First Remembrances of Wanting to Become a Music Teacher

In the study described here, we used an open-ended written essay to identify the factors that lead students to become music teachers. Ninety music education majors were given the instructions to indicate in their own words their earliest remembrances of when they considered becoming a music teacher, including age, place, who was with them, how they felt, their thoughts at the time, and any other aspects they considered important. Essays were analyzed and classified according to these areas of interest; additionally as a more qualitative assessment, total responses were analyzed to discern some of the nuances evidenced in individual responses. Results indicated that the age at which the decision was made and influential people in their lives were the most important factors affecting these subjects' decision to become a music teacher. The decision was vividly remembered, with school music teachers exerting the primary influence. Of the subjects, 76% decided to become a music teacher before entering a teacher preparatory program. Students who did not decide until they were of college age remained ambivalent about their choice.