The Research

 Changing minds and changing practice: Barriers and facilitators to the use of methods associated with popular musicianship, and strategies music teachers use to navigate them (Summary)

This research was created as a part of the PhD studies of Rhiannon Simpson. It explored factors which both aid and impede a teacher's perceived ability to instate changes to their own practice, and to the school as a whole. It specifically explored factors which may have served as barriers and/or facilitators to the use of methods associated with popular musicianship within the classrooms of music teachers. The study aimed to identify what these factors might be, and the ways teachers use strategies to navigate them. In this sense, the ways in which teachers overcame the presence of factors which impede change, and made use of the presence of factors which help to facilitate change was of focus. This serves to help the academic field to better understand how teachers can develop the skills, knowledges and dispositions which help them perceive themselves as people able to prompt change, and help them to actively do so.

The study used a multiple case study design, in which I entered three Victorian high schools to collect data about the experiences, practices, and histories of seven music teachers. These teachers agreed to take part in interviews exploring their experiences in prompting changes to their practices, create drawings in response to specific questions, and have their classroom practice observed. The principals of two of these schools also agreed to be participants. They took part in an interview exploring how change is prompted in their schools, and created drawings in response to specific questions. These data were then collected and analysed for information about barriers/facilitators to change, and the ways in which teachers overcame/made use of them. 

The study identified seven factors which aided or impeded teachers who wanted to use methods associated with popular music in their classrooms, they were; 1) feeling comfortable/uncomfortable when teaching using particular approaches; 2) having access to appropriate gear in appropriate spaces; 3) the speed with which the school’s population was growing, and the ways this informed when and where music classes were timetabled; 4) the ability to find and keep a record of popular music repertoire which is appropriate to be used in secondary school settings; 5) the content of the curriculum which Victorian teachers must follow; 6) the history and traditions of the school; and 7) the ways students responded to methods used in the music classroom.

The study also found that there were particular skills and knowledges that teachers used to foster changes to their own practice, and the school as a whole. They included; knowing what the aims, goals and ideals of principals, leadership team members, parents and students were; knowing the processes used to prompt change in their specific schools (including who to approach with proposals for change, and using existing processes related to budget requests), and seeing change as possible despite barriers to change being present.

In response to these findings, this collection of web-based resources aiming to help other educators to navigate these barriers/facilitators to change were created.