Identity formation in music teacher education: The role of the curriculum

Abstract

The purpose of this descriptive quantitative research was to examine undergraduate music teacher education curricula in the context of professional identity formation and in comparison with teacher education curricula in other subjects. Comprehensive course listings for undergraduate degree programs in music teacher education, mathematics teacher education, and English teacher education were gathered from the official course catalogs of 16 higher education institutions. These data were coded and analyzed to determine the amount of coursework in each program devoted to developing pedagogical skills, subject-area content knowledge, and other skills. Results indicated that while the amount of content-focused and pedagogy-focused courses was relatively balanced in English and mathematics teacher education programs, music teacher education programs devoted a significantly larger proportion of the curriculum to content-based courses. While scholars have called on music teacher educators to prioritize the development of a teacher identity in undergraduate music education students, current music teacher education curricula may not be aligned with these recommendations.