Date
11-13-2024
Department
School of Music
Degree
Doctor of Music Education (DME)
Chair
Nathan Street
Keywords
Student-interest programming, orchestra, genre preference, popular music pedagogy, rural music study
Disciplines
Music
Recommended Citation
Bailey, James Herbert III, "High School Orchestra Teachers of the United States and their Music Literature Programming Pedagogical Effectiveness" (2024). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 6164.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/6164
Abstract
The nature of student-interest genre effectiveness is an ongoing debate in music education due to popular music’s appeal to students. This study involving teachers from the United States high school orchestra programs aims to determine the frequency of implementation and the teachers’ and students’ perspectives on the effectiveness of the programming and lessons in the orchestra classroom. In this qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological study conducted with high school orchestra teachers in the United States, data was collected from eight orchestra teachers’ programs, and perspectives were acquired and analyzed to identify commonalities and differences between teachers in various counties. The teachers’ programming habits are examined for pedagogical effectiveness. The study found a spectrum of teaching strategies, rationale, and variance in thoughts on different genre programming depending on teacher idiosyncracies, geographic area, and job situation. The study also found that teachers expressed they did not find one genre particularly engaging for the other with students; it depended on the classroom and the students' interests. Teachers in this study, despite student interest, tended to provide a diverse genre spread in their concert performances. The music education community must be current on student-interest music to make the best programming choices and maintain student engagement in any music class.
