Musicking Normal Schools: Soundings of Capital, Gender, Race in Past, Current, Futures of Teacher Education

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 11:45 am

Session Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract

This collaborative historical research presentation by six music-education professors explores the role of music in teacher education at America’s public normal schools. Nuanced meanings of capital, gender, and race provide theorectical frameworks for critical historical inquiry, with relevance to contemporary teacher educaton and considerations for its future. The study investigated how music was integrated into teacher training and how it impacted stakeholders. Archivists at 180 institutions were contacted; 111 provided primary-source data. Doctoral students analyzed the data across multiple years in a historical research seminar, producing case studies and content analyses. Presenters share findings that reveal both celebratory and problematic themes rooted in American colonization. These insights inform current and future policy in teacher and arts education.

Sub Unit

• Division F - Historical Inquiry in Education

Chair

• Jill M Sullivan, Arizona State University

Papers

• The Music Course Offerings, Degrees, and Certifications of Twelve American Normal Schools - Lori F. Gray, University of Montana

• Mary McLeod Bethune and the Rise of Music Education at the Daytona Normal and Industrial - Roger Anderson, Central State University

• Music Education at the Eastern Illinois Normal School - Danelle Larson, Eastern Illinois University

• Choral Ensembles in American Normal Schools: Comparing Performance Offerings across Four Institutions, 1871–1926 - Dawn M Farmer, Augustana College

• Remapping Jazz Teaching and Learning in Postsecondary Schools—Normal School Jazz: 1920s to the 1940s - Keith Brenden Kelly, Arizona State University

• Instrumental Music in American Normal Schools: A Historical Overview of Ensembles, Instruction, and Inclusion - Jill M. Sullivan, Arizona State University

Session Organizer

• Jill M Sullivan, Arizona State University

Discussant

• Marie F. McCarthy, University of Michigan