Comparing Preservice and Early Career Teachers' Perceptions of Elementary Music Teacher Education Practices: A Mixed Methods Study

Abstract

Elementary school music experiences have been shown to be influential for lifelong music engagement, and sound music teacher education would be the most effective way to provide positive school music experiences to students in elementary schools. In spite of this importance, many countries have different elementary music education and music teacher education practices based on their cultural values and educational priorities. The purpose of this study is to compare music teacher education practices for elementary schools in South Korea with those in the upper Midwest region of the United States by investigating preservice and early career elementary music teachers’ perceptions of their own music teacher education programs, self-perceptions of competence, and their suggestions for improvement. This Sequential Explanatory Mixed Methods study, which involved survey data in Phase I and interviews in Phase II, attempts to unravel the reasons behind these teachers’ perceptions and to approach a middle ground for elementary school music teacher education by recommending some practical ways to improve in two very distinctive contexts. The quantitative and qualitative results reveal that US teachers were mostly satisfied with their training, while the majority of the Korean teachers expressed great disappointment. Teachers in both countries expressed some degree of concern regarding the grade level preparation and appreciated their training courses and student teaching practicum when those were practical and related to pedagogy. In addition, their experiences in university courses and student teaching were greatly dependent on course instructors and cooperating teachers they met. In terms of a level of confidence in music teaching, the US teachers showed higher levels of confidence than did the Korean teachers, and their levels of confidence were highly related to their perceptions regarding the institutional performance addressing knowledge and skills that are necessary and relevant to the music teachers’ needs. Participants, regardless of their teaching experience level and their satisfaction, agreed that teachers who have enough music training and proper understanding of elementary school children should teach music in elementary schools, although the current status of each country was different, and the degrees of agreement were varied. In addition, while many US teachers wanted to have a prescribed curriculum as a guideline to ensure effective music teaching, every single Korean respondent preferred to have a prescribed curriculum, revealing the long educational convention and the current situation. Teachers in the US especially critiqued insufficient elementary school level consideration and practicality in their program. Their perceptions revealed the weaknesses in training elementary music specialists under the choral/instrumental track system for broad K-12 certification. On the other hand, although training in Korea was targeted to the elementary school level, the Korean music education major does not seem to function effectively to train elementary school level experts due to a lack of enough music expertise, practicality, and pedagogical support. Based on the teachers’ suggestions for improvement, some realistic remedies were proposed to find a middle ground such as enhancing music methods courses in terms of pedagogical content and practicality, increasing interrelation between the field experiences and university training courses, utilizing veteran elementary music teachers as music education faculty and cooperating teachers, and offering more accessible and organized professional development opportunities to elementary in-service teachers. The ultimate beneficiary of these improvements would be elementary school children who would have increased chances of getting a quality music education in their early and critical years.