Evoking A Soundscape: Inquirying Into Musician-Music Teachers' Narratives

Abstract

I identify as a musician-music teacher, and my life experience of journeying to and through music provides a unique perspective, both in and out of the elementary music classroom. Growing up surrounded by music in my family has contributed to the way my story is grounded and how it has unfolded over time. In the classroom, I share my experiences with my students by retelling and reliving my story. Narrative inquiry supports sharing teacher perspectives, through a relational process. This research provides participants with an opportunity to share multiple perspectives on musician-music teacher narratives, offering a unique view into the stories of three elementary teachers (and myself as a co-participant) who work in the specialized field of music education. When musician-music teachers are provided the time to slow the day-to-day fast pace and reflect and express their story of journeying to and through music, what will we hear from their stories shared through a soundscape of experience? The synchronous nature of this collaborative research allows experience, analysis, and synthesis to become a place of understanding. Using the theoretical framework of the three-dimensional inquiry space of narrative inquiry supports an understanding of people, places, and events through temporality, sociality, and place (Connelly & Clandinin, 2006). Original to this research is the conceptual framework, evoking a soundscape, which invites musician-music teachers to weave original music with poetry and lyrics, as they retell and relive their story, drawing on the creative process as transaction (Rosenblatt, 1978). There is much to learn from listening to musician-music teachers as they share their journeys through music and the experiences that have influenced a deepened connection to their practice. Hearing musician-music teachers’ stories expressed through interviews and the music they created allows for what is resounding in their teaching craft to become apparent. Evoking a soundscape provides a new layer to the sensitive recounting and retelling of a narrative, igniting the possibility for other musician-music teachers to musically inquire into their lived experiences as a means of deepening professional practice. Keywords: Narrative inquiry, musician-music teachers, songwriting, transaction, professional learning