research Moving Forward by


Looking Back 50 Years Sheila Feay-Shaw, WMEA State Chair, Research


History provides a window into the past of music education in Wisconsin, but it also facilitates assessment of our current position and a glimpse into the future. In order to understand what has


been achieved by 50 years of a profession- al music education organization dedicated to teachers, three resources were reviewed for what they could reveal. Wisconsin School Musician (WSM) has functioned as a historical record of music in schools and in professional practice across the state. Music Educators Journal (MEJ) brings a parallel perspective from across the United States of music teaching practice and pro- fessional development, and the Journal of Research in Music Education (JRME) gives a vision of the research studies that have helped to guide further develop- ment into teaching pedagogy, curriculum materials and other areas that influenced the work of music teachers.


The year of 1960, when the Wisconsin Music Educators Conference (WMEC, now known as WMEA) was born, will likely bring back a diversity of memories to current members of the organization. Some of us were not born yet and others


Practical Pointers


were at the highlight of their careers. What can these materials from 1960 reveal about music education?


Journal of Research in Music Education The Journal of Research in Music Edu- cation has provided reports of research studies primarily authored by music edu- cators to inform the professional work of music teaching. Numerous articles were reviewed to develop a perspective on the type of research providing guidance in the field. Several historical studies centered on music instruction in earlier eras (“Music in Arizona Before 1912;” “Music Instruction in Inca Land;” “The Chapins and Sacred Music in the South and West”) tracing the path that music teaching took in particular communities and cultures. Others with historical content demonstrated an effort to refine or clarify music education prac- tice. One such article, “Elam Ives and the Pestalozzian Philosophy of Music Edu- cation,” served to broaden credit for the introduction of the Pestalozzian approach beyond Lowell Mason. Another article described the origins of the Mendelssohn Quintet Club in Boston and the founding of the National College of Music, which was particularly interested in the promul- gation of chamber music by United States composers.


Two studies fit into the psychology of music/perception category (“An Acous- tical Analysis of Tones Produced by Clarinets Constructed of Various Materi- als;” “Comparison of Solo and Ensemble Performance With Reference to Pythago- rian, Just and Equi-tempered Intonations”) which has guided the development of musical practice for many years. One particularly relevant study, “The State Su- pervisor of Music,” questioned the status of music education leadership in state de- partments of education across the United States. Concern for the implementation of music in school curriculums was outlined revealing the need for a state supervisor of music in each states’ education agency. The remaining articles followed specific studies of music teaching practice such as “Teenage Music Preferences,” “An Experiment in Teaching Children to Read Music with Shape Notes,” “An Approach to the Quantitative Study of Dynamics” and “The Song Choices of Children in the Elementary Grades.”


Music Educators Journal


Music Educators Journal (MEJ), in 1960, held articles, book reviews and advertise- ments centered on practical aspects of music teaching specifically intended to support classroom practice. The primary focus of many of the articles centered on Western classical music in the music


~ Karen Tordera


Administrators help music teachers when they give us freedom to experiment and try new strategies and methods of teaching music. As music educators, we can provide them with research that supports our innovating efforts. The Benefits of the Study of Music is a resource to share with administrators. It can be found on the MENC web site at: http://www.menc.org/documents/temp/benefits_of_music.pdf. This document is filled with statistics and endorsements supporting music education.


46 January 2011


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