Throughout my career as an elementary music educator, I constantly sought ways to decenter myself as the instructor and make space for student agency and independence to flourish. However, my efforts over 10 years were rooted in Western Eurocentric thought. Where I thought I was creating a more egalitarian environment, my Whiteness shielded me from the ways that I perpetuated racial injustice in my classroom. The purpose of this autoethnographic inquiry was to interrogate my career-long journey from teacher-directed instruction towards informal, self-directed, play-based music education through the lens of critical Whiteness scholarship (e.g., Applebaum, 2016; Bradley, 2007; DiAngelo, 2018; Matias, 2016a), to (a) locate where I perpetuated Whiteness and where, if at all, I disrupted it; (b) connect my personal stories to theories of Whiteness and trends in education and music education to understand the insidious nature of Whiteness more deeply; and (c) revise and reimagine my stories as examples of more emancipatory and racially just elementary music education. I embraced the act of writing as a primary means of inquiry for my study. I used artifacts (i.e., lesson plans, photos, videos, archived emails, and documents) to create a career timeline. I wrote vignettes to capture my memories. Simultaneously, in the form of imagined emails between myself as a scholar and myself as a practitioner, I embraced a rhizomatic approach to knowledge creation through Jackson and Mazzei’s (2023) thinking with theory to plug the vignette data into various concepts from the Whiteness scholarship to discover new insights into my Whiteness and how it manifested throughout my career. I synthesized the findings to identify patterns in my perpetuation of Whiteness, for example (but not limited to) colonization of minds, thinking in binaries (right/wrong, good/bad), racist assumptions, White saviorism, appropriation of Native American and African musics, aesthetic perfectionism rooted in Western European classical music notions of aesthetic beauty, White fragility and other strong emotional reactions to Whiteness, various discursive moves to avoid thinking about my Whiteness, and a bravado facade I would wear to save face when questioned about my Whiteness. I found a paradox in my attempts to foster a more egalitarian classroom and allocate power to my students. On one side, I challenged traditional notions of classrooms and teacher authority (rooted in Whiteness). However, on the other, my interventions often used Whiteness logic, rendering many of my attempts to transition from a teacher- directed to student-directed classroom not a fundamental disruption of the Whiteness but a perpetuation of it. I still believe in this project and think children should have agency over their music education. This dissertation has taught me that, due to the insidious nature of Whiteness, any attempt I make—as a White man—at fostering emancipatory education must include a thorough interrogation of Whiteness lest I perpetuate the very thing I am looking to dismantle.

This multiple case study explores the influence of caring and culturally responsive teaching on the meaningful experiences of students within three secondary instrumental music programs. Employing Silverman's Tripartite View of Meaningfulness as a conceptual framework, in-depth interviews were conducted with three orchestra members and five jazz ensemble members, alongside interviews with three teachers from distinct schools and programs. Rehearsals, conducted both in-person and on Zoom during the coronavirus pandemic, were observed to analyze students' experiences within each group and identify overarching themes. The findings highlight a strong correlation between teachers' expressions of care and meaningful experiences reported by students. Additionally, a profound emotional and cultural connection to selected repertoire emerged as a key facilitator of meaningful experiences. Students found meaning from their ensemble participation through various avenues, emphasizing the importance of teacher-student relationships, high expectations set by teachers, and the empowering effect of students' autonomy in their education, fostered by teachers who exhibit care and foster learning communities. Additionally, some students found meaning in the inclusion of ethnic and cultural diversity content in the curricula, allowing for identification and representation. This study contributes insights into how caring and culturally responsive teaching enhances the meaningfulness of students' experiences, particularly in instrumental music ensemble settings. Teachers who actively practice caring about, for, and with their students, while facilitating a connection to the ensemble's repertoire, play a pivotal role in fostering meaningful experiences. These findings add to the existing body of research supporting the significance of music education for all students and provide a nuanced understanding of student perspectives on what constitutes meaningful participation in instrumental music ensembles.

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The current music education paradigm may be considered an oppressive experience for both students and teachers through its historical foundation, standardized nature, and focus on Western art repertoire and its associated skill building. Realizing the oppressive nature of many aspects of music education, some scholars and practitioners have sought to reimagine music teaching and learning through various forms of collaborative learning. While making a positive impact on music education, these collaborative practices do not go far enough in providing the opportunity for students and teachers to critically examine and drive their teaching and learning. A feminist approach to music education provides one possible means for addressing this issue through a focus on solidarity, empowerment, cooperation, and justice. In this study, I sought to understand how the four feminist pedagogical principles of diversity, opportunities for all voices, shared responsibility, and orientation to action might manifest within a fifth-grade general music class. Specifically, these traits were examined with regard to content (the what), purpose (the why), and pedagogies (the how) with further consideration of who and where and their potential impact on the what, why, and how. To understand how these principles might manifest, 19 fifth-grade students and I engaged in a multi-week Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR) project. CPAR is a process where participants—in this case, the students and myself, the teacher—can work together with the goal of making practices—in this case, the procedures, processes, routines, and norms of our music classes—more rational, sustainable, and just. Our CPAR project began with a critique of our prior school music experiences. Following this critique, the students and I worked together to transform our music classes to become more engaging, relevant, and enjoyable. This transformation occurred through our establishment of class expectations and norms, our development and implementation of a plan of action which included exploring the techno music genre and developing a techno-style composition using GarageBand, and our eventual reflection on the process. By decentering the pedagogical practices of our music classroom throughout this study, the students and I disrupted some of the prevalent—and oppressive—practices of the current music education paradigm and began to experience a sense of empowerment and liberation. Even with these successes, there were challenges which hindered the full manifestation of feminist pedagogies in our music classroom. These barriers included our previous experiences in the established system of music education, our lack of experience with a decentered pedagogical approach, and the logistical constraints of working within the confines of a public school. This study was a small act of subversion in a potential large-scale transformation of music education. As such, a longitudinal approach to future research is needed to determine whether and how a feminist approach to music education might impact musical engagement in school and beyond.

For music educators the continued mandate for inclusion has accentuated the importance of being able to instruct students with a wide variety of learning differences. Even so, music educators have expressed frustration with a potential lack of competencies and resources related to teaching students with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of middle school band directors who instruct students with disabilities in inclusive classrooms. The research conducted as part of this study examined middle school band directors’ competencies and use of resources when instructing students with disabilities in an instrumental music setting. The phenomenon of interest was examined through the three principles of the conceptual framework Universal Design for Learning, multiple means of achieving engagement, representation, as well as action and expression. Using a multiple case study design, this research included data collected from interviews, classroom observations, as well as the gathering of relevant artifacts. This work is informed through literature related to the history of special education legislation, inclusion in music education, including the contribution of music teacher training on teachers’ perceptions of competencies and the role of paraprofessionals and music therapists as a supporting resource for music educators. In addition, literature related to the conceptual framework Universal Design for Learning as well as music educators’ competencies and resource usage, including prevalent practices and professional development were explored. Key findings that were revealed as part of this inquiry were that, overall, participants reported the possession of essential competencies when working with students with disabilities; adaptation (accommodating) for student differences being a competency that participants shared numerous examples of. However, participants articulated an uncertainty regarding how to help students with disabilities as part of middle school band. In addition, this inquiry highlighted how the competencies and resources that the participants made use of aligned with aspects of Universal Design for Learning. Future research with students with disabilities in middle school instrumental ensembles could add new knowledge to the field and support the creation of more equitable access to music education.

This qualitative case study investigates care ethics within a competitive, high school choral ensemble in the weeks leading up to an annual competition. Ethical care (Noddings, 1984/2013) is predicated on building individual, one-on-one relationships with students. Success at contest is predicated on ensemble evaluations rather than individual student performances. Thus, ethical care may be difficult to achieve within ensembles where group preparation for contest is prioritized over individualized music education. Data from semistructured student and teacher interviews, semistructured focus groups, rehearsal observations, and document analysis is analyzed through Tarlow’s (1996) phases of the caring process. Findings show that participants experienced care as distinctive and actions-based, but that care for competition complicated care for individuals within the choir. Through the actions of their peers and teacher, students reported that their competitive choir was a uniquely caring space in their lives. The pursuit of excellence at competition caused stress that resulted in actions misaligned with ethical care.

Many secondary level jazz ensembles are based on the big band model, where students focus on reading music (e.g., Bernard & Stringham, 2016). This focus on reading music has created learning environments where students are hesitant to improvise. Framed in self-efficacy theory (Bandura, 1977), the purpose of this study is to investigate how students’ perspectives of their ability to improvise affect their ability to learn how to improvise. I sought to understand the beliefs of secondary level students in this study about their jazz improvisation abilities and how they were influenced by enactive mastery experience, vicarious experience, verbal/social persuasion, physiological and affective states, and personal and contextual factors. In addition, I investigated the role of social interactions in learning how to improvise, and how social interactions impacted the students’ perspectives on their abilities as jazz improvisers. To understand the self-efficacy beliefs of a group of secondary level students, I distributed the Jazz Improvisation Self-Efficacy Survey (adapted from Zelenak, 2011) to the students of the top big band at the high school that met the selection criteria for this study. Using data from the survey, I selected three students who reported high, medium, and low self-efficacy belief toward their ability to improvise. The participants completed the initial interview based on a priori themes (four sources of self-efficacy) and then I conducted a follow up interview to explore personal and contextual factors such as gender, environment, and teacher-student relationships. Finally, the participants completed a journal entry with three prompts that documented performance experiences in three different settings (lessons, practice, and performance) and how these experiences may have influenced their self-efficacy beliefs about improvising. Participants reported an increase in self-efficacy belief with every performance (enactive mastery experience). Furthermore, participants described practicing improvisation during classroom rehearsals as helpful, and that these rehearsals gave them a boost in their jazz improvisation self-efficacy belief. Students also reported learning from more experienced student players in their ensemble (vicarious experience) and described how interactions with these players helped in their development as jazz improvisors. Feedback from their teacher (verbal/social persuasion), and in some cases from peers, was reported to have a positive influence upon participants’ perceptions of their jazz improvisation abilities. Participants reported detractors to self-efficacy belief, including feeling overwhelmed, feeling tense during performances, and an inability to mentally recover from mistakes during performances (physiological and affective states). Participants reported, however, that positive learning environments and good teacher rapport resulted in an increase in learning and in student self-efficacy belief. Finally, I offer recommendations for music educators on how they might support students to improve their self-efficacy beliefs as they develop as jazz soloists.

Musical agency is the combination of “human capacity as music-makers and human capacity to see oneself as initiating and sharing musical ideas” (Wiggins, 2015, p. 102). Developing and demonstrating agentic musical capacities is important in our intensely social and ever-evolving world (DeNora, 2000; Karlsen, 2014; Morley, 2013; Trevarthen, 2005). Although supporting students’ musical agency cultivation is theoretically “at the core of what music education is all about” (Wiggins, 2015, p. 116), students are increasingly dropping out of secondary and higher education school music programs because the programs fail to serve students’ interests and needs that pertain to musical agency (Abril, 2014; McKeage, 2004; Myers, 2007). For decades, theater educators and children’s music educators have successfully served students’ agency interests and needs through thoughtfully employing and facilitating games and other activities to induce, maintain, and guide group play, where empowering developmental byproducts emerge as the participants focus on fun challenges (Boal, 1979; Halpern & Close, 2001; Johnstone, 1981; Pollock, 2003; Spolin, 1999). However, this facilitated play approach has been noticeably absent in secondary and higher education music programs. The purpose of this study was to implement and examine a series of undergraduate music workshops that employed a facilitated musical play approach in order to better understand the ways that the approach may have supported the students’ musical agency. The following questions guided the study: 1. How did the participants perceive both the in-the-moment experiences and the lasting impacts of their theoretically-playful workshop activities? 2. In what ways was musical agency demonstrated and supported in the workshop experiences? I employed a case study methodological approach (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016) that incorporated aspects of action research (Carr & Kemmis, 1986) in examining the workshop series. Data sources included interview transcripts, field notes, participant reflections, and video recordings of the workshops, and I engaged in rudimentary analysis (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016) of the data as it emerged. After all the data had been collected, I then analyzed the data inductively and deductively through open coding and through a priori codes informed by a musical agency framework put forward by Wiggins (2015) and others. The study findings suggest that self-directed and peer-supported undergraduate agentive musical development can be facilitated in a college classroom environment by a learning professional who actively integrates the playful processes and the group values observed in playground and other informal music-making contexts with elements of formal learning such as facilitator-chosen content and facilitator-imposed challenges. The facilitated musical play workshop approach, a musical adaptation of the games-driven theater education workshop approach described by Spolin (1999), supported the undergraduate participants’ musical agency demonstration and cultivation in a multitude of ways and in an enjoyable, socially meaningful, and sustainable manner (all detailed in this paper). The findings challenge general assumptions underlying institutionalized, presentation-based practices that dominate undergraduate music education (Green, 2001; Reimer, 2009) and that notably lack musical play (Koops & Taggart, 2011; Campbell, 2009). The findings may be of interest to music education scholars, play scholars, and higher and secondary education music educators who are responsible for supporting students’ musical agency.

<p> This study examines the music programs in liberal arts colleges through the historical lens of three Catholic Universities in the state of Florida. Although there are numerous historical dissertations and theses written about individual music schools and departments, and a few that compare music programs in similar types of institutions, none have compared music programs in Catholic universities within the same state. After teaching at Saint Leo University and experiencing the process of rebuilding a music program after it was almost completely lost in the mid-1990s, I wanted to study the histories of Saint Leo and other Florida Catholic institutions that have struggled through similar circumstances, but with very different outcomes.</p><p> I examined each music program through interviews with past and current faculty, administrators, and students; archival documents; published histories; school newspapers and yearbooks; and local newspapers and magazines. I visited each campus, photographed the physical facilities, and observed faculty and students. Gradually the stories of three music programs emerged. By comparing the data from each institution I was able to address the following research questions: 1. When and how did each music program begin? 2. How did each one develop (i.e., organization, curriculum, faculty, facilities, performing groups)? 3. What are the relationships between the Catholic affiliation of each of these institutions and the development of their respective music programs/departments? 4. What are the similarities and the differences between the music programs of these schools (i.e., structure, faculty, facilities, curriculum and degrees offered, performance groups, and students)? 5. What role does music play in the overall vision of the universities and their development? 6. What are the implications of this study for music education in these and other liberal arts colleges?</p>

<p> The applied music lesson remains a revered symbol of Western European tradition in American music education. Very little research exists assessing its continued viability as a method in its current form. This paper examines eight author observed assumptions about applied music lessons which flaw the learning process. Through available research, the assumptions demonstrate that the traditional applied lesson is teacher centered and difficult to assess. Exposing the resultant delusions of the eight assumptions reveals how a holistic approach in a studio can engage students in critical thinking and enhance student self-awareness. These primary goals place the educational emphasis on the process rather than the technically perfect performance as the terminal experience. Sample lesson techniques for undergraduate viola students will incorporate critical thinking methods to transform the weekly encounter into a student-centered experience which develops skills for continued self-directed study.</p>