For three decades, research on training in music education for pre-service primary (elementary) generalist teachers has consistently highlighted four main issues that limit its effectiveness: 1) the influence of past experiences; 2) a lack of confidence 3) a lack of musical competence and 4) limited time to address these issues in teacher…

This qualitative case study examines the affordances and constraints of an intergenerational multimodal arts curriculum that was designed to expand communication and identity options for children and elder participants. The authors drew on actor-network theory to conceptualize curriculum as a network effect and refer to literature on multimodal…

We offer a multi-voiced performance autoethnography where contemporary music education practices are informed and imbued with the voices of teachers and learners. By dialogically and musically engaging with the very people who live, make music, and engage with learners in music classrooms, we promote contemporary qualitative forms of research and…

Drawing from their respective work at the intersection of music and science, the coauthors argue that engaging in processes of making music can help students more deeply engage in the kinds of creativity associated with inquiry based science education (IBSE) and scientists better convey their ideas to others. Of equal importance, the processes of…

In this paper I explore the layers of voices represented in a classroom of high school students with special needs. As their guest music teacher, I learned about their strengths and challenges, their teachers, and their engagement with music. Issues of inclusion, access, privacy, and personal bias confronted me as I worked to construct narratives…

The purpose of this inquiry is to investigate how a/r/tography is uniquely situated to enact, develop, and problematize "becoming pedagogical" in an arts-based cohort in a teacher education program. This particular study purposefully grapples with visual and performing arts, in an elementary teacher education program, as teacher…

The purpose of this paper is to examine children's spirituality from the perspective of music learning, using arts based research as a mode of inquiry. Six interrelated themes are chosen to explore the landscape of music and children's spirituality and to evaluate the potential of arts based research to inform the intersections…

Out of the mouth of babes (and even more nonverbal) has come perhaps the wisest music teacher education I have ever received. In this narrative I share my foibles as a young, over-confident, and naive music instructor who, through a great amount of error, eventually learned the value of letting a child lead his own music learning. Throughout this…

The collaborative action research reported here strives to extend a prior study that dealt with the effects of integrating a general music course of study with the total curriculum of a first grade class. This second study used a similar plan in which a fifth grade teacher and a music teacher worked cooperatively to provide a curriculum that…

In this article, we discuss some issues raised by the increasing number of comprehensive national programs for visiting school concerts and art events in Norwegian schools. We ask what this increase in activity might mean for the nature of arts education subjects in schools, in particular music, what kind of rationale and philosophy the national…

This article describes the effects of a year-long reflective writing assignment--weekly Learning Posts--designed for students in an undergraduate music education course. I created this assignment to cause students to regularly interrogate the teaching and learning they experience in their own daily lives. This study's research question emerged…

The aim of the research reported in this article was to determine what music first year generalist primary teachers were teaching. In particular, the study sought to determine the impact of music education coursework undertaken in teacher training on these teachers' practice as beginning teachers. The self-reported data was generated through a…

The self-efficacy beliefs teachers hold about their ability to teach subjects shapes their competence in teaching. Teacher self-efficacy is defined as teacher beliefs in their ability to perform a teaching task. If teachers have strong teacher self-efficacy in the teaching of arts education, they are more likely to incorporate arts in the…

This paper tells the story of a researcher's analysis process that became a journey to an unfamiliar place and, ultimately, to a new way of conceiving analysis and a new way of seeing--at least, new to the author as researcher. The study was an analysis of interview data gleaned from a series of conversations about what it is to be a musician. She…

This article documents the current classroom practice of creative arts education of respondent classroom teachers in the New South Wales Greater Western Region, Australia. The study provides a descriptive account of classroom practice in creative arts education through the employment of a quantitative methodology. A questionnaire was designed and…