Relations between educational quality in music teacher education and student's perceptions of identity

Abstract

Relations between educational quality in music teacher education and students’ perceptions of identity. Six music education student focus groups of both sexes, with a minimum of two years seniority in Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, were interviewed about their perceptions and opinions of how student learning relates to identity. The aim was to map and describe how relations of identity and learning affect the quality of teaching and learning in a particular subject of music teacher education: Musikdidaktik. Drawing on late modern theories of identity, and supported by theories of learning from within the pedagogy of higher education and the educational theories of didaktik, a highly complex field emerged. Connections between identity and learning appeared to be multiple and many-sided, and regulated by the interplay of students, teachers, the selected subject content, and the institutional culture at large. Indications of how to act to enhance educational quality, as well as to the need for further studies were revealed. Keywords: music teacher education, educational quality, student learning, identity