Music teacher practice and identity in professional development partnerships

Since 1995, the author has been the university music educator responsible to a professional development partnership. Over an 8-year span, she has collected narratives of experience from approximately 100 pre-service music teachers, following, to some extent, the research model of Connelly and Clandinin. In developing their notion of "personal practical knowledge," Connelly and Clandinin discovered that teaching practice questions and teacher identity questions were closely linked. They argue that identity is not a fixed entity, but is "storied." In this paper, the author re-presents the identity stories of pre-service music teachers as they were shaped by experience inside professional development partnerships. Her aim is to use the stories to illuminate and inform people's present understanding of the social construction of music teacher identity, and to suggest how music teacher identities may be shaped differently inside professional development partnerships than they are shaped in traditional music teacher preparation. Obviously, not all of the narratives she has collected can be re-presented here. Methodologically, she has selected stores that exemplify recurring phenomena, but she has refrained from forming composite characters, settings, or plot lines. In selecting and interpreting the stories, she has heeded Britzman's caution that the narrative of lived experience and the lived experience itself "can never be synonymous.

Pietism on the American Landscape

Pietism on the American Landscape from its beginnings to present

Looking in on music: Challenges and opportunities for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Whereas most articles in this special issue demonstrate careful and close-up views of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) in a performing arts or humanities discipline, my approach is opposite; I look in on music teaching and learning to interrogate current conceptions of SoTL. I begin with Sloboda’s cognitive explanation of music expertise and consider how music expertise is established relatively early in life. I then proceed to develop two case studies of music in higher education showing how each case illustrates expertise, and highlighting experts’ desires for progressively greater challenges. I argue that collaboration with other expert performers is one sort of challenge that meets such desires. By drawing attention to collaboration, I then reframe music as social practice, and I highlight the qualities of participatory performance. In the latter part of the article, I turn my attention toward explaining what it means to think about learning as participation in a community of practice, and I draw on the case studies to demonstrate that such a view presents both challenges and opportunities for SoTL

Letter from Edgar Conkling to James B. Finley

Brother Moore has asked Conkling to inquire about Finley\u27s health, because he has not visited them as planned. Conkling invites Finley to visit next Sabbath, and promises to post him up with all that is going on. Much is being prepared for next General Conference. Stationery contains image of Conkling. Abstract Number - 472https://digitalcommons.owu.edu/finley-letters/1670/thumbnail.jp

Letter from Edgar Conkling to James B. Finley

Conkling writes to Finley about the new Union Chapel MEC in Cincinnati, a pewed church (members rent or buy pews). The Ohio ME Conference has refused to assign a preacher to the church, following the resolution passed by the conference in 1847 banning pewed churches. Conkling bewails the fact that the members are being deprived of the Gospel. Abstract Number - 1211https://digitalcommons.owu.edu/finley-letters/2191/thumbnail.jp

Ecological Determinants of Avian Productivity and Aviation Risk in Semi-natural Grasslands

Growing concerns about climate change, foreign oil dependency, and environmental quality have fostered interest in perennial native grasses (e.g. switchgrass [Panicum virgatum]) for bioenergy production while also maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem function. However, biofuel cultivation in marginal landscapes such as airport grasslands may have detrimental effects on aviation safety as well as demography and conservation efforts for grassland birds including Dickcissels (Spiza americana). In 2011–2013 I studied the response of avian populations to vegetation composition and harvest frequency of switchgrass monocultures and native warm-season grass (NWSG) mixtures at B. Bryan farms in Clay Co. MS, USA. Four treatments incorporating switchgrass and NWSG with single and multiple annual harvesting were established on 16 experimental plots. I examined the relative abundance, aviation risk, and conservation value of birds associated with these treatments, evaluated contributions of habitat attributes and individual male quality towards territory productivity and determined effects of harvest regimens on nest success, nest density, and productivity for Dickcissels. Avian relative abundance was greater in switchgrass plots during winter months, whereas NWSG was favored by species during the breeding season. Conversely, treatment differences in aviation risk and conservation value were not biologically significant. Only 2.6% of observations included avian species of high risk to aircraft, suggesting that it may be feasible to use semi-natural grasslands at airports to provide grassland bird habitat while concurrently minimizing aviation risk. Regarding individual and habitat quality effects on nest survival and productivity, male song rate was not an effective surrogate for individual quality in demographic models. However, nest survival declined with increasing territory size and territories established earlier in the season had greater territory productivity relative to later arriving males, providing evidence that some metric of individual quality is important for grassland bird reproduction. Additionally, vegetation composition and harvest frequencies influenced nest density and productivity, but not nest survival. Native warm season grasses contained 54–64 times more nests relative to switchgrass treatments, and nest density was 10% greater in single harvest plots. My results suggest semi-natural grasslands can support grassland bird conservation while allowing for biofuel production and aviation risk management in airport landscapes

The rôle of medullary cells in the formation of the ventral roots of spinal nerves

Thesis (B.A.)--University of Illinois, 1906.Ms.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 29-34)