Since 1995, the author has been the university music educator responsible to a professional development partnership. Over an 8-year span, she has collected narratives of experience from approximately 100 pre-service music teachers, following, to some extent, the research model of Connelly and Clandinin. In developing their notion of "personal…

The author teaches music to students from kindergarten through twelfth grade in Eureka, a small mining town in Utah. Over the past decade the author has observed both the positive and negative, short-term and long-term affects of his teaching decisions. He struggles daily with what John Goodlad calls the "burden of judgment," the ongoing moral…

The present study is one of the first investigations into the music teacher educator shortage. The purpose was to identify factors that affect music teachers' decisions about entering music education doctoral programs. Practicing music educators, identified as being outstanding candidates for doctoral studies (PME) (n = 22), and recent doctoral…

Educators face many challenges in the classroom. One of the most difficult challenges is structuring school success for students who do not meet the goals and objectives of the educational system. Enrollment of these students, generally referred to as "at-risk", has dramatically increased (more than 250%) over the past two decades (Franklin,…

Over the many years the author has been involved with music education, he has had the opportunity to work along side many fine scholars and teachers who remind him what a precious commodity school music is, or at least can be. He also notes that after so many years of school music flourishing in the schools that, as a school subject it remains…

The preparation of music educators involves many facets. Students obtain pedagogical knowledge, understanding, and skill development during the college experience. In addition, preservice music teachers do numerous writing and reading projects as well as peer teaching. One area that tends to be lacking in the preparation before student teaching is…

This study explores the concept of "outside influences" to Arts education as a legitimate and important area of research in Arts education. In this study "outside influences" is defined, generally, as those groups that choose to contribute to public school Arts education, but are not a part of the institutional system of public schooling.…

Musicality is a loosely used term with many meanings. It can be applied to a small child who chants a nursery rhyme, or to a harmonica player who plays by ear, or to a conductor like Toscanini. Some educators and philosophers believe that musicality is manifested in the technical achievements of musicians. Others believe that technique is…

This article is an investigation and development of a locally "grounded" theory resulting from a case study done of a department of music at a state university. The full study was completed (2002) under the advisement and supervision of Dr. Gerald Olson, Professor in the School of Music and the School of Education at the University of…

This article presents aspects of professional development, using a narrative case-history approach. It represents the author's own case as an illustration of the kind of integrative experience that may occur as women assume professional careers. In this article, the author weaves the scholarly and theoretical components into the reality of a lived…

Learning to negotiate the "personal war between oneself as a musician and as a teacher" is an important part of the identity construction of pre-service music educators. In this article, the author shares some preliminary findings from a study related to the needs of in-service music teachers. This study did not begin as a sociological inquiry; it…