Dennis Frayne Arts, Music, & Education

 CHAPTER 4: DATA & ANALYSIS I

Invitations and Participants

Invitations

I successfully defended my dissertation proposal on September 22, 2021 (my birthday), received IRB approval in early October, and began sending invitations to recruit study participants that same month (see Appendix A). My invitation was posted on my own personal Facebook page, as well as in several of the professionally oriented Facebook groups that serve general music teachers, piano teachers, choir directors, band directors, and theater arts teachers. Not all the administrators of these groups approved my post; however, enough of them allowed me to post my invitation, and responses came trickling in. I included my university email address in the invitations, so follow-ups took place over email. One participant was referred to me by a colleague and friend who forwarded the invitation from my personal page to her. The others responded to the group invitations. A few people commented favorably on my post, “Liking” it or offering words of encouragement. One person mocked my invitation for its references to social justice and suggested that I focus on teaching music and “stop whining.” In the end, 10 teachers agreed to participate and signed consent forms, 9 followed through with initial interviews and/or attended at least one study group session, and 6 participated relatively consistently through the three-month duration of the study group to the final interviews in late January / early February.

Participants

Participating teachers from their 20’s to their early 60’s dialed in from all parts of the United States, had different experiences with music and school growing up and through college, were in different stages of their careers, played and taught different instruments and styles of music using different curriculums and pedagogies, and taught different grade levels at different kinds of schools in different kinds of school districts and communities.

Below is a brief rundown of the nine focal participants of the study. (All names are pseudonyms except my own.):

Bob – A former suburban middle school choir teacher (male, white); presently semi-retired yet a very busy private music instructor at his own downtown studio focused on popular music styles, contemporary commercial music, music technology, and sound recording.

Eden – A private piano teacher (female, white) presently teaching from her rural home studio, and an anthropologist who at one time taught class piano at a Quaker school in Appalachia.

Sophie – An elementary music teacher (female, white) in her first year who teaches on a military base in a rural community.

Elise – An elementary and middle school music teacher (female, white) in her eighth year who teaches in an urban setting and teaches an online music course to music education majors and undergraduates at a university.

Mary – A private piano teacher (female, white) working on her master’s degree in music performance with a goal to both teach and perform, with an interest in music from Latin America. Presently a graduate assistant teaching an advanced keyboard skills class at the university.

Elizabeth – A middle school band and choir teacher (female, white), in her fourth year, who teaches in a low socioeconomic status (SES) urban school.

Manny – A high school theater arts teacher (male, white), well-established in a very supportive urban school district with thriving performing arts programs.

Kerrie – An elementary music teacher (female, white) at five schools in a less-supportive urban school district, and jazz saxophonist who performs with a rock band named OK Boomer.

Sarah – An elementary and middle school music teacher (female, white) who teaches in a low SES urban school.

Dennis – A former elementary, middle, and high school music teacher (male, white) in several public and private schools, in various rural and urban settings. Presently teaches private piano, guitar, and voice, co-directs an after-school youth choral program, and plays the piano for youth dance classes, while working toward his Ed. D.

I am honored by and deeply grateful to the teachers who participated in my study. I know from personal experience how difficult it is to make time and give personal thought and energy to another project after teaching all day and handling the demands and stressors that go along with the music teaching profession. I hoped that the study group participants would not experience our work together as a drain, but rather as a positive stimulant, and their feedback indicated that in most cases the effect was indeed positive:

Bob: I appreciate you inviting me, and I appreciate everything you have to say, and this project has been awesomely fun for me. You are doing very important work in my opinion, and I was happy to be a small part of it.

Kerrie: So, when I can have these conversations with you guys, then it makes it better, the next day, you know.

Elise: Before our meetings I’m always thinking about what we had talked about last week… And then after the meetings, little things would stick in my head for days… It has really made me reflect on my practice when I sit down for lesson planning every week. Like, what am I doing to push myself or to incorporate new ideas, besides what I’ve been stuck with…? And oftentimes I’d come back to the conversations from our study group to think about new ideas or new ways to approach something.

Sophie: Being in this group really helps me be more mindful and also makes me feel like I have a sense of community, and getting to talk about all these things. It’s a shame that we don’t have this as a standard, across the board, being able to get together with people and discuss these ideas…

One finding from this study, and one that I promised study group participants that I would document, clearly suggests that, if nothing else, we should do this more.

I think it’s important here to reaffirm that I am also a participant in the study. Although I am the researcher, and a facilitator of study group meetings, I also participated in the discussions. I was intentional in striving to ensure that I did not place myself at the center, or monopolize, or overwhelm discussions with my ideas, stories, and perspectives. But I did offer them, at times I felt were appropriate, when asked, and when inspired. And it is true that I often started the discussions, led the discussions, sometimes refocused the discussions, and sometimes ended the discussions – although most of the time the discussions found a natural closing point. Sometimes discussions had a “go around the room” feel, where everyone took turns offering their take on something. Other times discussions were more spontaneous and responsive, where participants were conversing and responding to, or adding to, what others were saying. Sometimes I supported what was said, and cheered someone on, and other times I offered a challenge, an alternative perspective or “something to think about.” At all times I was deeply interested in what everyone else had to say. I have been amazed; I have been delighted; I have learned; and I, too, have come to see some things differently as a result of my participation in this study group.

The Setting and Data Collection

The individual interviews and study group meetings took place online using Zoom and were recorded (video and sound). The group meeting schedule did not come together cleanly: there was no single day/time when every participant was available. Different time zones and different teaching schedules made availability sometimes more, sometimes less, convenient. I decided to start off with three weekly meeting times, one in the morning (which would be lunchtime for some participants) and two in the evening (which would be early evening for some and later at night for others), in order to maximize options and availability even though not everyone would be able to participate all the time. As the project progressed, we homed in on fewer meeting times when most participants were tending to join and dropped the one when no one was joining. We met in some way almost every week, taking a short break over the holidays in late December / early January, for a total of 12 sessions plus 16 individual interviews. Many of the study group participants became “Friends” on Facebook, and we also started a private Facebook group for members to facilitate communication, which was utilized a few times, but not extensively.

Before the meetings each week, I sent participants some reading material over email. Reading material included the “vignettes” and other material from my dissertation chapters 1-3, published opinion content, and scholarly articles or book chapters from authors including, for example, Freire, Moll et al. (“funds of knowledge”), hooks, and Hess (“activist music education”). Some participants read part or all the material prior to the meetings; sometimes we read some of the material during the meetings. These readings often focused our discussions which would then branch off into related and/or unrelated topics. At the start of and during each meeting I encouraged participants to discuss anything they wished – there was no rule about staying “on topic” – and often participants did bring content from their contexts, including their own “vignettes,” into the discussions as launching off points. Meetings, which were relaxed and informal, typically lasted our target time of about an hour, but frequently went longer to 90 minutes. Usually, the meetings ended because one of the participants had to leave per their own schedule, to make or eat dinner, or to get to bed.

Several participants purchased books or expressed the intent to purchase books inspired by the readings. bell hooks, who died in December 2021, proved particularly popular.

Transcription and Coding

At the close of the final post- interview, I downloaded all the recordings and transcripts provided by Zoom. The transcripts provided by Zoom were relatively poor in quality but nevertheless useful. Using the transcripts and my own journal, I began a process of coding and memoing, geared toward conducting a thematic analysis of the data. I approached coding inductively, striving to keep an open mind, hoping to hear what the data had to say (Saldaña, 2021) rather than fitting the data into a set of predefined categories. I revisited my dissertation proposal and my literature review, and I strove to keep my research questions foregrounded in my mind as I worked.

In that spirit, I reiterate them here, in abbreviated form:

• How does an inquiry community of music teachers talk about themselves and others in relation to the formation and execution of social justice pedagogies?

• What role does continuous learning play in the discourse of the teacher inquiry community?

• How does this teacher inquiry community function as a site of transformative learning?

Initially, my codes ended up being very broad, the opposite of what I had heard and read were typical experiences of many others: creating many – too many – codes during the first pass. After coding all the interviews and the first few meetings, I ended up with only four codes: Times are changing, professional development, social justice and equity, and transformation. I was concerned that I was not accumulating enough codes, yet this is initially how the data spoke to me: in very broad terms. I decided to continue through all the transcripts and continue to use these codes, but also to remain open to new codes appearing. And two did: ethics and bell hooks. bell hooks became a code because she and her writings were mentioned a number of times without necessarily a reference to something else that I could determine. Ultimately, as will be seen, I decided that bell hooks, more than anything else, represented relationships, especially relationships with students.

My memoing resulted in about 15 pages of words, short notations, quotes, phrases, paraphrases, questions, and comparisons: “I tried to fit the suit (Bob).” “Meeting with like-minded people.” “Poor teacher preparation (see Sophie).” “I want to figure out ways to reach all my students.” “Centering the marginalized voices in my classroom (Elise).” “Compliance.” “Developing parental relationships - a little bit of piano and a little bit of horseback riding.” “I don’t want to deny it, but I also don’t want to normalize it (Eden).” “Theater museums (Manny).” “Does everyone know what a hammer-on is? (Bob).” “Regiment (Kerrie).” I decided to code the memos. Doing so opened up a stream of new codes. With those 38-40 new codes, I went back and re-coded the transcripts, this time more deductively. I experienced what Saldaña (2021) suggested, that induction and deduction are not mutually exclusive processes. “As an inductive coding system is constructed and becomes solidified, it then becomes a deductive coding system” (p. 41). Many codes and themes overlapped, and much dialog could be coded several ways. I strove to determine what was dominant, unusual, or perhaps non-repetitive, and sometimes assigned more than one code. As I followed this process, I became more immersed in and familiar with the data.

Once this round of coding was complete, I did three things. First, I organized all the transcripts by code. If one page comprised more than one code, I either photocopied or cut the page, as needed, to get everything into the right “pile.” Second, I went through all the piles – all the coded transcripts – and, listening to the voice recordings, re-transcribed them myself. In doing so, I manually transcribed about one-half to three-quarters of all the recordings. It was during this process that I decided that part of my data analysis would include writing a script – a play, poem, or reader’s theater – to represent what the participants had to say. I felt inspired by L. Richardson (1997) and her thoughts about “getting it differently.” Third, over time, I grouped the codes into categories, or themes. And it struck me to write these themes as statements, especially positive statements, that spoke to actively “doing something” rather than passively or negatively describing something. “De-professionalization of teachers,” “I want to quit,” and “support,” for example, became “Trust in teachers and the teaching profession; respect and honor teachers.” It was a theme throughout the study group’s work that while getting together and talking about problems and potential solutions, sharing perspectives and ideas, and learning from each other was important, it also was important to “do something” about it. “What am I doing to push myself?” (Elise). “I’ll definitely try that” (Sophie). “Hey, this is what we’re going to do; let’s talk!” (Kerrie). “You are doing very important work” (Bob). And another from Elise:

What I know is, this work can’t stop. It can’t stop with me, it can’t stop with my school, it can’t stop tomorrow, it has to be something ongoing. The people talking about it and the people trying new ideas, like ideas about equity, ideas of advancement in public education, all of these conversations have to keep going.

Over several iterations and referring also to the artifacts introduced to and by the study group plus my research journal, I felt I employed procedures that resulted in at least a modest degree of triangulation and crystallization (Low & Pandya, 2019; L. Richardson, 1997). Table 1 represents my final codes and how I organized them into positive themes with an actionable stance:

Table 1

Code and Themes

Codes Themes

dead white guys

incorrect thinking vs correct thinking

old (outdated) thinking vs new thinking

Embrace new thinking (let go of the old).

access

compliance

everyone’s white

inclusion/exclusion

interests

motivation (esp. intrinsic motivation)

poor student preparation

voice (saying what one wants)

Prioritize access, inclusion, and interests: Serve the needs, desires, and interests of each and every student; respect and honor students.

bell hooks

Freire

relationships with students (and lack of)

Develop positive and meaningful relationships with students.

de-professionalization of teachers; disrespect; dishonor

I want to quit

overwhelming responsibility

relationships among educators (and lack of)

support (from admin, parents, other) (and lack of) (“we’re behind you”)

(or not)

teacher unity across boundaries

trust in teachers

Trust teachers and the teaching profession; respect and honor teachers.

learning

listening

poor teacher preparation

professional development

support (“we’ll give you what you need”)

we should observe each other more

Invest in teacher growth and development.

isolation and loneliness (“we’re islands”)

music teachers are teachers

“specials” are different

the big picture

All teachers are teachers; involve them in everything.

ethics

unfairness

values and perspectives

Do the right thing; demand the right thing be done.

money, money, money

support (resources)

Properly fund education for all.

activism

change

transformation upheaval (“burn it to the ground”)

voice (protest)

Create environments where transformation happens; individual transformation, institutional transformation.

Analysis

As I describe the themes below, examples and representations are drawn from our study group discussions, which includes my own contributions and reflections.

Embrace New Thinking (Let Go of the Old)

A frequent code or subtheme within this theme was “dead white guys,” which refers to the dominance in music education, and theater arts, of music compositions, plays, and musicals considered to comprise the “classics,” or the “great works” of the “Western canon.” Most of these classics and great works are antiquated and were authored by white male Europeans, or Americans. Yet they are still extremely popular among educators and curators and make up the bulk of material taught in universities, conservatories, private studios, and P-12 schools, the bulk of performances at community performing arts centers, philharmonic societies, and piano recitals, and the bulk of acceptable repertoire for auditions, exams, competitions, and degree programs. New thinking, along these lines, meant introducing the works of new composers and playwrights, women, BIPOC, non-Western musics, and popular or contemporary (non-classical) styles of music like jazz, rock & roll, pop, rap, and hip hop. “We should move away from the mindset that we only teach the music of dead white guys” (Bob). “All by white male writers” (Manny). “There's still a heavy emphasis on the classics, the traditional composers, all the old white men” (Sophie). Including only music from the Western canon results in excluding all the other music. I found these threads of inclusion and exclusion woven through virtually all the themes and subthemes which became the fabric of the study group’s discourse.

New thinking also referred to any new ways of approaching things, especially those things that are held fast by dominant groups, that privilege certain people or activities over others, and that include some while excluding others. Examples (expressed as old or outdated thinking) might include schools that only offer traditional band and choir programs, band directors who run their music programs like military operations, university leadership who value academic achievement over real world experience, governments who insist on English-only instruction, and parents who fear critical race theory. “Because, you know, we’re a tier-one research university and it was a tenure track position, so it had to be someone with a doctorate, of course. I just hope for the future and for things changing” (Elise). New thinking, like all the themes, often related not specifically to music education but to all education.

Prioritize Access, Inclusion, and Interests: Serve the Needs, Desires, and Interests of Each and Every Student; Respect and Honor Students

Access, inclusion, and interests were the most-discussed themes. This makes sense perhaps since the focus of the study group was social justice. This theme was often expressed in the negative – as exclusion. This concern regarding exclusion permeated many other topics and themes, to the extent that I came to realize how deeply it permeates all of education to its very foundations. Despite the several recommendations that follow from this study, it has become evident to me that no comprehensive transformation of education can occur, regardless of good ideas and effort, until we have come to grips with the significance of exclusion and its impact on so many students (especially) and teachers. Inclusion, which means completely and finally putting an end to all exclusionary practices in education, is fundamental to my theory of change for education, presented in chapter 8. When the words “social justice” and “equity” were used by study group participants, they often referenced inclusion. The theme everyone’s white highlighted the extent to which non-white racial and related minoritized identities are excluded from so much in music education and all education. It is important to note that all the participants in our study group identified as white, mirroring this theme. Inclusion was frequently paired with meeting the needs of students. “Social justice and equity, really, are about me including everybody in my class, and trying to meet the needs of all my students” (Kerrie). Meeting the needs of students related to access, inclusion, and interests. Some students have their needs met because they have access to resources that other students do not have or because they are otherwise privileged or included. Interests can refer both to needs and to desires – what is in a student’s “best interests,” and what a student is interested in. Throughout the discussions, tensions sometimes became evident between what a student might feel is in their best interests and what others (various adults) might feel is in their best interests. Examples might be a teacher insisting on a student doing an assignment a particular way when the student would prefer to do it another way or insisting on English-only instruction when a student would prefer instruction in their home language. This tied into the theme of respecting and honoring students and led me to dig deeper into research on children’s agency, voice, self-direction, self-efficacy, and decision-making. I came to re-emphasize that students’ voices – including the voices of children – must be centered in education, not ignored, and not silenced.

Develop Positive and Meaningful Relationships with Students

Developing positive and meaningful relationships with students became a frequent theme, not always discussed directly, but often an underlying current of a topic. Since many classroom music teachers see large numbers of students each week – often hundreds or a thousand or more – and infrequently – as little as 20 or 30 minutes a week, “10 to 15 times a year” (Kerrie) – even learning each and every student’s name can be a challenge, let alone getting to know more about them. Despite this, teachers wove the importance of learning about their students, and the yearning to develop relationships with their students, into their responses. “We play a huge role in our students’ lives” (Sophie). “I started to become more authentic to my students” (Bob). “When I think of some of my students who probably had a conversation with their parents when they were four years old about complying with whatever the police officer says…” (Elise). “I really don’t know my students” (Kerrie). “And it could just be that they want to have lunch with you one day, and just sit and eat” (Elise). Some teachers were able to develop deeper relationships with some of their students, such as high school teachers who see their students more often and participate in after school projects such as concerts and theatrical productions. These deeper relationships were sometimes expressed as learning from students. “I really have honestly allowed the community and my students and their families to teach me” (Manny). “I really enjoy learning new music from my students” (Bob). The appreciation participants expressed for learning from students and families recalled the potential for those thick, multistranded, reciprocal, interdependent, and trusting relationships Moll et al. (1992) learned about from teachers who knew the whole child, and students who built up funds of knowledge, in home settings and contexts.

Trust Teachers and the Teaching Profession; Respect and Honor Teachers

In my dissertation chapters 1-3, I emphasized how I feel social justice and equity is about one, students, and two, teachers. Our study group bore that out.

The call to respect and honor students is like the call to respect and honor teachers. Cochran-Smith & Lytle (2009) discuss the de-professionalization of teachers, which is this theme expressed passively as a problem. Trust in teachers and the teaching profession is an attempt to express the theme actively as a solution or strategy. There were additional facets that played into this theme, and chief among them was overwhelming responsibility – a feeling that teachers frequently expressed when talking about teaching as more than just teaching content. “[It] isn’t necessarily even the music itself, but the fact that it helps the person to discover themselves and to develop traits not just musically but as a person, a whole person” (Mary). Teachers felt responsible for teaching life skills, behavior, and respect for others, for making sure children are cared for, honored and respected themselves, for producing concerts, plays, and attending festivals, and for representing the school by winning competitions and supporting high-profile sports programs. “I feel overwhelmed, like, ‘Oh, God, am I teaching them the wrong things?’” (Sophie). “I should probably do something about it, because learning music can help a student learn respect” (Mary). “How am I supposed to teach her to speak respectfully if I’m not doing that first?” (Elizabeth). “I’m not going to send this child away angry or scarred… hopefully they will go home after school today to a loving home” (Sophie). “I have five concerts to produce over the next week or so” (Kerrie). “[Ours] was the best band program in the area… Our students always get into all-district, or all-state… and funding kind of depends on continuing to do well” (Sophie). “It’s not about me, it’s about my kids and my kids’ feeling okay about who they are in the world, about feeling like they can 100% participate in the community” (Eden). Teachers care for their students, teachers care for their programs, teachers care for their schools, teachers care for their communities. This theme suggests that teachers believe we, as a society, should care more for, and believe in, our teachers.

All Teachers Are Teachers; Involve Them in Everything

Teachers expressed that they either feel, or are treated as, “just” music teachers, as opposed to “real” or “core subject” teachers. Words used to describe and categorize music, arts and other “non-core” education are “specials,” “electives,” and “extracurriculars” – words that tend to imply that these subjects and content areas are different, optional, non-critical (expendable), “extras.” They’re great for giving students something to do during core teachers’ prep periods. They’re great if there’s time. They’re available to students who have met other requirements or who aren’t falling behind in core subjects. They’ll be supported if there is funding. They’re appreciated as long as they are supporting some other element of school life (such as prestige, sports, or fundraisers). As the non-core subjects and teachers are expendable, so are they not included in many teacher activities and decision-making. “Our PD is not always applicable to music teachers or arts teachers in general” (Elizabeth). “A lot of the topics apply mostly to regular classroom teachers, data and numbers and testing; not a whole lot applied to music or the arts” (Sophie). And, music teachers often see, or have been conditioned to see, music education as non-core. “It was interesting how non-musicians suddenly have a strong reaction against what might be taught in a music class – not even a core class like math or English” (Elise). “It’s so cool, especially when we’re ‘specials’ teachers and we’re often alone on islands” (Bob). Despite this, teachers in the study group were almost all involved in some aspect of the collective school life, despite that they were “just” music teachers, and despite the sometimes-overwhelming number of after-hours work they performed and participated in. “I serve on my school’s equity team, so I try to think about not just my classroom but the school at large, and we plan professional development for other teachers” (Elise). “I am actually on our district’s professional development committee, and we take surveys from the teachers, things they are struggling with, things they feel they need more training on, and trying to source our professional developments that way” (Elizabeth). Music teachers are engaged in supporting other teachers and “the school at large;” this theme suggests that music teachers – indeed all teachers – should be viewed as teachers who are valued, included, and an indispensable part of the whole.

Discussion of all teachers also included all types of teachers – public school, private school, classroom teachers, private studio teachers, even homeschooling and unschooling teachers, tutors, coaches, all levels of teachers, and all types of schools – public, private, charter, home, etc., and afterschool programs, non-school education, vocation and job training, religious schools, etc. And all content areas. All teachers are teachers, we can all learn from each other, no teacher’s voice should be privileged, and none silenced. It seems to me that we cannot develop an inclusive, comprehensive discipline of teaching (Freeman, 1998) as suggested by inquiry as stance (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009) if we constrain our definitions of teaching and teachers to a preconceived subset of the profession that includes some and excludes others.

Invest in Teacher Growth and Development

“Professional development” (“PD”) was often the term or phrase used to describe this theme, which, defined more completely, referred to all teacher learning, growth, and development. Professional growth and development described by participants had taken place during university teacher preparation programs, credentialing and certification programs, post-baccalaureate degree programs, industry conferences and seminars, workshops and bootcamps, private coaching, tutoring and mentoring, observation of other teachers, trial and error within one’s own practice, and at district and school sites. PD is also a formal term used (often improperly) by schools and districts to describe teacher-as-employee training, or onboarding activities. In some cases, the PD provided by schools is described as useful; in other cases, this PD is described as “not really professional development” (e.g., Dennis, Elizabeth, Kerrie), not valuable, not applicable, tedious and boring, or a waste of time. Districts and school sites are not uniformly generous when it comes to providing “off-site” PD to teachers; some districts pay for conference fees and time off (Elise), for example, while others “offer no professional development at all” (Kerrie). Every teacher enthusiastically described some PD that took place in their careers, always off-site and almost always at their own initiative and expense. Many of these positive and uplifting experiences can be described as transformational, and several teachers’ stories of transformation are told in my screenplay. Every teacher expressed a desire to receive more (valuable) PD, except one, at one point, who sometimes (to an extent) felt she needed to take a break from it: “There aren’t enough hours in the day for me to incorporate everything that I [already] know I should do” (Eden). Her statement also alludes to that feeling of overwhelming responsibility many teachers encounter while striving to find time, energy, and resources to “do all the things I know I should do.” Despite her self-appraisal, Eden volunteered to participate in our study group, and in other dialog she expressed a desire to learn more about certain topics. Some participating teachers also described their professional growth and development in terms of learning alongside, and even from (e.g., by listening to), their students. Most teachers expressed the wish that our study group could continue, or that other study groups could be formed, in the future.

Properly Fund Education for All

Sometimes funding for education, or funding for the arts, was mentioned explicitly and in a general, or global, way. “A lot of things would be solved if the arts were properly funded” (Eden). “Everybody wants smaller class sizes except the people in charge of funding” (Bob). “This points to how less-wealthy people can’t afford to receive music lessons” (Sophie). Other times concerns about funding were expressed relative to a specific school or student situation. “It was the best band program in the area, which more equated to being the most funded band program in the area” (Sophie). “In my district, which is a lot of haves and have-nots, the choir kids are literally the ones who can’t afford to rent an instrument for band” (Bob). And still other times concerns about funding were more implicit: “And it makes me think of that whole ‘bonus points for private lessons’ thing that so many directors recommend, which is actually ridiculous, too” (Elise). Elise’s statement refers to the fact that only some students can afford or otherwise access private lessons. The disparities surrounding funding and the availability of money and resources, public and private, speak to or underlie several other themes and subthemes, including access, inclusion, interests, support, professional development, ethics, unfairness, values and perspectives, and everyone’s white.

For the call to action for this theme, properly fund education for all, I intentionally used the word “properly,” rather than other choices such as “completely,” “adequately,” or “equally.” When participants spoke of money and told stories about students where money was a factor, the message was far from always, “We need more money.” Often, in fact, teachers spoke of thriving music programs, schools, and communities, and of having adequate, sometimes large, even massive amounts of money. “In one case, the Grammy Foundation came in and gave them a boatload of money” (Kerrie). “The last four concerts being with full rock band accompaniment, everything mic’d, drums mic’d, PA thumping… the program just thrived; the kids absolutely loved it” (Bob). “The band programs in all my schools were thriving” (Kerrie). “But then one of the other schools on base, they have all the commanders’ kids, who make a ton of money” (Sophie). “I’ll stay here until I retire; I love it; beautiful theater, beautiful performance space, huge support for the arts in my district” (Manny). My reading of the data concludes that money, or funding, is not a problem that can be generalized by itself. Rather, money is relative; access is situational; funding needs a comparison. Some have money and some do not have money (“the haves vs. the have nots,” “the commanders vs. the drill sergeants”). Some band programs are thriving, and some have no money for instruments or even repairs.

Elizabeth: It was a very white farm town, and it was an extremely well-funded program – if something broke, you sent it away and it got fixed, and came back. There was never a consideration of a price tag on anything. At my school now, that’s all I think about. ‘How can I get this done cheaply?’ ‘What things can I do myself?’ Because I know it’s going to get rejected if I try to get it funded through the school.

Sophie: I was lucky because my parents worked normal hours and when I was older, I had a car and was able to drive myself to orchestra rehearsals, but the cost was hard, I think it was $900 per year. That’s a lot even for a family who’s fairly well off. It was an out-of-school orchestra because all the in-school orchestra programs had been cut in order to focus on math and science… There were some really good players who could not afford it.

Elise: Our city just got a new mayor, and so he has a new chancellor, who’s head of the schools, who sent us an email today to welcome in his seven new deputy chancellors. There was a little description of each one, and I’m thinking, ‘Okay, you are a six-figure person, and you probably get a quarter of a million, and you might be closer to a third of a million…’ It is so much money, and it’s bureaucracy, and testing, and sorting through paperwork. It’s just…

Kerrie: Because I don’t have resources, I’m Robin Hood, I’m Robin-Hooding some instruments, and other stuff, and just kind of spreading it around, you know, to try to at least give everyone some kind of baseline, ‘This is the equipment that we have,’ at least, because that never existed.

Equity, a word used often as a goal in education, does not fully describe the situation nor the goal as described by teacher participants. The feeling sometimes expressed toward extreme wealth was more akin to excess, as in, “that’s gross,” “that’s wasteful,” and “that’s unfair to the kids who are losing out because of all the excess and/or waste.” When Elise told her story, I did not sense that she desired a quarter of a million dollars salary, too. She was expressing disgust at the community spending large sums of money on deputy chancellors’ salaries and other bureaucracy rather than on things that would more directly benefit school children. It wasn’t suggested that “everyone should have excess.” A closer description of the mood or disposition of participants might be, perhaps, “they should rein it in,” and/or, “the gap shouldn’t be so wide.” Compare all this to what some educators expressed that they experience or perceive as part of the public’s conception of teachers, as selfish and greedy: “It felt like we just got right back into that same, ‘teachers are greedy,’ ‘you should be doing it for the kids…’” (Elise), and, “You have politicians talking about salaries, and then people saying, ‘Oh, teachers are greedy, teachers aren’t doing enough. Why don’t they do this, why don’t they do that?’” (Sophie).

Funding, money, and spending seems to relate to fairness and unfairness, ethics and morality, values and perspectives, inclusion and exclusion, and in simply providing to students what they need and desire based on their interests. It is not suggested that the result would necessarily be equal, any more than one student receiving music education by learning to play flute in a band is equal to another student receiving music education by singing or dancing a role in the spring musical or taking a jazz history class. In Chapter 8, I discuss this theme of properly funding education for all in relation to education in general and in the context of my theory of change for education.

Do the Right Thing; Demand the Right Thing Be Done

This theme relates to ethics, morality, fairness vs. unfairness, and values and perspectives (e.g., helpful vs. harmful ones); and, on the other side of the coin, not just complaining, but doing something about it. Like Freire’s (1970/2018) concept of conscientization (conscientização): awareness and then action. “I think justice in music has to do with making things right” (Eden). The range of specific topics and situations is broad. They often refer to some sort of excess, abuse, or neglect: abuse of wealth, abuse of power, abuse of position or authority, abuse of privilege, abuse or neglect of teachers and other employees, abuse or neglect of students and families. They often had little or nothing to do with music education, and everything to do with all education. Often the communication of a problem was accompanied by an action or a call to action, to do something, or perhaps, to stop doing something.

Sophie: Any ensemble activity for children that requires the parents to do volunteer hours is automatically discriminatory against students who come from nontraditional families and families who struggle financially.

Eden: In my city we’re part of a school district that’s made national headlines several times over the past few years, because diversity, equity, and inclusion have been voted out.

Elise: [People of color] started complaining about how [the tests] were discriminatory, and it’s been something like a five- or ten-year legal battle for them to fight the Department of Education to say, this is a problem, and these exams are biased… and they won!

Kerrie: The three or four people that [required remediation], all of them were women of color.

Bob: We need to give public school music teachers permission to teach all styles of music. We need to inform them that it’s socially an injustice to the vast majority of students, to teach only one or two styles of music.

Manny: I realized that by omitting those scenes from my class I was essentially making a choice as to whether or not I value those relationships. And I was definitely sending a message to my students, whether it was intentional or unintentional. I wish I had made that decision earlier in my career, but I made it, and I decided to include same-sex scenes in my class.

Sophie: At semester, and at the end of the first year, you bet that they were trying to go through and make cuts and push some of the kids to quit.

Eden: I just can’t comprehend that teachers would have the heart to not want someone to sing out… To not allow the kid who is just beginning the chance to play in the ensemble, I can’t fathom.

Sophie: There was a chubby kid who was always cast in the goofy roles; he was never cast as a lead, even though he was a great singer and really wanted a lead role. He became very demoralized watching others who were ‘more attractive’ get all the lead roles. I think we could encourage more participation and boost student confidence if we did things differently.

Bob: It just takes the guts of the teacher to start it.

This theme seemed to corroborate Knowles (1975) observations that adults tend to want to learn when the need to learn presents itself and tend to seek learning that results in immediate application (doing something). Learning, and transformation, or coming to see differently, leads to action.

Create Environments Where Transformation Happens; Individual Transformation, Institutional Transformation

According to the study group discourse and my own observations, transformation is something that happens. “…Which immediately snapped a light bulb in me, and I began altering my choir program” (Bob). “And I stopped, and I said to myself, surprised and ashamed, ‘Oh, my God! You are doing to her exactly what you’re telling her not to do.’ This experience has reshaped my attitude” (Elizabeth). We cannot transform students, we cannot transform teachers, we cannot transform schools or other institutions. What we can do is provide space and opportunity for transformation to occur. The stories of study group participants’ personal and professional transformation experiences affirm this as they seemingly appear out of nowhere and light up, inspire, and motivate. “An art teacher once said to me, ‘Every single child walking into this building is somebody’s baby.’ I’ll never forget that, and it changed me.” My observations of the study group confirmed what Green (2002) described about students experiencing voluntary, emancipatory pedagogies: the joy, the enhanced self-esteem, the new empathetic relationships, the shared passion… Teachers are also students who have “long[ed] to know, who have awakened to a passion for knowledge, who are on a journey to wholeness that stands as a challenge to the existing status quo” (hooks, 2003, p. 181). Study group teachers sometimes came to see differently in ways that resulted in worthwhile changes in practice. Teachers’ stories were told frequently in our discussions and comprise two distinct scenes within my screenplay.

My own experience with transformation arising from participation in the study group involved my coming to realize the significance of the widespread exclusionary practices in music education and all education. This coming to realize did not happen so much as a sudden “Aha!” moment or feel as much like a light bulb turning on, but rather it manifested more as a growing uneasiness and subsequent awareness arising out of regular intentional and spontaneous reflection on the study group discourse over the course of our meetings and during my data coding and analysis. The tension between experiencing the excitement engendered from developing a new understanding (for me) and potentially an “idea whose time has come,” versus the apprehension felt from the possibility of receiving eyerolls or harsh negative criticism (from others) for being overly ambitious, seeming pompous, unrealistic, or anti- public education, culminated in what finally became the heart and muscle of my theory of change for education, described in Chapter 8.

Answering the Research Questions

Here (below), succinctly and explicitly, and supported by excerpts from study group interviews and discussions, I strive to answer my research questions. Teachers each defined or described social justice and social justice pedagogies differently, yet they also overlapped: equity and fairness, access, inclusion versus exclusion, meeting students’ needs, respecting and honoring students, listening to students, questioning (teacher) motives and demands for compliance or respect, developing positive relationships with students, teaching students “the right things,” standing up against racism, classism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, and xenophobia, “making things right,” and providing proper funding for education. For this discourse, I define social justice and social justice pedagogies broadly as representing all the themes, subthemes, and codes identified in my data analysis above.

Question 1

How does an inquiry community of music teachers talk about themselves and others in relation to the formation and execution of social justice pedagogies?

Music teachers within the inquiry community used language that described different stages of development and/or different legs of a journey on a path toward greater understanding of and implementation of social justice pedagogies. Social justice pedagogies were not a curriculum, strategy, resource, or content that could be found and implemented; they were largely unknown, situational, dependent on many factors and circumstances, including their teaching context and “the students in front of them,” and needed to be explored, learned more about, and developed. These pedagogies may or may not have had anything specifically to do with music or music education, but often applied to education in general or to all education. Teachers did not necessarily have answers but were hoping to find them.

Elise: I’m still, embarrassingly, in the beginning stages of my social justice and equity journey.

Elizabeth: My number one hope is that I can kind of get a better understanding of what my role needs to be for my kids.

Manny: I wish it had happened earlier in my career – but I was being very cautious as a new teacher…

Eden: But I want to do it better now, you know, there’s a lot of stuff out there that I just don’t know about.

Sophie: How do I confront students who say unkind things about the different music we are listening to?

Kerrie: It doesn’t matter how old they are, it’s still the same path going forward.

Music teachers within the inquiry community were supportive of each other and other teachers engaged in learning about, or along the path toward developing and implementing, social justice pedagogies:

Elise: I just want to shout out to Sophie and say I admire you for what you are doing in your first year.

Bob: That’s tough. Oh, yeah, that’s a tough one. Because you’re gonna – it’s damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.

Dennis: I’m sure they learned that you care about them, and that’s probably what matters the most.

Mary: It seems like teachers are more in the same boat than not. Teachers seem to relate easily to each other’s experiences.

Bob: This study group has been like a little microcosm of going to a conference, where everybody there is a music teacher, and you get to huddle up with like minds.

However, support coming from teachers outside the inquiry community, from administrators, and from parents was described as less frequent or non-existent. In striving to learn about and enact social justice pedagogies within their school environments, teachers often expressed feeling alone, overwhelmed, ashamed, unsupported, unprepared, and without resources. Still, music teachers hoped to educate or to otherwise facilitate the understanding of social justice concerns by other music and non-music teachers who have denied the existence of such concerns and/or mocked those interested in doing social justice work, and to create change. Despite teachers’ own feelings of inadequacy or lack of confidence in social justice work, they wanted to get other teachers interested, on board, involved, and practicing (traveling) alongside them.

Elise: We plan professional development for other teachers, and some of them are very open to hearing ideas, while others are more like, “Why are you trying to educate us about this? This is not a problem here.”

Elizabeth: And some people in my building, you know, they’ve been teaching for longer than I’ve been alive, and they have things they want to do their way, and they don’t want to adjust to change. But being able to teach in culturally responsive ways and building relationships with our kids. If we are going to have success moving forward, we’re going to have to adjust to things.

Bob: I’ve had teachers bugging me to join NATS for a decade, because you can’t really make change from the outside looking in, you kinda gotta do it after you get in. So I might join that now, too.

Teachers not only wanted to learn about social justice, but also wanted to teach others about what they learned. This spoke further to the need for more support, and to the appeal and benefits of teacher inquiry, teacher communities of inquiry, teacher construction of knowledge and the development of a scientific discipline of teaching, and to the themes, trust in teachers and the teaching profession; respect and honor teachers, and invest in teacher growth and development.

The kinds of social justice pedagogies study group teachers enacted, sought to enact, or spoke of enacting, revolved around a) how teachers related to students, how they supported students, and content delivery strategies, b) culturally responsive and broader content, and c), activism. For example, (a), striving toward “centering the marginalized voices” (Elise), including, advocating for, and in some cases defending students (Eden, Sophie, Bob), showing respect for students, treating them as human beings, and modeling behavior rather than demanding it (e.g., Elizabeth, Sophie), becoming “more authentic” in the classroom (Bob), being less in a hurry and giving more “space to have some questions or have a discussion” (Kerrie), following students’ desires and interests (e.g., Eden, Sophie), and employing teaching strategies that are “a lot less teacher centered and a lot more student centered, more playful” (Kerrie); (b), respecting all styles of music, introducing more culturally responsive music, and including music that students specifically ask for (e.g., Bob, Eden, Sophie); and (c), teaching protest songs and histories (e.g., Kerrie), celebrating music in protest movements (e.g., Elise), advocating for protest and action (e.g., Sarah), and actually protesting and acting or leading by example (e.g., Bob).

What do music teachers say has enabled or supported them in implementing social justice pedagogies in their music classrooms?

Music teachers told stories of learning experiences that resulted in coming to see things differently, “realizations,” and “Aha!” moments, and emphasized the need and desire for ongoing (valuable) PD, for support from administrators and parents, and to have time, space, and opportunity for learning and transformations to occur.

Elise: To see that reinforced so clearly, that was just – the whole book was just a huge “Aha!” moment for me.

Sarah: At some point you realize the term “colorblind” is offensive.

Eden: Combining anthropology with music made me realize there is no one way.

Kerrie: My teaching was transformed when I started taking my Orff levels. My teaching became a lot less teacher centered and a lot more student centered, more playful.

Sophie: And after reading bell hooks, for example, I’ve started to think more about how I manage my classroom, how I teach my kids… Am I sparking joy in them to learn, am I centering my students, am I overtired, am I snapping at the kids, am I letting students choose sometimes, do I have a decolonized practice in my music room?

Elise: I just registered to attend my previous state’s conference.

Eden: I had to have some really great coaching by people who understood the children far better than I did, and understood the unique family cultures. I’m glad parents were patient with me and helped educate me.

Support mostly came from outside their schools and school districts, less often from administrators, and motivation came from inside (intrinsically). Learning was self-directed, exploratory, and wisdom shared often came from unexpected places. We must invest in teacher growth and development, but, as opposed to “PD” mandated by schools and districts, which often felt unhelpful or worse, PD chosen by teachers based on their needs, desires, and interests almost always felt useful, exhilarating, and transformational. Teachers seeking PD are learners – students – and as students they require and deserve the same attention (as students) to access, inclusion, and interests: serve the needs, desires, and interests of all students; respect and honor students (and teachers).

What constraints do teachers identify to implementing social justice pedagogies in their music classrooms?

Music teachers identified lack of time and resources, lack of administrative support, lack of parental support, and their own inexperience or feelings of inadequacy as constraints and/or impediments to implementing social justice pedagogies in their music classrooms. Fear of “upsetting someone” operates as a significant barrier for teachers.

Kerrie: Teachers already feel like they don’t have enough time to do what they need to do just on a basic level.

Bob: I wish I had more time.

Sophie: One thing comes out of administration’s mouth, but another thing is said through the curriculum.

Eden: We’re kind of struggling in our school district with who’s taking over the school board, who’s taking over the curriculum.

Kerrie: But the minute that somebody else is in my room, especially an administrator, I’m like, “Oh, my God, I must be a shitty teacher!” And I’m, you know, “I’m not able to handle my classroom,” and blah blah blah.

Bob: I had to stop people from moving microphones away from the kid who didn’t match pitch as well.

Sophie: Or how parents want teachers to be people who further their own personal, political, or ideological beliefs.

Manny: I didn’t want to get in trouble, I didn’t want to ruffle feathers, I didn’t want parents to get involved, and all that.

Bob: And in rural and suburban America, those active white parents are shouting two things right now. “Don’t make my kid wear a damn mask!” And “Don’t teach them critical race theory!” And maybe also, “We didn’t kill the slaves!” Or whatever.

Sophie: Now in all our diversity or equity meetings, or whenever we talk about these things in PD, our principal prefaces everything with, “Just remember never to tell a parent that we’re teaching critical race theory. And if they ask, just say no.”

Sarah: I just want to be able to bring it into my classroom without parents freaking out that I’m pushing an agenda.

Bob: But, you know, there’s the little bit of watch out, you gotta cover your own ass in this world, too, and make sure not a lot of controversy emits from the music room.

One, these raise concerns about the availability and use of teachers’ time. Teachers need time which they do not have to learn alongside and to develop positive and meaningful relationships with students. Two, they further point to the harm caused by today’s trends toward the de-professionalization of teachers (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009), a “diminished profession” (Kerrie), and our need turn that around,bfully and completely, and to trust in teachers and the teaching profession; respect and honor teachers.

Question 2

What role does continuous learning play in the discourse of the teacher inquiry community?

Music teachers reported that continuous learning plays a crucial role in teachers' lives and professional development. The study group itself was seen as a learning environment, and most teachers expressed high expectations at the beginning of the project, enthusiastic appreciation at the end, and a desire to continue the study group in some form, even perhaps over the coming summer (Kerrie).

Elizabeth: For me, it was an opportunity that I thought, “Well, that’ll give me some more perspective, things that I can consider that will make me able to be a better teacher to my students.” My number one hope is that I can kind of get a better understanding of what my role needs to be for my kids. How I can serve them and be the best teacher or educator to them that I can be. And learning strategies or maybe things that I did not know that will allow me to be that person for them.

Bob: I’m open to new music, I’m open to learn anything. I hope to learn a few things from this experience.

Elise: With social justice, I jump to big conclusions, and then I can’t really describe how I got there very well. Yet. So, I’m trying to learn how to see the steps and be more articulate.

Eden: There’s a lot of knowledge that we each have that could be shared. I feel that if we would talk more to teachers and glean more about the way teaching and education is moving, we could actually learn a lot more on how to work with our students.

Mary: Even though I’m probably not going to go into public school music teaching, I think there’s a lot to learn from those who do. I enjoy learning from them.

Bob: It was helpful that many of you taught different age groups from what I have experience with.

Kerrie: I’ve learned so much from just meeting with the other classroom teachers once a week, plus you guys, I mean this has been so good and so valuable, to think about. And I carry it with me into my teaching when I’m at school; it’s super valuable, way better than PD.

Teachers expressed appreciation for learning from different types of teachers, from teachers in different locations and teaching contexts, and from teachers with unique and diverse backgrounds and experiences. Teachers’ perspectives reinforced the need to invest in teacher growth and development, and, as previously stated, “We should do this more.” This natural tendency for teachers to seek learning, combined with their deep sense of responsibility toward students and their commitment to and involvement in education at large, highlights the importance of shifting responsibility and “accountability” away from authoritarian structures and top-down controls and toward teachers and students themselves, within freer, more autonomous, more self-directed, more democratic structures and environments. This shift of vision plays an important role in the development of my theory of change for education, presented in Chapter 8.

How do these music teachers perceive themselves as continuously learning (more) about these topics and ways to pursue and implement them?

Music teachers expressed that they were lifelong learners, learning in cooperation with other teachers, learning alongside their students, delving into new content areas, and even living or studying abroad – always striving to become increasingly better, more experienced, and more insightful teachers. This lifelong learning typically did not feature general “musical skills” – instrumental skills, vocal skills, conducting skills, and the like; rather, teachers tended to apply the learning, and/or their goals for learning, to social justice pedagogies and goals (however unclearly or tentatively defined) within music education and all education. When Kerrie mentioned her Orff (a specific music pedagogy and curriculum) training, she focused not on musical skills or knowledge but on centering students and being more playful:

Kerrie: My teaching was transformed when I started taking my Orff levels. My teaching became a lot less teacher centered and a lot more student centered, more playful.

Manny: I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nicaragua for a couple of years, right in the middle of my teaching career, to get an opportunity to live abroad.

Sophie: This one fifth grade class is insanely into anime. I don’t know much about anime, but I really want to do a unit for them just on anime music, because they’re doing their student album projects right now.

Sarah: I try to branch out into other content areas, to make content cross-curricular.

Kerrie: I have to study that as I go.

Mary: I really want to delve more deeply into Latin American music. I might get an opportunity to study abroad in Mexico City, and I would really love that.

Question 3

How does this teacher inquiry community function as a site of transformative learning?

Teachers experienced transformation. As a result of this study, it became clear to me that transformation is not something that is “done to” or “done for” people but is something that just happens. We do not transform people or institutions; they transform themselves, or they become transformed. This concept parallels intrinsic motivation, which, as opposed to extrinsic motivation – which requires external forces putting pressure from the outside onto someone or some group – takes place internally and of its own accord. The same way we cannot “intrinsically motivate” someone, as Bob argued, we cannot “transform” someone. A student who will suffer a consequence or receive a reward (grades, free time, honor roll, a turn with the drum, a class party or movie day), however subtle, is extrinsically, not intrinsically motivated (there was debate about definitions in the study group). Similarly, a teacher who sits through district PD (often onboarding activities), fulfills the requirements of their state-mandated induction program, participates in staff meetings and strategic planning sessions, or quietly attends a “boring” lecture, won’t necessarily – perhaps is unlikely to – experience transformation (e.g., Freire, 1970).

Intrinsic motivation happens from within (e.g., Deci & Ryan, 2000). Intrinsic motivation gets its inspiration from a person’s internal drives and desires. From my own observations, a child who loves video games plays video games for fun; no external pressure is required, while much learning takes place. The same can be said about sports, dance, singing, reading, and doing math. Even if the activity is challenging, frustrating, time consuming, uncomfortable, or painful, the child engages for extended periods, and gains increasing mastery. My personal experience as a music and theater arts teacher, sports coach, and parent affirms this.

VIGNETTE #10

The 8 year old soccer player, dripping with blood from recent collisions on the field, sweating bucketsful from the heat and exertion, panting from shortness of breath, and holding his side to help ease the aching, ignores my signal to come off the field to get water and take a break, because with minutes to go, he wants to see the game to the finish.

Intrinsically motivated people apply themselves – and learn more (Green, 2002).

Transformation also happens from within. My analysis of study group discourse suggests that transformation gets its impetus from a person’s autonomy, free will, and choice, combined with receiving wisdom from other persons. Under this definition, poor quality information is unlikely to bring about transformation, as is wisdom received under coercion or pressure, as is knowledge transmitted via the too common banking method of delivery (Freire, 1970/2018).

In Chapter 8, as part of my theory of change for education, and elsewhere in this dissertation, I liken transformation to intrinsic motivation, and personal transformation to institutional transformation. Today’s education system, like so many of today’s teachers, is embedded in a hierarchical, authoritarian structure replete with rules, guidelines, policies, and laws coming down from above, disempowering, deskilling, and disengaging teachers. This manifests also as mandated PD, employee training, and teacher evaluations. This is a space for coercion, pressure, compliance, and script reading; it is not one for transformation. “Then you get hired, and it’s like, here’s the textbook, here’s the script” (Kerrie). “What’s the point of me teaching if you could just stick anybody else there and just have them read off the script” (Sophie)? In order for transformation to occur, we must re-professionalize teachers and the teaching profession, and create environments where transformation happens; individual transformation, institutional transformation.

How do teachers describe their participation in inquiry cycles vis-à-vis reflection and/or changes in practice?

Music teachers involved in the inquiry group expressed that they thought about various topics we talked about during the week and carried them into their teaching contexts.

Sophie: This work has been eye-opening, it’s made me think more critically about what I teach, and how I teach, and what I’m doing well, and what needs improvement.

Elise: Oftentimes I’d come back to the conversations from our study group to think about new ideas or new ways to approach something.

Kerrie: In my classes, rather than timing myself for those 30 minutes that I have with the kids, I’ve noticed in the last few weeks that I’m not in a hurry to get through my lessons and to get to the next thing. I’m trying to back off a little bit and let there be space to have some questions or have a discussion that I might not otherwise have had with my kids.

Mary: I really got excited – and made a lot of notes! – about the different formats for recitals. The frequent playing performance sessions and the salon-type setup where students are playing background music. Giving students a lot of different kinds of opportunities, less stressful opportunities, to make music.

Bob: A reading list of 22 books now!

Sophie: Now that we’re talking about it, I’ve started to slowly question everything.

The Film Script/Screenplay

The screenplay forms an important part of my data analysis, and at the same time strives to give voice to my participants, in their own words. I use a “non-omniscient” voice over narration or running commentary style within the script itself that offers moment-to-moment analysis on the script as it’s transpiring. In thinking about the reasonability and potential of a script or play as part of my dissertation’s data analysis, I revisited Laurel Richardson’s poetry and plays in her (1997) book, Fields of Play: Constructing an Academic Life, as well as Rebecca Akin and Gerald Campano’s Practitioners' Voices in Trying Times: A Readers’ Theater Script, which comprises the final chapter of Cochran-Smith & Lytle’s (2009) Inquiry as Stance. I opted for a film script, or screenplay, rather than a theatrical play or readers’ theater, to give salience to contemporary art forms, in the spirit of new thinking and respect for popular genres as advocated by the study group teachers. In this same spirit, I decided to include “bonus features:” a running commentary, which gives me an opportunity to discuss the dialog as it is read (see Chapter 6), an In Their Own Words featurette, which briefly introduces each study group participant (see Chapter 5), and a Deleted Scenes & Quotables featurette (see Appendix D), which presents worthwhile scenes and quotes that did not make it into the final screenplay or were cut from the hypothetical general-release-version of the film.

In considering the feasibility of a feature-length film that consists almost entirely of discussion dialog, and little if any action or story in the traditional sense, I remembered My Dinner with Andre, a 1981 film with a running time of 110 minutes, written by and starring Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory, and directed by Louis Malle. The unusual movie, wherein two men share stories of their lives over the course of an evening meal at a restaurant (IMDb, 2022), found a devoted audience and even received some critical acclaim. Roger Ebert (1999) wrote:

Someone asked me the other day if I could name a movie that was entirely devoid of clichés. I thought for a moment, and then answered, My Dinner with Andre. Now I have seen the movie again; a restored print is going into release around the country, and I am impressed once more by how wonderfully odd this movie is, how there is nothing else like it. It should be unwatchable, and yet those who love it return time and again, enchanted. And so, my screenplay, which consists almost entirely of discussion and storytelling by a small group of music teachers, is not without artistic and commercial precedent.

In authoring the dialog, I have taken great care to relate the words, to convey the meaning, and to portray the contextual intent of each study group participant accurately and completely. Some minor editing for clarity, mostly to remove the utterances we make while thinking and speaking simultaneously, and some rearranging of the discussion timeframes, has taken place. Some dialog that was spoken on separate occasions may have been placed together into one seeming conversation in the script. My wife Grace Byeon and I recently watched the full season of the 2022 Netflix miniseries, Inventing Anna: Inspired by the True Story of a Total Fake, starring Julia Garner and created by Shonda Rhimes, which relates the rise and fall of a glamorous but fake “German heiress” in New York City. In the opening scene and credits of each episode, a disclaimer is captioned: This whole story is completely true. Except for all the parts that are totally made up. My screenplay is completely true. Except for a few transitional devices that are kind of made up. Although my study group participants do indeed read the news, and do indeed play musical instruments, they were not necessarily reading a newspaper or playing their instruments during our study group meetings. At the same time, I do not mean to suggest that no one ever played their instrument…

In the screenplay, I am a character, a member of the cast. While I assigned pseudonyms to all the other characters, chosen to reflect the nature of participants’ real names, I kept my own name in the spirit of the autoethnographic positionality and the openly subjective stance I have taken throughout my dissertation. I am also the speaker (writer) of the running commentary, so in some sense, I play two separate characters in the script: one who participates in the discussion with the rest of the group, and one who comments on the discussion. This character is simply yet aptly named, Running Commentary.

In writing and formatting the screenplay, I tried to follow generally accepted (film) industry standards and norms. In addition to majoring in music and theater arts, during my college experience I also took several film and video related courses, learned some things about film and video screenwriting, directing, cinematography (filming), editing, and scoring. I’ve tried to incorporate some of that learning into my work here. I also sought tips and ideas from The Script Lab (https://www.thescriptlab.com) and The Screenplay Writers (https://www.thescreenplaywriters.com). And now, I offer my screenplay, The Study Group (with commentary).