<p> Since the implementation of the New York State Common Core Standards, two primary problems have arisen for elementary instrumental music teachers. First, instrumental music teachers' time to work with students is diminishing. The demands of the rigorous curriculums developed to teach the Common Core Standards create a climate where English Language Arts and Math have precedence over all other subject areas. Music is a core subject in New York State but how it appears in the school day can vary from school district to school district. Second, students are assigned so much more homework causing parents to have reservations about engaging them in other activities but many still involve their children in music. These parents have a set of acquired dispositions of thought, behavior, and taste regarding music or a musical habitus (Bourdieu &amp; Wacquant, 1992; Rimmer, 2006).</p><p> This study identifies and explores the musical habitus of parents of students at a K-5 elementary school within a large economically diverse suburban school district in upstate New York. General music classes are part of each elementary school's master schedule and families have the option to participate in an elementary band or orchestra program. Specifically, the author seeks to understand the <i>musical habitus</i> of parents whose children are participating in the elementary orchestra.</p><p> The analytical and theoretical framework used by the author for this research is grounded in Bourdieu's (1986, 1992) theory of capital, with a focus on his notion of habitus and Epstein's (2010) theory of overlapping spheres of influence. Bourdieu's concept of habitus has been extended into the arts in general and to music in particular to examine the way in which people's individual histories, class origins, family backgrounds and educational opportunities interact to compose their ongoing relationship with the arts. Rimmer (2006) describes a <i>musical habitus</i> as an active, adaptive and generative action in sustaining musical meanings, and the structures in which they are embedded. Epstein's work focuses on one part of Bourdieu's concept of field by uniting home and school for the families involved. Understanding the level at which these three areas must interact will be a focus in the analysis of data. Together, they served as a lens to understand the musical habitus of the parents and why music is valued. This study challenges orchestra directors and administrators to understand why parents encourage and perpetuate their child's participation in instrumental music when balancing the daily schedules of their students.</p><p>

<p> Teachers represent a large portion of professional voice users in the United States and the development of poor vocal health has related to their work. Elementary music educators are expected to use their voices in both speech and song and are vocally active for much of their workday. This study investigates elementary music teachers&rsquo; conceptualization of their voices, what personal and professional value teachers place upon their voices, and how vocal health may affect, support, or detract from their careers. </p><p> In this multiple case study conducted with three participants, a questionnaire addressed background demographics for the teacher and information regarding the music program. An interview collected more in depth data on thoughts and perceptions of voice use. Teachers completed the Voice Handicap Index and Singing Voice Handicap Index and each teacher was observed for one full workday. </p><p> Vocal professionalism and caring for the voice&rsquo;s professional use vary in definition and importance from teacher to teacher. Participants seem more conscious of their physical health than other aspects of professional vocal demand. Participants described themselves as vocal professionals while also engaging in behaviors which did not consistently support sustainable vocal health or hygiene. While each teacher viewed their voice as a professional tool, none had received training in the care of their voices, in what to do if their voice was injured, or in how to use their voices safely while teaching. Each teacher reported mild to no voice handicap on both the Voice Handicap Index and the Singing Voice Handicap Index. This may reflect some degree of label avoidance. </p><p> Teachers at the elementary level of music come from diverse backgrounds and teach in widely varying circumstances. Teachers may hold some information on vocal health but may not have been trained in how to use the voice while teaching and may develop habitual practices which are not conducive to a career of healthy vocal production. Increased attention is indicated for the populations who professionally use their voices in both speech and song.</p><p>

<p> This mixed methodology study investigated the arts integration practices of music teaching artists participating in four selected elementary school arts integration projects in the United States. This study also explored the possibility that music teaching artists&rsquo; formal education, arts integration training and professional development, and their own attitudes as well as different stakeholders&rsquo; attitudes about arts integration and music education impacted their arts integration practices. The explanatory two-phase design of this study began with the collection and analysis of quantitative data and was followed by the collection and analysis of qualitative data, thus connecting the results from the former to those from the latter. The quantitative data provided information for purposefully selecting the interview participants who provided the qualitative data collection in phase two.</p><p> The data gathered in this study indicate that the music teaching artists shared similar beliefs about arts integration but that they believed their school leaders&rsquo; goals and objectives differed from their own. The data also provided evidence for concluding that the music teaching artists believe that the most successful arts integration projects are those that are collaborative partnerships between an arts specialist or classroom teacher and a teaching artist. A unexpected finding in this study was the teaching and exploration of <i>sound</i> in arts integration projects team taught between a sound teaching artist,&ndash;some without musical backgrounds or formal training&ndash;a music teaching artist, and a classroom teacher.</p><p> The statistical analysis in this study regarding the degree to which formal education, arts integration professional development and training, music teaching artists&rsquo; attitudes about arts integration, and the beliefs held by music teaching artists regarding school leaders&rsquo; and their arts organization&rsquo;s administrators&rsquo; attitudes about arts integration were predictors of the arts integration practices as self-reported by music teaching artists produced results that were non-significant.</p><p> The content analysis of curriculum documents and student products submitted by the study participants revealed information to support the findings from the interview and survey data.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study is to chronicle the experiences of an elementary music educator incorporating composition and improvisation activities into her elementary general music curriculum. I interviewed a primary music specialist with the purpose of discovering her background in teaching music. The questions focused on the teacher&rsquo;s experience with music composition. After this interview, I observed the teacher in a third-grade general music composition lesson. I documented how the teacher approached the lesson and any steps she took to adapt the lesson to the needs of their students and her teaching style. </p><p> After the observation, I interviewed the teacher again to record her reactions to teaching the lesson. After coding the transcripts of the interviews and observation, four themes developed from the data: Personal Initiative, Teacher Reassurance, Student Engagement, and Teacher Improvement. The participant involved in this study received training in improvisation and reported that it had a positive effect on not only how she taught composition and improvisation, but also how comfortable she felt while teaching. As the training this teacher received was not through her teacher training program, her case may be unusual among experienced music teachers. Although this teacher was successful in teaching composition, her positive reactions to professional development indicate a desire for more training among in-service music education specialists. This study supports the idea that there is a need for more pre-service and in-service teacher training in how to teach younger students to compose. </p><p>

<p> This dissertation examines the reciprocal relationship between text literacy and music literacy through an experimental design. Music teachers and English Language Arts (ELA) teachers often address similar components of literacy, including fluency, comprehension, and symbolic interpretation. The theory of cognitive structuralism maintains that through derivative and correlative subsumption, material that is learned in one context is strengthened when applied in a disparate context. Therefore, ELA and music teachers who work in isolation are missing an opportunity to teach parallel literacy concepts for the common advantage of teachers and students. This study seeks to explain how students enrolled in conventional and literacy-enriched band environments perform better than non-band students on text literacy tests. It also asks if conventional band students differ from literacy-enriched band students on text and musical literacy tests. </p><p> Fourth-grade students were randomly assigned to one of three groups: a control group (<i>n</i> = 11), a conventionally taught beginning band group (<i>n</i> = 11), and a literacy-enriched beginning band group (<i>n</i> = 10). The experimental treatment included 14 small group band lessons and 14 full band rehearsals. Groups were then compared for textual literacy growth using the NWEA Measures of Academic Performance (MAP) and musical growth using the Watkins Farnum Performance Scale (WFPS). ANCOVA planned contrasts showed that literacy-enriched students significantly outperformed conventional band students and control students on the MAP literature reading subtest. The research design allowed for the defense of literacy-enriched band instruction as a generalizable cause of higher literacy scores. </p><p> Additional comparisons between the control group and the two experimental groups revealed no statistically significant differences between the group means on the overall reading scores or the remaining reading subtest scores. The lack of significance suggested that the statistical model was a poor fit for the data. Furthermore, a small sample size and large unexplained variance contributed to a lack of statistical power. Therefore, the application of the cognitive structuralist theory on the remaining MAP reading tests remained inconclusive. </p><p> The conventional and literacy-enriched band groups were also compared against each other on text and music literacy growth. There were no statistically significant differences between the conventional group and literacy-enriched group on the MAP or on the WFPS. This suggested that literacy-enriched instruction in band could benefit a student&rsquo;s textual literacy skills without compromising musical performance goals. It also suggested that more study is needed to determine the extent to which the explicit instruction of ELA reading skills in band may benefit musical ability. </p><p> The overall findings implied that literacy-enriched band instruction caused higher textual literacy scores, and the results may be generalized to similar circumstances. Suggestions for practice included increased collaboration among teachers, enhanced teacher pre-service and in-service opportunities, additional use of student-centered progressive instructional strategies, and the careful reconsideration of eliminating or reducing the availability of band to students. Future research would benefit from the quantitative and qualitative models proposed herein.</p><p>