Group singing is associated with numerous benefits to human health and wellbeing, including increased social ties and improvements in mental health (Ascenso et al., 2017; Clift & Hancox, 2001, 2010; Clift et al., 2010; Dingle et al., 2012; Grocke et al., 2009; Liebowitz et al., 2015; Livesey et al., 2012). In school ensembles, choral educators can significantly influence students’ experiences of connection, encouraging wellbeing, enjoyment, and continued participation in choir (Arasi, 2006, 2008; Morgan, 1992; Pentikäinen et al., 2021). Extant literature indicates that during group singing, individuals experience connection in three forms, as drawing singers together, also called togetherness; as synchrony among singers; and as singers’ sense of oneness with the world. These three forms of connection served as the conceptual lens for this study. The purpose of this phenomenological case study was to examine choral educators’ experiences of creating connection during group singing in the forms of togetherness, synchrony, and oneness. Four research questions guided this study: (a) How do choral educators describe the experience they create during group singing? (b) During group singing, how do choral educators facilitate singers’ connection in the form of togetherness, synchrony, or oneness? (c) What benefits and challenges exist for choral educators as they create connection? (d) Why do choral educators choose to prioritize connection? I used a phenomenological case study approach to investigate each participant’s experience as its own unique case, then used cross-case analysis and phenomenological reduction to reveal commonalities and differences that further illuminated the essence of creating connection during group singing (Merriam, 2009; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016; Moustakas, 1994). Using purposive, reputational, and maximum variation sampling, I selected five secondary school choral music educator participants who prioritized facilitation of connection in their work with students and who represented a variety of teaching contexts, professional, and personal characteristics. Data collection included interviews, field observations of rehearsals and performances, and classroom artifacts. Data analysis occurred cyclically and emergently (Creswell & Poth, 2018), following phenomenological procedures (Moustakas, 1994) to first analyze each participant’s experiences as a bounded case then to engage in cross-case analysis to uncover commonalities and tensions across cases (Stake, 2005; Yin, 2018). For each case, data analysis revealed conditions that created connection, barriers to connection, and an essence; cross-case analysis revealed a collective essence representing experiences of creating connection for all participants. Conditions that created connection involved using opening procedures, dissipating stress, releasing inhibitions, thoughtfully choosing repertoire, exploring choral texts, and fostering student ownership. Barriers included students’ inhibitions, teachers’ preoccupations, formal music education, school context, socioeconomic challenges, and COVID-19. The essence of each participant’s experience involved fostering student ownership and collaboration; uncovering students’ organic experiences of togetherness; “I gotchu,” an expression of unwavering support; impacting students’ mindsets; and vibrational alignment that can heal. Cross-case analysis through imaginative variation (Moustakas, 1994) revealed that for all participants, the essence of creating connection involved participants communicating care for students’ experience of life. The study’s findings offer implications for how choral leaders might facilitate experiences of connection during group singing. Findings suggest that choral educators seeking to create connection might help singers dissipate stress and anxiety, engage students in the creative process, reexamine traditional choral curricula, and use their personal strengths to communicate care for singers’ life experiences. Findings suggest ways choral educators might help create experiences of connection that can have a positive impact on students’ wellbeing. / Music Education

It is hoped that the facts revealed in this survey will aid in the passage of a law in Indiana concerning Music Education, similar to the law in effect in Indiana dealing with Vocational Education. It is further hoped that these facts will show a need for better programs of music education. The purpose of this survey is to collect data showing what is being done so that better things might be accomplished.

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The purpose of this research study is to examine the influences of mariachi education on student perceptions of their academic achievement, academic attainment, and student engagement. The study involved students attending schools in California, Oregon, and Texas with mariachi programs that consented to be a part of the study, whose districts approved their participation. The students were approached to participate in this study, as they are a part of their school’s mariachi program in middle or high school throughout the Western half of the United States. A convergent parallel (mixed-methods) design and descriptive statistical analyses were used to investigate the influence of mariachi education on student perceptions of their academic achievement, academic attainment and student engagement. Within each strand, the three short-answer questions were analyzed for emergent themes. Within this study, the results and their implications will be beneficial for both mariachi educators and music administrators as they begin to build a foundation of evidence as to the influences of mariachi education as they relate to the academic achievement, academic attainment, and engagement of students. Influenced by their experience, fifty percent of participants identified mariachi as having a positive influence on their other classes, with almost another fifty percent acknowledging mariachi’s influence on their grades. Additionally, the largest portion of respondents indicated mariachi influenced them to pursue music after high school, with almost ninety percent stating they will be graduating from high school; an increase of seventeen percent over the national average for Latinx students. Eighty-two percent of students indicated that mariachi helps them connect more with their friends, while over seventy-one percent of respondents stating that mariachi helps them connect with their family. Finally, the largest portion of participants (96.1%) indicated that mariachi enables them to express pride in being Latinx. The study also provides a foundation for researchers who wish to continue to study the influences of mariachi education on academic achievement and attainment, as well as student engagement. Through a future doctoral dissertation, the researcher herself plans on further studying via statistical examination, influences of mariachi education on students, in comparison to students not involved in mariachi, with a focus on Latinx students.

For a long time there has been a growing conviction among the music graduates from colleges in Texas that the training of music teachers has been limited both from the standpoint of the number of hours offered in music for a degree and of the adequacy of the training received. The trends in music teacher education in Texas need to be evaluated in order to determine whether or not teacher training in this state is adequate. In comparing the adequacy of the school curriculum as far as the number of hours and courses is concerned, McEachern's A Survey and Evaluation of the Education of School Music Teachers in the United States will be used as a source of comparison, since this study is inclusive of the curricula of colleges over the United States.

Symbolic interactionism has scarcely been used as a framework in the field of music education. The purpose of this case study was to understand the verbal and nonverbal interactions of four fifth-grade general music students while they collaborated with peers to compose original songs. Through the lens of symbolic interactionism, data from video and audio recordings, student artifacts, and researcher memos were examined to answer the following research questions: 1) How do fifth-grade general music students interact with their peers during composition activities in a constructivist learning environment? 2) How do fifth-grade general music students self-indicate and create shared meanings through verbal and nonverbal symbolic interactions? A within and cross-case analysis revealed that students interacted with their peers through communicative acts, forming friendships, nonverbal gestures, and forming social roles. The participants self-indicated and created shared meanings as a result of shared responsibilities, musical dialogue, improvisation, and symbolic exclusion. Findings suggested that fifth-grade students develop social roles and engage in follower and leader behaviors in situations where teacher scaffolding is purposefully suspended. The results of the research contribute to an existing body of literature regarding fifth-grade general music students’ abilities to self-direct their own learning during collaborative activities.

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Today’s world is vastly impacted by the effects of immigration and globalization. The cultural diversity in the student population in the United States continues to grow steadily along with the immigrant population. Although there is a large body of research that is concerned with culturally responsive teaching in music education, preservice teacher preparation to address and serve diverse communities, as well as issues of recruitment of diverse educators, there is a gap in the literature when it comes to the perspectives of international music educators in the United States. Researchers have provided information on diverse student populations and resources for music educators of non-diverse backgrounds, but the voices of international music teachers have not yet been heard. International music teachers could possess unique insights, and might be able to relate to students in a way that most music teachers cannot. They are also equipped with different experiences due to their own diverse backgrounds. In this study, interviews of international music teachers provide a conduit to gain understanding of their experiences, reflections and suggestions in order to provide an unexplored perspective for the field of music education.