Breaking the Silence: The Phenomenology of the Female High School Band Director

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the phenomenology of the female high school band director (FHSBD). In order to achieve a sample for regional maximum variation, one FHSBD from each county in the state of Connecticut was interviewed. After gathering data from a series of three interviews, I used Moustakas’s modification of the Van Kaam method to analyze data to align with common phenomenological analysis techniques. I identified the following nine themes from relevant and validated invariant constituents: (1) support, (2) resistance and barriers, (3) loving the students and loving music, (4) discrimination, (5) motherhood and time consumption, (6) building or rebuilding a program, (7) gender clubs, (8) high school wasn’t the goal, and (9) administrative and leadership degrees and certification. Based on results from the analyzed data, I determined the essence of the FHSBD is most succinctly described as persistence.