Between music and education: A case study of a graduate program in music education

Lia Laor, Mordechai Miron, Sara Shimoni

Aims: This case study examines an innovative two-year graduate program for music education at Levinsky Teachers College in Israel. The program's goal is to train music educators as leaders who can introduce meaningful professional changes in their educational communities. The study documents and critically examines how participation in the program transformed students' attitudes and beliefs with respect to their professional identity as music educators as well as regarding their own professional development. It also considers how students’ attitudes towards research have evolved, e.g., the relevance of research to their practice of music education, the development of practice-based research interests, and the way in which students' own research projects integrate theory and practice. The study evaluates the program as a newly emerging culture in the context of a teachers college in Israel

Methods: The study uses qualitative and quantitative methods. Semi- structured interviews with the students (23) were conducted before they entered the program and towards the end of their first year of studies. The first round of interviews documents, among other things, students’ expectations of the program. In the second round, data was collected concerning students' attitudes and feelings about their actual learning experience. The transcribed interviews were content analysed and global categories were formulated.

Questionnaires consisting of closed and open questions were administered at the end of each year of the program. These questionnaires assessed students' perspectives about the program (curriculum, teaching) as well as their attitudes regarding the program’s contribution to their professional development.

Results: Four major themes emerge from the analysis of the qualitative data: Music versus education; research relevance; the desired curriculum and community of learners.

(1) Music versus education. Most of the students expressed their disappointment with the need to take education courses, preferring to substitute them with music courses. They viewed education courses as marginal to their main field of interest and practice. (2) Research relevance. Qualitative and quantitative research methodology courses in particular, and research in general, were viewed as irrelevant to students’ work and professional development. (3) The desired curriculum. Students’ descriptions of their desired curriculum matched that of their undergraduate studies. (4) Community of learners. The formation of a community of learners, all of whom are music educators, was viewed by the students as one of the program's strengths. This community was described as a source of knowledge and a provider of professional and social support to its members.

The quantitative findings regarding the program (curriculum and teaching) support the qualitative ones. Nevertheless, the questionnaire items assessing the contribution of the program to the students' practice and professional development were ranked higher than expected when compared to students’ critiques of the relevance of education courses and research methodology to their practice. The qualitative and some of the quantitative findings may reflect students' conservative attitudes concerning the role of educational theory and research, which may have formed during their undergraduate studies. At the same time, the quantitative data indicate noticeable changes in students' professional self-perception. Students gave a high ranking to their own capacity to employ theory and research perspectives in their work as music educators.

Theoretical and educational significance. This study is intended to fill in a lacuna in the field of music education. Research on graduate programs in this field is very scarce. This may reflect an historical bias of music educators, who have traditionally valued art over science and considered art as the fruit of genius rather than of education. This very bias is reflected in the students' attitudes toward educational theory and research, notwithstanding their high valuation of the relevance of these perspectives to their professional practice. This high valuation may have developed latently during the course of their graduate studies, yet it seems to have had no impact on their entrenched bias.

 Music educators have been slow to adopt qualitative research methods, and even slower to apply these methods to the study of their own practice. The degree to which music educators are involved in practice-based research is determined, among other things, by their background knowledge and attitudes toward both educational and research theory. Hence, a revision of graduate as well as undergraduate curricula in music education is called for at this juncture. This revision will serve to demonstrate how an inquiry-based curriculum supports the development of professional practitioners. Such a revision will lead music educators of all ranks to join together in establishing a community that espouses both music and inquiry.    

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