Attitudes towards String Education Among: Collegiate String Faculty

Abstract

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.