“A Home away from Home”: The World of the High School Music Classroom

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the world of the high school music classroom. Motivation to join music ensembles and to remain, perception of the musical groups by their members and by the school community as a whole, the meaning and value that music ensembles engender for their participants, and the social climate of the music classroom were explored. Structured interviews were conducted with 60 students—20 each from band, choir, and orchestra. Students joined ensembles for musical, social, academic, and family reasons. Insider views highlighted the importance of labels and identifiers and changing perceptions throughout one's school career, whereas outsider views included the opinion that musicians are talented, intelligent, and underappreciated. Ensemble participation yielded musical, academic, psychological, and social benefits. The social climate emerged as a pervasive element in the study as students noted the importance of relationships for their well-being and growth.

The predictive relationship between achievement and participation in music and achievement in core Grade 12 academic subjects

“…In other words, students in Band 11 typically have acquired the complex cognitive skills that are required to play an instrument in a band, as well as the social and emotional skills that are necessary to be a contributing member of a band, involving discipline, collaboration, patience, persistence, and motivation (e.g. Adderley et al, 2003).…”

High school music programmes as potential sites for communities of practice – a Canadian study

“…Music departments within contemporary Canadian high schools often function as identifiable subcultures within the school context, as do athletic and drama departments (Adderley, Kennedy, and Berz 2003;Ebie 2005;Hylton 1981). These departments, because of their heavy extracurricular presence, their embodied practices, and their social nature can create spaces of belonging for students in ways that the traditional academic departments do not.…”

The Moral Ends of Band

“…Band brings together a cross-section of the student body, a collective of young individuals each of whom are charged in the cocreation of a larger musical goal. So, too, band rooms are social spaces apart from mere instruction, marked-off places where friendships are deepened, ideas are argued over lunch, and identities are formed and protected (Adderley, Kennedy, & Berz, 2003;Hoffman, 2008;Morrison, 2001). I share with many band directors the aspiration that band has the capacity to shape and direct the best aspects of who we are and who we wish to be.…”