Building and maintaining a research career in Music Education

Abstract

Building and maintaining a research career in music education requires thoughtful planning and a persistent commitment to a research work ethic. For most people, the research career will begin in graduate school with selection of a dissertation topic, and this topic will often set the course for the first years of research after the doctorate. Careful topic selection can give the student the start of a unique research identity. When the doctoral graduate moves into a full time college teaching job, it becomes a major challenge to remain productive in research while meeting the demands of new job responsibilities. There are certain pitfalls that the new researcher must anticipate and avoid. As the researcher's career matures, he or she will take on new responsibilities that make it even more difficult to remain productive. A good way to meet this challenge is to work more or less simultaneously on a number of research projects that are all in different stages of completion. If, as a researcher, you have developed the personality characteristics and work habits to remain productive in research throughout your career, you will be rewarded with the satisfaction of having contributed to the betterment of our profession.