String teaching for enabling creative agency: Exploring teachers' values, experiences, and practices

The purpose of this multiple case study (Thomas, 2016) was to explore the values, experiences, and practices of elementary and high school string teachers who actively facilitate creative musical making to enable the musical creative agency of students. The theoretical framework guiding this study was based on Hill’s (2018) implications for increasing the creative agency of students by overcoming inhibitors of musical creativity, which highlight the need for using enabling strategies to overcome restrictors of creativity in our music teaching practices. Students exhibit creative agency when they are given “permission and authority to make one’s own decisions determining musical sound and meaning” (Hill, p. 4), encompassing personal expression and the freedom to take creative risks. The participants included three public school string educators who were selected through intensity sampling (Patton, 2002) and predetermined criteria. Data generation methods included semi-structured interviews, teaching observations and field notes, analytic memos, and video elicitation interviews. The data were analyzed by conducting initial within-case analyses (Thomas, 2016) of each participant, providing detailed descriptions and themes within each case, and followed by a cross-case analysis and discussion (Yin, 2009; Thomas, 2016). The findings revealed that the string teachers’ past and present musical experiences informed their values and teaching practices for musical creativity. They actively facilitated creative music making opportunities through a variety of teaching strategies that were highly dependent on their students’ musicianship and experiences. They promoted more creative risk taking by having students leading their own learning, and validating their students’ work, which enabled the creative agency of their students. Each teacher provided suggestions and resources for novice teachers and other music educators who were interested in integrating more creative experiences in their own classrooms. While each participant had unique musical experiences and pedagogical values that informed their teaching practice, they demonstrated how creative music making opportunities motivated their students to be confident musicians who were excited to explore their own musical ideas and decisions. Implications of this study include strategies and practical suggestions for music educators who want to facilitate creative music making in their classrooms, ideas for re-envisioning music teacher education programs to help prepare preservice teachers for teaching with creative experiences, and recommendations for future music education research.

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

• Park, Mindy Hyunsoo

Contributors dc:contributor

• Gallo, Donna
• Barrett, Janet R
• Kruse, Adam
• Fairbanks, Stephen

• music education
• musical creativity
• sociocultural creativity
• strings
• string education
• creative agency
• teaching practices
• pedagogy
• eclectic styles
• alternative styles
• teachers
• values
• experiences
• agency
• violin
• viola
• cello
• double bass
• orchestra
• instrumental music education
• large ensembles
• music technology
• electric strings
• improvisation
• composition
• creativity
• music teacher education
• preservice music teacher
• music teacher
• k-12 music education

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2022 Mindy Hyunsoo Park

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115398

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F115398