Preparing Generalist Teachers for Song Leading: Didactical Insights from Music Teacher Educators

Despite the central role of music teacher educators in preparing future teachers, little is known about how they conceptualize and enact the transmission of musical culture in schools. To address this, the present study draws on the development of the academic discipline of didactics in continental Europe, which provides a framework for theorizing the multifaceted task of music teacher educators. It contributes to the field of disciplinary didactics in music by offering detailed analyses of interviews and descriptions of how teacher educators conceive of their task in institutions specialized for this purpose. The thematic analyses allow for an overview of core didactic phenomena that characterize the professional work of music teacher educators. The participants share a common understanding of song leading as a key practice, and they report on strategies for activities and tools to transpose musical content into teachable and learnable forms for schools. Their reports on how they conceive of and organize the social practice of songs and teaching song leading offer insights into the dynamics of the ternary didactic system consisting of teachers, subject matter, and students. The findings invite reflection on central didactic phenomena and concepts in the transmission of music in schools. The resulting conceptual framework with subject-specific vocabulary contributes to the further development of music didactics as an academic discipline and practice.