EXPERIENCES of NOMADIC MUSIC TEACHING ARTISTS By
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INVISIBLE TERRAINS: EXPERIENCES OF NOMADIC MUSIC TEACHING ARTISTS by Katharine Charlotte Kresek Dissertation Committee: Professor Randall Everett Allsup, Sponsor Professor Lori A. Custodero Approved by the Committee on the Degree of Doctor of Education Date May 16, 2018 Submitted in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Music and Music Education in Teachers College, Columbia University 2018 ABSTRACT INVISIBLE TERRAINS: EXPERIENCES OF NOMADIC MUSIC TEACHING ARTISTS Katharine Charlotte Kresek This study explores the complexities of professional performing freelance musicians who teach part-time through arts organizations in multiple educative settings, a condition I refer to as nomadic. Nomadicism is characterized by an inherent sense of itinerancy. Through semi-structured interviews and observations with three participants, I constructed narratives of individual experience through a method of narrative inquiry, which enabled much-needed nuance and complexity, as prior research in the field of teaching artistry has focused mainly on surveys of working conditions with mostly informal anecdotes from the field. The music teaching artists in this study negotiated highly complex careers to extraordinary degrees in which they experienced conflicts between their preparation as highly accomplished performers and their preparation for their work as teachers. While each participant expressed their motivations for pursuing careers as teaching artists in radically different ways, they shared similar patterns of integration and reciprocity between their performing and teaching identities. Participants communicated unique, varied, and idiosyncratic narratives of perceived successes and challenges in preparing, adapting, and negotiating their multiple roles across multiple spaces. While their work had them interacting with students, teachers, administration, family, and musical colleagues, the teaching artists still experienced significant feelings of isolation. Ultimately, each participant articulated the need for openings of dialogical spaces for teaching artists to commune and grow with one another. This study brings a critical perspective to the conditions of music teaching artists and how they and those that prepare and work with them might bring criticality and responsiveness to their unique place within the wider world of arts education. © Copyright Katharine Charlotte Kresek 2018 All Rights Reserved ii DEDICATION For my mother and her students, who were my first teachers iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work would not have been possible without the help of so many teachers, friends, and mentors. Thanks and acknowledgements are owed to many: First to my sponsor and friend, Randall Allsup, for years of support, encouragement, humor, and questioning. Thank you for constantly pushing me to bring criticality to my work, and for your belief that I could do it. Lori Custodero for your infinite wisdom, grounded guidance, patience, responsiveness, and nurturing. Harold Abeles for your endless thoughtfulness and listening, and for the ability to make even the most difficult tasks seem possible. To my participants, who gave so generously of their time, and who thought so very deeply in these conversations about what it means to be a teaching artist and a musician. What we do is so singular, so specific, so dynamic, and so very difficult to capture, to hold still, and consider. Your efforts to share your selves and your art forms are beautiful evidence of what is good in this world. To the original Team GSD: Mike Alberston, Cara Bernard, Lindsey Weiss, George Nicholson, Nick McBride, Chiao-Wei Liu, Judy Lewis, Drew X. Coles, Jason Noble, Andrea Maas, and Robert Roche. Thank you for paving the way with your persistence and determination, and a very special thank you to Eric Shieh for always reading everything, and for pushing me always to give better reasons. To my dearest teachers, teaching artists, and mentors, no matter what you call yourselves, whose lessons and friendship changed my life and inspired me to care so iv deeply about the experience of learning, and who opened and continue to open new possibilities for me and so many others: Maxine Greene, Lee Pogonowski, Chris Higgins, Lisa Wright, Louise Yelin, Gaura Narayan, Michael O’Loughlin, Carl Oeschner, Barbara Krakauer, Daniel Phillips, Laurie Smukler, Heidi Upton, Barbara Ellmann, Patricia Chilsen, Jerry James, Dacia Washington, John Holyoke, Eric Booth, Mike Block, Victor Lin, David Wallace, Marissa Silverman, Ailbhe Kenny, and Amy Barston. To my teaching artist family: Janey Choi and Heidi Upton, who brought me into the profession in the first place, and Ted Wiprud, Richard Mannoia, Erin Wight, Steve Dunn, Chris Gross, Tom Boulton, Joel Lambdin, Paul Murphy, Patrick McKearn, Tennesh Weber, Anna Urrey, Claire Bryant, Caitlin Sullivan, Meena Bhasin, Colin McGrath, Justin Jay Hines, Wendy Law, Chris Lea, Brian Brooks, Vicki Angel, Amanda Grumet, Jennifer Choi, Jihea Hong Park, Beata Moon, Ashley Renee Watkins, and Emily Ondracek. Your lives and work are the most interesting, complex, fascinating works of art I have ever witnessed. Thank you for inspiring me to look more closely at the lives of others, those who do what you do. To my music and touring families, for being so understanding as I would run off to libraries or stay at the hotel to write in every city, thank you for supporting me and listening, and sharing your stories of playing, being on the road. You have taught me so very much. To my family, especially for inspiring me with all your amazing accomplishments, and for your support and sympathy during this process. To my husband, Matt, for the kindness, love, patience, support, humor, and advice. There are no words to describe how much you mean to me. Every day your efforts to do and be better help me to try and do the same. Thank you for being my best friend and companion. v And to my first teacher, my mother, for everything. Your synthesis of life, art, and teaching gave me purpose. Thank you for never letting me give up, for sacrificing so much to support me at every turn, for being my first, oldest, and closest friend, and for giving me my whole world. I love you. K. C. K. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS I – INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 1 Part I – A Narrative ................................................................................................. 1 First Steps – Discovering Teaching Artistry ............................................... 5 A Jigsaw Puzzle of Performances and Pedagogies ................................... 13 Part II – Stories Untold, Narratives Unheard ........................................................ 16 Missions and Pedagogies – Teaching Through the Cultural Organization ......................................................................................... 17 Teaching Artists – Their Part-Time Place in Educative Settings ............. 19 Teaching-Artist Preparation ...................................................................... 21 The Changing Economy: Part-Time Independent Contractors vs. Tenured Full-Time Employees ............................................................ 22 Multiple Jobs, Multiple Lives ................................................................... 24 Rationale ................................................................................................... 25 Problem Statement .................................................................................... 27 Statement of Purpose ................................................................................ 28 Research Questions ................................................................................... 28 Conceptual Framework ............................................................................. 29 Methodology Overview ............................................................................ 31 Narrative Inquiry, Ethnographic Lens ...................................................... 32 Observation Period.................................................................................... 33 Data Collection and Analysis.................................................................... 33 II – REVIEW OF LITERATURE..................................................................................... 36 Introduction – Names, Labels, Titles, Roles, Claims ........................................... 36 Teaching Artistry – Definitions, Benefits, and Challenges ...................... 41 Teaching Artistry and Aesthetic Education .............................................. 45 Aesthetic Education and Teacher Education ............................................ 50 Teaching, Learning, Choosing, and Making in the Age of Neoliberalism ....................................................................................... 56 Nomadic Workers and Educators ............................................................. 62 Summary ............................................................................................................... 68 III – METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................... 70 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 70 Research Questions ................................................................................... 70 Research Approach ..............................................................................................