The Postpandemic Pedagogue

Abstract

The Postpandemic Pedagogue Matthew Hoch (bio) VOICE PEDAGOGY The summer of 2021 marked the fifteenth anniversary of my participation in the NATS Intern Program. As I lived vicariously through this year's two classes of interns—through their various social media posts and Inter Nos articles—I could not help but reflect on my own experiences as an intern. Those ten days spent in Kansas City in June 2006 were a pivotal part of my formation as a teacher of singing. My master teacher was Don Simonson, who imparted a wealth of practical knowledge to us through our mentored teaching and lunchtime chats, drawn from his vast experience as a performer and university professor of singing. I observed and participated in classical vocal master classes and literature sessions, and there was one memorable presentation offered by the UMKC dean that was devoted to achieving tenure in higher education, since that is what many (if not most) of the interns aspired to do. I was headed into my first year as an assistant professor at Shorter College, so the timing was perfect for me. I left the program fulfilled, inspired, and ready to conquer the world. That summer marked the beginning of fifteen years of navigating academic trenches. After six years at a small teaching college, I moved to my current position at Auburn University, which is an R1, land-grant institution. I jumped through all the required hoops to achieve promotion and tenure, focusing primarily on peer reviewed articles, books, and conference presentations, because I was told repeatedly that those activities "carry the most weight" with the committees that would decide my fate. My voice teaching certainly seemed to be more than adequate, with my students regularly achieving success at NATS auditions, MTNA competitions, and through placement in good graduate programs. I received affirmation from my colleagues in the profession in addition to awards for my work. In short, I had perfected my academic routine, which essentially looked the same from year to year. And every August that routine began again. It was easy to feel like I had become very good at what I do. It did not seem to matter if my teaching had not changed very much in between 2009 and 2019—everything seemed to be working just fine. Then 2020 happened, and everything changed overnight. I struggled alongside my colleagues as we adapted to the new reality of online teaching. Our professional organizations cancelled conferences or converted them to online formats. My academic projects suddenly seemed trivial and irrelevant to the pedagogic world in which we were now living. For the first time in career, I felt wholly inadequate as a teacher and scholar. I did not know as much as I thought I did. [End Page 483] In my personal life and day to day interactions, people have begun to refer to events in their lives as "prepandemic" or "postpandemic." As a child, I remember my grandparents framing the timeline of their lives according to World War II, recalling their childhood and growing up "before the War" (with a capital "W"). I suspect the pandemic will occupy a similar station for all of us who have lived through it. In voice pedagogy, the past eighteen months have had significant implications for the future of our profession. The pandemic has hastened, exposed, clarified a variety of trends that already had been taking shape over the last two decades as we stood by, "both knowingly and unknowingly on the precipice of change."1 This editorial will attempt to summarize these emerging themes and their implications for the future of voice pedagogy. ONLINE TEACHING IS HERE TO STAY The most obvious tidal change in our profession is also perhaps the most significant. The postpandemic singing teacher will be expected to offer quality instruction both in person and online with equal comfort. While some singing teachers were ahead of this trend prior to the pandemic, many resisted the online teaching movement, and most singing teachers faced a steep learning curve beginning in March 2020. With varying levels of success, most of us adapted to this change, even if we had no other choice. A NATS membership survey conducted...