A Content Analysis of The Bornoff String Bulletin and String Education Quarterly From 1966 to 1991

Introduction String education was a neglected area of music education in the mid-twentieth century. This resulted in the founding of many important organizations to promote string education. One of the most influential, the American String Teachers Association (ASTA), developed at a Music Educators National Conference (MENC) annual meeting in 1945 in Cleveland, Ohio. (1) In 1948, at the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) conference, over a hundred string teachers were present for ASTA's formal inauguration. (2) Traugott Rohner, founder of The Instrumentalist magazine, voiced his concern about the need for an orchestra organization in the Music Educators Journal, as he believed school orchestra directors were ignored. (3) In 1959, eighty-eight school directors of the 133 ASTA chartered members united to develop the National School Orchestra Association (NSOA). ASTA and NSOA operated independently but often held spring conferences in conjunction with MENC. Also in 1959, the American Federation of Musicians sponsored the first International String Congress in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to encourage the professional lives of young musicians in the United States and Canada. (4) These organizations would soon be of major importance to string education and help solidify string teaching in America. in the 1950s Thousands of young service men, recently returned from World War II, were ready to start new lives with new homes and jobs in the 1950s. American industry began to expand, jobs were created, and the baby boom was underway. In 1952, the World War II general Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president. President Eisenhower stated that America is today the strongest, most influential, and most productive nation in the world. (5) During Eisenhower's administration (1952-60), the nation experienced multiple changes. Segregation ended (1954), the highway interstate system was created (1956), and grew from a nation of forty-eight states to fifty (1959). In the music world, rock and roll was in its infancy: the voices of Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, and Johnny Cash were still heard on the radio. (6) In the music education field, several important events occurred during this decade. MENC established the Child's Bill of Rights in Music in 1950, to ensure that every child had the right to learn music. In 1953, the Journal of Research in Music Education published its first volume, and the International Society for Music Education had its first postwar meeting in Brussels, Belgium. MENC celebrated its fiftieth anniversary at their annual conference in 1957 and adopted the Golden Anniversary Resolution, which was intended to support music education in a postwar world and look toward the future. These events demonstrated the importance of music education in American lives. The future of American string education began to strengthen during the 1950s. The formation of ASTA strengthened string teachers' knowledge through workshops and annual conferences that provided networking opportunities. The ability to share knowledge about string education in the Music Educators Journal and the establishment of a national orchestra association could not have occurred at a better time. The formation of national string organizations also led to the formation of regional, state, and local groups that supported string education. Research Purpose and Questions The purpose of this study is to examine the history of music and string education associations on Long Island, New York, from 1950 to 1960. Through the use of artifacts, websites, and interviews with two former Long Island string educators, answers were sought for the following research questions: What organizations existed to support string education during the 1950s, and how did the economy on Long Island in that decade affect string education? This study explores the evolution and progress of five associations in New York State and on Long Island and how each was affected by the population boom of the postwar suburban era. …

Ideal for use in undergraduate string methods, string techniques, and instrumental string pedagogy courses, Strategies for Teaching Strings provides readers with all the information and skills necessary to teach string instruments in schools and to develop a successful school-based orchestral program. Based on national standards for successful string and orchestra teaching, the text begins by introducing the string instrument family and providing an overview of the development of the school orchestra program. Subsequent chapters-divided into three levels of string competency corresponding to elementary, middle, and secondary school skills-cover performance goals and objectives, strategies for teaching technical and performance skills, and solutions to common problems for each ability level. Rehearsal planning and preparation, rehearsal techniques, strategies for teaching improvisation, student recruitment and retention, and choosing literature for the school orchestra are also covered. The text is enhanced by line drawings and photographs that demonstrate correct playing techniques and fingering positions. An appendix includes special pedagogical approaches, lists of resources for string teachers, a listing of professional string associations, and a full listing of the Standards for Successful School String/Orchestra Teaching (published by the American String Teachers Association with the National School Orchestra Association). Offering more extensive and up-to-date coverage than other texts, Strategies for Teaching Strings is an essential all-purpose guide for those planning to enter the string teaching profession.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the different attitudes towards string education held by string applied, string pedagogy, string education, and university symphony conducting faculty. A researcher-designed survey was created by informal interviews with public school string teachers, pre-college studio teachers, string performance students, string education students, string applied professors, string pedagogy professors, university conductors, and string education professors. Additional survey items were created from the research literature. The survey was sent to 200 university professors randomly selected from music units that are members of the National Association of Schools of Music. The response rate was 47% (N= 94). While survey results suggest certain attitudes held by string faculty, results indicate that there are no statistically significant differences among string faculty towards string education. The data seems to suggest that string faculty, no matter their specialty, tend to agree in their views towards music education, music performance, teacher preparation, and music school curriculum. Interviews were conducted in order to obtain more in depth insight into the attitudes of each string teacher group, as well as to ascertain how differences can be alleviated in order to find solutions to the current string teacher shortage. A leader in the profession in each teacher group was chosen for the interview process. Interviewees answered questions created after the survey data were analyzed. Possible solutions for the alleviation of the string teacher shortage were created from the information gathered in the interview process.

Kantorski examined string education doctoral research between 1935 and 1992 and highlighted potential future areas of research. In this content analysis, I examined dissertations in string education between 1992 and 2022 to determine current trends of doctoral research. I reviewed 393 string education dissertations and coded each to determine the methodology, the content categories, the participants, and the specific instrument(s) the researchers examined. Results indicate that doctoral string education research increased between 1992 and 2022. Historical ( n = 190, 24.55%) and descriptive ( n = 171, 22.09%) research methods were used most frequently. Among the seven main content categories, dissertation authors most frequently examined instructional materials ( n = 170, 21.96%) and historical and biographical topics ( n = 133, 17.18%). The teacher ( n = 66, 8.53%) and the style and genre ( n = 49, 6.33%) categories were least frequently studied. I found that DMA candidates examined instructional materials (16.02%) most frequently while PhD candidates examined students (8.53%) most frequently thus highlighting the differing priorities of performers and educators. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

There is limited information on students with disabilities in the string classroom. The aim of this integrative review was to synthesize the existing knowledge and trends regarding educational practices for students with disabilities in the string or orchestra classroom. A total of 20 articles met inclusion criteria. The majority of available information consisted of expert opinion, with no true experimental designs found on string/orchestral education for students with disabilities. The analysis revealed that having a disability does not prevent a child from achieving on a string instrument, although barriers and challenges to participation do exist. Furthermore, the review showed that investigations specifically targeting string educators or teaching strategies in the string classroom are limited at best. More research is needed to better understand how students with disabilities can be effectively included in the string classroom.

The study examines the comparative investigation of job motivation, perceived job stress and job satisfaction on teacher's efficacy among public and private secondary school teachers in Ekiti State, Nigeria. The study adopted a descriptive design of correlational type. A Sample of two hundred hundred fifty public and private secondary school teachers were selected using a multi-stage sampling technique. Four scales were used to collect information. Eight research questions were raised and answered in the study. Data collected were analyzed using T-test and Multiple regression analysis. Results indicated that there was a significant difference in the teaching efficacy of public and private secondary school teachers; t (248) = -3.206, p < .05, there was also a significant difference in the job motivation of public and private secondary school teachers; t (248) = -2.159, p < .05, a significant difference also was observed in the perceived stress of public and private secondary school teachers; t (248) = -3.648, p < .05 and a significant difference in the job satisfaction of public and private secondary school teachers was also observed; t (248) = -2.742, p > .05. The Regression analysis revealed that there was a joint effect of the independent variables (job motivation, perceived stress and job satisfaction) on public school teachers' efficacy (R = .598, P < .05). 34.3% of the variance was accounted for by the predictor variables when taken together. The significance of the composite contribution was tested at (P < .05). Furthermore, there was also a joint effect of the independent variables (job motivation, perceived stress and job satisfaction) on private school teachers' efficacy (R = .641, P < .05). 39.4% of the variance was accounted for by the predictor variables when taken together. The significance of the composite contribution was tested at (P < .05). It is recommended from the findings of the study that the welfare of teachers who are the engine room of secondary education is very critical to their efficacy most notably in the private secondary school section. Also, Government, employers and stakeholders in the secondary education must ensure the wellness of teachers in order to facilitate the learning process towards good teaching, self-development of teachers, students and nation at large.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the contents of doctoral research written between 1936 and 1992 that related to string education. A search of the Dissertation Abstracts International (DAI) index of dissertations revealed 252 dissertations concerning string education. These dissertation titles and abstracts were analyzed for year of completion, type of degree, instrument, and nine topic areas. Results indicated that the greatest numbers of string education dissertations were written in the 1970s; the Ph.D. was awarded more often than other degrees; violin was researched more than viola, cello, and double bass combined; and the topic areas addressed most often were techniques and skills, performance practice, and information resources. It was suggested that increased doctoral research be done in the areas of string teacher education, string program evaluation, viola, and double bass.

Adult offspring of lesbian parents: How do they relate to their sperm donors?

The purpose of this study was to explore the violin experiences of African American students at an Elementary School in northern Florida to consider the potential for culturally-responsive string education. The hermeneutical approach was used to answer the research questions: (1) What are the personal musical worlds of these African American children? and (2) How do these children perceive the violin program at school? These helped to answer the study’s overall research question: how do the individual perceptions of the violin program and the sociocultural musical backgrounds of these students relate? The data revealed that the participants had shared perceptions of music; in particular, that music tells stories and has a distinctive beat. Their perceptions of music were learned and experienced in their cultural environments and social spaces. The data also made it evident that their musical lives and perceptions of playing violin affect each other. For instance, the children discussed playing violin at church, and tried to hear violin music in their favorite songs at home. They also expressed a desire to generate beat on their violins and play familiar songs. They were willing to link their experiences in the school violin classroom with their lives beyond.

This study was guided by convergent design under mixed-method approach to explore the influence of funds provided by the government on the availability of teaching and learning resources in public secondary schools in Moshi district Tanzania. The study was guided by Systems theory of Organization pioneered by Ludwig von Bertalanffy in 1969 and one research question. The target population was all public secondary schools, Public secondary school teachers, Heads of public secondary schools, Schools board chairpersons and District Education Officer of Moshi District in Kilimanjaro Region. Sampling of schools, teachers, school board chairperson and students were by both probability and non-probability sampling techniques. Instruments for data collection included Questionnaires and interview guides. After pilot testing, the reliability of the questionnaire was ensured by using the Cronbach Alpha formula; while conformability of qualitative data was ensured by increasing transparency regards to adherence to data collection procedures and ethics. Quantitative Data was analyzed by descriptive while qualitative analysis was by coding and creating themes and final data has been merged to ensure confirmation or disconfirmation of the findings. The study found that Government funds influence the availability of teaching and learning resources in public secondary schools in Moshi district Tanzania. The study concluded that government funds were used to ensure the availability of teaching and learning resources yet are not adequate that why most of teaching and learning resources are not adequate in Moshi Public secondary school. The study recommends that Ministry of Education, Science and technology in Collaboration with President Office Regional Administrative and Local government should continuous to provide funds to ensure availability of teaching and learning resources in Public secondary schools.

Explicit civility (Online Discussions/Discussion Quality)

The purpose of this study was to investigate attitudes of instrumental pre-service teachers, whose primary instrument was not a bowed string instrument, towards teaching strings. Nineteen Music Education majors enrolled in a required string methods class at a mid-western university answered open-ended questions designed to elicit attitudes and confidence towards teaching strings. The pre-service teachers were comfortable with limited string teaching, specifically, teaching one string class only as a part of a teaching position that involved primarily teaching band. Responsibility for a string program was outside the comfort zone of most pre-service teachers. Students felt their greatest strength was general musical ability, and greatest weaknesses were lack of knowledge about stringed instruments and ability to perform on these instruments. An important finding is that many of the students who had already completed the string techniques class still felt they lacked sufficient knowledge and technical ability to teach strings. Future investigtions are necessary to discover if these are wide-spread attitudes and whether they can be affected by classes, observations, and/or field experiences in an orchestral setting.

This study compared the teaching personnel's competence in secondary school student’s academic performance in Mathematics. To this end, five research questions and two research hypotheses were proposed. The data was collected from twenty secondary schools in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State. One hundred (100) students and teachers were selected to participate in this study. The instruments used were Students’ Attitude Towards Mathematics Questionnaire (SATMQ) and Teachers’ Attitude Towards Mathematics Questionnaire (TATMQ). T-test and regression statistics were used to analyse data at 0.05 level of confidence. The findings indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the students’ attitude towards Mathematics in public and private secondary schools. Also, there was a statistically significant difference between the professional status of teachers in public and private secondary schools. This implied that there are more professional qualified teachers in public schools than their private school counterparts which could have positive influence on students’ academic performance in Mathematics. There was, however, no statistically significant influence of teachers’ competence on students’ academic performance of public and private secondary schools in Mathematics. Invariably, this implies that teaching personnel competence is not the only contributing factors on students’ academic performance in Mathematics. Therefore, there was no statistically significant influence of the students’ attitude on the academic performance of public and private secondary schools in Mathematics.

The purpose of this study was to identify trends in string research published in peer-reviewed music education research journals between 1990 and 2021. String education research was defined as scholarly articles in which the purpose of the article pertained specifically to string education and/or at least 33% of the participants played bowed stringed instruments. Peer-reviewed journals were determined based on Hamann and Lucas's (1998) list of top-tier journals, Farmer and Kloss's (2022) quasi-replication of that study, a 2006 list compiled by a music education researcher, and an informal survey of music education faculty at a large midwestern university. The resulting list included the Journal of Research in Music Education, Psychology of Music, Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, Music Education Research, International Journal of Music Education, Research Studies in Music Education, Philosophy of Music Education Review, Journal of Historical Research in Music Education, and String Research Journal.For each journal issue, the researchers counted the total number of scholarly articles (N = 4,727) and the total number of string education research articles (n = 276). String education articles represented less than 6% of the total scholarly articles, or less than 5% without the String Research Journal. The method, instruments, participants, and topic of each string article were also recorded. Descriptive research methods were used most frequently, strings and violin were the most frequent instrument categories studied, university students were the most studied participant population, and musical training and skills was the most frequently investigated topic.

To describe four approaches to qualitative analysis in order to provide a pragmatic, application-oriented guide to their use in research focused on children and their families. Four commonly used approaches to qualitative analysis-framework analysis, rapid qualitative analysis, content analysis, and reflexive thematic analysis-are described and compared, including their analytic strategies, tips for use, terminology, and application to a hypothetical example. A pragmatic guide to each method is provided as well as examples of how each analytic approach could be utilized to analyze the same dataset. A variety of approaches to qualitative analysis are available to both novice and experienced qualitative researchers. The approach selected from the options presented in this article will depend on numerous factors, such as the clinical problem being explored, research context, aims, objectives, research questions, and resources available such as time and funds, and the qualitative expertise of the team.