Demographics and Faculty Time Allocation of Music Education Professors in the United States

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to construct a demographic and time allocation profile of the typical music education faculty member in the United States. Participant institutions ( n = 220) were selected from a random sample of National Association of Schools of Music–accredited institutions offering music education degrees ( N = 517). The authors sent invitations to complete the online survey to 665 music education professors at the institutions in the sample. The completed response rate for the survey was 35% ( n = 236). Findings aided in the construction of a profile of the typical music education faculty member in the United States. The data demonstrate that the typical respondent has a doctorate, 9 to 12 years of K–12 teaching experience, and is 51.5 years old, but entered the professoriate around age 36. The typical respondent spends approximately 11 hours per week teaching undergraduate students and has only 10% of his or her workload devoted to research. The report explores numerous other variables as well. Certain characteristics of the profile varied according to the type of institution at which the respondent worked. For example, the data demonstrate a significant difference in mean percentage of workload devoted to teaching and research between various institution types but not in time devoted to service. The exploration of demographic and time allocation norms in the music education professoriate may be of interest to those who prepare music teacher education faculty. Such information may also be of value to current and future graduate students preparing for careers in the music education professoriate.