Preservice Music Teachers Perceptions of Teaching and Learning Popular Music

Abstract

The purpose of this instrumental case study was to investigate the perceptions of preservice music teachers learning popular music and facilitating popular music learning experiences with elementary students in an after-school music program. Preservice music teachers enrolled in a popular music pedagogy course learned techniques for teaching and performing popular music, and facilitated an elective after-school ‘ukulele program where they worked with students from two different elementary schools. Using interviews, researcher journals, preservice teacher reflections, and observations, we explored how preservice music teachers make sense of their experiences in learning to teach in a new musical context. We found that preservice teachers valued extended field experiences before student teaching, developed positive attitudes toward teaching popular music/musicianship, and required significant time to acquire the skills needed to teach in an informal learning environment.

Preservice Music Educators’ Preparedness, Self-Efficacy, and Commitment to Incorporate Popular Music

“…A possible explanation for such findings involves how popular music is viewed in formal music education contexts. Despite the ongoing efforts made toward including popular music in music education curricula, popular music seems to remain somewhat secondary to Classical music (Blackwell et al, 2022;Cremata, 2019;Davis & Blair, 2011;Kastner, 2020;Powell et al, 2015). Mantie (2013) explained that "popular music is not a form of mainstream music education" because "it is not recognized appreciably by important accountability and centering institutions that regulate normative standards-music educators are left with few options, even if they do believe in using popular musics in the classroom" (p. 346).…”

“…Researchers have also documented the potential benefits of popular music teaching for preservice and inservice music educators, such as increased teacher autonomy, improved self-validation and self-fulfillment, as well as support for teachers' diverse identities (Blackwell et al, 2022;Davis & Blair, 2011;Kastner, 2014Kastner, , 2020Vasil, 2019). Other salient findings on the influence of popular music teaching include fostering 21st-century knowledge and skills such as innovation and technology (Vasil et al, 2019), as well as reinforcing connections between teachers and their students (Knapp et al, 2022).…”

“…Music educators felt unprepared to teach popular music also because of the lack of popular music experience in their undergraduate music education curricula (Blackwell et al, 2022;Kastner, 2014Kastner, , 2020Wang & Humphreys, 2009). Wang and Humphreys (2009) investigated the amount of time undergraduate preservice teachers devoted to multiple music genres in their history, theory, and performance classes at one large institution in the United States.…”

“…Nevertheless, music educators have reported low to moderate levels of preparedness for teaching popular music—commonly due to their lack of preparation in the required skills to teach the genre (Blackwell et al, 2022; Davis & Blair, 2011; Sorenson, 2021; Springer, 2016; Springer & Gooding, 2013). Springer and Gooding (2013) examined undergraduate and graduate preservice music teachers’ ( N = 82) attitudes toward popular music teaching at one large university located in the southern United States.…”

“…The findings revealed that participants dedicated a total of 92.84% of their time to the music of Western style (e.g., Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Twentieth Century) and only 0.54% of their time to popular music. Furthermore, in Blackwell et al’s (2022) exploration of preservice educators’ perspectives of popular music learning and teaching with elementary students in an after-school program, participants stated that this was their initial experience teaching with informal practices. They articulated “insecurities, self-consciousness, and frustration in their initial teaching experiences” given their perceptions of differences between “traditional” and informal teaching (p. 57).…”