Developing music teacher identities: An international multi-site study (original) (raw)
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The identities of music teachers
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Proceedings of the 20th International Seminar of the ISME Music in School and Teacher Education Commission (MISTEC), 2014
The interrelation between professional identity, instructional conceptions and socio-cultural contexts in teachers’ lives is explored. Harmonic correspondence between teachers’ professional identity and her working and professional activity in music education is necessary in order to develop good educational practices. This relation is affected by different kinds of socio-cultural contexts, as family, school, initial professional education, and the entrance into the professional and working field. Construction of conceptions on their own teaching action develops in relation to those contexts, and they configure at the same time the way how the teacher tells her narrative on herself as a professional in music education, that is, her professional identity. This research bases on the complexity paradigm, and assumes a qualitative methodology involving 16 biographical in-depth interviews. The selected sample is intentionally heterogeneous in terms of contexts, identities and conceptions. Results show that contexts introduce differences in teachers’ instructional conceptions corresponding to nuances in the types of identity; but they are not relevant and do not transform professional identity, which appears to be the own re-elaboration of each teacher, some times going with and some others against the context teachers are experiencing.
Journal of Music Teacher Education, 2009
The purpose of this article is to examine the literature concerning the connections between performer and teacher selves in the formation of a music teacher’s identity. This article begins by framing an issue facing preservice and in-service music teachers, namely, the tension between a performer identity and a teacher identity. An overview is provided of (a) the literature documenting preservice music teacher identities that privileges the performer identity and (b) the literature that focuses on balancing and negotiating the performer and teacher identities. To understand aspects of the current debate about music teacher identities, the author develops five themes based on a critical analysis of the selected literature: teacher versus performer identity conflict, personal and professional benefits of music making, holistic view of musical identities, roles and situated identities, and defining music teacher identity. The author concludes by synthesizing the commonalities of the recent research and suggesting approaches and topics for future research on music teacher identity.
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2018
The study aims to understand how transformative professional learning might be created for the positive growth of music teacher identity and sense of agency. The thesis first discusses the issues of defining music teachers’ professional identity and the assumptions that underpin current conceptions of music teacher development and learning. It reframes discussion on music teacher growth to examine the links between biography, identity and sense of agency within an overarching ecological framework. The thesis argues for a broadened definition of transformative learning as a theoretical frame for understanding and promoting the growth of music teachers. Using a two-phase, exploratory, mixed methods design, the research integrated both phenomenological and quantitative perspectives. The Phase 1 qualitative study of 12 participants revealed themes that supported transformative learning drawn from what these participants considered to be critical turning points in the development of their professional identities. The Phase 2 questionnaire study (n=168) showed the extent to which different types of music experiences, perceived music abilities and other developmental opportunities are positively or negatively associated with the perceived music teaching abilities and identity of different groups of music teachers (specialists and generalists, primary and secondary, beginning and experienced teachers). The findings suggest that transformative learning experiences were created by interactions between teachers’ personal identity, their activist identity, their music and teaching experiences, the impact of students, their social relationships, and the opportunities and pragmatic tensions afforded by the ecological nature of the social world. This ecological perspective to learning could help shift our focus from ‘What we can do for teachers’ professional development?’ to ‘What conditions could support or prevent positive transformative learning of music teachers?’. This thesis contributes to extending theoretical discussions in music teacher identity and transformative learning.
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Research Studies in Music Education, 2020
The article discusses a lifelong perspective for growing music teacher identity, particularly related to the in-service development of music teachers. It presents a theoretical framework which is developed from literature reviews on teacher identity development and construction and from case studies of the transformative learning journeys of serving music teachers in Singapore. Seven themes – personal self, activist identity, music, teaching, students, social relations, and the ecology of the social world – are found to interact and contribute to the transformative learning of music teachers.
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An İnvestigation of Prospective Music Teachers’ Early Teacher İdentity
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This study was a descriptive study that investigated prospective music teachers’ early teacher identity. The study made use of a general screening model. Participants of the research is consists of 162 fourth-year music teacher candidates. The study was conducted in the spring semester of the 2015-2016 academic year at the music teaching department of the fine arts education division of different Universities in Turkey. The " Early Teacher Identity Measure ” developed by Friesen and Besley (2013) was used in the research as data collection tool. As a result; according the results of the analysis, prospective music teachers’ perceptions of early teacher identity was found to be at "high" level in general, and in all sub-dimensions of the measure. In the light of research results, it is considered that when teacher candidates confident in their profession, will exhibit more positive behaviors towards the students, motivate the students more easily, enjoy doing and enj...
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The purpose of this study was to explore Chinese preservice music teachers’ music teacher role-identity. McCall and Simmons’ (1978) theory of identities and interactions served as the theoretical framework. Three research questions guided this study: How do Chinese preservice music teachers describe their music teacher role-identity, specifically, their imagined character and role as an occupant of a music teacher position? How do Chinese preservice music teachers construct their music teacher role-identity through secondary socialization? Where do Chinese preservice music teachers place their music teacher role-identity in their prominence and salience hierarchies?