Choosing Music Education After Another Career: The Perspectives of Two Music Educators

• In Event: Roundtable Session 101
  In Roundtable Session: Music Education Roundtable 2

Abstract

This interpretive narrative research project investigates the meanings that two music educators who entered the profession after having had other careers make of their reasons for becoming music educators. In interviews, they told stories about the life experiences that led them to a music education career. The recent rise in alternative certification programs in music education may lead to an increase in the number of music educators who enter the profession as career changers (Asmus, 2003; Hellman et al, 2011). These shifting demographics of music education students provide the field with the opportunity to examine the curriculum of music teacher education programs in order to address the strengths and needs of an increasingly diverse group of students.

Author

• Rhoda J. Bernard, Boston Conservatory