why music is created in and beyond the classroom. In this study, I used a theoretical framework that draws from cosmopolitan musicianship and communities of practice to both outline the current and past experiences of preservice and in-service music educators and, alongside participants, to develop a vision of how preservice teacher education programs might embrace multi-musical individuals as central to preservice music educator the program frameworks.
Using case study as research design, data generation involved focus group sessions and individual semi-structured interviews with three preservice and three in-service music educators who identified as multi-musical. Data were analyzed by thematic analysis as I sought to understand how participants construct meaning as multi-musicians and music educators. Through thematic analysis, I present the findings, focusing on the themes: (1) Isolation and Belonging, (2) Connection and Dis/connection, (3) Inadequacy, and (4) Legitimacy and Conformity. I then share participants’ visions of preservice music education programs based on the themes derived through analysis
Care in the competitive choral ensemble
Get PDFThis qualitative case study investigates care ethics within a competitive, high school choral ensemble in the weeks leading up to an annual competition. Ethical care (Noddings, 1984/2013) is predicated on building individual, one-on-one relationships with students. Success at contest is predicated on ensemble evaluations rather than individual student performances. Thus, ethical care may be difficult to achieve within ensembles where group preparation for contest is prioritized over individualized music education. Data from semistructured student and teacher interviews, semistructured focus groups, rehearsal observations, and document analysis is analyzed through Tarlow’s (1996) phases of the caring process. Findings show that participants experienced care as distinctive and actions-based, but that care for competition complicated care for individuals within the choir. Through the actions of their peers and teacher, students reported that their competitive choir was a uniquely caring space in their lives. The pursuit of excellence at competition caused stress that resulted in actions misaligned with ethical care
Threshold concepts in music industry education
Get PDFThe purpose of this study was to identify potential threshold concepts in the music industry as perceived by expert music industry professionals; the data collected may possibly inform postsecondary music industry degree program curriculum design. Threshold concept theory emerged in the early 2000s largely due to the research of Meyer & Land (2003, 2005) as a means to illuminate discipline-specific criteria that irreversibly transform a learner’s positionality within a professional discipline. Through the mastery of a threshold concept, a learner becomes aware of discipline specific norms, and may experience a reconstitution of their own identity as a professional. This is the first study to explore threshold concepts within the music industry. This study is also aimed to contribute to a growing body of research at the intersection of threshold concepts and business education. Utilizing qualitative research informed by phenomenology, semi-structured interviews based on the primary tenets of the threshold concept theory framework were conducted. “Expert” music industry professionals were asked to reflect upon their lived experiences regarding their assimilation into the music industry and maintenance of a sustainable career in the discipline. The data collected were aligned with the threshold concept theory framework in order to illuminate potential threshold concepts specific to the music industry. Results indicate that there exist possible dispositional and disciplinary threshold concepts relative to becoming a music industry professional. The identification, prioritization, and utilization of threshold concepts are applicable to curriculum planning at both the macro- (program creation, execution, and evaluation) and micro- (course creation, planning, instruction, and evaluation) levels for post-secondary music industry education
An exploration of Wisconsin choral educator preparation for supporting adolescent singers
Get PDFAdolescence is a time of rapid and sometimes widely varying changes in the voice (Cooksey & Welch, 1998; Gebhardt, 2016; Harries et al., 1998; Killian, 1999; Sweet, 2015). As such, content and pedagogical knowledge of the voice is particularly important for educators when supporting adolescent singers. Shulman’s (1986) framework, Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK), is a tool to examine the ways in which educators integrate their content and pedagogical knowledge with their knowledge of individual learners to best support student learning outcomes.
The purpose of this study was to explore the preparation of secondary choral educator candidates in Wisconsin with specific regard to supporting adolescent voices. This study was completed using qualitative methods through a collective case study design to gather personal knowledge and experiences of student teacher candidates serving in two separate educational settings and attending different teacher preparation programs in Wisconsin. Methods of data collection included interviews with student teacher candidates and their cooperating teachers, syllabi from choral methods courses, and a video teaching sample from each student teacher.
This study found that student teachers felt confident in their abilities to teach in
several topics related to the adolescent voice, however there were also areas that they identified as emerging skills in need of additional support. State licensure boards and teacher preparation programs may use these findings to guide future curriculum and licensure requirements in ways that may better support the identified areas for growth
On the purpose(s) of elementary general music education: an exploration of subject-ness among children engaged in a world-centered curriculum project
Get PDFThe purpose of this study was to explore the emergence of subject-ness among children in the context of a world-centered elementary general music class. I addressed this purpose through the creation and implementation of a curriculum project in which young children engaged in lullaby songwriting. In so doing, I sought to explore curricular and pedagogical alternatives: namely, curricular purposes beyond functional literacy and pedagogical approaches with relational potential. This curriculum project was enacted alongside children (ages 5–6) participating in three classes of kindergarten general music in the elementary school at which I taught at the time.
I framed this study using Biesta’s (2021b) domains of educational purpose and, in particular, the notion that teaching has the potential to encourage children to be(come) subjects in their own lives, rather than objects in the lives of others. Furthermore, I relied upon world-centered education (Biesta, 2021b) in this study as a means of addressing a “grown-up” (p. 51) orientation to subject-ness in which the subject is “in the world and with the world, and not just with themselves” (Biesta, 2020b, p. 37, emphasis in original). To realize this framework, I invoked three supporting concepts: project-based teaching (Dillon, 2023a), dialogic pedagogy (White, 2016a, 2021), and compassionate care (Hendricks, 2023).
For this study, I assembled a critical educational action research design drawing upon Somekh’s (2006) principles of action research. The progressively iterative nature of this three-phase project was initially influenced by the self-reflective action research spiral (Kemmis et al., 2014), which I later adapted into the action research trellis—a visual framing in which inquiry is illustrated as potentially growing in divergent and unpredictable ways. Data collected as part of this action research study included video observations of our enactment of the curriculum project, focus group interviews with children, an individual interview with a kindergarten teacher, my research journal entries, and various artifacts, such as lesson plans.
I conducted a thematic analysis of the data (Glesne, 2016) which yielded three overarching themes: snapshots of emergent subject-ness in childhood focused on care, resistance, and dissent; pointing as an invitation to explore subject-ness, including the myriad ways in which this pointing manifested and facets of the curriculum project which contributed to this pointing; and the reflexive gifts of teaching, including “philosophical play” and teacher-student “connections” (Research Journal Entries). I situated the implications of these findings in terms of both curricular and pedagogical reimaginings
Investigating culturally responsive teaching in the Jamaican secondary music classroom: a multiple case study
Get PDFDespite calls from The National Standards Curriculum (NSC) to incorporate music that reflects the wider society of Jamaica, the opinions and cultural systems of youth often go unnoticed in the classroom. This can create a disconnect between the established curriculum, students’ culture system, and how they are taught in the music classroom. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine how secondary school music teachers practiced culturally responsive teaching by functioning as cultural organizers, cultural mediators, and orchestrators of social contexts for learning when student learning was (a) related to their preferred music, and (b) related to cultural systems beyond their preferred musical culture. Three music teachers from three public secondary schools in the city of Kingston, Jamaica, participated in this research. Using an instrumental case study design (Stake, 2006), I observed each teacher’s lesson online on three separate occasions and conducted three semi-structured interviews with each teacher. The data collected were analysed and used to describe the themes that emerged.
The findings from this study suggest that culturally responsive teaching does not only support ethnically diverse student populations but can function effectively with music teachers supporting students in Jamaica’s postcolonial environment. The teachers’ understanding of Jamaican culture did not necessarily align with students lived popular culture but learning about students’ preferred music and employing contextual teaching and learning was beneficial to the students. Understanding students’ cultural background, including their popular culture experiences, and including historical aspects of their culture to broaden their understanding of their own heritage, were critical to how teachers operated. Their teaching strategies included students’ preferred music and the teachers’ selected music, both used to develop a broad-based music curriculum aimed at engaging and expanding the students’ knowledge beyond what they already know
Critical literacy in secondary band education: navigating tradition and transformation through educator narratives
Get PDF2026Hate crimes, bigotry, and racism in the United States continue to reach new heights, signaling a contemporary hegemonic crisis that demands educational response (Meyerhoffer, 2023). Although scholars call for educators to actively combat systemic oppression (Villavicencio et al., 2023), teachers face increasing scrutiny from restrictive legislation concerning discussions of race, sexuality, and gender (Bylica et al., 2024). Music educators are uniquely positioned to facilitate critical examination of social justice issues through curriculum that challenges dominant narratives and amplifies marginalized voices (Hess, 2017b). Band educators, however, often resist change due to deeply rooted traditions and reproductive pedagogical models (Allsup & Benedict, 2008). The authoritarian traditions prevalent in band education, including prescriptive methods, linear curricula, competition, and performance-based outcomes, can constrain opportunities for critical work and student voice (Allsup & Benedict, 2008). Through a narrative inquiry methodology (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) I explored how three secondary band educators across the United States implemented Critical Literacy (Freire, 1970/2000) practices in their classrooms. Findings revealed that critical literacy implementation exists along a spectrum, from subtle to explicit engagement. Participants employed activities aligned with Lewison et al.'s (2002) four dimensions of Critical Literacy: disrupting the commonplace, interrogating multiple viewpoints, focusing on sociopolitical issues, and taking action to promote social justice. Examples included engaging with diverse repertoire, modifying routines, integrating popular music, challenging traditions, promoting representation, facilitating dialogue, implementing cross-curricular models, and engaging in activism through composition and performance. Participants identified educational experiences, lived experiences with marginalization, and a desire for students to become principled citizens as motivations, identifying benefits such as enhanced musicianship through increased empathy and vulnerability, and development of student agency. Barriers included competition pressures, band director fragility, community values and politics, resistant colleagues, restrictive legislation, the inherent nature of band education itself, and the persistence of the "Good Old Boys Club.” Within increasingly restrictive political environments, participants developed what I termed permeative teaching practices, a reframing of subversive teaching (Portelli & Eizadirad, 2018), that flow through and transform education rather than opposing it externally. The study demonstrated that critical literacy and musical excellence function as complementary rather than competing forces. This study suggests that the survival of band education may depend on its willingness to embrace critical engagement rather than retreat into traditional practices that no longer serve all students effectively. Keywords: Critical Literacy, Critical Pedagogy, band education, narrative inquiry, social justice, permeative teaching, secondary education, Freire, systemic oppressio
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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