abstract: This philosophical inquiry explores the work of philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari and posits applications to music education. Through the concepts of multiplicities, becoming, bodies without organs, smooth spaces, maps, and nomads, Deleuze and Guattari challenge prior and current understandings of existence. In their writings on art, education, and how might one live, they assert a world consisting of variability and motion. Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari's emphasis on time and difference, I posit the following questions: Who and when are we? Where are we? When is music? When is education? Throughout this document, their philosophical figuration of a rhizome serves as a recurring theme, highlighting the possibilities of complexity, diverse connections, and continual processes. I explore the question "When and where are we?" by combining the work of Deleuze and Guattari with that of other authors. Drawing on these ideas, I posit an ontology of humans as inseparably cognitive, embodied, emotional, social, and striving multiplicities. Investigating the question "Where are we?" using Deleuze and Guattari's writings as well as that of contemporary place philosophers and other writers reveals that humans exist at the continually changing confluence of local and global places. In order to engage with the questions "When is music?" and "When is education?" I inquire into how humans as cognitive, embodied, emotional, social, and striving multiplicities emplaced in a glocalized world experience music and education. In the final chapters, a philosophy of music education consisting of the ongoing, interconnected processes of complicating, considering, and connecting is proposed. Complicating involves continually questioning how humans' multiple inseparable qualities and places integrate during musical and educative experiences. Considering includes imagining the multiple directions in which connections might occur as well as contemplating the quality of potential connections. Connecting involves assisting students in forming variegated connections between themselves, their multiple qualities, and their glocal environments. Considering a rhizomatic philosophy of music education includes continually engaging in the integrated processes of complicating, considering, and connecting. Through such ongoing practices, music educators can promote flourishing in the lives of students and the experiences of their multiple communities. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Music Education 2013

abstract: The purpose of this study was to compare perceptions of success and failure, attributions of success and failure, predictions of future success, and reports of out-of-class engagement in composition among middle school band students composing in open task conditions (n = 32) and closed task conditions (n = 31). Two intact band classes at the same middle school were randomly assigned to treatment groups. Both treatment groups composed music once a week for eight weeks during their regular band time. In Treatment A (n = 32), the open task group, students were told to compose music however they wished. In Treatment B (n = 31), the closed task group, students were given specific, structured composition assignments to complete each week. At the end of each session, students were asked to complete a Composing Diary in which they reported what they did each week. Their responses were coded for evidence of perceptions of success and failure as well as out-of-class engagement in composing. At the end of eight weeks, students were given three additional measures: the Music Attributions Survey to measure attributions of success and failure on 11 different subscales; the Future Success survey to measure students' predictions of future success; and the Out-of-Class Engagement Letter to measure students' engagement with composition outside of the classroom. Results indicated that students in the open task group and students in the closed task group behaved similarly. There were no significant differences between treatment groups in terms of perceptions of success or failure as composers, predictions of future success composing music, and reports of out-of-class engagement in composition. Students who felt they failed at composing made similar attributions for their failure in both treatment groups. Students who felt they succeeded also made similar attributions for their success in both treatment groups, with one exception. Successful students in the closed task group rated Peer Influence significantly higher than the successful students in the open task group. The findings of this study suggest that understanding individual student's attributions and offering a variety of composing tasks as part of music curricula may help educators meet students' needs. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Music Education 2014

abstract: This study examined the forty-five year history of a rural band program in Coolidge, Arizona from 1935–1980. Research questions included investigation into the band’s place in the diverse populations with whom they interacted, the stakeholders, and support from the community. Circumstances of the creation of the town, the high school and band, the stakeholders involved in those processes, the ensembles (including learning and teaching), and outside influences such as national level music policies, ecological, and socio-political events were a necessary part of the study. High school yearbooks, student-written newspapers, and local newspapers were consulted for the bulk of the primary-source data. Other sources were also used to corroborate biographical information about band directors, administrators, and influencers outside of Coolidge High School. The most significant finding was that over the forty-five years investigated, the unwavering community support sustained a strong music program in the rural town, even though teacher turnover was high. Publicly demonstrating learning and teaching, the Coolidge High School Band program engaged the local community with numerous performances, drew positive attention from state-level community, and was recognized outside of Arizona at least once regionally. The local community demonstrated tremendous support for the band program over the years, including constant communication in the newspapers, attendance at performances, providing of scholarships, and approval of various bond elections to improve facilities that would be used by the band. More research is recommended on rural music programs and community engagement. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Music Education 2019

Teachers of rural K–12 music education are subject to attrition rates that are higher than many other professions or teaching specialties (Goldring, Taie & Riddles, 2014; Harmon, 2001; Ingersoll, 2001). Because of this, a large number of music teachers who are hired to teach in rural schools are inexperienced educators who are often unaware of the specific demands that are unique to these jobs. Upon earning a teaching certification, many new graduates get hired in rural locations with unfamiliar teaching conditions that could potentially lead to dissatisfaction in the workplace which could be a contributing factor to the higher than average attrition rates (Bates, 2013; Hancock, 2008; Monk, 2007; Isbell, 2005). This dissertation is a case study of in-service music educators in the rural Western United States designed to help understand the trend of higher than average attrition rates. With a theoretical framework of utility maximization to find a satisfactory person-job fit, I observed, interviewed, and collected journals from 5 participants with current or previous rural K–12 music teaching experience to determine: 1) what reasons do educators consider influential in a decision to stay in or move from a teaching position?, 2) what changes do teachers report in their perception of job utility maximization over their careers?, and 3) what are some benefits and challenges of teaching in a rural music teaching setting? Reasons for attrition specific to rural music education and generic to teaching were discussed in terms of a participant’s perception of job satisfaction and their decisions to stay in or leave rural K–12 music teaching jobs. Participants listed five themes as influential to their decisions for attrition: 1) disproportionate emphasis on athletics and pep band, 2) teacher and student absenteeism, 3) spillover work time 4) family, and 5) administrative rapport. No individual theme was a singular indicator of attrition, nor was any theme more prominent than others in influencing a participant to keep or leave a job. Rather, the perception of each reason for attrition had a cumulative effect and jobs were maintained or sought anew based on a combination of views of each theme. Also, participants reported steady inclinations of preferred musical specialty, but the perception of each theme as a reason for attrition changed with time and teaching experience. Ultimately, participants revealed that rural K–12 music teaching jobs can be highly rewarding if a person is professionally flexible, willing to regularly travel long distances (with students and alone), and can appreciate the idiosyncrasies of living in remote communities.

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The purpose of this study is to investigate recruitment strategies currently in place by band teachers for their band programs and their effects on minority student participation in 4-12th grade public school band programs of Middlesex County. Participants include grades 4-12 band teachers in Middlesex County, NJ. Via online survey, participants responded to questions about current demographics in their band programs, current recruitment strategies, and perceived effects of those strategies on minority student participation. After receiving survey responses, the data was analyzed using descriptive statistics for emergent themes. The results found that of the 3,818 students accounted for, 26% were White, 7% were Black, 49% were Asian, 8% were Hispanic, and 10% were an unspecified minority. On average, elementary school teachers used 6.93 of the given strategies, middle school teachers used 6.65 of the given strategies, and high school teachers used 5.4 of the given strategies. Many participants found their band programs reflected the demographics of the community. Other participants felt financial burdens put on the family and lack of cultural representation in music and teaching staff leads students not to join their school’s band program. / Music Education

The three papers in this dissertation are conceptualized around the topic of urban music education. At the foundation of each paper lies an aim to analyze music teachers’ engagement with students in urban settings. What connects these three projects is the exploration of voices and perspectives that can strengthen our understanding of music teacher education to meet the unique needs of students in urban settings and address complexities within urban contexts. First, I examine my own journey leaving a predominantly White institution (PWI) twenty years ago to enter urban settings and teach music where I found myself unequipped in musical and nonmusical ways. I describe my journey toward musical and cultural competency over many years as I worked to learn to teach and engage with music that I had not been prepared to teach, in classrooms of students with whom I did not share a cultural background. As an impetus from that journey of both musical and cultural understanding, the second paper represents a deep exploration of Black Gospel music teaching as defined by three experts. Once again, while the study’s findings may offer musical insights in Black Gospel music, the greater lessons are the cultural components that inform Black music. In the last project, I study two urban school music programs that engaged community arts partners and music educators who learned musical and nonmusical lessons about the liberatory praxis of Black music. Emerging themes across these three projects reflect a need for rigorous and vibrant music teacher education reform that resonantly and responsively meet the needs of students in urban settings. In all three projects, participants (a) cited a need for music teacher education to move beyond content and include the intersection of race and teaching music; (b) discussed the centering of Western Art Musics (WAMs) in the academy; (c) encountered adolescent, high school age beginners in their music classes requiring a need for approachable, accessible, relevant tools to make music outside of traditional Choir, Orchestra, Band models; (d) found liberatory Black musical forms including Hip Hop, song-writing, Drumline, loop-based composition through digital audio workstations (DAWs), and Black Gospel music served beginners successfully; and (e) engaged or participated as culture bearers and/or experts on teaching unfamiliar Black musical forms and culturally competent communication across diverse groups. Given the themes across these three papers, I argue that critical reflection on the academy and music teacher preparation is necessary to enact reform that works against stagnancy and exclusion and moves toward inclusive musics and teaching for liberation available in Black music. I interrogate the three papers through the lens of Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a theoretical framework through which I view, interpret, reflect, and find greater meaning to inform the preparation to teach music teaching and learning in urban settings. Visible across findings in all papers are examples of foundational tenets of CRT, whiteness as property and the permanence of racism, as participants felt unprepared to teach music outside of Eurocentric musical practices and cited the need for music teacher education to include the intersection of race and teaching. To make conclusions and suggest possibilities for reform in music education, I frame findings through the connection of two additional CRT tenets: interest convergence and counterstorytelling. Given the realities suggested in the first CRT tenets, I relied on the CRT theory of interest convergence to make recommendations for reform to music education. Theorizing that meaningful change is impossible without including interests of the dominant group, I propose “All God's Children Got a Song” as a call for interest convergence wherein systems and actors in music education work harder to include the 80% of students who currently do not participate in music. In naming areas for change, I suggest the use of counterstorytelling as a way to frame possibility for changing the narrative in music education in four areas that were common findings across papers: (a) to promote music education as approachable, age appropriate, and accessible for adolescent beginners, possible through curricula including but not limited to open, participatory, liberatory, and “family”-oriented forms of Black music including Hip Hop, song-writing, Drumline and loop-based composition using music technology, Black Gospel music, and choir; (b) to reimagine the concept of music literacy wherein students experience viewing music without navigating a written page; (c) to foster community capital whereby partnerships emerge with culture bearers who model and provide musical and cultural models of unfamiliar ways of making music alongside cultural and musical competence in communicating across diverse groups; and (d) to develop and implement comprehensive preservice education for future urban music educators that builds racial literacy skills to support content and pedagogy. Keywords: Urban Music Education, Gospel Music, Community / Music Education