The purpose of this study was to investigate processes that led practicing music educators in a graduate course to examine their beliefs and practices regarding inclusion, responsiveness, equity, and justice. Using Charmaz’s constructivist approach to grounded theory, we interviewed 22 participants from MUS 8XX: Philosophy of Music Education. Constant comparative analysis yielded an explanatory framework, which we presented as a model and named “transformative learning processes (TLP) for practicing music teachers encountering social justice.” TLP comprises four interrelated components: “building Gemütlichkeit,” “grappling with difficult material,” “emotional intensity,” and “course structures,” with “stories” acting as a hub for each of the interconnected categories. By describing processes that led practicing teachers to examine their mindsets and plan to change their practices, TLP could provide guidance for music teacher educators at the graduate level regarding how to approach social justice topics in their teaching.
Music educators sometimes enter the workforce un(der)prepared to design and implement inclusive instruction. The purpose of this descriptive interview study was to explore practicing teachers’ self-reported changes in mindset and practice as they worked to become more inclusive. Participants ( N = 20) were music educators with between 1 and 17 years of teaching experience. All participants taught some combination of preK–12 students in general music, choir, band, orchestra, jazz, and other music classes in 10 states. We present qualitative analysis from two sets of interviews concerning self-reported changes in mindsets and teaching practices. We conclude with implications of this study for practicing teachers who wish to enact more equitable and just classroom practices.
The purpose of this narrative inquiry was to explore the story of a secondary ensemble teacher who experienced burnout and chose to remain in the profession. Eleanor and I met for three semistructured interviews and two observations. I used Clandinin and Connelly’s three-dimensional inquiry space as a framework for this study. Narrative analysis revealed that Eleanor experienced symptoms of burnout during a first teaching position that was a poor fit for her. Her passion and enthusiasm for teaching were reignited during a period of long-term music substitute teaching in a successful program surrounded by a supportive community. The importance of recognizing burnout, finding support systems, and identifying hegemonic assumptions about teaching emerged as critical points in Eleanor’s narrative. This arc became visible through narratively coding the field texts, and thoroughly reviewing data obtained from interviews and observations.
Country music has cultural and narrative roots in the American working class. As such, themes of class are integral to the mythos of country music, informing the musicians and shaping the genre’s audience. Researchers have studied the origins of class narratives in American country music, but less analysis has been given to the specific ways that these themes are expressed rhetorically. The purpose of this study was to analyze how class-based narratives are expressed in country music. Through a content analysis of the lyrics of popular country songs between 1950 and 2009, three overarching themes emerged. First, the emphasis of emotional over material experiences: emotional consequences related to working-class material conditions were the focus of songs’ rhetoric, rather than underlying material issues. Second, escapism and sentimentality: class-based issues were expressed as sentimental or nostalgic as a means of escaping material struggle or downplaying their severity. Finally, parasocial commiseration: the building of a one-sided connection between artists and their audience based on their perceived shared class identity. These themes provide insight into emotional rhetoric that affects working-class politics in the US, as well as broader race, class, and political issues.
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