The Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development departments and programs use different methods for determining a student's eligibility for admission to degree candidacy, e.g., written tests, oral tests, research papers, performances, other creative work, etc., alone or in combination. Current Music Education/Therapy doctoral students are required to provide a professional portfolio online.
To achieve doctoral candidacy, Music Education and Music Therapy students must complete an online professional portfolio and an Oral Review: Music Education/Music Therapy Competencies and Praxis, Research Framework, Arts Dialogue, and a Performance Review (Oral Defense). Taken together, these projects aim for a more holistic determination of a student's successful entry to candidacy and are more focused on the students' research as it fits within music education praxis.
Both your portfolio and your application for the candidacy examination should be submitted by email to mpap-doctoral-studies@nyu.edu by the application deadline for MPAP Doctoral Candidacy. Additionally, the application for candidacy form must be submitted separately to the Steinhardt Office of Doctoral Studies (steinhardt.doctoral.studies@nyu.edu).
Each student must include work that demonstrates competence in music and Music Education/Therapy, as follows:
Provide a complete CV of the student's professional career.
Evidence of the student's teaching/practice and leadership in making music, including composing, arranging, or editing musical materials for their current or proposed situation; responding to and analyzing works of music in relation to their discipline; understanding cultural dimensions and contributions of music; and additional evidence of knowledge of theory and practice in Music Education/Therapy.
The entire candidacy portfolio is to be created as an online site, and will include as evidence, all required essays, bibliographies, and narratives, but also video and audio files, images, and links to activities and practices that demonstrate the student's educational, professional and scholarly background.
For example, the portfolio might include a combination of exemplary papers; formal and informal presentations to the field, performance reviews; compositions, recordings, teaching citations; descriptions of workshops led; creative products, video tape, music recordings, and web authoring. References from others who have knowledge of the student's work as a musician and music educator.
The portfolio demonstrates competence in music and music education/music therapy.
The portfolio is sufficient in scope and depth.
The portfolio is well referenced.
The student demonstrates leadership (or evolving leadership) in the field.
Included in the portfolio is at least one paper that is of sufficient depth and originality that it could qualify for submission to a referred periodical in the relevant profession. This paper could take many forms. It could be a research study utilizing any recognized form of research such as quantitative, qualitative, mixed-method, historical, or philosophical inquiry; it can involve analyses of the literature, including but not limited to systematic literature review or meta-analyses; it can be theory focused; descriptive of educational or clinical processes and interventions; a write-up of a pilot study; a description of a novel research method; or an application of concepts from the literature to a novel area of education or therapy. It need not be a research study. However, if it is not a research study, included in the submission should be an identification of at least one professional journal that the manuscript would be suitable for.
If the manuscript has been accepted to a journal, the published copy should be submitted. If the manuscript has been submitted for publication but not yet published, the reviewers’ comments and the student’s responses to them should be included as well.
Possible journals for music education students: Action, Criticism and Theory for Music Education; International Journal of Community Music; International Journal of Music Education; Research Studies in Music Education; Music Education Research; British Journal of Music Education; Journal of Music, Technology and Education; International Journal of Education & the Arts; Journal of Popular Music Education; Journal of Research in Music Education; Music Educators’ Journal
Possible journals for music therapy students: British Journal of Music Therapy; Nordic Journal of Music Therapy; Music Therapy Perspectives; Journal of Music Therapy; Canadian Journal of Music Therapy; Australian Journal of Music Therapy; Music and Medicine; The Arts in Psychotherapy; Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy; New Zealand Journal of Music Therapy; Journal of the Association for Music and Imagery; Approaches: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Music Therapy
An extended bibliography should also be submitted in the portfolio, which should consist of journal articles, book chapters, books, and doctoral dissertations. Publications should be clearly related to an identified dissertation topic. They need not be restricted to research studies but can include theory papers, case studies, and other type of publications that appear in scholarly journals and books.
The bibliography should be divided into approximately 3-5 sections from the most general to the most specific. For example, a music education bibliography on technologies in music education could be organized as follows: Technologies for Teaching and Learning, Technologies for Teaching and Learning Music, Pedagogical Affordances of Technologies, and Learners’ Experiences with Technologies.
While the candidate is not expected to have read all of the publications in the bibliography, the candidate examination could include questions from the committee on the areas delineated by the subsections of the bibliography. Candidates should be familiar enough with the literature to be able to engage in discussing the following aspects of it: compare and contrast different authors’ views on an issue; criticize aspects of method used in research studies; note areas in which authors are in agreement; highlight exemplary studies; highlight gaps in research; summarize general patterns and trends in the literature.
A comprehensive bibliography is an essential part of the portfolio. It should consist of journal articles, book chapters, books, and doctoral dissertations. These publications need not be restricted to research studies but can include theory papers, case studies, and other types of publications that appear in scholarly journals and books. The bibliography should include everything that you have read during your years of doctoral study. The publications should be those from your coursework and those that you have gathered and read independently. Publications read prior to matriculating as a doctoral student can be included as well if they are relevant to the purpose of the bibliography which is to demonstrate that you have the breadth and depth of knowledge to pursue your scholarly research.
The bibliography should be divided into two main sections with three subsections in each one as described below. The separation between these two areas is not a hard and fast one as some publications may have a place in both areas.
This list can include any and all music therapy publications that you have read, as long as you are able to recall some basic salient aspects of them. They can focus on models, interventions, contemporary issues in the field, and similar topics
This list can all also include generalized texts on qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods research. A large qualitative research handbook that addresses a large number of different models and issues in research would belong here. A qualitative research book that focused on the specific approach you are using in your study would belong in list (2) described below
This list might include general publications about topics such as neuroscience or adolescence if your research was moving in a direction in one of these areas. These publications would not be ones that are specifically music- or music therapy-focused.
At the time of candidacy, you may not have a specific focus for your dissertation study but you should have a general idea about the area of your research. Having this general idea is necessary in order to be able to create the bibliography following the guidelines of this document.
This list can include any and all music therapy publications that you have read that relate in specific ways to the focus of your research. If your focus includes the use of improvisation, for example, then any publications on improvisation should be here; if the focus is related to education and/or training, then education/training documents would be here; or if your focus is related to palliative, hospice, or bereavement, then any publications on end-of-life care would be located here
This list should include specialized texts on specific qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods research. So if you are using specific approaches such as arts-based, participatory-action, naturalistic, or phenomenological methods, any publications with this defined approach should be here. Additionally, if you know that you will be doing an interview study or a participant-observation study, then any publications on specific data-gathering methods should be in this area.
This list should include publications that may not fit into the music therapy or research methods areas, but that are relevant to the study because of their specific focus. To take up the examples from section (1) above, this is where publications on neuroscience and music, or adolescence and music would belong, if the planned dissertation study was going to include a focus on either neuroscience or adolescence.
The candidate examination could include questions from the committee on the areas delineated by the subsections of the bibliography. Candidates should be familiar enough with the literature to be able to engage in discussing the following aspects of it: compare and contrast different authors’ views on an issue; criticize aspects of method used in research studies; note areas in which authors are in agreement; highlight exemplary studies; highlight gaps in research; summarize general patterns and trends in the literature.
After completion of the work described, the student will present a comprehensive portfolio representing the student's career and work, organized into the three categories described above. The student may wish to establish sub-categories so that the presentation is organized and clear. The faculty in Music and Performing Arts Education will meet with the candidate and examine how the student has met candidacy and whether further work is required. Additional work may be required as additional courses and additional research and papers. Additional review may be requested in terms of the teaching activity. Upon satisfactory completion of portfolio and review requirements (including any additional work or materials required by the faculty review commission), the graduate office will be notified that the student has achieved candidacy.
The student has demonstrated satisfactory performance in the portfolio, scholarly paper, and bibliography.
The student is articulate about issues in their projects for candidacy, including dissertation research topic.
The student recognizes areas of strength in performance as well as areas that require further work.
The student is able to complete other assignments if required.