Teachers' Choices to Use Movement in Elementary General Music Class: Examining Influencers

Abstract

Because no government body has mandated a national or state curriculum for music education in the United States, elementary general music teachers can vary widely in their curricular choices about whether and how to include movement. To contribute to an understanding of children’s experiences engaging in movement during their elementary music education, the purpose of this research was to examine influencers on pre-Kindergarten through 8th grade general music teachers’ choices to use movement in elementary general music classes. With a pragmatic worldview, I approached the study through a lens of embodied teaching and learning, acknowledging a person’s bodily movements as connected ways of musical knowing. I used a mixed methods, explanatory sequential design in two phases of the research. In Phase I, I posed four research questions. Research questions one through three: For two types of movement (i.e., non-locomotor, locomotor), to what extent does variance in (a) school socioeconomic status (i.e., Title I, Non-Title I), (b) physical classroom space, and (c) class size significantly relate to the use of movement by type in elementary general music classes? Research question four: (d) To what extent do school socioeconomic status, physical classroom space, and class size in combination explain the variance in the use of movement in elementary general music classes? In Phase II, I posed four additional research questions to explain the results of Phase I. Research questions five through seven: How do music teachers describe the (e) purpose, (f) benefits, and (g) challenges in their use of different movement types in elementary general music classes? Research question eight: (h) What results emerge from comparing the quantitative data on influencers to the use of movement by type with the qualitative data that describes teachers’ choices in movement instruction? For that question, I examined the results from Phase I and Phase II to complete the mixed methods design of this study. In Phase I, pre-Kindergarten through 8th grade general music teachers (N = 251) teaching in the United States voluntarily completed a researcher-designed web-based survey. For research questions one through three, I conducted independent t-tests on the survey data for each of the related variables. For research question one, participants in Title I schools (n = 163) used non-locomotor steady beat gestures (t = 1.99) and locomotor choreography (t = 2.37) statistically significantly more than participants in non-Title I schools (n = 88). For research question two, participants without a dedicated physical music classroom space (n = 30) used non-locomotor movement for showing pitch relations and melodic contour with hands (t = 2.21) statistically significantly more than participants with a dedicated music classroom (n = 221). Participants with a dedicated music classroom (n = 221) used locomotor choreography (t = 3.87) statistically significantly more than participants without dedicated music classroom (n = 30). For research question three, participants with large class sizes (n = 107) used non-locomotor dramatizing (p = -.132) and locomotor creative/exploratory movement (p = -.198) statistically significantly more than participants with medium (n = 108) or small (n = 36) class sizes. For research question four, I conducted a multiple regression on the survey data to examine the influence of school socioeconomic status, physical space, and class size on use of movement by type. Results indicated one statistically significant correlation for the variables in combination: participants in Title I schools with dedicated music rooms statistically significantly used non-locomotor moving with flow (t = 2.303). In Phase II, I purposefully sampled 17 of 106 interested Phase I survey participants based on their responses to demographic information in relation to five conditions established a priori: Self-Reported Frequency of Movement Use, School Socioeconomic Status, Class Size, Physical Classroom Space, and Professional Development Experience. To answer research questions five through seven, I conducted a thematic analysis of those 17 Phase II participants’ transcribed and member-checked individual, semi-structured interviews. From their interview data, I identified 31 representative meaning units, 10 lower order themes, and four higher order themes (i.e., Who I Am, Who My Students Are, Where We Are Together, and What We Do Together). For research question eight, I compared the quantitative data on influencers to the use of movement by type with qualitative data that describes participants’ choices in type of movement. Participants’ choices to use locomotor movement were constrained by their physical classroom space and large class sizes but not by school socioeconomic status. Teachers’ choices to use movement in general music settings are also influenced by teacher identity and body image. Since participants volunteered for this study, results need to be applied with caution. By examining the results of Phase I and Phase II, I concluded that teachers in this study connected their choices of whether and how to use movement in elementary general music to their own identity, understandings of students’ identities, school context, and students’ musical engagement. Teachers desire students’ engaging movement experiences that lead to students’ empowerment through embodied learning. Teachers’ choices to use movement potentially connect teachers’ and students’ embodied experiences with teachers’ personally formational instruction, regardless of their school socioeconomic status, physical classroom space, or class size. Implications for the field of music education include widening our understanding of the role of identity at various junctures of a music teacher’s career. Because administrators assign physical teaching spaces and determine maximum class sizes, they play an important role ensuring general music teachers can teach in a dedicated space that is physically and socioemotionally safe for students and their teacher. By contemplating ways to engage in personal movement experiences beyond their practice in their classrooms, teachers may boost their self-confidence, and expand possibilities for using movement instruction in less-than-ideal teaching spaces. Future researchers might investigate the (a) role music-teacher body image plays as it influences teachers’ choices to use movement, (b) ways teachers connect students’ dance cultures to music learning, (c) use of movement in remote, cyber, or virtual general music classes. Depending on the status of the COVID-19 pandemic, future researchers may explore general music teachers’ choices to use movement relative to social distancing practices.