Unpacking the habitus: Exploring a music teacher’s values, beliefs and practices

Abstract

There is substantial evidence in the literature to support the claim that teachers’ values and beliefs have a powerful effect on their teaching practice, and that these shape students’ experiences of music learning. However, little attention has been paid to the forces by which these values and beliefs are shaped, and, more importantly, how more positive teacher dispositions may be cultivated and developed through teacher education. Drawing on methodological devices of narrative inquiry, and Bourdieu’s concept of habitus as an interpretive tool, this article describes a case study of one music teacher’s values and beliefs and how these were shaped by personal experiences, and social and institutional forces. Specifically, the paper considers the ways in which this teacher’s values and beliefs were reshaped over the course of the research process.