A Narrative of Two Preservice Music Teachers With Visual Impairment

Abstract

The purpose of this narrative inquiry was to re-story the student teaching experience of two preservice music education majors who are visually impaired or blind. While music education scholars have devoted attention to P–12 students with disabilities, research with preservice music teachers with impairments is seemingly nonexistent. Using a transformative paradigm and social model of disability as lenses, we retell participants’ experiences across three commonplaces of narrative inquiry: sociality, temporality, and place. Participants told their student teaching stories through various field texts, including interviews, journals, emails, and informal conversations. Three particular issues were highlighted strongly within their narratives: accessible music, reliance on others, and individuals’ attitudes. Issues of what constitutes effective teaching, teacher identity construction, and preparedness for working with individuals with disabilities also emerged. Multiple avenues are suggested for practice, research, and policy in music, teacher education, and teachers with disabilities.

Analysis of gender, age and disability representation in music education textbooks: A research update

“…Despite the fact that both genders were portrayed in fairly equal proportions after 2006 according to musical practices and type of activity , the virtual absence of characters with disabilities in music school textbooks is a manifestation of invisibility, suggesting that this aspect of inclusion is still pending. Parker and Draves (2017) have suggested that the purposeful recruitment and support of music teacher candidates with disabilities can challenge perceptions of able-bodiedness and increase the presence of disabled educators in schools. According with the social model of disability bodily differences are not the key to discrimination and disadvantage but rather the political, social and economic framing of these differences.…”

“…In this context, other authors have discussed the misrepresentation or stereotyping of people with disabilities in the music world. For instance, Parker and Draves (2017) suggest that the purposeful recruitment and support of music teacher candidates with disabilities can challenge perceptions of able-bodiedness and increase the presence of disabled educators in schools. However, despite the major intersectional obstacles that women with disabilities must overcome to fully participate in society (Fairchild, 2002), to our knowledge, there have been no systematic evaluations on the types of messages about corporal diversity and gender conveyed through ME textbooks around the world.…”

Hacking, disability, and music education

“…In recent years, some researchers have drawn on disability studies literature to critique the prevalence of ableism – discrimination based on ability – in music education (i.e., Abramo, 2012; Abramo & Pierce, 2013; Bell, 2017; Dobbs, 2012; Parker & Draves, 2017; Pickard, 2019; Rathgeber, 2019). As a field, music education prides itself on championing diversity and inclusivity, but disability is often omitted from these discussions (Laes & Westerlund, 2018), and people with disabilities are treated unequally in music education settings (Darrow, 2015).…”

(dis)Ability and Music Education: Paralympian Patrick Anderson and the Experience of Disability in Music

“…Patrick's perspective provides insights into the complexities of the experience of disability. His nuanced views of how he has experienced disability in sports and music provide a point of entry into Disability Studies, a field of study that some music education scholars (Abramo 2012, Abramo and Pierce 2013, Dobbs 2012, Parker and Draves 2017, Rathgeber 2016) are now exploring.…”