Where have I been all these years? A narrative case study on the impact of western (mis)conceptions of musicality on a generalist classroom teacher’s music teacher identity construction

Abstract

This article reports a narrative case study on Sanne, an experienced 46-year-old early childhood teacher who considered herself unmusical and therefore unable to teach music, caused by (1) few childhood musical experiences, (2) teacher training that focused on musical performance skills and (3) a professional context with minimal music education. These experiences reinforced her belief that musicality equates to musical performance skills, rendering her ‘unmusical’ – a western conception of musicality which had prevented her from teaching music. Participating in a professional development (PD) programme on musical play, however, positively influenced her music teacher identity (MTI), resulting in confidence to teach music. This article explores what factors contributed to this identity shift. The PD programme was set up according to criteria for effective PD as argued by literature, such as collective participation, demand-driven content, long-term duration and a focus on pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Data were collected by means of surveys, interviews and e-mails containing video images. Assisted by a three-dimensional space narrative structure, text excerpts were selected from the data and ‘re-storied’ into a narrative. Analysis revealed how a combination of newly acquired PCK and existing general play guidance skills enabled Sanne to facilitate musical play successfully, thereby neutralizing the obstacles raised by her self-perceived non-musicality, and positively affecting her MTI. In the discussion, we reflect on how our current western conception of musicality may negatively affect individuals’ musical identity and provide some further thoughts on the implications of our findings for music educational practice.