The Pennsylvania State University the Graduate School POPULAR MUSIC LEARNING and TEACHING in TEACHER EDUCATION in the UNITED
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The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School POPULAR MUSIC LEARNING AND TEACHING IN TEACHER EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES: AN ORAL HISTORY A Dissertation in Music Education by Yunshu Tan © 2021 Yunshu Tan Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2021 The dissertation of Yunshu Tan was reviewed and approved by the following: Ann C. Clements Professor of Music Education Dissertation Adviser Chair of Committee Kimberly A. Powell Professor of Education, Art Education, Music Education, and Asian Studies Charles D. Youmans Professor of Music Sarah H. Watts Assistant Professor of Music Education R. J. David Frego Professor of Music Education Director of the School of Music iii Abstract The purpose of this oral history research is to explore the experiences, thoughts, and values of higher education experts who have written and presented on popular music techniques over time (from 1980-forward) and who incorporate popular music strategies into their own teaching. Four higher music education faculty were invited to participate in individual interviews. Findings suggest they considered the importance and benefits of including popular music education in public K12 schools and that they believed popular music should be learned through an authentic approach. However, lack of teacher preparation could be a challenge, thus they suggested popular music making experiences in teacher education programs for preservice teachers. They each have contributed to popular music education in different ways, including starting a new popular music program in college, organizing a local community popular music making group, and instructing popular music courses for music education majors in colleges. The resistance from traditional music programs was another challenge, to which they suggested avoiding potential conflicts with others and calling for successful models. They all contributed to popular music in academic and practical ways. They received different feedback from their colleagues when applying popular music in their teaching in music teacher education programs. This dissertation discusses characteristics of including popular music practice in music education, including the overloaded curriculum of music education programs, the conflict of students’ music values, challenges in finding or creating r music education faculty with the appropriate skills sets, the uniqueness of popular music pedagogy compared to more traditional forms of music learning, faculty members' attitudes, and other potential challenges. iv Table of Contents List of Tables vi List of Figures vii Introduction 1 What is Popular Music 3 Literature Review 6 Why Include Popular Music? 6 Bridging the gap 6 Preferences & Enrollment 7 Popular Music Education in K12 8 The history of popular music education in the United States 8 Before 1980 8 1980 to 2000 10 In the 21st century 12 Authenticity 15 Perspectives of Music Teachers 15 Popular Music in Music Programs 19 In music education 19 In music performance programs 21 Method 23 Methodological framework 23 Participants 23 Data Collection 25 Data Analysis Procedure 26 Trustworthiness 26 Limitations 27 Findings 28 Dr. Cutietta 28 Dr. Robert Woody 40 Dr. Bryan Powell 55 Dr. Jill Reese 72 Analysis and Conclusion 85 RQ 1: What are Their Personal Histories of Developing Interest in, Researching, and Presenting and Publishing on the Topic of Popular Music in Music Education? 85 Why came to popular music education? 85 Why include popular music in K12? 87 How to teach popular music in K12? 89 Major challenges 90 v Conclusion 92 RQ 2: How have they implemented their ideas about popular music education and the ideas of others within pre-service music education settings? 93 Courses 93 Differences and similarities 95 Challenges and solutions 96 Conclusion 97 RQ 3: What are the perceived benefits and challenges they have endured during their explorations (including research and publications) and implementation (personal), from school, community, curricular standards in higher education? 98 Publications and contributions 98 Engagement with Teachers 100 Roadblocks and Response 101 Conclusion 102 RQ 4: How has the implementation of their ideas fit within preexisting curricular structures? 104 What were the thoughts and feedback of their colleagues in their programs? 105 What are their current practices and how that compare to where their thinking began, including the impact on culture? 106 Dr. Woody 106 Dr. Powell 107 Dr. Reese 107 Conclusion 108 Discussion 110 Brief Summary of the Findings 110 Discussion 112 Future Research 124 References 126 Appendix A: Email to Potential Participants 136 Appendix B: Interview Protocol 137 Appendix C: Resume of Dr. Robert Cutietta 140 Appendix D: Resume of Dr. Robert Woody 143 Appendix E: Resume of Dr. Bryan Powell 147 Appendix F: Resume of Dr. Jill Reese 152 Appendix G: Syllabus of Popular Music Techniques 154 Appendix H: Syllabus of Popular Musicianship 163 vi List of Tables Table 1: Interview Timeline 25 vii List of Figures Figure 1: Four Important Characteristics of Authentic Popular Music Making 114 1 Introduction The history of popular music education in the United States can be traced throughout the 20th century. In 1967, music educators in the MENC (currently the National Association of Music Education, NAfME) formed the Tanglewood Symposium to address social movements and education issues in the 1960s. The Tanglewood Declaration, as the result of the symposium, suggested expanding the repertoires in music classrooms. It was the first time music educators' professional music organizations suggested including popular music in the music classrooms. The music of all periods, styles, forms, and cultures belongs in the curriculum. The musical repertory should be expanded to involve music of our time in its rich variety, including currently popular teenage music and avant-garde music, American folk music, and the music of other cultures. (Choate, 1968, p. 139) While popular music culture has changed in the past six decades (Mauch, MacCallum, Levy & Leroi, 2015), collegiate music schools have changed relatively little since the Tanglewood Declaration. Although there is a history of professional publications that encourage the inclusion of popular music in schools (Cutietta, 1985; Cuttita & Brennan, 1991; Sarig, 1969; Thompson, 1979; Wagner & Brick, 1993), popular music education programs remain rare at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of institutionalized music education (Powell, Krikun & Pignato, 2015). America is the birthplace of many styles of popular music, yet popular music is still fighting for a place within American schools and music teacher education programs. Many teachers continue to feel uncomfortable including popular music in the classroom because they have rarely practiced it in their music education preparation programs (Allsup, 2011; Leung and Hung, 2008; Springer, 2015; Wang & Humphreys, 2009). Besides the lack of popular music 2 training in colleges, there are many reasons that teachers had not yet included popular music in their teaching. One reason may be music teachers not feeling a balanced tradition and developing popular music practice in the music classroom. A second reason may be due to the unique characteristic of popular music pedagogy, such as how to teach popular music in the classrooms and the keys to success in popular music learning and teaching. A third reason may be due to a lack of time, financial support, space, and community support (Vasil, 2015). While many educators have strongly suggested including popular music in music teacher preparation programs, there are challenges to doing so. The first issue is the often overloaded curriculum within music education programs. Many research articles indicated that current music teacher training programs in the United States are overloaded (Bartolome, 2013; Conway, Eros, Pellegrino, & West, 2010; Hickey & Rees, 2002). First, many faculties may wonder: where can the popular music courses fit in? How can we engage popular music making experiences with the music education program without exhausting the students who have complicated schedules already? Second, most of the students in music teacher education programs value traditional western music making experiences. Music education faculties may concern how to pursue the students to spend time and make efforts on the popular music making experience. Third, because all music education faculties in higher education are trained in a traditional route, few are experienced in popular music making and teaching. It raised the problem of who can teach popular music courses in colleges. Fourth is the popular music course in a music education program: what the successful popular music education courses look like. We may find clues in the practices that pioneers in this area have used to create new opportunities. Fifth is music faculties' perspectives: how will other faculties in the schools of music respond to changes? 3 Sixth, according to the pioneers’ practice, what are potential challenges of popular music teaching and learning? How can they deal with the challenges? Where can they start? Popular music has its own cultures and characteristics compared to traditional western art music which may lead to some hesitation in including popular music in K12 public schools. In order to combat these fears, we need a full understanding of how popular music differs from the music we teach in the classrooms. Many research articles,