Preservice Music Teacher Education: The View From 20 Years Later

Abstract

The purpose of this inquiry was to describe the preservice music teacher education perceptions of 10 experienced music teachers who had participated in studies of teacher education 10 and 20 years ago. Data included written responses and two individual interviews. The first four themes show participants’ reactions to the past and suggestions for the future in the areas of musicianship, fieldwork, student teaching, and detracking of curricula. Changing expectations of themselves in their teaching over the years included a focus on process, relationships, and well-being. The final theme, thoughts on change in music teacher education, provides combined general perceptions from participants about preservice music teacher education over the past 20 years. A discussion with connection to current preservice music teacher education literature is included after each theme.

Preschool teachers’ music-specific professional development preferences: Does teaching experience matter?

“…PD is an essential mechanism to enhance preschool teachers’ confidence in music education and help them improve their pedagogical competencies and practices (Bautista et al, 2022). Meanwhile, there is evidence that teachers’ PD needs evolve across their professional life cycles and are closely related to their amount of teaching experience (Conway, 2012, 2022; Koner & Eros, 2018). Based on the framework of responsive PD (e.g., Bautista, Toh, & Wong, 2018; Darling-Hammond et al, 2017; Desimone, 2009), this study aimed to investigate the music-specific PD preferences of Hong Kong preschool teachers regarding PD content, facilitators, types of initiatives, and activities/resources (RQ#1) and analyze potential differences among teachers with varying levels of teaching experience (RQ#2).…”

“…Moreover, there is a lack of studies on how preschool teachers' personal characteristics, such as teaching experience, may influence their music-specific PD preferences. This topic has been addressed with primary and secondary school teachers (Conway, 2012(Conway, , 2022Koner & Eros, 2018), but not with preschool teachers.…”

“…However, the literature focused on preschool teachers' music PD preferences is limited; studies on how preferences evolve with teaching experience typically focus on teachers from higher educational levels (e.g., Conway, 2012Conway, , 2022Koner & Eros, 2018). For instance, researchers found that the PD needs of school music teachers tend to shift from aspects pertaining to subject matter and music skills to aspects pertaining to student thinking and learning (Conway, 2012).…”

Elementary General Music: Perceptions and Aspirations of Preservice Music Teachers

“…Previous studies suggested that inservice teachers feel unprepared to teach outside of their preferred specialization—especially when asked to teach in EGM settings (e.g., Conway, 2022; Groulx, 2016; Kuebel, 2017b, 2019). However, the preservice teachers in this study reported that they felt prepared by their coursework to teach in EGM contexts—further supporting similar claims by Reese (2019) and Hamann and Ebie (2009).…”

“…"Tracked" music education programs in which teacher candidates gain most experiences in their main area of concentration, likely instrumental or choral instruction, may contribute to challenges with preparation and reinforce specialization identity. Broad undergraduate experiences have been suggested to increase preparation for and comfort to teach in all contexts (Conway, 2002(Conway, , 2012(Conway, , 2022Greher & Tobin, 2006;Groulx, 2016;Kuebel, 2017aKuebel, , 2017b and are recommended by teacher accreditation organizations such as the National Association of Schools of Music (2022). Despite these suggestions, challenges for music teacher preparation persist and may be related to experiences that precede formal teacher preparation.…”