Currently, Eurocentric theories and practices of urban teachers and students are often studied under a White gaze of expected deficits. Much of this research is quantitative (e.g., documenting the number of teachers of color); the qualitative research that documents the experiences of people of color usually lacks the personal lived experiences of racial marginalization that only one who has endured them can tell. Addressing this research problem, in this dissertation, I share findings generated from a 9-month autoethnographic study of my experiences in light of the blockade of anti-Black epistemologies and ontologies in (music) teacher education. Framed by Critical Race Theory, Critical Pedagogy, and Postcolonial Theory, the aim of this study is to examine the lived experiences and narratives of a Black-queer doctoral student and teacher educator—in dialogue with majority Black and Latinx preservice early childhood and elementary students in his music teacher education course—considering how Eurocentric frameworks position teachers and students. Inquiries into how curricular stories are constructed as mirrors and windows (Bishop, 1990) are woven to reveal the ways in which dominant theories and ideologies affect the discourses and identities of soon-to-be teachers and point toward the need for students and educators of color to be taught to analyze and name injustices documented within life histories, all the while transforming oppressive encounters to affirm individual and collective humanity. While the focus of this self-study and autoethnography is the researcher, this ethnographic composition of teaching and teacher education is informed by the researcher’s teacher education practices, experiences, and learnings in the context of an early childhood and elementary teacher education course for non-music majors at a primarily-Hispanic serving urban institution of higher education. It examines classroom discursive interactions and archival data (e.g. journal reflections, course assignments) using ethnographic research methods and critical narrative analysis (Souto-Manning, 2014) to make sense of data. In doing so, it co-constructs a polyphonic space for multiple perspectives to stand in counterpoint (conflict), reimagining and reclaiming the discourses that purport to hold knowledge about peoples of color lived experiences. Findings are rendered by engagement with a range of Afrocentric visual and multimodal data.

"It is the purpose of this study to examine current trends in the production of outdoor music performances in the public schools of the South Florida area with a view toward determining not only the extent of such practices, but the techniques involved. Apparently no study has been published concerning the unique opportunity for outdoor music performances this climate affords, although outdoor programs have long been a part of South Florida's school activities"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "August, 1955." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in Partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music Education." / Advisor: Robert L. Briggs, Professor Directing Paper.

This dissertation is about the influence of body image on classical vocal performance in collegiate women singers. Those trained in classical singing are familiar with the phrase, “your body is your instrument.” A focus on the physical body is apparent in the vocal pedagogical literature, as is attention to singers’ mental and emotional states. But the intersection of emotions and the body—how one thinks and feels about their body, or body image—is largely absent from the vocal pedagogical literature. As voice teachers continue to necessarily address their students’ instruments (bodies), the field has not adequately considered how each singer’s relationship with their instrument (their body) might affect them, as singers and as people. This initial foray sought answers to just two of the myriad unanswered questions surrounding this topic: Does a singer’s body image influence her singing? If so, when and how? It employed a feminist methodological framework that would provide for consciousness-raising as both a method and aim of the study. Four collegiate women singers served as co-researchers, and data collection took place in three parts: a focus group, audio diaries, and interviews. The focus group was specifically geared towards consciousness-raising in order to provide co-researchers with the awareness necessary for examining their body image. Co-researchers then recorded semi-structured audio diaries for one month after practice sessions, voice lessons, and performances. One-on-one interviews concluded data collection and provided a situation of co-analysis wherein the researcher and co-researcher could deeply examine data from the focus group and diaries. The major discovery of this research is a pervasive sense of separation between a woman singer’s “everyday body” and her singer’s body. Self-objectification served as a barrier to a conscious recognition of embodied experience and effectively split the singer in two. The various states of the relationship between these two seemingly separate entities resulted in specific outcomes for singing, including restriction, unawareness, inconsistency, and focus. The discussion concludes with a consideration of how a positive body image may encourage effective and artistic vocal performance and how voice teachers might help foster a positive experience of one’s body.

Many professional musicians change careers, and yet there is little research on this topic. The experiences of post-professional musicians are largely unknown, their stories untold and uncelebrated. Informed by phenomenology, this dissertation explores the experiences of professional musicians who leave successful careers as performing artists. It looks at the challenges, beauty and complexity of their musical life stories. Out of this phenomenological inquiry, the mystery of composing a new life story emerges. Guided by hermeneutic phenomenology, this inquiry centers on story-crafting as a means of allowing meaning to reveal itself, while affirming the role of the inquirer in the story crafting process. Central to this study are the ways in which encounters with its insights occur and are held in a state of wonder. The semi-structured phenomenological interview serves as the primary source of data collection. A digital journal functions as a secondary source. The role of the researcher is accounted for through movement within the hermeneutic circle. It is here that the effect of both the inquirer’s fore-sights / fore-conceptions, ranging from personal biases to knowledge of the literature, and presence (Dasein – being there) are addressed. Data exploration (analysis) and reflection (synthesis) are approached through nuanced readings for apparent insights in which the essence of the phenomenon might reveal itself. Study findings are rendered through five musical life stories. In addition, a general narrative forms a composite description of all five stories, and a general description relays the structure of the composite experience. Findings reveal that all five participants experienced successful careers as professional musicians, while simultaneously maintaining interests in other endeavors. Considerations that moved them toward a decision to leave their music careers varied: from health or physiological challenges to the desire to increase earning potential or from a growing sense of fatigue relative to the effort required to remain competitive to a sense of having accomplished everything anyone in a music career could reasonably expect to accomplish. Another consideration for some of them centered on a sense of restlessness and no longer feeling sufficiently challenged. Once established in a new career, all became once again successful, as evidenced by fast career trajectory and increased earning potential. All participants have made a new post-performance life defined largely by music-listening and inter-arts engagement. For the most part, they no longer play their primary instrument. With one exception, when they do make music, it is on their secondary instrument, and it is non-performative, meditative, participatory or for leisure. They have lived their dreams of becoming and being a professional musician and find themselves now living out the realization of a new dream. Summary reflections consider the costs of building, maintaining and leaving a music career and the benefits of setting clear intentions in the context of leisure music making. Recommendations center on questions for music educators and topics for related future study. They imagine a more dynamic role of composing a musical life story throughout a music educative experience.

The purposes of this descriptive survey research study were (a) to describe novice band directors' perceptions of the importance of skills/knowledge used n effective music teaching, (b) to describe novice band directors' perception of the difficulty of acquiring each skill or knowledge component, (c) to compare novice band directors' perceptions of the importance and difficulty of the skills/knowledge used in their classrooms, (d) to describe ways that novice band directors perceived university coursework as helpful in acquiring teaching skills/knowledge, and (e) to describe improvements to university coursework that novice band directors perceived could help future band directors. The personal skills/knowledge category (M = 4.64) was rated highest for importance, followed by the teaching (M = 4.60) and musical (M = 4.29) categories. Additionally, participants rated the personal skills/knowledge category (M = 3.57) as the easiest to acquire, followed by musical (M = 3.14), and teaching (M = 3.09) categories. There was a statistically significant difference between teaching importance ratings and teaching acquisition ratings, with the teaching importance category rated higher by participants. Participants perceived secondary instrument instruction, teaching experiences, core music curriculum, and practical skills/knowledge as positive aspects of university coursework. Finally, secondary instrument instruction, field experiences, non-instructional aspects of teaching, and musical pedagogy were reported by participants as areas for possible improvement.

This hermeneutic phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of five Black male music educators (BMMEs) in the northeastern United States. Of the four million educators across the country, recent studies show that only 1.9% identify as Black males, which is a decrease from six percent in 2008. The purpose of the study was to gain a deeper understanding of the influences and lived experiences of these Black male music educators, with the goal of creating music educational spaces within schools that better support Black male musicians. The researcher conducted a series of three interviews with each educator, which focused on their K-12 formative musical experiences, their collegiate music education, and their work as classroom music educators. In addition to two focus group sessions with the five educators, the researcher conducted three teaching observations. The theoretical framework for this study was Critical Race Theory. The study took place in the span of four months in the fall of 2022. The interviews and classroom observations were analyzed by finding themes within them and reading them in the context of the entire interview to gain a deeper understanding of the lived experience of the participants. The findings illustrated the participants’ lived experience through a series of primary themes: family support, strong mentors/teachers, talent identified by others, resilience, isolation, Black church music influence, high expectations in teaching, and creating community.

The purpose of this study was to explore the artistic experience of music teaching artists in two contexts, performing and teaching. This study explored musical artistry through flow dimensions as an operational tool and phenomenology as an analytical lens on the four coordinates of musical experiences: time, space, play, and feeling. Through these processes, I sought to gain new insights into the experiences of teaching artists in ways that have not been previously explored. Using a newly modified flow state scale, interviews, and focus group meetings as data collection, the artistic experiences of teaching artists were represented through nine flow dimensions. Individual flow portraits were crafted to present nuances, complexity, and anecdotes about teaching artists’ experiences. The study found flow characteristics and conditions meaningful in representing the individual experiences. Each teaching artist described a complex interaction of self, subject, and others through themes of self-discovery, self-dialogues, and self-actualization. Findings revealed multiple relationships between flow dimensions and diverse perceptions of the experience of flow. These findings help to paint a broader picture of artistry and define the artistic experience as it pertains to teaching and performing. Multiple factors and new investigative questions arising from the study are discussed as well. In essence, this study brings a new critical perspective on music education by illuminating the role of a teaching artist and sharing artistic experiences as a positive and transformative tool for learning.

The problem of the study was to investigate the comparative effectiveness of two methods of teaching harmonic dictation to beginning college music students. The methods were (1) the conventional teacher-classroom approach as suggested by Robert Ottman's Elementary Harmony, and (2) a linear programed book to be used in conjunction with a series of tape recordings.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the curricular content of elementary music in China between 1912 and 1982. The questions addressed were: (1) What changes in elementary music resulted from China's becoming a republic in 1912? (2) What changes in elementary music resulted from China's becoming a socialist country in 1949? (3) What changes in elementary music in the People's Republic of China resulted from the Anti—Rightist Struggle Movement in 1957? (4) What changes in elementary music in the People's Republic of China resulted from the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)? (5) Have changes occurred in elementary music in the People's Republic of China since the beginning of the reform movement in 1978? (6) Did any of the changes affect curricular goals, contents, methods, required materials, and instruction time allotted in a like manner, or did some of these components remain the same while others changed? (7) Were the changes important enough to attribute them to a changed political ideology? After translating all pertinent documents, the goals, contents, methods, materials, and time allotted for the elementary music curricula between 1912 and 1982 were listed and identified. Subsequently, the areas of focus within those categories as well as changes in focus were identified and their importance determined. The findings were: (1) all important curricular changes occurred after 1950; and (2) changed goals resulted in changed teaching techniques; however, changed teaching techniques did not result in the changing of goals.

The thesis intends to describe the life and work of Khabi Mngoma, protagonist of black music education in South Africa (latter half of the twentieth century), with reference to historical, socio-political, anthropological, educational and musicological aspects. His musical development from a mere participator in musical activities of his environment to a dominantly influential initiator of cultural and musical activities and education programmes on a national scale, is investigated. The study is presented in thirteen chapters: the first three chapters explore the musical influences of Khabi Mngoma's childhood (in the township-, school-and rural environment respectively), and the musical influences of his early adulthood. Particular, reference is made to his first academic musical studies in Western classical music, and the arousing of his interest in the academic study and performance of African music. The following nine chapters describe Khabi Mngoma's cultural and music educational activities (1948 - 1990) and explore the growing recognition of him as a cultural and music educational leader in South Africa. This period of Khabi Mngoma's life and work is divided into five periods: his work in Orlando, Soweto and Johannesburg during the years of his association with the Orlando High School (1948 - 1952; the first period); the second period refers to Khabi Mngoma's Social and Cultural work for the National War Memorial Health Foundation (1953 - 1957); the third, fourth and fifth periods relate to Khabi Mngoma's cultural and educational activities associated with the periods of employment by the Johannesburg City Council (1957 - 1964; third period), Dorkay House (Union Artists) and Reckitt & Colman (1965 - 1975: simultaneous employment; fourth - period), and finally the University of Zululand (1975 - 1987; the fifth period). The fifth period continues into the years following his retirement in 1987, with his influence on a national scale continuing to be established through various significant involvements, discussed in this study. The decision to arrange Khabi Mngoma' s adult life and career into five periods needs explaining. I am aware that human endeavor can never be neatly compartmentalized, because so many aspects of such endeavour overlap. This format is not intended to imply a rigid delineation; it is derived from the chronological arrangement of my material, and is intended to guide the reader through this study.