Examining the Perspectives of Rural Secondary Students Who Are and Are Not Considering Music Education as a Collegiate Major
A problem exists in recruiting new music educators to the teaching profession. This problem is impacting the quality of instruction students are receiving from teachers in music education. The shortage of music teachers in music education is continuing to grow. This teacher shortage includes both core classes and specialized classes including music education. Many possible factors contribute to this problem, including teacher recruitment at the secondary level. This mixed methods research study attempts to provide in-depth answers to the problem through examining the perspectives of secondary students who are and are not considering music education as a major in college. Students who are interested in pursuing music education in college need good music educators in schools. An explanatory sequential research design is utilized to collect quantitative survey data followed by qualitative interviews. The quantitative results will be utilized to select the participants for the qualitative study. The qualitative data is utilized to elaborate on the quantitative results. The collection of survey and interview data will help to explain the qualitative data through qualitative analysis. The backward method in logistic regression analysis is used to select the most important predictor variables that explains the maximum variance in the likelihood of selecting music education majors in college (dependent variable). In vivo coding is used to code the qualitative interview transcripts and derive themes. Joint display tables are used to triangulate the quantitative and qualitative data strands to conduct mixed-methods analysis. This study shows that teacher influence (TI) and interest (IN) have significant impact on a student considering to major in music education in college.
Music Education, Teacher Recruitment, High School Band, Recruitment Perspectives, Education
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