of whether they believe students are “talented” or not—can be communicated to students in subtle (and not so subtle) ways and can have a negative impact on students’ percep- tions of their own musicality. Specifically, the distinctions a music teacher makes between “musical” and “unmusical” students can adversely affect the musical identities of the students who sense that the teacher does not believe they are “talented” (Lamont, 2002). Numerous research studies tell the stories of people who were devastated as children when a teacher told them they were tone-deaf, asked them not to sing, or denied them opportunities to participate in music due to a perceived lack of musical ability or “talent” (Abril, 2007; Burnard, 2003; Ruddock & Leong, 2005; Ruddock, 2012; Whidden, 2008, 2010).
For some individuals, these judgments of a lack of musi- cal ability were explicit, as in the case of one person who recalled, When I was 11-years-old I was told I was tone deaf by my music teacher.
singing. I stopped singing in front of others altogether.
lost any musical confidence I may have had early on in my school life. (Burnard, 2003, pp. 32-33).
For others, these judgments were much more subtle, as was the case for a person who explained, “I first realized that I couldn’t sing when I was never picked for singing at school” (Ruddock, 2012, p. 215). Similarly, another remembered when she didn’t make the cut to be in sixth grade choir: “I quit singing after that because I figured all these people must be right about me—my music teacher was the expert” (Abril, 2007, p. 6). Regardless of whether the judgment was overt or subtle, most of these individuals gave up on their hopes of ever participating in music and ceased all music making in their lives because they believed they lacked musical ability and thus were “unmusical,” in large part as a result of the beliefs of their music teachers. When describing her nega- tive childhood experiences with music, one woman aptly explained, “I don’t think [music] teachers realize the great impact they have” (Abril, 2007, p. 10).
Beliefs as Self-fulfilling Prophecies Teachers’ beliefs about their students’ abilities may act as “self-fulfilling prophecies.” This was the subject of a re- search study by Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968), in which a group of elementary teachers were given a list of students who had been identified as “late bloomers” “most likely to show an academic spurt” in the upcoming school year (p. 66). Although those students had been secretly chosen at random, they showed significantly greater gains in academic achievement than the other students at the end of the school year, suggesting that the teachers’ belief that these students would make great gains caused them to interact with the stu- dents in a way that actually made it so.
15
Similarly, music teachers’ beliefs about students’ musical abilities can affect how they interact with them. If a music teacher perceives a student as having musical “talent,” he or she likely will provide that student with support, encour- agement, and opportunities that challenge the student and further develop his or her musical abilities. However, “self- fulfilling beliefs about the consequences of an innate gift be- ing present are inevitably coupled with self-fulfilling beliefs about the outcome of a person lacking such a gift” (Sloboda, Davidson, & Howe, 1994). If a music teacher believes some students lack musical “talent,” he or she may fail to provide them with the same high-quality music learning opportuni- ties and encouragement.
I stopped playing the recorder and I
Beliefs in musical talent that result in judgments made about whether a student is “musical” or “unmusical” are an issue of equity when they function in a way that limits the musical potential and thus the musical future of any of our students. The segregation of students into the “talented” elite and the “untalented” masses is “equivalent to labeling an individ- ual’s musical ability based on color of skin, sex or birth- place” (Whidden, 2008, p. 12) and “creates images of musi- cal participation for the very few” (Campbell, 2010, p. 217). However, it is our duty as music educators to provide ALL students with a music education that not only will help them develop musical skills and understanding to the greatest ex- tent possible but, in doing so, will enable and empower them to go on to a lifetime of musical engagement. Only when we see each and every one of our students as “reachable, teach- able, and worthy of the attention and effort it takes to help them learn” (Vartuli, 2005, p. 77) can we hope to provide them all with an equitable music education.
References Abril, C. R. (2007). I have a voice but I just can’t sing: A narrative investigation of singing and social anxiety. Music Education Research, 9(1), 1–15.
Asmus, E. P. (1986). Student beliefs about the causes of success and failure in music: A study of achievement motivation. Journal of Research in Music Education, 34(4), 262–278.
Brändström, S. (1999). Music teachers’ everyday concep- tions of musicality. Bulletin of the Council for Re- search in Music Education, 141, 21–25.
Burnard, P. (2003). “How musical are you?”- Examining the discourse of derision in music education. In S. Leong (Ed.), Musicianship in the 21st century: Issues, trends & possibilities (pp. 28–38). Sydney: Australian Music Centre.
Campbell, P. S. (2010). Songs in their heads: Music and its meaning in children’s lives (2nd ed.). NY: Oxford Uni- versity Press.
Clelland, P. (2006). Defining ability. Music Teacher, 85(4), 37+39.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48