Case study of music teacher teams in wind & choir classes
The study aims to better understand the collaboration of music teachers and instrumental / vocal teachers in class musicianship concepts in Austria. These class musicianship concepts are usually referred to as wind, choir or string classes. There have already been some studies in Germany examining aspects of collaboration in the context of larger questions, but in Austria these collaborations have remained unexplored.
Project Management
julia Wieneke
Funding body
fWF / Hertha Firnberg
Duration
01.08.2020-31.07.2023
Within the framework of the study, an intervention in the form of a one-year teacher training course for the participating teachers will be attached, which will be accompanied by research. The study takes a close look at the individual teachers with their attitudes and views on collaboration both in the preparation and follow-up of lessons and in the lessons themselves. The goal is to understand whether and how attitudes change over the course of the school year and whether this also leads to a change in teamwork in general or in co-teaching in the classroom itself.
This will help identify possible positive factors of the training that could subsequently be transferred to other contexts. Participants will consist of four teams, each with a music teacher and an instrumental/vocal teacher, who will teach together in wind or choir classes and who will participate in the 60-hour teacher training. Two external facilitators will lead the in-service training, the content of which will be developed in collaboration with the researcher. The training will include important topics related to collaboration, lesson planning and evaluation, but it will also leave enough space for exchange between the participants and respond to their wishes and needs during the school year.
Qualitative research methods will be used, including individual interviews with each participant, focus groups, audio recordings of planning meetings, and video recordings of lessons before, during, and after the professional development. All participants, including students, will complete brief questionnaires at various times. Some additional interviews with students will be conducted to find out if they perceived any change in classroom activities and teacher co-teaching. The interviews and the material from the recordings will be transcribed and analyzed using software, and the analysis will be done using grounded theory methodology. At the end of the study, it should be possible to condense the perspectives and attitudes of the individual participants* into case descriptions. In addition, the study can provide insights into the impact of teacher training in music education. Thus, it can give impulses for the development of future further education programs as well as for the university education of music teachers.
