Music education undergraduates’ construction of music teacher role-identity

The purpose of this study was to explore Chinese music education undergraduates’ music teacher role-identities. Data were collected through focus groups and individual interviews. A qualitative content analysis, using McCall and Simmons theory of role-identity as the theoretical framework, revealed that each of the 25 students’ imaginative view of self as a music teacher was an ongoing process of negotiation during their undergraduate education. Students were consistently negotiating the content of their own music teacher role-identities through balancing their needs for rewards from others and their own self-support. Students described the conventional character of a teacher as being respectful, responsible, and fair and the role of a teacher as acting professionally in music and teaching through cognitive role-taking and improvisation, as well as expressive enactment and negotiations. Students were active agents in constructing their role-identities, bringing their own idiosyncratic interpretations to music teacher positions. McCall and Simmons’ prominence and salience hierarchies helped understand how students valued their music teacher role-identity, compared to their other role-identities. Implications and suggestions for music teacher education policy and practices in China and in other countries are discussed to facilitate undergraduates in constructing music teacher role-identities.