To what extent do Career-long Professional Learning opportunities enable non-specialist primary teachers to teach Music successfully in the classroom?

Carrie, Julie (2022) To what extent do Career-long Professional Learning opportunities enable non-specialist primary teachers to teach Music successfully in the classroom? Ed.D thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This research will investigate to what extent Career-Long Professional Learning opportunities support non-specialist primary teachers to teach Music confidently in the classroom. The researcher is the only primary Music specialist in their local authority and as such, has a responsibility to support primary classroom teachers to deliver Music. This study examines the experiences, and initial teacher training, of early-career teachers within the South-West Regional Improvement Collaborative in Scotland. While this research will focus on one geographical area in Scotland it is hoped that similarities in practice might be identified which potentially exist across Scottish education.

The Literature Review examines current writing on primary teaching and curriculum including the need for ‘subject mastery’ and understanding of subject pedagogy. Literature would suggest that Music is a curriculum area where there is a lack of confidence and self-efficacy amongst generalist primary teachers globally. This study looks to investigate if this parallel is found within Scottish education.

The researcher interviewed early-career teachers. For the purposes of this study this refers to teachers within the first five years of their careers. Participants were questioned about their initial education experiences, specifically Music training, and what professional learning opportunities they had been able to access throughout their early careers. Speaking with newly qualified teachers allowed the researcher to better understand how professional learning opportunities can impact on teaching and learning within the primary classroom. Teacher professional learning is also central to the prescribed standards required by teachers in Scottish education. To enable this study to consider the full implications on teacher professional learning and education, this study will also consider Teaching Scotland’s Future, often referred to as the Donaldson Review (2011), which is the most recent review of teacher education in Scotland.

It is hoped that this research will provide a deeper understanding of the needs of generalist classroom teachers in relation to curriculum subjects to enable effective professional learning at all stages of teacher education.

• Item Type: Thesis (Ed.D)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Subjects: L Education > LB Theory and practice of education; L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB1501 Primary Education; M Music and Books on Music > MT Musical instruction and study
• Colleges/Schools: College of Social Sciences > School of Education
• Supervisor's Name: Franchi, Dr. Leonardo and Hedge, Professor Nicki
• Date of Award: 2022
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2022-83192
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 19 Oct 2022 13:51
• Last Modified: 19 Oct 2022 13:51
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.83192
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/83192