Music Teacher Education as Identity Construction

The research from which this report is extracted attempts to build a theory in the grounded tradition (Glaser There are clear signs in the music school of a stratified knowledge where types of music and involvement in these various types of music have an almost precise hierarchy (Roberts, 1991c). One university in this study, for example, claims that its goal for its music teacher preparation programme is to 'make musicians first, teachers second'. This motto is widely known and widely promulgated in the Faculty of Music. One needs to ask, in light of the apparent gulf developing between music education as practised. in the universities and music education as practised in the lower schools, just what meanings are taken into music education students' understanding of 'musician',