Large Ensemble Teachers’ Support for Popular Music Courses in High Schools

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether large ensemble teachers supported the inclusion of authentic popular music courses in high school music programs. We distributed the 61-item Popular Music in High School Questionnaire (PMQ) to a nationwide, stratified sample of 1,000 high school large ensemble teachers. Participants perceived several obstacles to widespread adoption of popular music courses in high schools, with their support for curricular inclusivity dependent on region of the country, teaching assignment/duties, and teaching experience. We discuss broad implications of the findings and highlight the cyclical relationship between music teacher preparation programs and curricular music content delivered in U.S. secondary schools.

Keywords

curriculum large ensemble teachers popular music support

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