The Music of Our Time: A Case Study of Popular Music Experience for Five Preservice Music Teachers

The rapidly growing interest in popular music education in recent years has been striking (Allsup, 2008; Isbell, 2007; Mantie, 2013; Niknafs, 2019; Williams, 2017). This interest has been discussed and promoted in both research and practice with regard to reducing the gap between in and out of school, and explicating its influence on students (Abramo, 2011; Byo, 2018; Beauregard, 2019; Froehlich & Smith, 2017; Green, 2002, 2006, 2008; Jaffurs, 2004; Niknafs, 2019; Tobias, 2019; Woody, 2019). However, despite considerable literature and research on popular music, there is still reluctance to include popular music in preservice music teacher education due to the time restraints in the current curriculum, inappropriate content, or fear of replacing traditional ensembles (Abril & Gault, 2008; Bennett, 1980; Byo, 2018; Green, 2006; Humphreys, 2004). In extreme cases, some educators believe that including popular music in higher education is inferior to the current focus on traditional large ensembles (Green, 2002; Hebert & Campbell, 2000; Humphreys, 2004). Without offering an informal learning experience of popular music, music teacher education is remarkably weak in an important aspect of providing a creative, meaningful, and joyful music experience for preservice music teachers. The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of popular music experience that preservice music teachers constructed through informal learning practices in a modern band. We chose an intrinsic case study to explore a particular circumstance involving a modern band that offered a unique experience for preservice music teachers (Creswell & Poth, 2018; Grandy, 2010; Stake, 1995; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016; Yin, 2018). In one semester, five preservice music teachers in a US southern university voluntarily enrolled in a modern band outside of the required school curriculum. Informal learning practices (Green, 2002, 2006, 2008) were used as a framework to enrich the participants’ experience in a modern band. The following research questions were used to guide the study: (a) what motivated the participants to engage in informal learning in a modern band? (b) what benefit did the involvement of informal learning in a modern band offer for preservice music teacher preparation? (c) what challenges did participants experience while enrolled in the modern band? We collected the data over a seven-month period (three-months of case planning and four-months of the case in action). Data sources included multiple interviews, written responses to prompts provided by the researchers, and artifacts (e.g., pictures, videos, and Facebook messenger transcript). All those data were approached from a holistic perspective as the modern band was regarded as the unit of analysis (Yin, 2018). The data showed that a popular music experience helped foster joyful experiences, cultivate self-awareness, and overcome challenges. The findings suggest that preservice music teachers should endeavor to explore popular music during their music teacher program so that they can be confident to bring it into their future classroom.