Rural School Music Programs

Download or read book Rural School Music Programs written by Jack Leroy Brossette (Jr.) and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of this study was to capture an overview of what it is like to be a rural school music educator in 2015 and identify areas for further research on the subject of rural school music education. A survey consisting of 38 questions requiring either a constructed response or multiple-choice answers was used to acquire the data sample. On the topic of teacher preparation, results revealed that a slight majority felt that teacher preparation courses did not prepare them for working in a rural school. The most common responses were that the institutions were not in touch with the realities of today’s classroom teaching faculty lacking in practical classroom teaching experience and a need for more emphasis on administrative and professional duties. There were many strong comments that directly credited their alma maters by name for preparing them to work in a rural setting by bringing recent graduates to recount their experiences at their first job, providing classes over multiple settings, and preparing students to teach in small schools. Remarks also pertained to the isolation and the challenges of working in a geographically isolated location as well as the impact on the educator’s spouse or family. Bias, whether real or perceived, was reported by less than half of respondents. Bias areas were school location, ensemble size, school size, and socio-economic status of their students, low expectations from their peers, uneven application of ratings, instrumentation, and unnecessary remarks from adjudicators. Retention of music educators appears to be an issue at rural schools. Responses received in this student indicated a high turnover at approximately half of the schools where the respondents were currently located with one respondent noting that they were the 10th director in 11 years. The subject of limited resources covered multiple areas: facilities, performance library, ensemble size, professional development and funding/budget. The majority of responses indicated that their current facilities were adequate for their needs. While published arrangements were used by a majority as performance material, others rearranged published material, did their own arrangements or had a peer do arrangements for the ensembles. Professional development was noted as not offered by the employing district in a majority of responses. Funding and budgets was noted as having been static by the largest group of responses. A follow up study focusing on the impact of budget reductions on rural school music education and teacher preparations could prove beneficial to determine the perceived value of music education in rural schools.