Preservice Music Teachers’ World Music Preference for Taught Pieces and Its Transfer to Untaught Pieces

Abstract

We investigated whether preference transfer occurred from 18 taught world music pieces to 18 untaught pieces from the same regions among preservice music teachers. Eighty-three preservice music teachers participated in an interactive, culturally diverse music curriculum over the course of a semester. Participants learned 18 African, Asian, and Latin American folk songs in small groups from culture bearers via video conferencing. They then team-taught the same songs to their peers. Before and after the curriculum intervention with taught pieces only, we tested participants’ preferences for the taught and untaught pieces. Wilcoxon signed-rank test results indicated that the participants’ preference scores increased from the pretest to posttest for both taught and untaught world music pieces in all three regions. This result suggests the existence of possible preference transfer from taught to untaught pieces. Through follow-up interviews and instructor’s reflective notes analyses, we identified four interconnected themes across cognitive, cultural, social, and pedagogical dimensions that explained reasons for preference transfer: applying principles from taught pieces, appreciating cultures with authenticity and legitimacy, learning safely via intra- and intergroup interactions, and experiencing reciprocal course structure. We discuss implications for the profession that bridge formal and informal endeavors of teaching and learning music from diverse cultures.