Changing Minds And Changing Practice: Barriers And Facilitators To The Use Of Methods Associated With Popular Musicianship, And Strategies Music Teachers Use To Navigate Them
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to identify factors which impede or facilitate teacher initiated changes to practice, and the ways in which these factors were strategically navigated by secondary school music educators employing methods associated with popular music education [PME] and/or informal music pedagogy [IMP]. The research was framed using a theoretical framework informed by Bourdieu’s (2000) concept of ‘hysteresis’ and Schmidt’s (2020) concept of ‘policy knowhow’. This served to highlight the dialectic relationship between the beliefs, values, agency and dispositions of individuals, and the presence of complex policy networks across macro, meso, and micro levels.
The research utilised a multiple case study design grounded in the qualitative research paradigm to explore the experiences, behaviours, and dispositions of music educators who previously employed formal pedagogical methods, and now consistently use methods associated with PME/IMP in their practice. Three Australian schools in the state of Victoria served as cases, with seven music educators (n=7), and two principals (n=2) serving as research participants (N=9). Data were collected via semi-structured interviews with participants, the observation of the classroom practices of music teachers, the creation of researcher journals/memos, the analysis of school documents, and arts based methods. Data were coded using Hatch’s (2002) inductive coding methods, and analysed using Yin’s (2014) theoretical replication strategy.
The study identified seven factors which served as barriers and/or facilitators to the introduction and consistent use of methods associated with PME/IMP; 1) experiencing hysteresis; 2) access to appropriate gear in appropriate spaces; 3) timetabling and school growth; 4) finding and compiling appropriate repertoire; 5) curriculum content; 6) school history; and 7) student engagement. Participants noted that they employed strategies Schmidt (2020a) associates with policy knowhow to navigate, act upon, make use of, and/or mitigate the impact of these barriers/facilitators to change. Findings suggest that holding a knowledge of the aims, goals and ideologies of stakeholders/administration, an understanding of the key processes necessary to prompt change in their schools, and dispositions towards policy entrepreneurship aided participants in actively fostering changes in their school which facilitated their use of methods associated with PME/IMP.
In response to these findings, a collection of web based resources which aim to assist other educators in navigating identified change, and develop their policy knowhow was created. These resources can be found at INERTIAeducation (link also in Appendix A).