Ann C. Clements - Alternative Approaches in Music Education: Case Studies from the Field

Ann C. Clements

The purpose of the text is to provide music educators, preservice music education students, and music education faculty an opportunity to explore the creative ways in which music educators across the country are approaching emerging practices in music teaching and learning.

The following chapters offer personalized case studies of music programs that are engaging in alternative approaches. Each case is unique and offers a new and different perspective on music teaching and learning. Often the programs described fall outside of the standard music education curriculum offered in most teacher-preparation programs. These models of successful alternative approaches can be replicated in a variety of school, university, or community settings.

This project was supported by the Society for Music Teacher Educations (SMTE) Areas of Strategic Planning and Action on Critical Examination of the Curriculum, and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to this organization.

To the Music Educator

Teaching music is a challenging art, growing only more complex as children and youth are increasingly influenced by popular culture, mass media, technology, and the rest of the world at the click of a button. One of the greatest difficulties for music educators can be staying current with new practices and approaches in music education. While some school districts provide opportunities for sharing ideas and state and national music organizations provide workshops and conferences, it remains difficult to know what new ideas are out there on a national level and which of these are working successfully.

Whether you are a new or experienced teacher, you are most likely looking for innovative ideas and methods of successful practice that you can incorporate into your own teaching. This text provides twenty-five models of alternative approaches to music education, presented as narrative case studies. Each was written by practicing music educators with a vast variety of experiences to share. Some were written by educators directly involved in the project or program being described, others by those who have had an opportunity to explore the projects and programs firsthand. Specifically, this text is intended to assist you, the music educator, in the following ways:

1. by offering a means for exploring alternative approaches and materials,

2. by presenting multiple examples of alternative approaches that you can consider for implementation into your own music classroom or program,

3. by providing opportunities for reflect on your previous experiences in traditional music education and for pondering new possibilities for music education as a whole, and

4. by serving as a means to garner administrative support for experimentation with and implementation of alternative approaches in your music program.

To the Preservice Music Education Student

Congratulations on selecting the lofty career of being a music educator. As you may already know, teaching music is an art that requires an in-depth knowledge of educational practice, music and musicianship, and children, youth, and community. While you have been gaining experience through your music education coursework, ensembles, and the private studio and have been receiving general preparation through music theory and music history courses, you must also be prepared to understand the changing face of music education in this country.

You may have attended schools prior to your university that had strong bands, choirs, and orchestras. You may have even taken music classes that were alternative or less typical or that included new or unusual projects and assignments. However, its unlikely that as a student participating in these atypical classes or projects you viewed them through the eyes of a teacher. Music education is in constant flux: As society changes, so should the profession. As our next generation of music educators you must understand who your students are, what they want to know, and how to creatively teach it. And so in the following chapters weve presented you with twenty-five case studies of alternative approaches to music education. Specifically, this text is intended to assist the preservice music education students in the following ways:

1. by offering examples of alternative approaches to music education,

2. by creating an opportunity for discussion of alternative approaches,

3. by showing how to apply alternative approaches and materials to contextual classroom situations,

4. by providing opportunities for discussion of uncommon issues and themes in music education with peers and faculty,

5. by giving you a chance to reflect on previous experiences in traditional music education and on the new possibilities for music education as you begin your teaching career, and

6. by specifying models that can be implemented in current and future teachings.

To the Higher-Education Faculty Member

It has been estimated that school music education, particularly at the secondary level, is reaching only a limited number of students through the traditional performance offerings of band, choir, and orchestra. In essence, music education is failing to reach the majority of students. A key remedy for this is to expand course offerings while exploring alternative approaches. However, many music education programs at the university level continue to focus the majority, if not all, of their methods and technique courses on traditional offerings. This, coupled with the amount of time most universities require students to spend in traditional ensembles and coursework, can set a poor example for incorporating alternative approaches. In order to equip future music educators with the skills, materials, and models they will need to be successful in an ever-changing music education profession, they must be introduced to alternative approaches, alongside traditional approaches, in the course of their music education.