The Challenges and Rewards of Urban General Music Teaching

This study examined perceptions of effective urban§elementary general music teachers concerning§effective teaching and pre-service preparation for§urban elementary general music classrooms. It was§conducted in two phases: survey and interview. Survey§phase participants were experienced urban elementary§general music teachers from different geographical§areas of the United States, who had been identified§as effective teachers by music teacher educators or§music supervisors. Interview phase participants§comprised a subset of survey participants who§achieved high levels of potential §cross-cultural adaptability on the Cross-Cultural§Adaptability Inventory (Kelley & Meyers, 1995). A§comprehensive interview instrument was administered§in a collective case study research design. From the§coded data passages, 162 themes emerged, with 100§themes comprising commonalities among the interview §participants. Additionally, four meta-themes emerged§from an examination of commonalities: flexibility,§cultural knowledge and skills, caring and responsive§attitude, and musical knowledge and music teaching§skills. From these, a model of effective urban§elementary general music teaching was generated.