Effects of race and gender on preservice music educators' perceptions of composer diversity

Abstract

American music education is focused primarily on music written by White men (Baker, 2003). However, women are more likely to believe they can find success in a career in the arts when they have positive female role models (Quimby & DeSantis, 2006). Similarly, college students are more likely to name career role models who match their own ethnicity (Karunanayake & Nuata, 2004). If young women and students of color do not get to see composers who remind them of themselves, then they will be less likely to feel confident as potential composers. The purpose of this study is to determine undergraduate music education students’ commitment to promoting the music of diverse composers in their future classrooms. A pilot study conducted in 2017 supported the need for this research. Participants in that study expressed the belief that composer diversity is important, but that their undergraduate program is not adequately preparing them to incorporate diverse composers in their teaching. The research addresses the following questions: 1) To what extent do preservice music teachers believe that composer diversity is important? 2) To what extent do preservice music teachers feel prepared to teach their students about diverse composers? 3) Are women preservice teachers and/or preservice teachers of color more likely to believe composer diversity is important than teachers who are men and/or White? All participants (n=34) were junior and senior undergraduate students studying music education at a university in the mid-Atlantic states. These preservice music teachers completed an online survey, answering Likert-style questions about how they value composer diversity, and if they feel prepared to teach music written by composers of all genders and composers of color. They were also asked to name women composers, composers of color, and women composers of color they have studied in their undergraduate program. The participants’ responses were analyzed by gender and race, and the data was analyzed with a series of Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance tests. The results of the study suggest that while preservice music teachers believe that teaching their students about diverse composers is important, they are not enthusiastic about how prepared they are to teach about these composers. They are especially unprepared to teach their students about women of color, suggesting a need for a more intersectional approach to diverse learning (Matsuda, 2013). No differences were found between participants of different races. There were no significant differences between gender nonbinary participants (n=2) and participants of other genders. There were four significant differences between men (n=19) and women (n=13). Men responded with higher levels of agreement to the statements “I look forward to incorporating music by composers of color into my classroom” and “I look forward to incorporating music by composers of all genders into my classroom.” When asked about what factors influence their repertoire selection, women placed more importance on “The audience will enjoy the music” and “Composers of all genders are featured equally.” The median number of composers of color participants named was 5. The median number of female composers was 2.5, and the median number of female composers of color was 0.