Professors's visions of music-teacher education

Recent developments at the labour market for music teachers require a broader understanding of the music teacher profession than before and cause music teachers to establish themselves as versatile music workers at various levels and areas of music education. This requires music teacher education to not only offer a variety of relevant courses but also to ensure that the student music teachers profit from the potential synergies of relating to and reflecting on the learning outcomes of those courses in relation to each other. As a basis for succeeding in such an endeavour, studies into the characteristics and manifestations of the various educational traditions at play are very much needed. In addressing this need empirically we found the notion and concept of vision a possible point of departure. Drawing on Hammerness (2006), we conceive of music teachers’ visions as entailing ‘images of an ideal practice’ (ibid.: 1), bringing together their hopes, cares and dreams with their understandings. As such, a vision represents a goal for them that also is within the realms of possibility. In turn, vision connects to their understandings, dispositions; and practices as well as notions of accessible tools.While the role and function of visions among teachers and student teachers have been scrutinized by several scholars, vision’s role in the teacher education of particular subjects and the role of the teacher educators’ visions have not yet been systematically studied. We hold that these visions may turn out to be equally important for the quality of teaching and learning in music teacher education as (music) teachers' visions may prove to be in the areas and schools for which the student music teachers are qualified. Furthermore, the professors’ visions can be expected to influence the visions of student music teachers and teacher freshmen and thus constitute a kind of visions of second degree.Hence, in this presentation we will address the following question: What characterizes the visions of musikdidaktik professors and how do these visions relate to their notions of understandings, dispositions, practices, and tools within the musikdidaktik subject as a learning community?The study is positioned within the field of research on higher music education and how that education can be further developed. The theoretical framework draws on teacher thinking research (e.g. Jyrhämä 2002; Kansanen 1999), questions of teaching and teacher development in teacher education (Darling- Hammond 2006;Darling- Hamond & Bransford ed. 2005) and the understanding of teaching and learning in musikdidaktik (e.g., Ferm & Johansen 2008, Juntunen 2007). The study is a shared project between three researchers from Sweden, Norway and Finland each examining one music teacher education programme in their country which educates both classroom and instrumental music teachers. The data consist of four semi-structured interviews of musikdidaktik professors from each country representing musikdidaktik for classroom, voice, piano, and strings. The results will be presented and discussed in connection with professors’ visions of good practice, professors’ visions of an ideal graduate, and professors’ visions of the musikdidaktik subject as a whole. The ways in which similarities and differences between countries and musikdidaktik traditions emerge from the visions will be discussed in relation to music teacher education, as well as music teaching practice.Godkänd; 2012; 20120827 (cefe)