Teachers’ beliefs at German music schools a “messy construct” in a grounded theory study

Abstract

Teachers at music schools in Germany are confronted with very complex demands in their profession, ranging from artistic experience in various genres to pedagogical skills in the context of both broad-based and top-level promotion, as well as different age groups. It is not uncommon for certain tensions to arise when teachers try to meet all these requirements at the same time. Under such conditions, how do they define quality of instrumental and vocal tuition? As this is a matter of a still relatively young field of empirical research in Germany, such a basic and relevant research question has not yet been addressed. It is explored in my doctoral research project 2, which is an empirical study based on interviews with teachers at music schools in Germany3. The concept of teachers’ beliefs forms the theoretical framework and the data collected is analysed using Grounded Theory methodology. On the way towards developing a theory, it becomes apparent that educational quality from the teachers’ point of view is much more difficult to identify than expected. Therefore, it seems necessary to broaden the research question. This paper illustrates the processuality of my research with a focus on the methodological approach.