Improving Generalist Teacher Education in the Arts

Abstract

Australian pre-service music training of generalist teachers is conceptualised as being inadequate. For the past 30 years, numerous studies have reported problems in three main areas of generalist teacher Arts education; lack of time given to arts teacher education; lack of confidence of pre-service teachers engaging with the Arts; and the influence of past experience on pre-service teacher engagement with Arts education. Few studies have examined the actual curriculum and pedagogy taught within Arts teacher education. The content taught within Arts subjects is important for future teacher engagement with the Arts. This study hopes to fill this void by investigating content taught in generalist teacher Arts training at tertiary institutions. It will provide a content analysis of current Arts teacher education programs in Queensland that is available for generalist teachers. This paper will show that greater understanding of the content in Arts teacher education programs will ensure pre-service teachers have access to quality learning experiences. Through quality learning experiences, pre-service teachers can develop a life-long learning approach for music education in the classroom.