Abstract
This study explores the influence of professional identity on the teaching practice of four school music educators, two from Spain and two from Australia. Narrative inquiry methodology was utilized in order to investigate the full spectrum of their musical experiences, ranging from their earliest childhood memories to their current positions in the education sector. In the course of the co-construction of the narratives, two recurrent themes emerged: strategies to improve practice and teaching approaches. Despite the obvious cultural and institutional differences, there was a marked correlation of these themes in terms of their contribution to the formation of each of the participants’ professional identities. Although these findings are derived from a small number of participants they may provide insights for specialist music educators, teacher educators programs, and for those considering a career in music education.
Keywords
Introduction
In his discussion of the nature of history, Carr (1961) acknowledged that “it can never be pure, it is always refracted through the mind of the recorder” (p. 22), and thereby rejected any belief in absolute objectivity. He might well have been discussing the professional lives and practices of teachers, for they too are profoundly influenced by the personal experiences, characteristics, and philosophy of the individuals themselves, a varied collection of influences that can be grouped under the descriptor “identity” (Carter & Doyle, 1996; Korthagen, 2004). Consequently, the concept of professional identity is irrevocably linked to professional action in the sense that who a person is, or who they think they are, exerts a profound influence on what they do (Olson & Einwohner, 2001; Watson, 2006). In addition to the impact of personal factors a number of other factors, to varying degrees, influence the professional identity of teachers. As Bronfenbrenner (1979) contends, human beings develop as they adapt to the changing conditions of their immediate settings and the larger contexts in which these settings are embedded. The professional identity of teachers is therefore affected by complex personal factors that are often interconnected. Because identity is formed and given meaning in interaction with others, the process of its formation is always relational (Dolloff, 2007; Korthagen, 2004).
In this article we explore the journey of four music teachers, two from Spain and two from Australia, and how they have been and will continue to be affected by the past, present and future (temporality), how they felt about particular events and the social context in which they occurred (sociality) and the impact of the place where the events occurred (place) in relation to the formation of their professional identity. We use the methodology of narrative inquiry to co-construct with our participants the stories of their journey as music teachers from their earliest encounters with music to their current position as school music teachers. Extracts of the narratives have been used to discuss significant events that have affected and continue to affect the professional identity of the four participants.
Context
Building on previous work by the authors (Carrillo & Vilar, 2012) that investigated the professional competences of music educators in the Spanish context, the lead author spent 3 months in an Australian university as a visiting scholar. This experience facilitated a further exploration of the competence frameworks in music teacher education that they believed offered a narrow and technicist view that neglected personal attributes and qualities. The 3-month immersion was further enriched by the associated opportunity to investigate the professional journey of a beginning and an experienced teacher that afforded important insights into the expectations and realities of teachers at significantly different stages of their career.
Four music teachers were selected for this study based on their commitment to teaching and learning. Other recruitment criteria were based on the interest of their professional experiences and on their ability to clearly express and reflect about these issues. At the time of the interviews, the two beginning teachers had been teaching music in school for 3 years (Júlia – based in Spain) and one year (John – based in Australia). The two experienced teachers were Marta (Spain) and Tim (Australia) with 36 and 20 years’ experience respectively.
The two Spanish participants both graduated with undergraduate qualifications in music, majoring in piano. Prior to commencing classroom teaching, Júlia performed and taught piano for 4 years. Two months after her introduction to the school context, she enrolled in a Diploma in Education. Marta achieved other undergraduate qualifications in the arts and without any formal preparation for teaching obtained a position as a school music teacher 5 years after receiving her Bachelor’s Degree in Music. At the time of the interviews, Júlia was working in a private school for girls with a significant extracurricular program in music and Marta was teaching part-time in a public high school with a large number of secondary students who concurrently undertake specialized music training.
The two Australian participants both have a Bachelor’s Degree in Music, majoring in drums (John) and piano (Tim). They enrolled in a teaching qualification after some years of performing and working as instrumental music teachers. During the interviews John was teaching in a private school for boys with a renowned sports program and Tim was in a co-educational private school with an established reputation for music.
Research methods
The purpose of this article is to examine teacher identity and therefore the qualitative methodology of narrative inquiry was chosen as the most appropriate method due to its use of three commonplaces (temporality, sociality, place) that are investigated simultaneously to provide insights into participants’ lives (Clandinin, Pushor & Murray-Orr, 2007). As Connelly and Clandinin (2006, p. 375) state: “People shape their daily lives by stories of who they and others are and they interpret their past in terms of these stories.” As a methodology that emphasizes the personal dimension of humans and the influence that different environments exert on them, narrative research is a useful tool to explore the way teachers construct their professional identity (Chase, 2005; Zembylas, 2003).
In narrative inquiry, researchers situate themselves in relational ways with their participants in order to co-construct the data from the experiences of both the researchers and the participants (Chase, 2005; Clandinin & Connelly, 2000). As Hatch (2002) contends from a constructivist perspective, the nature of reality or ontology is constructed by individuals who experience the world from their own vantage points. In the constructivist paradigm researchers’ seek to understand “the subjective world of human experience” (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2007, p. 21) by placing value on the “participants’ views of the situation being studied” (Creswell, 2003, p. 9). As Toma (2000) notes, this type of research is “inherently personal” (p. 182), and therefore the researcher’s position inevitably influences the nature of the data generated.
Ethical approval to conduct this study with the Australian participants was granted by the University of Southern Queensland Human Research Ethics Commitee (Approval No: H09REA51). Although Spanish universities do not require ethical approval to undertake research, all of the participants were made aware of the aims of the research and of their right to withdraw without stigma or repercussions at any time with pseudonyms used to protect their identities.
Data collection
A series of three interviews were conducted with the participants to generate the initial field texts, the subsequent interim texts and the final research texts (Clandinin, Pushor & Murray-Orr, 2007). The rapport and trust that developed over the course of the interviews allowed the participants to describe the context of their experiences, to reconstruct the details of these experiences, and to reflect on their meaning (Seidman, 2006).
A semi-structured interview schedule was used (Appendix A) to provide consistency in the areas explored with the participants and to provide the flexibility to pursue particular points of interest during the interviewing process (Hatch, 2002). The interviews ranged from 45 minutes to 2 hours in duration and were conducted over a 10-month period. During this process the researchers transcribed and discussed aspects of the interviews that required further elaboration in the follow-up interview. Having generated additional questions, the researchers emailed an updated list prior to each interview so that the participants would have sufficient time for reflection. These questions sought to clarify some aspects of the previous interview and ensure an in-depth understanding of those experiences that had been significant in the process of the formation of the participants’ professional identity and thereby to facilitate the identification of emergent themes.
Analysis
The transcription of the first interview with the participants, which had been guided by the semi-structured interview questions, led to the creation of the field text. This was, in effect, the collation of the raw data that, when analyzed, highlighted areas requiring clarification during the second interview. After the second interview, the additional data was added to the field text to create an interim text. In this deeper, richer narrative, the researchers identified resonant threads that indicated similarities and differences in the experiences of the participants (Riessman, 1993). This thematic analysis, driven by the search for “themes that hold across the stories” (Polkinghorne, 1995, p. 12), grouped the results in six categories: “becoming” a music teacher; “praxis-shock”; strategies to improve practice; professional self-concept; teaching approaches; and “experiencing” teacher training programs. The two categories that the researchers regarded as the most significant in the development of the participants professional identities were: strategies to improve practice, in which the different strategies carried out by the four music teachers in order to improve their classroom practice and to foster professional self-growth are described; and teaching approaches, which examines the way that the participants approached their teaching practice.
The third interview provided the opportunity to further explore the participants’ journey and to create a final research text that provides an authentic and rich account which simultaneously explores the three commonplaces of temporality, sociality, and place (Clandinin et al., 2007). Because events are always in transition, temporality was described by showing how the people and events in the narratives have been, are, and will probably be shaped by the past, present, and future. In order to portray sociality the researchers attended to the interaction between the personal and the social conditions of the participants. The researchers also were cognizant of the third dimension of place, particularly due to the Spanish and Australian cultural context in which the participants have lived and are currently working.
Using these threads the researchers composed the final research texts in which the experiences of the participants were interwoven and made explicit to create a joint narrative that emphasizes the particularities and unique perspectives of each participant. Extracts from the interviews—which appear in inverted comas—were also incorporated in order to illustrate the findings and to communicate more effectively the lived experiences of the music teachers.
Trustworthiness
As qualitative research is often experience based, most qualitative researchers rely on other criteria beyond validity and reliability to determine the quality of their research (Huberman, 1995). In order to achieve trustworthiness, the research was conducted in a way that was credible, transferable, dependable, and confirmable (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). In order to ensure credibility, the participants were actively engaged in the construction of their narrative accounts throughout this process during which rapport was established. Without attempting to create general concepts, transferability was achieved through providing enough detail to facilitate the application of the results to other settings. Dependability was achieved by ensuring that the data was accessible to the readers by thoroughly describing the research process undertaken in this study. The inclusion of extracts from the interviews in the final research text provides the reader with an “audit trail” (Lincoln & Guba, 1985, p. 323) on which we based our findings and which further contributed to confirmability.
Emergent themes
The following section presents the two recurrent themes, strategies to improve practice and teaching approaches, through extracts from the final research texts of each of the participants.
Strategies to improve practice
Tim commenced his teaching career in a school with a student body drawn from a wide variety of cultures and ethnicities. As a result, he often utilized performance strategies as a means to cope with the “difficult clientele,” a descriptor that hinted at the business implications of private schooling. Further to its use as a behavior management tool, it also served a far more altruistic purpose as a resource to enhance his students’ confidence in their capacities as musicians. “I often took whole groups of kids out to play at Aboriginal festivals and we got lots of rewarding experiences out of that. The kids all loved to be doing things with music and then getting this appraisal.” Tim also encouraged his students to send pieces of music created in class to a popular state composition competition. These strategies had clear parallels with Marta’s experience, for as she revealed: “When a student goes on stage they want to do their best. This is an incentive which other areas do not have.”
Though she expressed reservations about the efficacy and relevance of her Diploma of Education, Júlia was able to build on the abstract knowledge that it had exposed her to with her own observations and experiences, and in doing so “really learnt to teach.” Marta, who did not receive any formal preparation for teaching, was also able to create “learning strategies or certain methods” based on her teaching needs. Without being consciously aware of it, both Júlia and Marta used reflection as a means of acquiring insights into teaching. Both compensated for perceived deficiencies as beginning teachers with what Schön (1992, p. 35) described as “knowledge in action.” Though articulating it quite differently, Marta was equally aware of the value of reflection. Her “pedagogical principles of common sense,” which she described as “changing an activity if necessary, rectifying what is going wrong, adapting the content to the year level or using positive responses from the students,” was effectively Marta highlighting Schön’s thinking in action without incurring a conscious intellectual debt. Despite her preparedness to “learn on the job” Marta remained painfully conscious of her lack of formal educational training. She read specialized journals and familiarized herself with textbooks as a means of augmenting her pedagogical knowledge. Marta also recognized that supervising practicum students had been crucial for her becoming interested in the acquisition of theoretical knowledge. The value of teachers educating themselves was likewise evident in John’s initial educational experiences, for he conceded that it was not until he familiarized himself with a set of readings about music education and thought back “to how I was taught” that he established a connection between the content of both his music and his teaching preparation and learnt “the logical way” to teach music. Unfortunately, the most generalized training model for music teachers in secondary education emphasizes the musical dimension of their preparation, which pushes into the background its pedagogical and didactical side (Hargreaves, Purves, Welch, & Marshall, 2007).
John explained that interacting with colleagues had played an equally important role in the evolution of his identity as an educator, which was significant, as music teachers do not normally have the opportunity to work collaboratively with other teachers (Carrillo & Baguley, 2011). This professional isolation is exacerbated by the reality that many music departments consist of only one music teacher (Ballantyne, 2007). Interestingly, Marta, Tim, and Júlia were members of departments with more than one music teacher, and both Marta and Tim were also working collaboratively with their respective teacher colleagues. This contrasted with Júlia’s experience, which had been marred by philosophical and pedagogical differences with the only other music teacher in the school.
During their period as pre-service teachers, John and Tim revealed that pedagogical discussions with their colleagues made them “feel at one” with others who had experienced similar issues. When Júlia participated in summer music courses, she also found it reassuring to share her experiences with other music teachers and to discover that they were also encountering difficult situations.
Both Marta and John found that the opportunity to seek feedback from colleagues was a vital component in any attempt to improve their classroom practice. In Marta’s case, she was able to network even further afield than her school during summer music courses, a situation perhaps indicating that seeking and accepting advice from sources unencumbered by an institutional relationship may in some cases be even more valuable than site-specific feedback. Tim is a member of the Australian Society for Music Education, and identified this professional network as an invaluable link with fellow professionals.
Beyond the more personal aspects of collegial links, the participants found value in engaging with the broader professional community. Tim regularly avails himself of any opportunity to undertake training courses and has attended at least one music education conference every year since graduation. As he works in a “very proactive” school, he is aware of his responsibility to “be in touch with what the latest thinking is.” Marta also found training courses facilitated an exposure to new initiatives and an opportunity to gather pedagogical resources. In contrast to the other participants’ burgeoning professional contacts, after an entire academic year working in “survival mode,” Júlia enrolled in a teacher training course in order to address significant concerns she had regarding her teaching practice.
Teaching approaches
Even though Marta, John and Tim had received different levels of teacher training, part of their effectiveness was the result of involving their whole self in the act of teaching (Hamachek, 1999). Marta revealed that although she is aware that being a teacher has an important “technical component,” it is when she goes beyond the conscious act of teaching and engages with the students as unique individuals that students really appreciate her work. Moreover, the satisfaction that comes from devoting oneself to teaching was for Marta “a fantastic motivation to keep working well.” In this sense, her experience is borne out in the work of Korthagen (2004), who argued that a good teacher cannot be described in terms of isolated competencies, as this approach ignores aspects of the person of the teacher that are required for effective teaching. Unfortunately, this is not reflected in policy documents such as the Libro Blanco for the Degree in Education (Agencia Nacional de Evaluación de la Calidad y Acreditación, 2005) in Spain or the Professional Standards for Queensland Teachers (Queensland College of Teachers, 2006) in Queensland (Australia). Both documents privilege the technical aspects of teaching over the personal skills and dispositions needed for a successful practice. However, some policy documents that articulate a list of desirable competences for teachers in Spain and Australia recognize the importance of the ethical responsibilities of teachers (Agencia Nacional de Evaluación de la Calidad y Acreditación, 2005; Board of Teacher Registration Queensland, n.d.; Queensland College of Teachers, 2008). These documents acknowledge that the teaching profession is an activity with implicit moral values that, as Marchesi (2007) contends, requires a commitment to others that goes beyond mere technical considerations.
Like Marta, John was aware that “your personality comes across when you’re teaching.” He admits that “I was a naughty kid at school so I can sort of interact with those kids.” John also revealed that “build[ing] a relationship with kids” and avoiding the image of the teacher as “the dominator” had facilitated a greater interaction with his students. He thus draws on his own experiences and his empathy with challenging students to inform his own practice. Tim’s confidence in his ability to work with young people effectively had motivated in him a desire to become a school teacher. In his view, being “genuinely interested” in his students had made a difference to his teaching practice.
O’Connor (2008) contends that the emotion of teaching frequently acts as a source of intrinsic motivation and therefore is central to teaching effectiveness. John is well aware of this connection when he observes that “it would be good if there was a course on how to manage your own emotions in the classroom. However, the teacher’s emotions on how to deal with things like that [problems of classroom] are just forgotten.” John confessed that people tend to wrongly think that teachers “will be fine” in front of the class and fail to recognize that they are often not trained to emotionally handle some classroom situations. Sutton (2007) states, “teachers’ emotional experiences and expression influence their classroom effectiveness” (p. 232) and thus will inform their professional practice from their very first days in the classroom.
Tim still recalls how the words from one of his headmasters inspired him to both remain dedicated to the profession and to improve his teaching practice. Marta referred to acknowledging students for good work as the “technique of initial success,” and observed that this technique, learnt through trial and error during her first months in a classroom, had reinforced the need to retain a positive attitude in her role as a teacher. While a personal orientation to teaching (Combs, 1982) appeared to have shaped Marta’s journey as a teacher, an instrumental approach informed Júlia’s view of education. Having been trained as a pianist, Júlia declared that being passionate about what she teaches motivates her to teach it well. She nevertheless confessed her concern at being unable to “transmit” all her musical knowledge to her secondary music students due to both their limited level of music training and reluctance to engage with the curriculum. Interestingly, Júlia revealed a preference for delivering theory-based lessons while simultaneously acknowledging that practice activities are an effective and engaging pedagogical practice. Júlia acknowledged that her preference for having her students seated allowed her to exercise greater control that, in turn, contributed to her confidence as teacher. This practice had its origins in her educational experiences rather than any conscious reflection on pedagogical practice. During her childhood she used to “imitate her teachers” as a playtime activity during which she would assume the role of the teacher. Clearly the images of a traditional transmission approach to teaching derived from her earlier experiences as a school student (Calderhead & Robson, 1991). She was compensating for her limited experience and preparation for teaching and relied on what was familiar to her.
Discussion
This study has explored the influence of professional identity on the teaching practice of four music educators. Despite the different cultural, educational and professional backgrounds of the participants, they share a number of formative influences that have shaped, and continue to shape, their professional identities. This discussion section considers three of these influences: the use of music performance strategies, the role of professional self-development and the impact of the personal dimension in teaching.
To assist in coping with the beginning stage of teaching, Tim utilized strategies consistent with his privileged identity as a musician. He relied on his previous musical experience and identity as a musician to enhance students’ motivation and increase their confidence in their capacity to create and perform music. At a more pragmatic level, it also served as a behavioral management strategy. The use of performance activities in the music classroom is a vital bridge between a music teacher’s professional role as an educator with his/her identity as a musician (Welch, Purves, Hargreaves & Marshall, 2011). This, in turn, can potentially increase teachers’ perceived sense of self-efficacy.
Throughout the narratives, the four music teachers also revealed a shared desire to engage with professional development as a strategy supporting professional improvement. Being aware of their limitations, yet not overwhelmed by them, the participating teachers pursued initiatives regularly as a strategy to promote professional growth. Consistent with the research conducted by Bailey, Curtis and Nunan (2001), the findings from this study highlight the fundamental role played by self-observation and increased self-awareness in any process of professional improvement. One of the strategies identified as contributing to this process is interaction with other teachers (Darling-Hammond & McLaughlin, 1995; Hargreaves & Dawe 1990). This study has also highlighted the usefulness of reflection in two senses: as a strategy to help teachers deconstruct and become aware of influences on the construction of their teacher identity (see Korthagen & Vasalos, 2005) and as a tool to acquire knowledge through practice, which Schön (1992, p. 35) describes as “knowledge in action.”
Marta, John, and Tim’s experiences revealed that the personal dimension of teachers has a direct influence on how they carry out their professional work (Nias, 1989; van den Berg, 2002). Interpersonal relationships that teachers establish with students and the way these can determine the implementation of this educational intervention indicate that teaching requires a solid commitment to students that goes beyond a teacher’s professional role. Moreover, given that teaching is a social activity, it becomes clear that there is also a high degree of emotional involvement (Hargreaves, 2000; Nias, 1996). Not surprisingly, therefore, being acknowledged as an effective teacher contributes to an individual’s confidence to seek even further development and their commitment to the profession (Korthagen & Vasalos, 2005; Seligman & Csikszentmilhalyi, 2000).
Conclusion
Although this study is limited to four participants, the narrative inquiry approach has revealed some interesting parallels between the four music educators, particularly given the different cultural contexts in which they are living and currently working. A number of implications and ideas for further research have arisen from the findings that could assist in improving initial teacher education and professional development programs. These include acknowledging the previous identity and expertise of students enrolling in teacher education programs, stimulating reflection during teacher training courses, providing networking and mentoring opportunities for student teachers, and recognizing the personal dimension of teaching.
First, the findings derived from this study highlight that valuing previous identities and expertise of students during teacher training programs is essential to ensure successful practice in the future (Carrillo & Baguley, 2011). Experienced teacher educators can assist novice teachers to more effectively face the challenges of the profession by acknowledging prior experience and demonstrating how this can be used in the classroom context. This would provide students with meaningful experiences that would enhance the impact that teacher training programs exert on them.
Second, this study has shown the importance of self-reflection during pre-service courses. Stimulating reflection among student teachers would help them understand why a particular strategy worked with one group and not another. It would also assist student teachers’ understanding of the complexity of teaching and subsequently their confidence and sense of self-worth.
A third implication arising from the study is the importance of being provided with and actively undertaking networking and mentoring opportunities. It is obvious that learning to teach does not occur in a vacuum as it is a relational practice and one enhanced by targeted professional development and mentoring. The inculcation of an environment that values high levels of teacher collaboration results in an increased sense of teacher efficacy (Shachar & Shmuelevitz, 1997), which is particularly important for student and novice teachers.
Finally, this study has revealed that the personal dimension of teaching (Day, 2002; Korthagen, 2004), as evidenced in the narratives through characteristics such as enthusiasm, personal commitment, care for children, empathy, and the need for emotional self-control, can at times be neglected through an emphasis on teacher quality that provides a list of technicist competences (Leong, 1995). Incorporating a training course on how to manage emotions within teacher education programs would assist teachers with these types of challenges and would contribute to teachers’ efficacy, satisfaction, and continuity (MacDonald & Baguley, 2012).
This study’s contribution to music education literature is in providing a snapshot view of four music educators and the influences on their professional identities by identifying commonalities across cultural, educational, and professional boundaries. The richness of the narrative inquiry approach has provided first-hand accounts of the participants’ experiences, which have been juxtaposed with the beginning and more experienced stages of a teacher’s career. The voices of the participants support the importance of considering a holistic view of the teaching profession, which appears to be at different stages in Spain and Australia. The emphasis on quality teaching in both countries is becoming increasingly intense and this article is timely in its reinforcement of the support required for beginning and novice teachers from experienced teacher educators and teachers.
Footnotes
Appendix A: Semi-structured interview questions
Declaration of Conflicting Interest
The author declares that there is no conflict of interest.
Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.