Creating a Culture of Inquiry in Music Teacher Education

• In Event: Polyvocal Professional Learning Through Self-Study Research

Abstract

1.Objectives or Purposes
This paper details our challenges and achievements in developing a culture of shared inquiry within music teacher education, especially our efforts to establish a collaborative self-study culture within our own universities and in the larger music education profession. We explain how we have continually reinvented our own relationship, and identified like-minded music teacher educators with whom to share the critical, reflective practice of self-study.

2.Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
The field of music teacher education is young. The Journal of Music Teacher Education began in 1990; biennial meetings of the Society for Music Teacher Education in 2005. Research on music teacher education emerged within the last 10 to 20 years. With positivistic methodologies the primary music education research paradigm pre -1990s (Conway & West, 2014), it is unsurprising that a self-study approach to examining music teacher education is still in its infancy.

This section of the presentation will trace the development of self-study and notions of personal inquiry within music by discussing the following works chronologically (Authors, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2010, 2012, 2014). This work connects with quintessential examples of self-study scholarship including: Bullough and Pinnegar (2001); Loughran (2007); and Samaras (2011).

3.4.Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry/ Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials
We will share outcomes from a collective, collaborative analysis of our individual and shared self-study work cited above, providing an overall look at the lessons learned from this community of music educators’ foray into self-study.

5.Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view
The following outcomes regarding self-study in music education will be described:
(a) Focus on professional- and self-improvement: (b) Public reflection and inquiry; (c) The importance of collaboration to validate findings and understandings: (d) The necessity of openness and vulnerability; (e) The reconceptualised role of the teacher.

6.Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work
Creating a culture of shared inquiry in music teacher education has resulted in an important change in how we think about developing and disseminating new knowledge. Rather than concentrating on our independent research agendas, carried out alone at our respective institutions, we have begun to prioritise community, collaboration, and conversation with people who help us reflect on the difficult questions about music teacher preparation practices.

This shift is not easy. The relative isolation of traditional university positions perpetuates and reinforces entrenched practices; when peers who value risk-taking and a critical interrogation of traditional teacher preparation methods are scattered among far-flung institutions, undertaking a thorough, reflective examination of one’s practices, alone, is daunting. Admitting doubt increases one’s vulnerability and opens the door to criticism or hard questioning from others. We will conclude with a shared discussion with attendees regarding this vulnerability in a variety of contexts beyond music.

Authors

• Colleen M. Conway, University of Michigan

• Ann Marie Stanley, University of Rochester