Why should bringing the power of music into student learning be a challenge--even more so when the class comprises students deemed in need of "special education"? To address this question, three case studies are presented of Hong Kong special schools music teachers experienced in teaching students with intellectual disabilities at senior…

The body of research examining deliberate practice and self-regulation in musical instruction has grown extensively over the past several decades, while at the same time many practices in the independent music studio remain unchanged and/or under-researched. Compelling evidence indicates that students with high levels of self-regulation experience…

The purpose of this study was to examine components of the song-leading process used by kindergarten teachers in Taiwan and the United States, including the critical matter of starting pitch. Five public school kindergarten teachers in Taipei, Taiwan, and five public kindergarten teachers in Seattle, USA, were invited to participate in this study…

The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of seven music educators who conducted teacher research in their classrooms and to document whether the teachers and the local school district considered the project as professional development. Research questions included: (1) How do these music educators describe the experience of planning…

Folk music programmes have been a major feature of higher education music departments across the Nordic region for several decades. Still, programmes that offer the opportunity to deeply study non-European music (other than jazz) are very rare in most of Europe, and programmes in music "education" that offer such opportunities at…

This pilot study is to examine whether it is valuable to implement jazz choral practice in Hong Kong primary school setting. The findings can serve as a reference to explore the possibilities of promoting jazz education in Asian countries or in China. The participants were 70 public primary school students from grade 2 to 5 in Hong Kong. All…

The purpose of this research study was to explore how one rural elementary music programme deepens students' sense of place. Place-based educational research has explored the implementation of such programme in the areas of social studies and visual arts, however, more research is needed to examine how music education can deepen…

The purpose of this collective case study was to explore the best practices in beginning group-piano instruction. Four beginning and intermediate groups of piano students (N =20) were observed. Data were triangulated through in-class observation of students and teachers, teacher interviews and student questionnaires. The master teachers…

Despite the growth in number and popularity of collegiate a cappella ensembles in the USA over the past 20 years, few researchers have studied these self-governed, student-run, popular music ensembles. This ethnographic case study examined the music making and culture of the "Accafellows", an all-male a cappella group at a mid-western…

Although cultural diversity is important to the social context of classrooms, few researchers have explored school music experiences from the perspective of students of colour. Possibly of greater concern is the absence of research examining African-American students' educational experiences in early secondary education, during which time the…

The purpose of this study was to describe and discuss the way students of the Latvian Academy of Music teach before having entered a teacher training programme. Five hours of students' teaching work was video-taped, analysed and discussed with them between the spring of 2010 and the winter of 2011. The descriptive and analytic results of this…

Music teacher socialisation (MTS) has received increased attention in music education research, but few researchers have explored MTS with students during their primary socialisation, or pre-college, years. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to examine the perspectives of high school music students who plan to pursue a music…

The research aimed broadly to understand how Botswana's written government curricula for music are interpreted by music teachers as well as teachers' ideals for music teaching, and to what extent they thought it was possible to achieve those ideals. Grundy's writing on curriculum based on Habermas' technical, practical and emancipatory interests…

Dealing with traditions is a central issue in music education. I investigate different perspectives on tradition by engaging in a local hermeneutic study surrounding an interpretive event from a viola studio. To understand the function of tradition in this event, I construct a theoretical perspective with roots in hermeneutics and educational…

The piano repertoire preparation of three undergraduate students at three different academic levels--the first, fifth and eighth semesters--was followed during an academic semester. A phenomenological approach was used to collect data in three stages: an introductory interview, observations of the repertoire under preparation and a final…