The typical undergraduate music education student is focused on developing their musicianship and leadership abilities, professional education competencies, and specific pedagogical expertise. While these are desirable outcomes of a music education degree, music teachers must learn how to effectively interact with a range of policies that will influence how they navigate their professional and private lives. The purpose of this article is to outline and explore mechanisms to engage preservice teachers with educational policies and policy-related practices. We discuss resources for learning about federal and state policies related to education and music education and strategies for interfacing with policymakers. We suggest models that integrate policy topics into existing coursework and new curricular structures that may facilitate the development of “scholar-musicians.” Implications of music teacher educators bringing their role as politically active citizens into the classroom and adding political knowledge to the expectations placed on new teachers are considered.

While policies at all levels affect music educators, and music education researchers have called for increased attention to policy issues, few have explored preservice music teacher educators' beliefs about policy. This study examined music teacher educators' (N = 81) familiarity with and attitudes toward contemporary education and music education policies as well as how frequently they addressed these policies in their undergraduate classes. The data indicate that participants had the most familiarity with and most positive attitudes toward the National Music Standards, music education advocacy, and state music standards. Conversely, participants asserted that they had the least positive attitudes toward and spent the least amount of time addressing Race to the Top and STEAM. Respondents indicated more personal knowledge about policy, more time in undergraduate courses, and greater personal interest in policy would have the greatest influence on the amount of time they spent on policy in undergraduate courses.

This chapter provides an overview of two agencies that accredit collegiate music education programs: the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) and the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM). Examining points of overlap and divergence, it explains that CAEP relies on NASM for recommendations about music content and that the CAEP standards go into greater depth about student teaching and field experience requirements than the NASM Handbook. While music educators must adhere to certain hard policies demanded by these agencies, they have discretion regarding how they create and adjust soft policies in order to meet those ends. The chapter offers that music educators might use accreditation processes to reflect on their values and to spur innovations while resisting standardization across universities.

Over the past 25 years, alternative certification has emerged as a realistic option for obtaining teacher certification in music. Although advocated by policy makers and embraced by career changers, music teacher educators have frequently viewed the role of content knowledge and pedagogical training in these programs with a high degree of skepticism. This article provides an overview of the organizational schemes used in graduate and nondegree alternative certification programs at universities, school districts, and other entities. A research agenda is provided that is designed to stimulate academic scholarship on alternative certification policies and programs and their impact on candidate quality, music education programs, and the music education profession overall.Keywords music teacher education alternative certification, graduate teacher education, nondegree teacher education programs, research agenda Teacher certification policies provide a set of minimum criteria that regulate the quality and quantity of the prospective teaching force (Imig & Imig, 2008). State policy makers have often simplified the processes by which qualified individuals who do not Downloaded from Hellman et al. 79have a degree in teacher education can obtain certification. These initiatives have been grounded in the assumption that increased competition and diversity in the employment pool can improve education quality. Career changers interested in becoming teachers have embraced alternative certification as a practical and meaningful way to enter teaching without many of the traditional curricula constraints. On the other hand, teacher educators have been skeptical of the assumption that this trend is a productive way to improve education. In this article, we will provide background information on alternative certification, describe the organizational schemes of alternative certification programs, and propose a research agenda for examining the effectiveness and impact of alternative certification programs.

No abstract