Australian super veteran secondary school music teachers: Motivated and valuable

Abstract

Veteran teachers are defined as having over 15 years’ teaching experience. This research introduces a new career stage of ‘super veteran’ for music teachers that have worked for 30 plus years and seeks to identify the influences on, and contributions of, Australian secondary school music teachers of this career stage. This article reports on survey data gathered in a larger qualitative study that contained a national survey and interviews. The analysis of the interview data in the larger study is yet to be completed. Likert-type scale questions were used for demographic data collection and open-ended questions explored influences on music teacher work practice. Of the responses, 32 were from super veteran secondary school music teachers. These teachers were motivated by working with students and felt valued by them and their parents. Super veterans continued to be engaged in professional development, found work–life balance a constant challenge and many were planning to continue teaching. This research has implications for school leaders in encouraging, valuing and utilising the expertise of super veteran secondary school music teachers. It suggests tailoring professional development for this career stage, gives feedback on the implementation of new curriculum and indicates strategies for stress management and work–life balance.

Investigating High School Students' Perceptions of ‘Inspiring Foreign Language Teacher’

“…In the first stage, the data collected from the students in written form was transferred to the computer and made ready for analysis. In the second stage, the written texts were evaluated by the researchers by reading them separately several times, and the coding process was started, taking into account the inspiring teacher characteristics stated in the literature (Infanti, 2015;Lamb and Wedell, 2013;Robinson, 2018;Williams et al, 2016). In the third stage, the codes were brought together and grouped and the themes that were thought to include the codes were determined.…”

“…While semi-structured interviews are not as rigid as fully structured interviews, they are also not as flexible as unstructured interviews; therefore, it is located between two extremes (Karasar, 1995). The semistructured form used in the interviews was prepared by reviewing the literature on the research topic (Lamb and Wedell, 2013;Robinson, 2018;Solpuk Turhan et al, 2019) and it was given its final form by benefiting from the opinions and suggestions of three faculty members, one of whom is an expert in English Language Teaching, one in German Language Teaching and one in the field of Educational Sciences. The questions asked to the participants in the study are as follows:…”

“…McAleavy (2014) lists the qualities of an inspirational teacher as follows: "(1) Establishing genuine warmth and empathy towards all students in the classroom, (2) Respecting the student in both her/his behaviour and language use, (3) Praising learners for their efforts to realize their potential, (4) Seeking and honouring the student's choice and contribution ( 5) Making all students realize that their best effort is expected in the classroom." When studies on the subject of "inspirational teacher" in the literature were examined, researches have been found on the subjects of inspirational music teacher (Robinson, 2018), inspirational English teacher (Lamb and Wedell, 2013), inspirational English lecturer (Iftanti, 2015), inspirational teaching at the higher education level (Williams et al, 2016) and inspirational teacher in general (Solpuk Turhan et al, 2019;Sammons et al, 2014), but no study has been found that deals with the concept of inspiring foreign language teachers in depth from the perspective of high school students. For this reason, it was felt necessary to discuss the concept of "inspirational foreign language teacher" from the perspective of high school students and through interview method that allows it to be examined in detail.…”

Preservice Music Teacher Education: The View From 20 Years Later

“…Finally, as was suggested by Robinson (2020), looking to experienced teachers for their wisdom about the profession provides important insight. Participants suggested that over 20 years, both personal and professional expectations had changed.…”

“…Given the 43 chapters devoted to the topic in the 2020 Oxford Handbook on Preservice Teacher Education in the United States (Conway et al, 2020), it is fair to consider the preservice preparation of music teachers as a continued concern for the profession. Additional music education scholarship has examined later career music teacher wisdom (Peterson, 2016; Robinson, 2020), and general education researchers have regularly studied teacher education through longitudinal investigations (Beck et al, 2017; Bullough, 1989; Bullough & Baughman, 1997; Cochran-Smith et al, 2012; Levin, 2001; National Center for Educational Statistics [NCES], n.d.). Most of these general education studies examined teachers in a time period of 1 to 5 years.…”