The purpose of this study was to examine the complexities of instrumental music teacher knowledge as they relate to the intersection between instrumental music teaching and conducting, and to explore how participants describe and perceive these intersections. The key research question guiding this study was, How do high school instrumental music teachers describe the intersections between instrumental music teaching and conducting? This study focused on the participants’ ( N = 4) perceptions and descriptions of the intersections between instrumental music teaching and conducting. A multiple-case-study design was used. The central finding of this study suggests that the practice of instrumental music teaching demands a specialized form of knowledge that reflects the integration of, rather than the intersection between, both teaching and conducting. This specialized form of knowledge informs the participants’ in-the-moment decision making, judgments, decisions, and communication with students and the ensemble as a whole. The findings of this study suggest implications for music teacher education and conducting education, specifically in the areas of devising professional development opportunities that are systematic, multilevel, and multifaceted and that mirror the integrated nature of teaching and conducting that occurs in practice.

The pedagogical content knowledge framework has been used to decipher the complexities of teaching by integrating subject matter knowledge with knowledge of teaching and knowledge of learners. Researchers in math, English, and history have modified this framework to identify core teaching practices within their disciplines. Core teaching practices are those that novices can begin to master and have a direct impact on student success. We developed a preliminary list of core practices in music using a Delphi panel approach. This panel of public school and college teachers with expertise in band, choir, orchestra, and elementary music found that modeling, sequencing instruction, and deconstructing musical concepts were core teaching practices that apply across a wide variety of teaching and learning contexts. The panel felt developing knowledge of and relationships with students was important for in-service teachers, but other practices should be developed first by novice teachers.

To facilitate cultural competency among preservice music teachers, music teacher educators must create ongoing opportunities for discourse and situated learning. The purpose of this collective case study was to examine four preservice music teachers’ experiences in the Arranger-in-Residence Program (AIRP)—a community engagement project emphasizing service-learning and placed within a socioeconomically diverse urban school district. Research questions included (1) How did the participants describe their experiences in the AIRP? and (2) What challenges, if any, did the participants experience during the service-learning initiative. The AIRP involved music education students enrolled in an undergraduate-level orchestration course. Overwhelmingly, the participants’ experiences with the AIRP were considered positive and signaled unique opportunities for personal growth as novice teachers. Each of the participants described moments where they acknowledged and confronted their implicit biases.

There is a decades-long history of music education researchers examining characteristics and skills associated with effective teaching and assessing how preservice music teachers develop those competencies. Building on studies of pedagogical content knowledge and the professional opinions of experienced music educators, researchers are now attempting to identity a body of core music teaching practices. We asked experienced in-service music teachers ( N = 898) to think about the skills beginning music teachers must possess to investigate how respondents rated and ranked selected core music teaching practices in terms of their relative importance. Developing appropriate relationships with students, modeling music concepts, and sequencing instruction were the top core teaching practices identified by the group. Results provide insights into knowing, naming, and framing a set of core teaching practices and offer a common technical vocabulary that music teacher educators might use as they design curricula and activities to develop these foundational skills.