Cooperating Music Teachers’ Perceptions of Preparation, Experience, and Identity as Music Teacher Educators

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of cooperating music teachers pertaining to their preparation, experience, and identity as music teacher educators. Specifically, I examined (a) the extent to which cooperating music teachers received training for their roles from partnering institutions, (b) their perceptions of their identity as music teacher educators, and (c) how the interactions of these perceptions shaped cooperating music teachers’ preparation and ability to serve in their role as a cooperating teacher. Cooperating music teachers across seven states in the Southwestern Division of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) and the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) were invited to participate in a research-designed survey. Data were collected from cooperating music teachers belonging to those professional music organizations in Fall 2019 (N = 202). Results from this study indicated differences and relationships among multiple variables regarding the number of student teachers hosted during full-time and field experience settings, confidence working with student teachers, interactions with sheltering institutions, and music teacher identity. Overall, cooperating music teachers desired feedback regarding their work with student teachers, explicit preparation and training from sheltering institutions to aid in the fulfillment of their role as cooperating teachers, and saw themselves first as music educators before music teacher educators. Implications for music teacher education programs, state-level professional music education associations, district- and school-level administration, and in-service music teachers are discussed.