Developing musical and educational identities in university music students

Abstract

The musical and educational identities of music students are often at odds with one another, and yet teaching plays a role in the working lives of almost all musicians. Similar conflicts arise when music education majors view themselves as either musicians or educators, but not as both. This article reports results from parallel studies in two urban universities, one in Australia and the other in the USA. Seventy-two participants contributed drawings and textual responses on three surveys administered across a semester. Surveys were designed to record emerging perceptions of musician and teacher identities. Results indicated that the musical identity presents first, and that it provides a framework for making relevant the pedagogical techniques and theoretical models encountered in education courses and initial fieldwork. The combination of textual and nontextual data provided insights that would not otherwise have been evident, including the suggestion that emerging music teachers construct their identities consistent with the 'possible selves' model of development.

Musicians crossing musical instrument gender stereotypes: a study of computer-mediated communication

“…The importance of identity in music has been studied by Hargreaves, Miell, and MacDonald (2002) and others (Lamont 2011;Freer and Bennett 2012). Hargreaves, Miell and MacDonald suggest that musical identities are shaped and reshaped through conversations and interactions with others.…”

The Musical Self-Concept of Chinese Music Students

“… 3 For (Western) research dealing with the self-concept and/or the (possible) change of self-concept and self-image from music students and/or performers to music teachers, see for example Hargreaves and Marshall (2003) , Hargreaves et al (2007) , Pellegrino (2009) , Ballantyne et al (2012) , and Freer and Bennett (2012) . The latter particularly point to the relation of the teachers’ and pupils’ musical identity and the similar context in which they emerge.…”

The occupational identity development of early-career music teachers: a two-case study of Chinese music teachers

“…This result confirmed the finding of Freer and Bennett (2012), who believed that most newly-qualified music teachers are in young adulthood and they might still experience the exploration of their identities in their occupational area. Kroger (2007) Tin and Han both believed that there was little conflict between these two identities, although Han's performer identity likely influenced her teacher identity development.…”