Experienced P-12 Music Teachers’ Evolving Approaches to Classroom Management

Abstract

This qualitative study examines how experienced P-12 music teachers’ classroom management has evolved over two decades, shaped by trauma-informed and culturally responsive pedagogies. Earlier music education research often promoted rigid rules and punitive responses, frequently without cultural or contextual sensitivity. Recent scholarship instead emphasizes relational pedagogies grounded in students’ identities, lived experiences, and sociocultural contexts, reframing classroom management. Using secondary analysis of a longitudinal study of nine music teachers with more than 20 years’ experience, plus new interviews with six participants, we explored how professional development in relational, trauma-informed, and culturally responsive practices influenced beliefs and teaching. Findings show veteran teachers moving from compliance-driven management toward adaptive, empathetic, student-centered approaches. They prioritize caring relationships, affirming identities, and creating safe, respectful environments. Teachers also reported adjusting expectations to account for individual backgrounds and trauma, recognizing student well-being as foundational to learning. Ongoing challenges include meeting diverse needs in large ensembles and balancing curricular demands with accommodations. Teachers’ reflections highlight the need for continuing professional development focused on context-specific relational pedagogies. The study recommends targeted support for music educators at all career stages and calls for further research on how teacher education addresses these approaches and intersectional classroom relationships.