Music Student Teacher Reflections as Narratives of Identity

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to explore how music student teachers make sense of classroom events during the student teaching internship using a required Video Reflection Assignment. Three questions guided this study: 1) How did student teachers use aspects of three-dimensional narrative space (temporality, sociality, and space) to story classroom events? 2) What aspects of Reflective Practice did student teachers illustrate in their Video Reflection Assignments? 3) How did student teachers reveal their identities as musicians and teachers through their reflections? Data were Video Reflection Worksheets (VRW), video-recorded teaching episodes (videos), and participant questionnaires. Analysis combined narrative, case study, and grounded theory techniques. Participants' answers on VRWs revealed aspects of their musician and teacher identities, dilemmas of practice caused by classroom events and conflicting stories with cooperating teachers, and provided insight into the ways participants either rationalized or reflected on classroom events. Results of the study contribute to the profession's understanding of the interplay of musician and teacher identities, and point to the importance of attending to narratives of identity revealed in student teachers' reflections through language use, as well as the alignment of student teachers' and cooperating teachers' storied identities when assigning internship placements. Additionally, results raise important questions concerning student teachers' abilities to use reflective assignments like the one in this study to self-reflect, and point to the usefulness of three-dimensional narrative space and MacKinnon's clues to detecting reflective activity for reframing teacher-educator's evaluations of student teachers' reflections.