Certain Attitudes Toward Occupational Status Held by Music Education Majors

Educators today often receive mixed messages about their occupational status. The purposes of this study were (a) to identify sources of negative messages aimed at music education undergraduates, and (b) to investigate undergraduates for a response to negative messages involving systematic elevation of self over typical music educators or fellow students. Ninety-six undergraduates from three major universities responded to a questionnaire containing items based on the purposes just listed. Results indicated sources of negative messages to be newspapers, family, friends, peer group, and educational personnel (e.g., counselors). Subjects demonstrated a significant elevation of self over others in 10 of 11 hypothesized self-over-others situations. To account for a generalized tendency to elevate self over others, the author compared music education majors' responses with responses obtained from a group of elementary education majors. Elementary education students exhibited a less generalized tendency to elevate self over others; results indicated significant differences on 3 of the 11 hypotheses.