Transforming Music Teacher Education Through Service Learning

Abstract

Service-learning initiatives have become prevalent on the campuses of higher education. In teacher education, preservice teachers involved in educational partnerships that are service-learning based respond to the needs of a community partner, apply pedagogical knowledge and skills they have acquired in their coursework to real-world problems, and engage in critical reflection. Service-learning offers preservice teachers increased opportunities to develop their teaching practice and teacher identities and provides a backdrop for preservice teachers to develop personally and become socially integrated into the field of teacher education. In this article, we provide descriptions of four service-learning contexts for music teacher preparation. We discuss the role of service-learning in transforming preservice music teachers, their music teaching practice, and the community partners they served. Finally we present challenges to engaging in service learning in music teacher preparation, characteristics of meaningful service learning work, and discuss the transformative potential of service-learning in music teacher preparation.

Learning through dissonance: Critical service-learning in a juvenile detention center as field experience in music teacher education

“…Burton and Reynolds (2009) present the case of a pre-service music teacher who partnered with a Latin American Cultural Center. Through the processes of teaching music, developing curricular aids, and navigating the sociocultural mores of the center, this student learned that teachers have to be flexible and responsive to the "social, economic, and ethnic backgrounds of the learners" (p. 25).…”

Growing Through Service

“…Several scholars have provided descriptions of successful music service-learning projects, along with discussions of the challenges of these projects and implications for implementation (Burton & Reynolds, 2009;Doyle, Hotchkiss, Noel, Huss, & Holmes, 2004;Siebenaler, 2005). These descriptive articles present programs that might serve as models for music education professionals seeking to infuse teacher preparation programs with service-learning experiences.…”

Service learning as part of tertiary music programmes in South Africa: a framework for implementation

“…Although various studies have been undertaken in the United States on the implementation of service learning within the higher education realm of music and music teacher education (see Barnes 2002;Burton & Reynolds 2009;Reynolds 2004), in South Africa this terrain has not yet been explored in terms of academic study. 1 Bringle and Hatcher (2004:127) define service learning as a 'course-based, credit-bearing educational experience in which students a) participate in an organised service activity that meets identified community needs and b) reflect on the service activity in such a way as to gain further understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility'.…”