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The identities of music teachers

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R. Kopiez, A. C. Lehmann, I. Wolther & C. Wolf (Eds.) Proceedings of the 5th Triennial ESCOM Conference
8-13 September 2003, Hanover University of Music and Drama, Germany

THE IDENTITIES OF MUSIC TEACHERS

David J. Hargreaves1, Graham Welch2, Ross Purves1, Nigel Marshall1
1
Centre for International Research in Music Education, University of Surrey Roehampton, UK
2
Institute of Education, University of London, UK

ABSTRACT In England at least, there is a widespread view, and some evidence,

of problems with school music, particularly at secondary level. A
This paper describes some preliminary findings from the good deal of lower secondary school music is seen as unsuccessful,
Teacher Identities in Music Education (TIME) project, which unimaginatively taught, and out of touch with pupils’ interests,
is investigating how the attitudes and identities of intending and this may contrast with music in the primary school. The view
secondary school music teachers develop during the transition that there exists a ‘problem of secondary school music’ was given
from music student or musician through postgraduate teacher considerable impetus by a large-scale project carried out for the
education and into their first teaching post. It is also exploring National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) and the
how students on undergraduate teacher education courses might Arts Council of England (Harland et al., 2000). This project drew
differ from those in university music departments and specialist on four different sources of qualitative and quantitative evidence
music colleges in their attitudes toward, and preparedness for, about art, drama and music in secondary schools, including five
teaching secondary school music as a career. Some preliminary school case studies, some of NFER’s existing self-evaluation data
findings are that students from all of these different kinds of from 152 schools, a survey of 2269 Year 11 pupils, and interviews
institution rate their teaching self-efficacy as higher than their with employers on the perceived values of the arts, although the
musical self-efficacy: and that although secondary postgraduate data on music which is presented in the main report draws largely
certificate in secondary education students in music have on quotations from the case studies. The report concludes that
traditional ‘classical’ qualifications, they regard ‘teaching skills’ music is ‘the most problematic and vulnerable art form’ at GCSE
such as communication and time management as being just (General Certificate of Secondary Education) level, and that the
as important as specific musical skills. They also value music vast majority of GCSE pupils display an absence of ‘enjoyment,
education for its social and extra-musical/personal benefits more relevance, skill development, creativity and expressive
than as a foundation for a professional musical career. dimensions’ in music (Harland et al., 2000: 568).

This research brings together these two issues of identity and

1. INTRODUCTION teaching quality by attempting to explain the putative problem
of secondary school music in terms of the congruence between
the musical identities of pupils and teachers, and focusses in
1.1. Musical identities and musical contexts particular on the latter. For pupils, two critical determinants
The concept of ‘musical identities’ has recently been introduced of musical identity are likely to be contexts and genres. Many
and elaborated by MacDonald, Hargreaves and Miell (2002), are likely to make a strong distinction between ‘school music’
and forms the theoretical background to this research. Hargreaves and ‘out of school music’, and these are likely to be bound up
et al. (2002) make the distinction between ‘music in identities’, with the distinction between ‘serious’ and ‘popular’ styles, even
which refers to the ways in which people use music to express though the latter can now form an integral part of ‘school music’.
aspects of personal identity such as gender identity, national For music teachers, these issues of context and genre are also
identity and youth identity: and ‘identities in music’, which refers likely to be important in the construction of their own identities
to the ways in which individuals also construct identities within as their careers develop. Many will have been educated within
music, for instance, as a performer, teacher, listener or critic. the Western classical tradition, in which music-making is seen as
the domain of the professional performing musician. Might this
The importance of ‘identities in music’ vary considerably give rise to conflicting identities, namely between ‘performing
between different individuals: music is salient to a greater or a musician’ and ‘classroom music teacher’?
lesser extent in different people’s lives, so that the ‘musical self-
concept’ is far more a part of a professional musician’s general The Teacher Identities in Music Education (TIME) project is
self-concept, for example, than in that of a non-musician. Our approaching this question by investigating how the attitudes and
interest here lies in the role of music educational institutions identities of intending secondary school music teachers develop
in the development of musical identities. The extent to which during the transition from music student or musician through
schoolchildren see themselves as ‘musicians’ has been found to postgraduate teacher education and into their first teaching
depend strongly on situational and institutional factors such as post. It is also exploring how students on undergraduate teacher
whether or not they take instrumental lessons (Lamont, 2002), education courses might differ from those in university music
and these kind of self-perceptions can be just as important in their departments and specialist music colleges in their attitudes
subsequent motivation to develop musical studies as their actual toward, and preparedness for, teaching secondary school music
abilities (see O’Neill, 2002). as a career. Data collection on the TIME project is currently
under way, and this paper reports an interim view of the progress
so far.

ISBN 3-931852-67-9
ISSN 1617-6847
178
 Proceedings of the 5th Triennial ESCOM Conference
8-13 September 2003, Hanover University of Music and Drama, Germany

1.2. Measuring self-efficacy in teaching and scales to be used alongside measures of self-esteem as primary
instruments in the TIME project’s investigation of the developing
music identities of music teaching students.
One of the central ways in which we hope to operationalise
music teaching students’ developing identities as teachers and 2. THE TIME PROJECT: METHODS AND
as musicians is by assessing their self-efficacy in these two
domains: we are concerned with participants’ self-perceptions DESIGN
of their abilities as musicians and teachers, and aim to assess
As stated earlier, this paper is an interim progress report on
participants’ levels of perceived self-efficacy in both these
work in progress, the full details of which will be reported in
vocational domains.
subsequent publications. The description that follows therefore
After evaluating a range of pre-existing self-efficacy scales represents a broad overview of the methods and design rather
for musical and teaching activities, an instrument designed to than a detailed account. The study has two main strands, namely
measure so-called ‘general’ self-efficacy was adapted to form the Longitudinal Questionnaire Study (LQS) and the Case
two distinct but comparable scales. The Self-Efficacy Scale (SES) Studies, and the LQS involves a short-term longitudinal follow-
(Sherer et al, 1982) has been used extensively by researchers up of participants in Phases 1 and 2 of the project (see below).
working in many areas1. Of particular relevance to the present
study was the work of Sinden (1999) who, after evaluating and 2.1. Participants
rejecting several other self-efficacy measures, made extensive
use of the SES in its original form in her investigation of musical An important aim of the project is to compare the developing
performance anxiety. identities of music teaching students from four different kinds
of courses: namely Postgraduate Certificate in Education
Sherer and his colleagues were interested in the concept of (PGCE) students from University education departments (N =
general self-efficacy, in which an ‘individuals’ past experiences 74): Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) students from a University
of success and failure in a variety of situations should result in a education department (N = 8): undergraduate students in
general set of expectations that the individual carries with them music conservatories (N = 49); and undergraduate students in
into new situations’ (1982: 664). Focusing on the measurement University Music Departments (N = 16). The total initial sample
of general self-efficacy in the areas of social skills and vocational size for Phase 1 of the LQS is N = 147. Institutions participating
competence, the SES is intended to assess (1) willingness to in the TIME project as a whole include University of Surrey
initiate behaviour, (2) willingness to expend effort in completing Roehampton, University of London Institute of Education,
the behaviour, and (3) persistence in the face of adversity. The University of Cambridge Faculty of Education, City University,
23 statements that form the scale are divided into two subscales: Royal College of Music, Royal Academy of Music, Royal
the General Self-Efficacy subscale containing 17 items and the Northern College of Music, Manchester Metropolitan University,
Social Self-Efficacy subscale containing six items. In common Birmingham Conservatoire and the Guildhall School of Music
with other work that has used the SES to measure perceived and Drama.
competence in particular vocational domains (Woodruff and
Cashman, 1993), only the General Self-Efficacy subscale is used
in present study. 2.2. Longitudinal Questionnaire Study
(LQS)
The role and significance of general self-efficacy has been
the subject of debate amongst psychologists (Bandura, 1997). In the LQS, students from undergraduate and postgraduate music
However, the SES was attractive to us for more practical reasons. teacher education courses, along with final-year undergraduate
Reflecting the theoretical motivations of its designers, the items students from university music departments and music colleges
that constitute the instrument are generic descriptions of situations are completing the Musical Careers Questionnaire (MCQ).
and problems encountered in vocational activities. With only This specially designed instrument gathers information on
minor rewording where necessary, the statements were adapted participants’ musical background, attitudes towards careers in
so that they relate more specifically to the two vocations under music and music teaching and views on their own developing
study - music and teaching – without changing the underlying skills in these two professions, as well as the special self-efficacy
motivation. Support for the slight rewording of general statements scales described earlier. Before use, the MCQ was piloted and
comes from Barnes (2000), who adapted Gusky and Passaro’s reviewed by fourteen experienced musicians, music teachers and
(1994) scale of teaching self-efficacy to increase its relevance to education researchers.
music teaching. In order to make the musical version of the scale
relevant to a wide range of musicians, including those from non- Participants on one-year postgraduate teacher education (PGCE)
traditional backgrounds, the statements were phrased so that they courses completed the MCQ just before graduation in June 2002.
were equally applicable to those who play from musical notation A second version of the questionnaire, being administered in
as those who play ‘by ear’. This enabled us to develop specially- spring 2003, will assess how the early months of professional
constructed ‘musical self-efficacy’ and ‘teaching self-efficacy’ experience of secondary school teaching might have affected
their attitudes and development. Participants on a four-year
undergraduate teacher education (BEd) course also completed
1
The ISI Web of Science bibliographic database lists well over the MCQ in June 2002, at the end of their third year. They will
two hundred studies that have used this scale. be asked to complete a second MCQ as they near graduation

ISBN 3-931852-67-9
ISSN 1617-6847
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 Proceedings of the 5th Triennial ESCOM Conference
8-13 September 2003, Hanover University of Music and Drama, Germany

and contemplate their career options. MCQ participants from Figure 1 shows the means of the musical and teaching self
university departments and music colleges who progress into efficacy scale scores of the 4 student groups. The most noticeable
postgraduate teacher education will also be asked to complete feature of this is that teaching self-efficacy means are higher than
a second MCQ with a view to establishing how adequately the musical means for all four groups, which may be somewhat
they believe their previous studies prepared them for secondary surprising. A reasonable prior hypothesis might have been that
teaching. the conservatory and university music student groups should have
higher musical than teaching means in relation to the education
Phase two of the longitudinal questionnaire study is currently student groups, given the emphasis of their training: but this
under way, with the same four groups of participants completing appears not to be the case. This may be because individuals tend
an updated MCQ. Many questions are the same, enabling us to to rate their self-efficacy in relation to their peers as a reference
make comparisons with the data already collected. Others are group: conservatory students, for example, are used to judging
new and have been included in response to trends emerging from themselves against the highest levels of performance excellence,
the MCQ1 data and case studies (see below). so that their musical self-efficacy scores may be low in relation to
those of education students.
2.3. Case studies
Six NQTs (newly qualified teachers) who had taken part in Phase
one of the LQS agreed to participate in detailed case studies and
these formed the project’s second strand of data collection. Three
males and three females were chosen, representing a variety of
musical and educational backgrounds. The types, locations and
catchment areas of the schools in which they now teach were
also deliberately diverse, including Essex, Greater Manchester,
Hertfordshire, South East London, Staffordshire, and Surrey.
The case studies were designed to explore the issues raised in the
LQS in more depth. They also investigated the demands placed
upon newly qualified music teachers and the extent to which
the participants’ own music education and postgraduate teacher
education prepared them for the role.

Each NQT was ‘shadowed’ for a school day and a detailed record Figure 1: Musical and teaching self efficacy means of the four
kept of all their teaching, administrative and extra-curricular student groups
activities. Following the shadowing day, the participants were
given ninety-minute semi-structured interviews in which they
discussed the impact of their own musical and educational
backgrounds on their teaching career. The interviews also covered
initial experiences of the job, plans for career development and
views on the purpose, status and philosophy of secondary school
music education.

The case study results are currently being written up and analysed,
and will provide a rich source of contextual data in which to
situate the results of the longitudinal questionnaire study. The
case studies will also provide an opportunity to work closely
with the participants in developing classroom-based materials
for music listening: these will subsequently be used to explore
aspects of pupils’ musical identities.

3. SOME PRELIMINARY RESULTS Figure 2: Qualifications of the PGCE sample

Only the Phase 1 data from the LQS is fully collected and
analysed at the time of writing, and two preliminary results are
reported here. The conference presentation of this preliminary The analysis of the Phase 1 data also allows us to construct a
report, however, will also be able to draw on the Phase 1- Phase fairly accurate profile of the secondary PGCE student, given the
2 comparisons for all 4 student groups, as well as on the full case sample size of N = 74, which represents approximately one fifth
study data. We will look first at the comparative self-efficacy data of all such students in the UK. A full report will be forthcoming,
of the 4 groups, given the direct relevance of this to teacher vs. and here we will select just three key features. The first relates
musical identities, and also at the overall profile of the PGCE to their qualifications: Figure 2 shows that in addition to an
group (the largest single group) in LQS Phase 1. undergraduate degree (a prior qualification for the course), all
students were very likely to possess GCSE Music (a public

ISBN 3-931852-67-9
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 Proceedings of the 5th Triennial ESCOM Conference
8-13 September 2003, Hanover University of Music and Drama, Germany

examination usually taken at age 16), Advanced Level Music 5. REFERENCES

(a public examination usually taken at age 18), and Associated
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responses showed that they regarded ‘teaching skills’ such as 4. Hargreaves, D.J., MacDonald, R.A.R., & Miell, D.E.
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4. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 10. Sinden, LM (1999) Music performance anxiety:
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This research was supported by a grant from the Economic and
and self-esteem. PhD Dissertation Arizona State U, US
Social Research Council (ESRC grant no. R000223751). We are
very grateful to all of the participants, and to all the members of 11. Woodruff, Steven L. & Cashman, James F. (1993) ‘Task,
their institutions involved in allowing us access to conduct the Domain, and General Efficacy: A Reexamination of the
study. Self-Efficacy Scale’, Psychological Reports, 72, pp. 423-
432

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