Preservice Music Teacher Identity: Emerging Figured Worlds

• In Event: 44.084 - Roundtable Session 18
  In Roundtable Session: 44.084-20 - Becoming Artist Music Teachers: Four Perspectives on Music Teacher Identity Construction

Abstract

The purpose of this descriptive case study is to examine the development of preservice music teacher identity within a senior-level methods course. Research questions include:
• In what ways were participants’ pre-teaching orientations maintained or strengthened by authoritative and internally persuasive discourses?
• In what ways were participants’ pre-teaching orientations challenged or changed by authoritative and internally persuasive discourses?
• How can the participants’ figured worlds of preservice teaching practice be described?
I used the Bakhtinian concept of idealogical becoming as well as Holland, Lachiotte, Skinner, and Caine’s (2001) construct of figured worlds to frame this study. Bakhtin (1981) posits two types of discourses – authoritative and internally persuasive – that influence the “idealogical becoming” of a person. Identity is constantly in a state of incompleteness as these discourses exert influence. Authoritative discourse arises from a persons interaction with authoritative others – political structures, institutions, persons of authority. This discourse demands our acknowledgement since it has authority, arising from its source, embedded within it. Educational policies may demand compliance, agreement, or disgruntlement. Undergraduate coursework in teacher education and interaction with one’s professors in comparison/contrast to one’s own experience in school also represent authoritative dialogues that create conflicts within identity development. Internally persuasive discourse, on the other hand, is the everyday discourse of the people we encounter. Rather than coming with embedded authority, internally persuasive dialogue’s influence arises from one’s constant submersion in the immediate environment and interactions with the social structure. Idealogical becoming is a two-way street: one influences the social environment as the social environment influences the identity of the individual. This ideological becoming happens within what Bakhtin (1981) termed “ideological environments.” I use Holland and colleagues’ (2001) expansion of Bakhtinian theories, termed “figured worlds,” as a backdrop of interpretation of the ideological development of these student teachers. Holland described figured worlds as “socially and culturally constructed realm[s] of interpretation in which particular characters and actors are recognized, significance is assigned to certain acts, and particular outcomes are valued over others” (p. 52).
Participants are eight senior-level instrumental PMT. The first data sources are documents provided by the participants that communicate their philosophy of music education or their vision of music teacher identity. During the course of the semester, I conducted three individual interviews with each participant: an initial interview, an interim interview accompanied by a video-assisted stimulated recall session, and a final interview. In addition, I observed each participant teaching in field-work and peer-teaching setting throughout the semester, collected written video-based teaching reflections, and a focus-group interview including all participants at the conclusion of the semester. Each interview and stimulated recall session was transcribed and analyzed using qualitative methodology with idealogical becoming and figured worlds as theoretical lenses. Through examining PMT identity development through transitional periods, I hope to provide greater insight into the influences surrounding this phenomenon. Stakeholders in music teacher education may benefit from greater knowledge about this formative period of teaching development.

Author

• Sean Powell, University of North Texas