Encouraging Students to Consider Music Education as a Future Profession

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes, communication, and opportunities provided by music teachers to encourage consideration of the music teaching profession. Survey participants (N = 436) were music educators from the Southeast (235), Midwest (51), and Southwest (149) National Association for Music Education regions of the United States. Fifty-two percent of respondents reported encouraging students to explore the music teaching profession, one third reported uncertainty about their encouragement of a music education career, and 21% indicated active discouragement. Personal job satisfaction, student music abilities, and constraints/forces outside the profession were factors for respondents who discourage students from the profession. A majority reported providing opportunities to explore the profession as a viable career option and those experiences reflected the authentic practices of the teaching profession. Professional development opportunities for in-service teachers in the encouragement of students toward music teaching should be strongly considered.

Inspiring the Next Generation of Music Educators: A Multiple Case Study of High School Music Experiences and Career Choice

“…Try to just be the best teacher that I can be” (Interview 2). Her less aggressive approach corroborates those found by other researchers (e.g., Porter et al, 2017) but runs counter to popular music education advocacy efforts designed for broad appeal, such as flyers posted in public, web advertisements, or mass email messages. However, taking into consideration Ms. Dana’s background in music therapy as well as music education, it is not surprising that she views collegiate music study as consisting of more options than music education.…”

“…In-service music educators have indicated that they initially entered the music education profession because they became inspired by events at state music education associations (MEAs; Councill et al, 2013), wanted to contribute to specific communities (Eros, 2018), and, as found most frequently across the literature, were heavily influenced by their school and private studio music teachers (Cox, 1994; Gardner, 2010; Hamann & Walker, 1993; Pellegrino & Millican, 2014; Rickels et al, 2019). In-service teachers have continued to encourage their students to consider a career in music education, sometimes despite their own frustration with professional issues (Porter et al, 2017), which lends credence to the idea that in-service music teachers remain vital to recruitment efforts in music education.…”

A Comparative Analysis of Influences on Choosing a Music Teaching Occupation

“…Even those offering studio instruction as a second career recalled positive interactions with or reported support or encouragement from former and current musical mentors (Taylor & Hallam, 2011). Porter et al (2017) examined the student experiences and types of support provided by in-service music educators and found that more than half of survey respondents actively and purposefully shared their personal career choice story with students and/or offered them encouragement to seek an occupation in the field of teaching.…”

“…Teachers in P–12 should also be aware of how their overt and covert messaging about music careers may be perceived in combination with these experiences. Porter et al (2017) noted that there was a trend among some current music teachers to purposefully not encourage their students to consider music teacher education, or in some cases even to discourage it, due to concerns about the current perceptions of and realities in the music teaching profession. In addition to the known role that music teachers, parents, relatives, and siblings play in student career selection, we should not discount the influence of non–music teachers and school counselors who might further speak positively of the profession.…”

“…The efforts of these organizations and concerned researchers have produced a body of research exploring those factors contributing to teacher shortages, among them, teacher attrition (Hellman, 2007; Scheib, 2007), retirement (Asmus, 1999; Hill, 2003; National Association of Schools of Music, 2002), and career dissatisfaction (Porter, Payne, Burrack, & Fredrickson, 2017; Russell, 2009; Scheib, 2007). Additional studies focused on music teacher identify formation, influences on music educators’ career choice, and teacher recruitment in general teacher education further these efforts and were summarized in previous reports by Rickels et al (2010, 2013).…”