Measuring self-perceptions of creative identity: a cross-cultural comparison of the creative identities of pre-service music teachers in the US and Australia

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study was to examine and compare the creative musical identities of pre-service music education students in the US and Australia. This work builds on prior work that has employed similar procedures with pre-service music teachers (PSMTs) in England and Finland. As in prior research, the creative identity in music (CIM) measure was utilised with both the US and Australian PSMT populations (N = 298). Items of CIM relate to music-making activities often associated with creativity in music education in the literature, including composition, improvisation, and popular music performance. Results suggest that the CIM is a valid tool for measuring creative identity as defined by the researchers. Furthermore, while both populations of pre-service teachers are similarly willing to allow for creativity in the classroom, as measured by CIM Sub-Scale #3, research findings suggest that Australian PSMTs indicate a stronger degree of creative music-making self-efficacy (p < .0001), value the areas of creative identity as measured by CIM to a significantly greater extent (p < .0001), and value the use of popular music listening/performing within the learning environment to a significantly greater extent (p < .0001) than US PSMTs.