Joseph Michael Abramo

Gender Differences of Popular Music Production in Secondary Schools

In this case study, the author inv estigated how students’ gender affected their participation in a secondary popular music class in which participants wrote and performed original music. Three same-gendered rock groups and two mixed-gendered rock groups were observ ed. Would students of different genders rehearse and compose differently? How would same-gendered processes compare to mixed-gendered processes? Research suggests that girls learn differently from boys and that gender—as distinct from sex—is formed in social env ironments. In research on popular music education, howev er, the participation of girls has been under-documented and under-theorized. This study found that boys and girls rehearsed and composed differently: Whereas the boys combined musical gestures and nonv erbal communication into a seamless sonic process, the girls separated talk and musical production. In the mixed-gendered groups, tensions arose because participants used different learning styles that members of the opposite gender misunderstood. Broadening popular music pedagogies to incorporate different practices is suggested.

The Trumpet Metaphor: A Narrative of a Teacher's Mid-Career Pedagogical Change from Formal to Informal Learning Practices.

By exploring ‘the trumpet’ as a metaphor, a successful mid-career instrumental teacher and a teacher educator jointly conducted a narrative inquiry into pedagogy used with a high school composition class. In particular, they focused on the dilemmas that arose when, within this class setting, the instrumental teacher implemented informal learning practices for the first time. This teacher struggled as he shifted from the teacher-directed pedagogy he employed in concert band instrumental instruction, to the social-constructivist pedagogy he felt was required of the composition class. As he began implementing informal learning practices, this teacher questioned both the value of his identity as a classical musician and the effectiveness of social-constructivist strategies, finding dialogue and small-group problem solving to be an inefficient use of class time. Despite these struggles, or because of them, he grew as an educator. Based on these findings, it is suggested that teacher educators should consider addressing the complex challenges to identity and epistemology that initial engagement with informal learning and social-constructivism may elicit from practicing and pre-service educators.

“Pedagogical Creativity” as a Framework for Music Teacher Education

Creativity research has a long history in music education, including the development of theories and strategies to foster the music creativity of students of all ages and levels. Underexplored is how teacher education programs can cultivate pre- and in-service teachers’ abilities to develop their educational creativity when designing curricula and delivering instruction. By reviewing key research in creativity and the traits of creative persons, this article demarcates characteristics of creative music teachers, as well as their instruction and curricula, in order to offer implications for music teacher education. This framework suggests that creative pedagogues (a) are responsive, flexible, and improvisatory; (b) are comfortable with ambiguity; (c) think metaphorically and juxtapose seemingly incongruent and novel ideas in new and interesting ways; and (d) acknowledge and use fluid and flexible identities. The article provides possible strategies music teacher educators can employ to help pre- and in-service educators develop the dispositions and core practices of creative music pedagogues.

Disability in the Classroom Current Trends and Impacts on Music Education

This article covers current trends in disability rights and raises questions about how society’s views of disability influence the music education of students in need of special education services. Brief overviews of the disability-rights movement in the United States and of federal laws pertaining to disabilities and education are included. Next, there is a discussion of the “social model of disability,” which defines disability as a social position rather than a medical condition. Finally, “people-first language” and how it applies to music teaching are examined. The article also offers some suggestions to help educators incorporate these ideas into their teaching.

Four notions on the qualities of cooperating music teachers

ABSTRACT This article develops criteria for the selection, professional development, and assessment of cooperating teachers through four “notions.” These notions suggest that cooperating teachers might (1) possess knowledge of educational theory and practice; (2) understand the importance of context in education; (3) understand narratives role in the process of learning to teach; and (4) critically reflect on teaching practice. We explore these notions as qualities that may guide cooperating teachers’ work in facilitating student teachers’ development. We discuss specific ideas and strategies for mentoring and modeling within various theoretical frameworks and selected research that supports each notion. Throughout the article, we outline policy and practice implications for music teacher preparation programs, including aligning them with current accreditation standards and assessments.

Queering informal pedagogy: sexuality and popular music in school

This qualitative case study explores how students’ perceptions of sexual identity affect how they participate in popular music processes used in school. Seventeen high school students were invited to form five single-gendered and mixed-gendered rock bands. The data collected included fieldnotes and audio recordings of observed rehearsals and individual interviews. The data were coded and analyzed from a queer theory standpoint to provide interpretations of how participants constructed their sexual identity through musical production and reception. The findings suggest that the boys used popular music making to project a sexual identity, and that they refused to participate in musical acts – like singing in a high tessitura and writing lyrics – that they willingly performed in traditional music ensembles and genres. This questions whether the recent use of popular music pedagogies in formal settings effectively furthers traditional music education aims of educating about the elements of music.

Gifted Students with Disabilities: "Twice Exceptionality" in the Music Classroom.

Many music educators teach students who are both gifted and possess a learning disability—what is commonly referred to as “twice exceptionality.” This article describes some characteristics of twice-exceptional students, the challenges these students often face in school, and some strategies music educators can use to properly differentiate instruction and curricula. The strategies offered include highlighting strengths and mitigating areas of challenge; emphasizing integrative thinking and deemphasizing dispersive thinking; allowing students flexibility of choice; overtly teaching organizational skills, self-regulation, and compensation strategies; and building relationships. While the differentiation strategies suggested are specifically for twice-exceptional students, they can benefit all students.

Constructing a personal orientation to music teaching

Beginning in the 1990s, researchers of teacher education began to pay attention to how identities shape education students’ perceptions of the profession. Working with ideas like those of Deborah Britzman’s (1991) called the ‘cultural myths of teaching’, they looked at how 13 years of experience sitting in classrooms, the media, and various identities such as class, race, and gender, shape pre-service teachers’ paths to becoming educators. They also examined how the context of teachers’ personal lives, life histories, and the individual environments they teach in become deciding factors in the development of their careers. Drawing from this research, teacher educators moved away from instrumentalist and behaviourist views of education that reduce successful teaching to discreet skills and towards the use of personal narratives and identity to help students become reflective teachers. This thoughtful and unique textbook by Campbell, Thompson, and Barrett finally brings these concepts to undergraduate and graduate music teacher preparation in a practical and thorough manner. Filling a hole in the sizable body of texts that focus strictly on the techniques and skills of music teaching, this text, embedded in research on constructivism and identity, adds the important component of cultivating the dispositions of successful educators. Although aimed at a variety of music teacher preparation courses, such as methods, student teaching, and graduate courses, this text seems best suited towards early classes, especially the introduction to music education courses that have become common in many colleges and universities in the USA. The text uses students’ perspectives as a starting point for grounding successful teacher preparation. To accomplish this, the authors invite the students, through journal writing and reflection, to discover their perceptions of music teaching and learning. They are asked to reflect on their successful and unsuccessful teachers and the kind of teacher they imagine themselves becoming, and how these experiences and desires shape their perceptions of music teaching. By addressing how students’ years of experience in the classroom shape their current beliefs, assumptions, and desires in regard to music teaching, students begin to understand how their experiences in school and music contribute to their subjectivities. But rather than remaining a solipsistic endeavour to merely uncover one’s personal biases, students examine concise summaries of research on pre-service music teachers (Bergee et al. 2001; Thompson and Campbell 2005) to discover that both influential teachers and a ‘deep devotion to music’ are common responses from first-year music education students. Then, by looking at the essential characteristics of teachers as stated by The Music Education Research Vol. 13, No. 1, March 2011, 121 132