With the intent of informing music teacher educators in their work with and preparation of preservice music teachers, the purpose of this study was to examine the initial field-observation experiences of preservice music teachers enrolled in an introductory music education course. The "grand tour" question guiding this study was, how do preservice music teachers enrolled in an introductory music education course make meaning of their first observations of a music classroom in K-12 schools within their teacher education program? From this overarching question, I sought to address the following subquestions: 1) What do preservice music teachers notice during their first field observation? 2) In what ways, if any, do preservice music teachers draw connections between their teacher identities and what they notice during an observation? 3) How do preservice music teachers negotiate the aspects of their observations that conflict with their teacher identities?
Read
