Abstract
In the “From the Editor” column of the Journal of Music Teacher Education, I have the opportunity to consider issues, successes, and challenges for those of us who do music teacher education (MTE). In this column (January 2024) and the upcoming column for June 2024, I present various members of the music education community who are contributors to preservice MTE including the P–12 music educators whom students learn from before they become music education majors, the non-music education college and university faculty whom preservice students study with throughout their music education degree, and the cooperating teachers whom preservice students learn with and from during their final student teaching semester. I discuss both the opportunities for this population to push the music education profession forward and the challenges inherent in their roles. The notion is that music education faculty alone are not able to prepare preservice teachers for all they will need to know and do and there is a need for shared understandings regarding music educator development and dialogue among the various “teacher educators.”
As I begin, I wish to acknowledge several members of the JMTE Editorial Board who assisted with this column by joining me in a Zoom focus group discussion of the question “Who Are the Music Teacher Educators?” including Joseph Abramo from the University of Connecticut, Chris Baumgartner from the University of Oklahoma, Vanessa Bond from Rowan University, Cara Bernard from the University of Connecticut, Andrew Goodrich from Boston University, Stephanie Prichard from the University of Maryland, and Karen Salvador from Michigan State University. I share insights, comments, and suggestions from these colleagues throughout the two columns. Also, a special thanks to JMTE Editorial Assistant Daniel Taylor for his assistance with the Zoom focus group as well as the manuscripts.
Part I of this column will examine the opportunities for and challenges faced by college and university faculty outside of music education and Part II (appearing in June) will examine the opportunities for and challenges of P–12 educators both in their roles as models for students during their P–12 music experiences and their roles as cooperating teachers for the student teaching internship.
Faculty Outside of Music Education as Teacher Educators
Music education students interact with many faculty members outside of the music education department. Some of these professors have experiences as P–12 educators but most do not. Of course, it is important to note that the size of the music school and the focus (conservatory, large university, regional university, small liberal arts, etc.) will intersect with the ideas discussed in this column. In my text designed for DMA students in applied music and conducting I suggest: It is also important to become familiar with the culture of the school or department where you will be working. The college or university where you will be teaching may or may not be like the program you attended as an undergraduate. Differences in college size, musical environment, entrance requirements, and student culture can greatly affect classroom instruction, curriculum, and assessment. (Conway, 2020, p. 3)
Readers are encouraged to consider the notion of school culture (Kingsbury, 1988; Nettl, 1995) and the context of an MTE program in relation to the suggestions provided in these columns. In this first column, I will discuss each of the following faculty groups and consider the opportunities for and the challenges with considering them “teacher educators”: applied faculty, ensemble conductors, academic area faculty in music (theory, aural skills, musicology, composition, technology, music business, arts leadership, etc.), and faculty in the department or school of education.
Applied Faculty
The role of the applied faculty in mentoring young educators and facilitating their musical growth is strong (Austin et al., 2012; Isbell, 2008, 2015). They serve as trusted and respected musical models who get substantial one-on-one instructional time with students over the course of four or more years. Due to the regular interactions, applied faculty have multiple opportunities to influence a preservice teacher in their studio. One JMTE board member in the focus group shared the following in the chat: I get concerned with applied folks who say they [meaning preservice students] can only teach as well as they play or sing or who have a really specific vision of the kind of voice (operatic) or instrument playing (orchestral) goals the students should have rather than valuing the students’ goals for themselves, which often involve multimusicality.
It is rare to find applied faculty who have a solid knowledge of P–12 students or undergraduate student development (Arnett, 2014; Conkling, 2016). In addition to this type of “performance-only” focus, the JMTE group also discussed that some of these faculty do not understand the current goals of P–12 music education beyond performance and they sometimes reinforce the very behaviorist interactions we are trying to move away from in the field. Another JMTE Board member suggested that our students learn “diagnosing versus deep pedagogy” from some of these faculty.
We had a robust dialogue in the JMTE focus group about how to facilitate dialogue and communication with these faculty. Andrew Goodrich from Boston University commented in the chat that: Music teacher educators should be flexible in their approaches to guiding learning for preservice music teachers (PMT) and open to communication with all stakeholders involved in PMT preparation.
Stephanie Prichard from the University of Maryland suggested in the chat: “Perhaps one way to work more productively with applied and conducting faculty could be to consider the ways that pedagogy will be a part of most (all?) musicians’ future careers.” At the University of Michigan, I have experienced some success in offering pedagogy courses to performance students. I teach a class called “Teaching Private Lessons to Middle and High School Students” to masters level and upper class undergraduate music performance majors and a course called “Teaching Music in Higher Education” for DMA and MM performance students. This connection with more students in the applied studios has opened up lines of communication with applied teachers. However, it is a constant and intentional effort to keep open lines of communication, and there are times when it is quite challenging. It is also important to acknowledge that in many institutions these faculty are adjuncts and may not be connected to the school and the program nor paid for additional hours spent collaborating with music education faculty. This systemic issue is a significant barrier to forming relationships with these applied faculty members who still play an important role in our preservice teachers’ development.
Ensemble Conductors
Ensemble conductors are arguably some of the most influential teacher educators in the school (Johnson, 2014). In many colleges and universities, the music education students who arrive on campus as first-year students met these conductors in high school and—to some extent—chose the institution for them. Many of the conductors hold DMA degrees and most have P–12 teaching experience; however, they do not typically have a background in music teacher education (with some exceptions, of course). They likely do not read the Journal of Music Teacher Education (Killian, 2020), attend the Symposium on Music Teacher Education (Teachout, 2020), The Mountain Lake Colloquium (Barrett et al., 2020), or the Colloquium for Teachers of Instrumental Music Methods (Bauer, 2020), nor do they focus on understanding the literature on undergraduate student development, teacher identity, and so on. Thus, they might not understand that what is appropriate for a student teacher might not be right for a junior, or that current preservice students have diverse musical and career goals. One JMTE board member in our focus group said: It has been 10 years of micropolitics in the making for me with this issue. Just like the K–12 teachers, I find building rapport with those colleagues helps. But, they do not have the training/education that we (in MUED) do regarding teacher development and I always feel like there’s this sense of (from their perspective): “We can do your job, because we do it (i.e., teach ensembles), and we’re the conductor/musicians.” I think it’s hard because they don’t know what they don’t know (about teacher education) and we can’t just tell them “Hey, you don’t know this.”
We discussed in the focus group the ways in which MTE faculty can invite their preservice students to think about the differences between collegiate ensembles and P–12 classrooms. It is also important for MTEs to highlight good ensemble pedagogy going on from the college podium in our programs. Several of the JMTE members shared they sometimes feel that what is being taught in music education classes (learner-centered pedagogy) feels to preservice students as if it is at odds with some of what they experience in ensembles and other classes in the degree (i.e., more teacher-directed and performance-focused).
At the end of our discussion of ensembles, one member shared: I’m grumpy, and my impulse is to be antagonistic to these other groups because they sometimes undo what we’re doing. I’ve had to work hard to not do that. And this session is reminding me of that.
Stephanie Prichard from the University of Maryland mentioned the need for intentional collaboration between music education faculty and conductors. The JMTE has published some good models of research collaborations between music faculty working to understand their students. Causby et al. (2023) reported on a Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices (S-STEP) collaboration between college ensemble conductors and instrumental music teacher educators regarding the intersections between their courses and I hope others might consider similar approaches.
Academic Area Faculty in Music
Faculty in music theory, aural skills, musicology, composition, technology, music business, arts leadership, and other courses also contribute to the teacher education experiences of the preservice music teacher. Karen Salvador from Michigan State University shared: “Our ethnomusicology faculty are AMAZING at talking with future teachers about culture and ‘authenticity’ in ways that are really helpful for culturally sustaining pedagogy and for challenging the canon.” It was our collective experience that many of these academic area faculty have had a positive influence on our students. However, as was mentioned previously, they rarely have knowledge of P–12 learners and the goals of music education and in many institutions these faculty are adjuncts. As mentioned above, the JMTE has some good models of faculty collaboration. Pellegrino et al. (2019) was a collaboration between music education and music theory faculty to better understand how to teach improvisation to undergraduate students.
Faculty in Colleges or Departments of Education
When I asked in the JMTE focus group about our music education student experiences in the colleges or departments of education, one of the board members immediately said, “Undergrad. students do not consider College of Ed Professors to be music teacher educators.” My own research into new teacher reflections on their preservice experiences has consistently suggested that our students often struggle to make connections between music and the courses in the college of education (Conway, 2002, 2012).
However, the College of Education colleagues usually have P–12 teaching experience and knowledge of P–12 learners as well as undergraduate development. Several JMTE board members in the focus group expressed frustration that these courses at their schools were often taught by graduate assistants in educational psychology, some of whom have no P–12 experience. One JMTE board member suggested that it is our “job” to make a bridge for our students to the college of education courses.
Conclusion
Music teacher education students have many interactions outside of the music education coursework which facilitate their growth as musicians and educators. As the JMTE Board focus group has highlighted, there can be advantages and disadvantages to all of these interactions and it is in our best interest to work hard to communicate, be flexible, and make connections for our students and with our colleagues. It is important for us (MTEs) to participate in the culture of the school, attend concerts and recitals, and serve on interdisciplinary committees where we have the chance to share our concerns as well as credit these other stakeholders for their role in the development of our music education students. It does “take a village” to raise a music teacher and music education faculty cannot accomplish this alone. Part II of this column (June 2024) will examine the role and influence of P–12 educators before preservice students arrive in teacher education programs and as they transition into the profession through student teaching.