First-year music teachers' journeys of place consciousness

Education scholars have noted the importance of contextual understanding in the development of teacher knowledge (Carlsen, 1999; Grossman, 1990; Shulman, 1987). Examining contextual knowledge through a lens of place brings together elements of history, culture, environment, and experience which provides a foundation for beginning teachers to better understand their classrooms, schools, and communities. Through the framework of critical place-conscious education, this study examined how music teachers formed this understanding of their teaching contexts and built relationships with others in their first year of teaching (Greenwood, 2013; Gruenewald, 2003, 2008a, 2008b). This study explored first-year music teachers’ journeys of place consciousness within a new classroom, school, and community, and how they manifested this knowledge and understanding in their pedagogy. Research questions focused on how first-year music teachers developed place consciousness and how first-year music teachers enacted place consciousness in their pedagogical decisions. In this multiple case study (Thomas, 2016), three music teachers, teaching band, choir, and general music in rural and urban settings shared their experiences during their first year of teaching. Data generation methods included semi-structured interviews, observations, voice memos, mapping, and collection of material culture. Relationships with students, colleagues, previous music teachers, and parent and community organizations enlightened each teacher about the recent history of the schools and their music programs, students’ home cultures, and community assets. Through the material resources and organization of their classrooms, each teacher formed evaluative assumptions about music education in their schools and communities and its curricular history. Time and experience cultivated meaningful growth of place consciousness. The transition to virtual learning due to the COVID-19 led them to reinvent their learning communities with little transfer from their in-person classrooms. The first-year teachers in this study enacted their place consciousness in their pedagogical decisions by performing specific and varied roles within their teaching contexts. They began to center students in their classroom organization, environment, and curricula and pursued communitarian aims. Two teachers sought to change classroom traditions and rituals they found to misalign with their understanding of place. Two teachers struggled with disorientation when they made pedagogical decisions before developing sufficient place consciousness to inform these decisions. While each teacher encountered typical first-year struggles, they demonstrated reflective thinking and agency in their place-making decisions that were particularistic to each of their teaching contexts. Implications included the recognition of beginning teachers’ power as place makers and their ability to critically evaluate their teaching contexts as places.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Music Education

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Schaller, Jonathan G.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Barrett, Janet Revell
• Fairbanks, Stephen
• Kruse, Adam
• Nichols, Jeananne

• First-Year Teachers
• Music
• Music Education
• Place
• Place Consciousness
• Place Making
• Praxis Shock
• Teaching Context
• Teacher Knowledge

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2021 Jonathan G. Schaller

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/113026

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/113026