Music teachers' constructions of gender in elementary education

This article was downloaded by: [ ] 

On: 16 November 2011, At: 06:52 

Publisher: Routledge 

Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered 

office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK 

Music Education Research 

Publication details, including instructions for authors and 

subscription information: 

http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cmue20 

Music teachers' constructions of gender 

in elementary education 

Kathryn Roulston a & Mitsunori Misawa a 

a Department of Lifelong Education, Administration, and Policy, 

University of Georgia, 850 College Station Road, Athens, GA, 

30602, USA 

Available online: 21 Mar 2011 

To cite this article: Kathryn Roulston & Mitsunori Misawa (2011): Music teachers' constructions of 

gender in elementary education, Music Education Research, 13:1, 3-28 

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2011.553275 

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE 

Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-andconditions 

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any 

substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, 

systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. 

The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation 

that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any 

instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary 

sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, 

demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or 

indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.

Downloaded by [ ] at 06:52 16 November 2011 

Music Education Research 

Vol. 13, No. 1, March 2011, 3 28 

Music teachers’ constructions of gender in elementary education 

Kathryn Roulston* and Mitsunori Misawa 

Department of Lifelong Education, Administration, and Policy, University of Georgia, 850 

College Station Road, Athens, GA 30602, USA 

(Received 24 February 2009; final version received 25 August 2010) 

In spite of a growing body of research in music education that focuses on a variety 

of gender issues, there is still limited information on music teachers’ experiences 

and constructions of their classroom practices in relation to their conceptualisations 

of gender. This paper examines music teachers’ descriptions of gender in 

relation to their work as elementary music educators (5 10-year-olds). In an 

exploratory pilot study using a qualitative design, semi-structured 45 60 minute 

interviews were conducted with one male and five female teachers. Findings 

demonstrated that (1) teachers’ conceptualisation of the relevance of gender in 

thinking about music teaching varied considerably; (2) the role of the male 

teacher in the elementary school was described in significantly different ways to 

that of the role of female teacher; and (3) teachers commonly referenced teaching 

strategies that reinforce gender stereotypes. The study concludes by outlining 

possible pathways for further research concerning gender in relation to 

elementary music education. 

Keywords: elementary music; gender 

Introduction 

Under the broad rubric of one of several suggested questions that might be asked in 

music education research: ‘What are and should be the dimensions of music 

education?’ Noted music education researcher, Estelle Jorgensen (2008, 333) writes: 

In North America, at least, despite the influential work of writers who have advocated a 

humane approach to education and the redemptive claims of such values as justice, 

freedom, inclusiveness, and equality, music educators have yet to pay concerted 

attention to issues that have to do with race, gender, sexual identity, age, language, 

ethnicity, religion, colour, among a host of issues that constitute barriers between 

people. 

As Jorgensen comments, numerous scholars in social sciences have discussed race, 

class, gender and sexuality in relation to society and education (e.g. Newman 2007). 

Among these scholars, Critical Race theorists (Dixson and Rousseau 2005; Ladson- 

Billings and Tate 1995; Lawrence et al. 1993) have proposed that racial distinctions 

have become blurred in the US society, a phenomenon that they call ‘colourblindness’. 

Similarly, by considering ‘gender problems’ as an artefact of the past 

that have been resolved, music educators may be at risk of succumbing to 

*Corresponding author. Email: roulston@uga.edu 

ISSN 1461-3808 print/ISSN 1469-9893 online 

# 2011 Taylor & Francis 

DOI: 10.1080/14613808.2011.553275 

http://www.informaworld.com


4 K. Roulston and M. Misawa 

‘gender-blindness’, in which the view is taken that gender is no longer an issue 

worthy of further study. Yet, in the recently published The nation’s report card: Arts 

2008 Music and visual arts (Keiper et al. 2009), it is noted that by eighth grade, girls 

in the USA outperform boys in test scores in music. This identified gender gap 

indicates that further research concerning gender in music education is still 

warranted. 

Gender has long been the focus of a large body of research in education (see for 

example, Bailey 2002 for a review of topics). The impetus of much research has been 

to identify and improve structures within schooling that have produced inequitable 

outcomes for boys and girls. For example, much work has examined if and how boys 

and girls learn differently, and problems related to boys’ and girls’ educational 

opportunities (see Bailey 2002; Weaver-Hightower 2003 for examples). Research on 

gender has resulted in recommendations for how educators might accomplish 

equitable educational outcomes for girls and boys (for examples, see American 

Association of University Women [AAUW] 1998/2002; Kenway et al. 1997). 

In addition to research concerning the education of boys and girls in schools, the 

lens of gender has also been used to examine teachers’ work, including women 

teachers in schooling (e.g. Acker 1989, 1992, 1994, 1995a, 1995b; Apple 1987; Biklen 

1995), educational change (e.g. Blackmore 1995, 1998, 1999), and the experiences of 

male teachers working in feminised environments (e.g. Cooney and Bittner 2001; 

Francis 2007; Galley 2000; Montecinos and Nielsen 2004; Nelson 2002; Smedley 

2007; Sumsion 2000). 

Studies of gender issues by researchers in music education include quantitative 

investigations of the effects of gender on various aspects of musical performance 

such as students’ instrument choice and learning, singing accuracy, musical 

preference and choral students’ perceptions of teacher feedback (e.g. Barry 1992; 

Cooper 1995; Delzell and Leppla 1992; Fortney, Boyle, and DeCarbo 1993; 

Hargreaves, Comber, and Colley 1995; Ho 2009; Schmidt 1995; Zervoudakes and 

Tanur 1994). One area of research has investigated how sexism and exclusionary 

practices towards women and girls are enacted within music education. For example, 

Koza (1992, 1993, 1994) has conducted analyses of textbooks used in music 

education, and McWilliam (2005) has examined the depiction of female wind 

band conductors in The Instrumentalist Magazine. This kind of work has shown the 

disproportional representation of men and women in music education texts, in 

addition to unpacking how representations of men and women in music differ. In 

other feminist research, Morton (1994) has examined sexism in children’s song 

materials, and a number of researchers have drawn on feminist and post-structural 

theories to critique pedagogical and research practices in the field of music education 

(Gould 1994, 2004; Lamb 1996, 1997; O’Toole 1994, 1997, 1998), drawing some 

critique (e.g. Adler and Harrison 2004; Reimer 1995). Gender-related research 

includes the participation by boys in music programmes and strategies to encourage 

boys’ participation in music (Adler and Harrison 2004; Lamb, Dolloff, and Howe 

2002); and how children take up and reproduce ideologies associated with men’s and 

women’s musical practices within music education (Charles 2004). 

Researchers have also examined the experiences of men working in feminised 

environments, showing that these men find themselves in the position of ‘other’ to 

women, with pressure to conform to hegemonic ideals of masculinity. Studies have 

shown that men who pursue careers in traditionally feminised work settings, such as


Music Education Research 5 

early childhood, face numerous challenges such as isolation, suspicions surrounding 

their motivations to work with children, anxiety surrounding child-touch, and 

pressure to perform in stereotypically masculine roles. Male teachers in the US 

account for only 21% of the teaching workforce, and male music teachers in 

elementary school are even rarer. Male music teachers’ accounts of their work 

(Roulston and Mills 2000) suggest that for men who teach music especially in 

elementary schools demands to conform to hegemonic notions of masculinity are 

amplified, since the subject area of music occupies a subordinate role within school 

curriculums and historically has feminine associations (Green 1997). 

There is still much to be learned about music teachers’ conceptualisations of 

gender and how they account for these in relation to their classroom practices. This 

study investigated music teachers’ constructions of gender in relation to elementary 

teaching (in this study elementary refers to pre-Kindergarten to 5th grade involving 

5 10-year-olds). Specifically we asked: 

(1) What are music teachers’ gendered images of music teaching? 

(2) In what ways do men and women describe their experiences of teaching 

elementary music differently? 

Theoretical perspectives 

Connell (2002, 8) rejects the common usage of the term gender to mean ‘the cultural 

difference of women from men, based on the biological division between male and 

female’ as an adequate and appropriate definition. In this usage, gender is defined by 

‘dichotomy and difference’ (2002, 8). Instead, Connell (2002, 9) suggests that the 

focus of gender be on ‘relations’, highlighting that gender is a ‘social structure ...of a 

particular kind’. He explains: 

Gender involves a specific relationship with bodies. This is recognized in the common 

sense definition of gender as an expression of natural difference, the bodily difference of 

male from female. What is wrong with this formula is not the attention to bodies, nor 

the concern with sexual reproduction, but the idea that cultural patterns simply ‘express’ 

bodily difference. (Connell 2002, 9) 

Here, Connell (2002) is challenging essentialist conceptualisations of gender in which 

femininity and masculinity are ‘largely biologically fixed’ in binary opposition to one 

other (Cushman 2008, 124). In order to ‘escape’ the ‘paradoxes of ‘‘difference’’’ 

Connell proposes an alternative definition for the term gender, ‘Gender is the 

structure of social relations that centres on the reproductive arena, and the set of 

practices (governed by this structure) that bring reproductive distinctions between 

bodies into social processes’ (2002, 10, italics in original). 

In this paper Connell’s definition of gender is utilised to explore the social 

relations of gender in music educators’ accounts of their professional lives and 

teaching experiences in elementary schools. By examining how teachers describe 

gender in relation to the many stakeholders involved in schooling teachers, parents, 

children and administrators we argue that it is possible to highlight some of the 

complexities and contradictions inherent in the possible ways that gender may be 

thought about in relation to music education in elementary education.



Research design and methods 

Data used in this article is drawn from an exploratory pilot study in which qualitative 

interviews were conducted to provide data to inform the design of a larger study. 

Using a mailing list purchased from the MENC (the national association for music 

education in the USA), we sent letters to MENC members in a south-eastern state 

inviting them to participate in the study. Face-to-face or telephone interviews were 

conducted with six teachers who met the criteria for the study: (1) they were currently 

working in a school setting, and (2) had experience in elementary music teaching. A 

number of persons who initially expressed interest in participating were not included, 

since they did not work in a school setting (for example, they were studio teachers or 

involved in church music programmes) or were unavailable for an interview. 

Audiotaped interviews of 45 60 minutes with five female teachers and one male 

teacher were conducted in May and June 2005 (see Appendix 1 for interview 

questions). Prior to interviews, which were conducted at a time and date suitable to 

participants, demographic data relating to each participant’s background and teaching 

context were collected. Teachers ranged in age from their 30s to 50s, had from 7 to 27 

years’ teaching experience, worked in rural and suburban districts, and all were White 

(see Appendix 2 for a summary of participant details and descriptive data of school 

settings). Audiotapes were transcribed verbatim, and a copy of the transcript was 

returned to each participant for member-checking, along with a $20.00 store card as a 

token of appreciation for participation. 

Data analysis 

Transcriptions were imported into a Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis 

Software (CAQDAS) program, NVivo2, and were coded using inductive analysis 

techniques (Coffey and Atkinson 1996). Thirty-three codes were initially generated 

and defined in a code book (Ryan and Bernard 2000; see Appendix 3 for a sample 

from the codebook). These initial open codes were sorted into four major categories 

(see Appendix 4 for complete list). These are: 

“ The professional self 

“ Perspectives of gender 

“ Contexts of schooling 

“ Descriptive practices 

A case study for each teacher in relation to the four topics was generated that included 

excerpts from transcriptions to illustrate and support assertions. A consultant with 

expertise in the area of gender studies in music education reviewed the report and 

discussed initial interpretations with the first author. The purpose of this telephone 

conference was to seek an outsider’s view of initial data analysis who could provide 

suggestions for revision of the report for publication. The consultant suggested 

further reading; defining the way in which the term gender was used, especially since 

this has been ascribed different meanings over time by scholars; clarifying the links 

between research questions and findings; and provided advice concerning restructuring 

of the study design for further research. Another topic discussed was how 

epistemological and theoretical approaches to knowledge production allow for



multiple interpretations of data. That is, a constructionist position (Crotty 1998) 

implies that participants both select and co-construct meanings of gender in social 

settings, whereas an approach informed by post-modern theories suggests that 

participants construct the meaning of gender from the discourses available to them in 

society. It is the former of these two approaches that we take in this article. 

The authors then returned to the transcriptions, read and discussed each one, and 

conducted a cross-case analysis. In order to focus the report, we asked a number of 

questions of each transcription, including: 

“ What was the early background of the participant? 

“ What were their personal and professional experiences of gender in relation to 

music education? 

“ What issues were highlighted in interviews by each participant? 

“ How did the participants describe the involvement of mothers and fathers in 

the musical lives of children? 

“ What were the salient characteristics of participants’ accounts? 

Below, we begin by providing overviews of findings from each of the six cases, before 

presenting findings from the cross-case analysis. 

Case summaries 

Case study 1: Amy 

Amy described herself as a highly capable competitor against other males in the 

male-dominated settings of high school and college bands. In relation to the 

elementary music classroom, Amy portrayed women and mothers in facilitating and 

supporting roles for children, some of which conflicted with her professional 

expertise as a music teacher. Men and fathers, in contrast, were portrayed as able 

to provide strong and important role models for boys in their participation in 

musical activities. Amy’s portrayal of other music teachers was one in which women 

could provide the caring, sharing and nurturing required of teachers in elementary 

schools. Amy speculated that this feminine ‘motherly’ role was one that few male 

teachers would want to engage in. Conversely, the high school band directors she had 

met at a recent music convention conformed to the competitive male image that she 

outlined of her own experience as a musician in school and college settings. 

Amy described boys’ participation in musical activities especially chorus as 

influenced in powerful ways by male role models: 

And so I think ...that a father’s influence is huge, or a male influence is huge. Especially 

for boys ...because [of] the stigma, I think, of boys singing ...my chorus has ...eighty 

kids in it. And maybe ...less than a third of them are boys. So ...knowing that that’s 

acceptable. And to have someone like a role-model that says it’s OK and that has done 

it, I think, is huge. 

When asked how she envisioned the role of mothers, grandmothers, and other 

females in children’s music lives, Amy found it more difficult to respond, and was 

reluctant to make generalisations concerning her observations.



I think moms’ role[s] are more of the ...how do I put this? Like ...the schedules and the 

logistics, I guess. As far as the logistical part, like getting ...people to where they need to 

be, getting them dressed in what they need to be wearing ...And ...mothers I’ve had a 

lot of moms email or stop in or confront me on things. So ...I would say, definitely, 

they’re more ...confrontational, I think more ...territorial with kids. 

In this account, men’s and fathers’ positive musical role models are constructed as 

powerful in influencing boys’ behaviours and participation in musical activities. In 

particular, male role models in singing are seen to counteract the ‘stigma’ associated 

with boys’ singing. Mothers, however, are constructed as performing care-taking 

activities (such as organising ‘logistics’ or dressing students) as opposed to being 

musical role models. In Amy’s description, mothers also emerge as possible foes 

confronting her as a teacher when classroom conflicts arise in relation to their 

children. Amy’s critique of mothers as confronting her professionally over classroom 

issues was illustrated by several narratives concerning a number of mothers with 

whom she had experienced conflict. Yet, Amy described another mother who 

provided her with professional choreographic expertise with the production of her 

musicals. In contrast to confrontational mothers, Amy said, ‘I love that woman. She 

is a blast!’ 

Case study 2: Brian 

Brian provided a self-portrayal of a highly competent middle school choral director 

involved in choral competitions at the state level. As a competent singer himself, 

Brian described providing an excellent vocal model to both boys and girls in his 

chorus. Brian emphasised his quality work with boys. Not only had he recruited 

football players to the choir, he outlined specific strategies to provide excellent male 

role models of men who sing to his students. Brian portrayed fathers, for the most 

part, as unsupportive of their sons’ involvement in singing. 

Well in my experience, the fathers of my guys tend to be less supportive of them being in 

the chorus program. Until they see how successful they are. And once they see the 

success rate, then they go ‘Oh yeah. We want to keep him in this’. But often, they want 

their boys to play sports and stuff of that nature. So, I’ve had a lot of fathers tell their 

kids, you can’t be in chorus, because of course you can’t play sports. Which is simply not 

true. A lot of my boys play sports. But that is one area that I see a problem. And then 

also, I think some of the fathers are stigmatized thinking that, if their son is seen as a 

music person, then he’s going to be labeled, either a homosexual, or you know, the term 

now is ‘girly man’. 

The fear for fathers, as described by Brian, involved seeing boys’ singing as symbolic 

of homosexuality. Mothers, in this interview, were portrayed providing support of 

their children’s participation in the domestic sphere. Brian portrayed the elementary 

male music teacher as occupying a ‘deviant’ role in school, one that was constantly 

questioned by others. Brian described his move into middle school after teaching for 

6 years in elementary schools as a partial response to the offences from others who 

questioned both his sexual orientation, and his right to teach in the elementary 

school. In Brian’s description, the ‘average’ male elementary music teacher takes on 

the role either because he is either incompetent, or using the elementary position as a 

springboard to promotion elsewhere.



Case study 3: Carole 

Carole described a varied and multi-faceted career in music education in which her 

interests and teaching experience spanned elementary, middle, and high schools, as 

well as college teaching. Carole recounted experiencing discrimination as a woman in 

her years as a middle school band director, although she pointed out that people who 

treated her as the ‘wife’ of a colleague and band director, rather than as a band 

director herself, were in the minority. While Carole did talk about how in high school 

settings some boys thought that for boys, singing was a ‘sissy’ thing to do, she went 

on to state that for her, gender was neither a relevant issue that arose in teaching in 

elementary music, nor something that she noticed or tracked. In talking about her 

observations concerning fathers, Carole drew on her knowledge of parents in her 

local school community. For boys, she maintained that fathers’ influence on musical 

activities and participation was pronounced, particularly for those cultural groups 

that she identified as emphasising high involvement in sports. She commented that: 

[F]or the boys ...if daddy says, ‘Play football’, they play football. If daddy says, ‘Here is 

a trumpet, this is how you play it’, that’s what they do ...In a Hispanic community 

there’s a lot of music. In that community, that’s not as much of an issue as some of the, 

to me, the African-American families that are so sports oriented ...In the Hispanic 

community, there’s a little bit [of] you play sports, you don’t [participate] in music. But, 

they do that to the girls, too, some, not as much. 

In this account, parents from different ethnic and racial groups are described as 

exhibiting different responses to children’s participation in music and sports. For 

Hispanic communities, music is acceptable, although sometimes sports take 

precedence. For African-American families, participation in sports is emphasised. 

In Carole’s descriptions, mothers are described in the role of singing lullabies to their 

children, while fathers give directions that their children follow. In Carole’s interview, 

differences among ethnic and racial groups were observed as salient features of the 

school population, rather than gender. This is hardly surprising, since the school in 

which Carole was teaching had a population that identified as 65% Hispanic, 29% 

Black, 4% White and 1% Asian and others, with a high rate of economic 

disadvantage (90% free and reduced lunch). 

Case study 4: Denise 

Denise portrayed herself as a teacher aware of the differentiated ways in which 

teachers can unwittingly respond to boys and girls. Denise described herself fighting 

her usual inclination to pay more attention to demanding boys, rather than 

cooperative girls. Denise was well aware of the association that boys made between 

‘singing’ and ‘femininity’ and the risk for boys who sing of being labelled as 

unmasculine. To actively engage boys throughout the elementary school years, 

Denise had decided that she would have to use activities other than singing folk 

songs, and she had written an as yet unfunded proposal to obtain guitars for her 

students to play in the upper grades. Men and fathers, in Denise’s depictions, were 

portrayed as able to provide powerful role models to their children in their 

participation in musical activities. Denise described fathers’ roles in children’s 

musical participation as very powerful.



They’re so powerful. It’s so powerful what ...the effect that they have if [the children’s] 

fathers or their grandfathers are musical ...It’s so powerful. I have had several dads 

come in and bring their instruments, I had a dad who played the guitar, and he came in 

and brought his guitar. I had a dad who ...brought his tuba and played it for some 

class, and those children, his children, these dads’ children are just are, you can just tell 

that ...they’re just so much more interested in music. 

In her interview, Denise described very positive male role models in relation to 

children, rather than only boys. In contrast, Denise had little to say about mothers: 

K: What about mothers and grandmothers, and females? 

D: You don’t really hear that much about them, do you? 

Denise described taking advantage of fathers’ musical participation by inviting them 

into her classroom to play for her students. In contrast, in the previous year she had 

found no mothers to perform similarly in the classroom for children. 

Case study 5: Ellen 

Ellen described herself as a competent elementary music teacher who regularly 

sought to develop her skills as a music teacher through further professional 

development and application of research findings in her work with children. While 

observing developmental differences between boys and girls (such as motor 

development and ability to adapt to the use of different vocal registers), Ellen 

observed that there did not seem to be any noticeable impact on the academic 

outcomes for boys and girls. Ellen described both fathers and mothers as potentially 

powerful role models in their children’s musical lives. In her reflections since her 

graduation from college over 30 years ago, Ellen was unclear about why so few male 

teachers entered elementary music teaching or why so few women entered band 

directing. 

E: I’ve never really thought about gender separation. Let’s see. I do recognize that there 

were not many elementary music gentlemen. That most of the gentlemen in music went 

to band programs at the time. But I’ve never thought about why. The only thing I’ve 

thought about was because maybe they had more time for the extra after school 

activities. Because at that time it was ...in the 1970s ...maybe it just has to do with role 

models. Women got married and they were the mothers and stayed home. And we just 

didn’t have time to be at every football game as the band director. 

In this excerpt, Ellen speculated that both men and women were conforming to 

societal roles in which women were likely to stay in the home as wives and homemakers, 

and men were more likely to perform in the public sphere outside the home. 

Case study 6: Fiona 

Fiona portrayed herself as a highly respected and prize-winning teacher for whom 

gender was not a salient issue. Rather, the delivery of high quality instruction 

appeared as a recurring theme in Fiona’s interview. In relation to the elementary 

music classroom, Fiona portrayed both parents as important role models for their 

children’s musical participation; however, she also acknowledged that ‘some’ (though


a minority) fathers regarded participation in sports to be more important than music 

for children. 

I think that we live in an age that we’re so sports conscientious. And there are many 

fathers that do not feel that music has a place in their son’s life. And having raised a son, 

I feel like both sports and music should be in every child’s life. I mean I think there’s a 

need for a balance. And I think when you have fathers or grandfathers that participated 

in music as a child, or still do, whether it’s a church choir, or a community orchestra or 

whatever, I think that sets terrific examples for their sons. For their daughters also. But 

I’ve encountered very few fathers that were not supportive. But I do know that there are 

some ...that really think that music is for sissy boys and not for anyone. 

Fiona described using recruitment of football players as a specific strategy in 

working with high school choruses. With respect to her work with elementary 

students, however, she was adamant that gender was not a relevant issue. While 

Fiona speculated that perhaps ‘society’ deemed men to have more ‘authority’ and 

‘control’, and that was perhaps one reason there are many more male band directors 

than female, she did not associate herself with this view. In the school setting that 

Fiona described, children had ready access to high quality male role models. 

Cross case analysis 

In reviewing and comparing these cases in relation to the research questions, it is 

apparent that these teachers: 

(1) conceptualised the relevance of gender in significantly different ways; 

(2) oriented to the male elementary music teacher as rare and dealing with 

pressures not faced by women; and 

(3) referred to the use of strategies that reinforce gender stereotypes. 

The following section explores each theme in more detail. 


Teachers’ conceptualisation of gender in music teaching 

The descriptions provided by teachers in interviews frequently reflected essentialist 

conceptualisations of gender in which masculinity and femininity were portrayed in 

opposition and related to stereotypical roles (e.g. women as ‘motherly’ and 

‘supportive’ and men as ‘competitive’ and ‘powerful’). Teachers varied considerably 

in terms of the relevance that they ascribed to gender in their work as teachers. While 

in some descriptions, gender was defined in relation to stereotypical feminine and 

masculine activities, in others, it was deemed invisible or not something that they 

noticed. Several teachers discussed in detail how feminine associations with music 

(Green 1997; Morton 1996) played out in their work with boys (such as recruiting 

boys for choirs), and for the male teacher in this study, with his identity as an 

elementary teacher working in a feminised environment (resisting others’ inference 

that he was homosexual; Roulston and Mills 2000). 

Three of the participants (Carole, Ellen, and Fiona) found it difficult to discuss 

the issue of gender, and expressed the view that gender was not necessarily significant 

to their professional roles as music educators. Interestingly, these teachers were the



most experienced of those interviewed. These women repeatedly said that they did 

not notice gender-based incidents when they were asked to describe what stood out 

for them in working with boys and girls, and invoked other social locations as being 

more relevant in discussing their work (e.g. ethnicity and race, or age). For example, 

in response to questions concerning what stood out for her in working with boys and 

girls, Carole spoke of not observing any differences between boys’ and girls’ 

participation and responses in the elementary school music classroom: 

C: You know, I don’t. I don’t really have a gender experience. ...There’s girls, there’s 

boys, they’re all kids. And I really couldn’t say‘The girls do this ...’ or ‘I had this 

experience with this girl or this boy who thought that ...’ I mean I really, really can’tsay. 

Given the racial composition of the school in which Carole was teaching, it is 

possible that as a White teacher working with mainly Hispanic and African- 

American students, gender was simply not something that stood out in her everyday 

interactions with children. 

Fiona was also emphatic in expressing the view that she did not differentiate 

between her students on the basis of gender, and had observed no visible differences 

between boys and girls in her classes even though girls outnumbered boys two to one 

in the school chorus. 

F: Well ...we usually run 120 in our chorus. And usually, it’s two to one girls to boys, we 

usually have about 40 boys, and then 80 girls. So ...when we look at a show, we don’t 

look at how many girls and how many boys is it going to take. We just look for good 

literature. And we look for something that has a good choral part to it. Because we want 

everyone to participate. So, I don’t think we look at it that way. 

Descriptions provided by Fiona suggest that for her, gender does not feature as a 

relevant concept with which to talk about her teaching. 

Ellen stated that she had ‘never really thought about gender separation’ as an 

issue with respect to her teaching, although she had been a music teacher for over 30 

years. On reflecting on her entry into the teaching profession more than three 

decades ago, she speculated that the large numbers of men (as opposed to women) 

taking positions as band directors was an outcome of the performance requirements 

of the position. 

E: And perhaps it was just more acceptable, when the roles, at that time, 30 years ago. 

Maybe it was more acceptable for the man, or the father to be out on Friday night, 

Saturday night. Whereas the mother was expected to be home, and that was just the 

roles that we had. 

In this description, which was located in the past, Ellen conjectured that the roles of 

wife and mother had prevented women from becoming band directors, since they 

were unable to devote the requisite time to performances. Carole, also, located gender 

‘problems’ (such as the lack of opportunities for female band directors) as something 

associated with a by-gone era. 

In contrast to accounts noted above in which gender as a concept in 

contemporary practice was either invisible or irrelevant, the other three teachers 

freely discussed their conceptualisations of gender, and provided narratives to



support their views drawn from their experiences as music students and teachers. 

When asked what observations he had made teaching girls, Brian commented that 

‘other than voice type’, in the past he had never noticed any differences between 

working with girls and boys. However, in contrast, he had observed girls in his 

current group of middle school students ‘who were uncomfortable with a male 

teacher’. Brian attributed this particular problem with a group of girls to differences 

in teaching style between himself and the former nurturing female teacher, who was 

counter-posed against his self-portrayal as a ‘demanding’ and ‘rough around the 

edges’ masculine persona. Brian pointed out that in the past, although he had often 

worked with majority girls, he had not experienced this problem. Although Brian had 

taught for six years in elementary schools, his move to middle school (11 13-yearolds) 

had occurred two years before. It is difficult to assess whether these accounts 

relate to a specific teaching context, or may be relevant to age differences between 

elementary and middle school students. What may be noted, however, is that his 

description highlighted a ‘nurturing’ female teacher against a ‘demanding’ masculine 

teacher who generated positive responses from the boys: 

Very demanding in my tone, and demanding of what I would like. They [the girls] had a 

hard time dealing with this. So I had to really back down and watch what I said, and 

watch how I said it. The guys in my group responded well, in fact, the guys in my group, 

I expanded the number of guys that I had in my group, coming into it. 

Central to Amy’s account of her entry into music education was her ability to 

compete successfully with boys on their terms. 

I was always in somewhat male-dominated areas, like for instance, trumpet. Even in 

high school and all through college, I was the only female in the trumpet section. ... 

I was in the jazz-ensemble, I was the only girl. ...When I was ...a high school director, 

I was one of very ...few if any females. I’m pretty comfortable as far as being in a male 

dominated situation. ...I feel I’ve got some kind of skill or just some things about my 

personality that ...I’m not real sensitive about, I guess. ...I don’t ever feel like I was 

treated any differently because anytime I was ...I felt like I always proved myself ...I 

didn’t feel like I was ever ...seen as like weak or incapable or anything like that at all. 

What is interesting in this account is that while Amy portrays herself as both willing 

and able to challenge men on their turf the gendered stereotypes of ‘masculine’ 

and ‘feminine’ behaviours are not challenged. In effect, Amy portrays her success as 

a music teacher as lying in her ability to successively adopt ‘masculine’ traits of 

‘insensitivity’ and ‘competitiveness’ as other to the ‘feminine’ trait of ‘weakness’. 

In her reflection on her experiences as a music student, Amy described situations 

in which she demonstrated competence as a musician by competing with boys 

(‘Cause I am very competitive. So I really ...I really, I liked it a lot!’), exclaiming: 

‘I like having a chance to prove myself’. Amy referred to gender stereotyping of 

music instrument selection, noting her choice to move from learning the flute (played 

mostly by females) to playing trumpet (played mainly by boys). In her account, 

Amy’s success as a performer was premised on her ability to successfully compete 

against her male counterparts. In her work as an elementary music teacher, Amy 

described girls as more eager to participate in activities (especially singing), with boys 

‘a little more hesitant at doing something’ until they ‘get the whole picture’.Amywas



reluctant to make generalisations about either boys or girls, stating at one point ‘a lot 

of boys at my school would not fall into this’. 

Unlike Amy, Denise was forthcoming in contrasting ‘cooperative girls’ who are 

‘always very easy’ to work with, against boys, who become more ‘difficult’ to work 

with as age increases. Denise commented that she was aware that teachers’ treatment 

of girls and boys could be differential with boys receiving more attention: 

I just try to be so aware of the fact that ...we don’t call on girls as much in class ...and 

they’re always, always, always, almost always are better behaved, so you don’t haveto 

focus as much of your attention on the girls. So I always just feel guilty about it. And I 

make an effort ...asking questions; you use that as a behavior management technique 

...to get the boys to focus and stuff. And then, sometimes I’ll just catch myself 

doing that. And I will think, No, No, No. Do not call on these boys. Call on the girls. 

Denise demonstrated sensitivity to the possibility that boys might be embarrassed to 

sing, because they associate singing with femininity: 

They will try to sing with their talking voice because it sounds like a man. And, you can 

sing until you are blue in the face, you’re supposed to sound like that, that is what your 

voice sounds like, but still, especially, once they get to the fifth grade, and they’re trying 

to be all cool, and act older than they are. And then they sing like a girl, you know, that 

is just not, it’s not happening! So, they won’t ...sing. 

In this exchange, Denise reflects on the problems inherent for boys who sing. For 

boys, not singing at all is preferable to singing and sounding like a girl. The 

interviewer asked Denise if she had ever overheard comments with respect to boys’ 

vocal timbre: 

K: Do they, do the boys ever make comments about other boys’ voices? 

After an initial response of ‘no’, Denise provided an account where this had indeed 

occurred: 

D: I think it was just this group [of fifth graders this year]. We’d had a lot stuff on the 

news about ...a gay club up at this school not far from us. There had been a lot of talk 

in the news about it. And towards the end of year, I heard some [comments] like ‘You 

sound gay’. I was just completely ...that is not acceptable at all. ...They would just say 

that to each other just in general, like ‘You look like that’ and that’s only thing I heard 

them saying, but I think that was just a phase really that those guys were going through. 

In this exchange, Denise describes an incident of which she was aware in her school 

in which boys who sang were labelled as sounding ‘gay’, although she minimised this 

as an isolated occurrence relative to publicity concerning a gay club at a local school, 

rather than a usual activity. Given that a common contemporary usage by children 

and adolescents of the term ‘gay’ is to mean ‘lame’ or ‘uncool’, it is difficult to know 

precisely how students were using this term. In this particular instance, Denise 

described the behaviours and actions depicted as simply a ‘phase’. Yet, Denise 

accounted for boys’ reluctance to sing because of music’s association with not only 

the feminine but with sexual orientation. Maintenance of a non-feminine identity, 

then, for the boys described, calls for either non-participation in singing, or singing



in a particular way (the deep voice of the adult male). This account provides some 

indication of the sensitivity surrounding discussing issues of gender specifically in 

relation to boys. On the one hand, Denise took care to portray the boys’ comments 

as isolated events; yet she also describes boys’ discomfort with singing. 

In some of the excerpts quoted above, gender was identified by teachers as an 

irrelevant concept that is ‘invisible’ (i.e. there are no differences between boys and 

girls and teachers describe treating students equitably). In other accounts, differences 

were noted between boys and girls, even while teachers resisted the urge to generalise 

or typify usual practices. One teacher described the problems for boys of the 

associations made between ‘singing’ and ‘femininity’; while another teacher 

described the problems for a male teacher encountering the association between 

‘elementary teaching’ and ‘femininity’. It is to this topic that we now turn. 

Issues specific to male teachers in the elementary school 

Male teachers are minorities within the female-dominated world of the elementary 

school. In spite of calls for the recruitment of more male teachers, in the USA, 

numbers of men in teaching have been steadily declining: 21% of K-12 schoolteachers 

were men in 2003 (Fratt 2004), decreasing from 25.1% in 1999 2000 (Shen, 

Wegenke, and Cooley 2003). Brian ended his career as an elementary music teacher, 

when after six years’ teaching; he took a position as a choral director in a middle 

school. When asked if he had ever been treated differently because he was male, 

Brian replied that he had, stating that in three different job interviews for positions as 

an elementary music teacher he had been asked if he was married. 

I wanted to teach elementary school when I first started. So the position I applied for, I 

was asked some questions that were not only illegal, but inappropriate. Maybe 

inappropriate, and illegal. One of the questions I got notoriously from the beginning 

was ‘Are you married?’ And finally I cornered one of the principals, ‘Why are these 

people always wanting to know if I’m married?’ they said, ‘Well you’re a male music 

teacher applying for an elementary school job, you must be gay’. I said, ‘Well I’m not, 

I’m married with two children’. 

Like several of the women teachers interviewed for this study, Brian situated 

discrimination in the past, noting that times have changed. 

I don’t know that we fight [that stigma] as much as we used to. But I think that now 

mainly because of that lifestyle has become more accepted ...it is not as big a 

stigmatism in the hiring process. 

While Brian repeatedly using the term ‘stigma’ within the interview, rather than 

‘homophobia’, Brian surmised that homophobic responses to the presence of males 

in elementary teaching positions have lessened in recent years. 

But at first, that was the number one concern of principals is ‘Why am I hiring a male 

elementary teacher?’ I remember a parent who got upset with me, at one of my schools, 

who called the superintendent to complain about the way I treated their [child]. When 

the superintendent called my principal, he had no problem with what I did, but his 

number one comment was ‘Why in the hell did you hire a male music teacher?’ And I 

was very offended, I mean he said this in front of me. And I was very offended at this



statement. I feel like I do a great job, and I did a great job in elementary music. And I 

eventually moved away to middle school to get away from that to some extent. Because 

colleagues even treated me differently being a male elementary teacher. I don’t think it 

was so much being a music teacher, it was being a male elementary teacher. There are 

many male choral directors who teach middle school and high school and that 

stigmatism doesn’t exist. But being an elementary male I did get some, I think I was put 

into a deviant category. 

In the world of music teaching described by Brian, to be a male elementary teacher is 

a problem irrespective of the subject being taught. In middle school and high school 

settings, however, Brian commented that the stigma associated with the male 

elementary teacher no longer exists. When asked if he knew other male elementary 

music teachers, Brian noted that they are very rare. 

Amy also mentioned the lack of male music teachers in elementary teaching. She 

expressed the view that ‘to be a male doing elementary is ...is like an extra special 

person’. Speculating about the reasons that there are so few male teachers in 

elementary school, Amy commented: 

But I think they see it as too much of ...too motherly, too matronly to be doing 

kindergarten or first grade, wiping noses and scraped knees and stuff like that, ‘cause I 

mean it is. You have to be more motherly with ...the little ones. ...It could definitely be 

an ego or a masculinity issue maybe. You know I am just speculating. 

Ellen also reflected on the lack of males in elementary music teaching. Ellen spoke 

highly of the male elementary music teachers with whom she had come in contact 

over her lengthy career as a music teacher, although she admitted that she was 

unclear as to why these men had entered a feminised profession. Ellen speculated that 

the lack of male elementary teachers could possibly be an outcome of societal roles in 

which elementary teaching is not seen to be a desired role for men. 

In teachers’ accounts, the male elementary teacher was portrayed as a minority 

among many females, which is reflective of national statistics in the USA and 

elsewhere. Brian’s narratives revealed that he had been repeatedly subjected to others’ 

inferences that to be a male teacher in an elementary school meant that he must be 

gay, and he vigorously asserted his heterosexual identity as a married man with 

children. While none of the women interviewed for this study mentioned sexual 

orientation in relation to male elementary teachers, five of the six teachers mentioned 

the stigma involved in boys singing, and how boys who sing risk being labelled as 

‘sissies’, or in Brian’s words, a ‘girly-man’. In the next section, teachers’ descriptions 

of their teaching strategies as related to gender will be provided. 

Reference to the use of strategies that reinforce gender stereotypes 

Several teachers (Brian, Carole, and Fiona) indicated that parents sometimes 

encourage their sons to engage in activities that demonstrate a particular kind of 

(hegemonic) masculinity, and discourage their participation in (feminised) musical 

activities. An interesting example of this phenomenon is recorded in Lareau’s (2003) 

in-depth study of family life in which one concerned father encouraged his son to 

drop out of one of two choirs in which he participated in order to take up football


(see 115 116). For example, Carole described the emphasis that some parents placed 

on sports in opposition to music: 

When I had chorus after school and I was trying to recruit kids to sing ...it wouldn’t 

just be a time factor: ‘Oh, I have this football practice on this day so I can’t come to 

chorus’. It was more, ‘No, I’m going to do football. I don’t need to do music’. ‘My dad 

doesn’t want me to do music. He wants to me to play soccer’. 

Reflecting on her own experience as a music student in high school, Carole described 

her own choral director’s strategy of recruiting boys from the football team for the 

choir. While unable to describe a specific incident about gender, Carole commented 

that this negative attitude towards singing by boys still exists. 

I still hear, ‘Boys don’t do that’, ‘No, I’m not going to be in the chorus, I’m going to play 

football’, occasionally in a large Hispanic community. A lot of the [Hispanic] men are 

really macho ...While music is ...generally support[ed] ...every now and then, one of 

[the boys] will say, ‘No, my dad doesn’t want me to do that’. 

Fiona spoke about taking specific steps to recruit football players for her chorus 

during her former work as a high school choral director, 

F: You know [there are some fathers] that really think that music is for sissy boys and 

not for anyone. And especially when I worked at the high school level, I recruited 

football players and the other athletes, because it helped build the program. I’ll just be 

honest, it did. And I think a well rounded education is the most important thing. 

K: What strategies did you use to recruit those football players? 


F: I went to their football games. I showed support. We would do pep rallies and our 

chorus would come up with really cool songs for the pep rallies. And we supported the 

team. And over time, you know then they would come and sing with the chorus. 

Brian also described how he had eliminated the labelling of male singers in his chorus 

as sissies by recruiting football players to the choir. 

B: I do know that there have been some boys who have called my boys in my choir 

sissies. But because I recruited so many sports players, I have eight football players in 

chorus this year, because I have done that, those sort of comments have gone away. 

Not only had Brian recruited football players, he had been helped in the strategy 

by the football coach. 

K: Um do you have any men who are actually involved in any way in your music 

program? 

B: I do at my school. The football coach is a former boy soprano. 

K: Yeah. 

B: So he helps me get rid of that stigmatism a lot. He will come into the class, we’ll sing 

some stuff together. And he’ll tell stories about performing and so on when he was at 

high school. So that helps a lot, and the more I think you can do that as a music 

teacher. ...My college room-mate has an a cappella group that performs locally. And I 

always do my best to bring them in. There are five guys, and they sing. And so I bring 

them in to let the boys see them. I get as many videos as I possibly can of males singing. 

I introduce them to people like Pavarotti, and Bocelli, [who] is a very famous tenor, and



people of that sort. So at least they know that there’s other people out here, and that 

they’re not considered to be sissies just because of what they do. 

In this account, the identification of singing with the feminine by boys is 

counteracted by presenting role models of hegemonic masculinity in this case, 

the football coach, and specific techniques to recruit football players to participate in 

choral work. These kinds of strategies have been documented elsewhere (Roulston 

and Mills 2000). As a teacher, Brian described not feeling pressured to demonstrate 

involvement in sports himself. He did, however, choose to demonstrate an active 

interest in students’ sporting activity. This activity is explicitly linked to his work to 

show boys that the masculine drive to compete in sport is not diminished by one’s 

involvement in music. 

Teachers talked about the importance of parents as role models for their 

children’s musical development, and all but two expressed the view that fathers were 

potentially powerful role models in contrast to mothers, who were described in 

supportive roles (e.g. ensuring children had necessary items and attending concerts). 

The supportive role of mothers particularly those who are middle class in 

supporting their children in these kinds of ways has been outlined elsewhere by 

Lareau (2003). 

Fiona described specific examples of how she provided multiple male role models 

in music to students at her school. In addition to the three male teachers at the 

school on faculty who sang in the faculty chorus (of about 19 or 20 members), Fiona 

mentioned a number of professional performance ensembles who had visited the 

school, in addition to two local high schoolteachers (dance and orchestra). In this 

characterisation of her school, children have access to male models in both 

performing and teaching roles. Unlike Brian, Fiona did not mention sports in 

relation to the provision of these male role models. 

In accounts presented in this section, some of the teachers presented constructions 

of masculinity in which music teachers continually encounter perceptions of 

others (i.e. students and parents) that ‘sissy boys’ sing, while ‘heterosexual boys’ play 

football. These portrayals convey descriptions of specific strategies that tend to 

reinforce particular constructions of masculinity (i.e. heterosexual masculinity is 

demonstrated through involvement in sports) and do not resist dominant constructions 

of masculinity. Fiona, while aware of the emphasis given to sport in contrast to 

music, nevertheless emphasised the importance of providing her students with male 

role models outside the realm of sports. 

Discussion 

In this paper, some insights into how six music teachers conceptualise gender in 

relation to the work of teaching elementary music were provided. While three 

teachers rejected gender as a relevant concept in discussing their work even though 

they also included descriptions of stereotyped gender roles, three teachers described 

in detail their perspectives of gender in relation to their professional selves and their 

teaching. We argue that instead of denying gender as a relevant concept, music 

educators might learn to ‘see’ gender as a relevant concept in music education, and in 

doing so, might examine their assumptions about teaching and learning music, and 

the ways in which masculinity and femininity are constructed within school music



programmes. This is not to say that there are biological sex differences in the ways that 

males and females learn. To the contrary, Connell (2002, Ch. 3) comments that the 

majority of research on sex differences has to date yielded no significant differences 

between male and females. What we believe to be important, however, is the ways in 

which ‘femininity’ and ‘masculinity’ are constructed in schools in ways that constrain 

the kinds of choices that might be made by students and teachers, and the kinds of 

identities that students and teachers believe must be demonstrated in school settings. 

For example, Brian’s construction of masculinity was central to his descriptions 

of experiences that differed markedly from his female colleagues. Research 

concerning male teachers’ work has demonstrated that they find themselves in the 

position of ‘other’ to women, with pressure to conform to hegemonic ideals of 

masculinity. Studies have shown that men who pursue careers in traditionally 

feminised work settings, such as early childhood, face numerous challenges such as 

isolation, suspicions surrounding their motivations to work with children, anxiety 

surrounding child-touch, and pressure to perform in stereotypically masculine roles 

(Cooney and Bittner 2001; Cushman 2008; Galley 2000; Montecinos and Nielsen 

2004; Nelson 2002; Smedley 2007; Sumsion 2000). Men who teach find themselves 

pressured to conform to stereotypical forms of masculinity (Martino and Berrill 

2003; Roulston and Mills 2000; Simpson 2004; Skelton 2001). Indeed, Mills asserts 

that men ‘who do not adhere to hegemonised forms of masculinities’, or who 

perform ‘behaviours deemed to be ‘‘feminine’’, are ...often constructed as ‘‘abnormal’’ 

or gay and become marginalised within the social organisation of masculinities’ 

(2004, 31). Such was Brian’s experience as an elementary teacher, and like the male 

teacher described in Smedley’s study, he described being forced to assert ‘heterosexual 

masculinity to counter assumptions that as a male primary schoolteacher he 

may be homosexual or effeminate’ (2007, 379). 

Conclusion 

Findings from this exploratory pilot study provide preliminary understandings of the 

possible ways in which music teaching is a gendered career path and how these six 

teachers of music understand and describe gender roles in relation to their classroom 

practices. Given the small sample size of the study, findings are not generalisable to 

other elementary music teachers. In line with comments by Jorgensen (2008) used to 

open this paper, findings presented in this article provide fruitful ground for 

questions that might be asked in future research. For example, what are the 

implications of teachers’ constructions of gender for (1) their classroom practices, (2) 

students’ experiences of school music programmes, and (3) the recruitment and 

retention of male teachers to elementary music education? Francis’s ethnographic 

study of 51 third-grade classrooms in the UK provides a useful reference point for 

how one might go about investigating teachers’ gendered performances of teaching. 

Francis (2007, 121) argues that there is considerable ‘fluidity and fragility of gender 

constructions’ in the ways that teachers accomplish their work, and further 

ethnographic research in music classrooms and in ensemble rehearsals might 

explicate these constructions in specific ways. 

This study of teachers’ constructions of gender also points to further work to 

investigate the ways in which gender might be discussed in pre-service teacher 

education programmes in ways that challenge essentialist conceptualisations. As



Connell has noted, ‘gender concerns the way human society deals with human 

bodies, and the many consequences of that ‘dealing’ in our personal lives and our 

collective fate’ (2002, 10). If male and female music teachers who enter elementary 

teaching have different experiences that are related to the social construction of 

gender, then it is useful to consider how teacher educators might prepare teachers to 

resist dominant constructions of gender that reinforce stereotypical performances of 

masculinity and femininity by both students and their teachers. Facilitating music 

education programmes in ways that support all students in ways that neither polarise 

nor regulate how boys and girls learn music will go some way to contributing to a 

socially just society. 

Notes on contributors 

Kathryn Roulston is an associate professor in the Qualitative Research Program in the 

Department of Lifelong Education, Administration, and Policy at the University of Georgia 

where she teaches course work in qualitative research methodology. Her research interests 

include qualitative research methods, qualitative interviewing, and the analysis of talk-ininteraction. 

She has examined topics in music education, and has published in Music 

Education Research, Research Studies in Music Education, Qualitative Inquiry, and Qualitative 

Research. 

Mitsunori Misawa completed his PhD in the Adult Education Program of the Department of 

Lifelong Education, Administration, and Policy at the University of Georgia in 2009. His 

research interests include adult bullying, anti-oppressive education, the intersection of race, 

sexual orientation, and gender, feminist pedagogy, positionality, power dynamics, qualitative 

research, narrative inquiry, Critical Race Theory, and Queer issues in higher education. He has 

presented on these research areas at national and international conferences and has published 

journal articles and book chapters on these topics. 

References 

Acker, S. 1989. Teachers, gender and careers. New York: Falmer Press. 

Acker, S. 1992. Creating careers: Women teachers at work. Curriculum Inquiry 22, no. 2: 

141 63. 

Acker, S. 1994. Gendered education: Sociological reflections on women, teaching and feminism. 

Buckingham, UK: Open University Press. 

Acker, S. 1995a. Carry on caring: The work of women teachers. British Journal of Sociology of 

Education 16, no. 1: 21 36. 

Acker, S. 1995b. Gender and teachers’ work. In Review of research in education, vol. 2, ed. 

M.W. Apple, 99 162. Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association. 

Adler, A., and S. Harrison. 2004. Swinging back the gender pendulum: Addressing boys’ needs 

in music education research and practice. In Questioning the music education paradigm, ed. 

L.R. Bartel, 270 89. Waterloo, ON: Canadian Music Educators’ Association. 

American Association of University Women (AAUW). 1998/2002. Course-taking patterns. In 

The Jossey-Bass reader on gender in education, ed. S.M. Bailey, 277 300. San Francisco, CA: 

Jossey-Bass. 

Apple, M.W. 1987. Gendered teaching, gendered labor. In Critical studies in teacher education: 

Its folklore, theory and practice, ed. T.S. Popkewitz, 57 83. London: The Falmer Press. 

Bailey, S.M., ed. 2002. The Jossey-Bass reader on gender in education. San Francisco, CA: 

Jossey-Bass. 

Barry, N.H. 1992. The effects of practice strategies, individual differences in cognitive style, 

and gender upon technical accuracy and musicality of student instrumental performance. 

Psychology of Music 20, no. 2: 112 23.



Biklen, S.K. 1995. School work: Gender and the cultural construction of teaching. New York: 

Teachers College Press. 

Blackmore, J. 1995. Breaking out from a masculinist politics of education. In Gender and 

changing educational management, ed. B. Limerick and B. Lingard, 44 56. Rydalmere, 

NSW: Hodder Education. 

Blackmore, J. 1998. The politics of gender and educational change: Managing gender or 

changing gender relations? In International handbook of educational change, vol. 5, ed. 

A. Hargreaves, A. Lieberman, M. Fullan, and D. Hopkins, 460 81. Dordrecht, The 

Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. 

Blackmore, J. 1999. Troubling women: Feminism, leadership and educational change. Buckingham, 

UK: Open University Press. 

Charles, B. 2004. Boys’ and girls’ constructions of gender through musical composition in the 

primary school. British Journal of Music Education 21, no. 3: 265 77. 

Coffey, A., and P. Atkinson. 1996. Making sense of qualitative data: Complementary research 

strategies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 

Connell, R.W. 2002. Gender. Cambridge: Polity. 

Cooney, M.H., and M.T. Bittner. 2001. Men in early childhood education: Their emergent 

issues. Early Childhood Education Journal 29, no. 2: 77 82. 

Cooper, N.A. 1995. Children’s singing accuracy as a function of grade level, gender, and 

individual versus unison singing. Journal of Research in Music Education 43, no. 3: 222 31. 

Crotty, M. 1998. The foundations of social research: Meaning and perspective in the research 

process. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 

Cushman, P. 2008. So what exactly do you want? What principals mean when they say ‘male 

role model’. Gender and Education 20, no. 2: 123 36. 

Delzell, J.K., and D.A. Leppla. 1992. Gender association of musical instruments and 

preferences of fourth-grade students for selected instrument. Journal of Research in Music 

Education 40, no. 2: 93 103. 

Dixson, A.D., and C.K. Rousseau. 2005. And we are still not saved: Critical race theory in 

education ten years later. Race, Ethnicity and Education 8, no. 1: 7 28. 

Fortney, P.M., J.D. Boyle, and N.J. DeCarbo. 1993. A study of middle school band students’ 

instrument choices. Journal of Research in Music Education 41, no. 1: 28 39. 

Francis, B. 2007. Teaching manfully? Exploring gendered subjectivities and power via analysis 

of men teachers’ gender performance. Gender and Education 20, no. 2: 109 22. 

Fratt, L. 2004. The vanishing male teacher. District Administration 40, no. 7: 8. 

Galley, M. 2000. Male preschool teachers face skepticism but earn acceptance. Education 

Week 19, no. 20: 1 2. 

Gould, E. 1994. Getting the whole picture: The view from here. Philosophy of Music Education 

Review 2, no. 2: 92 8. 

Gould, E. 2004. Feminist theory in music education research: Grrl-illa games as nomadic 

practice (or how music education fell from grace). Music Education Research 6, no. 1: 67 80. 

Green, L. 1997. Music, gender, education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Hargreaves, D.J., C. Comber, and A. Colley. 1995. Effects of age, gender, and training on 

musical preferences of British secondary school students. Journal of Research in Music 

Education 42, no. 3: 242 50. 

Ho, W.-C. 2009. Gender differences in instrumental learning among secondary school students 

in Hong Kong. Gender and Education 21, no. 4: 405 22. 

Jorgensen, E.R. 2008. Questions for music education research. Music Education Research 10, 

no. 3: 331 46. 

Keiper, S., B.A. Sandene, H.R. Persky, and M. Kuang. 2009. The Nation’s report card: Arts 

2008 Music and visual arts. National Assessment of Educational Progress at Grade 8. 

Princeton, NJ: National Center for Education Statistics. ED505664. 

Kenway, J., S. Willis, J. Blackmore, and L. Remie. 1997. Answering back: Girls, boys and 

feminism in schools. St. Leonards, NSW: Allen and Unwin. 

Koza, J.E. 1992. Picture this: Sex equity in textbook illustrations. Music Educators Journal 78, 

no. 7: 28 33. 

Koza, J.E. 1993. Big boys don’t cry (or sing): Gender, misogyny, and homophobia in college 

choral methods texts. Quarterly Journal of Music Teaching and Learning 4, nos. 4/5: 48 64.



Koza, J.E. 1994. Females in 1988 middle school music textbooks: An analysis of illustrations. 

Journal of Research in Music Education 42, no. 2: 145 71. 

Ladson-Billings, G., and W.F. Tate, IV. 1995. Toward a critical race theory of education. 

Teachers College Record 97, no. 1: 47 68. 

Lamb, R. 1996. Discords: Feminist pedagogy in music education. Theory into Practice 35, no. 

2: 124 31. 

Lamb, R. 1997. Music trouble: Desire, discourse, education. Canadian University Music 

Review 18, no. 1: 85 98. 

Lamb, R., L.-A. Dolloff, and S.W. Howe. 2002. Feminism, feminist research, and gender 

research in music education: A selective review. In The new handbook of research on music 

teaching and learning, ed. R. Colwell and C. Richardson, 648 74. New York: Oxford 

University Press. 

Lareau, A. 2003. Unequal childhoods: Class, race, and family life. Berkeley, CA: University of 

California Press. 

Lawrence, C.R., III, M.J. Matsuda, R. Delgado, and K.W. Crenshaw. 1993. Introduction. In 

Words that wound: Critical race theory, assaultive speech, and the first amendment, ed. 

M.J. Matsuda, C.R. Lawrence, III, R. Delgado, and K.W. Crenshaw, 1 15. San Francisco, 

CA: Westview Press. 

Martino, W., and D. Berrill. 2003. Boys, schooling and masculinities: Interrogating the ‘right’ 

way to educate boys. Educational Review 55, no. 2: 99 117. 

McWilliam, H. 2005. Gender equity issues in the depiction of female wind band conductors 

and wind band experts in The Instrumentalist Magazine (August 2000 July 2002). Paper 

presentation for the National Conference of the Australian Society for Music Education, 

July, in Melbourne, Australia. 

Mills, M. 2004. Male teachers, homophobia, misogyny and teacher education. Teaching 

Education 15, no. 1: 27 39. 

Montecinos, C., and L.E. Nielsen. 2004. Male elementary preservice teachers’ gendering of 

teaching. Multicultural Perspectives 6: 3 9. 

Morton, C. 1994. ‘Whistle, daughter, whistle, and you shall have a man’: Sexism in children’s 

song materials. In Feminism and education: A Canadian perspective, vol. 2, ed. P. Bourne, 

P. Masters, N. Amikn, M. Gonick, and L. Gribowski, 203 20. Toronto, ON: Centre for 

Women’s Studies in Education. 

Morton, C.A. 1996. The ‘status problem’: The feminized location of school music and the burden 

of justification. PhD diss., University of Toronto. 

Nelson, B.G. 2002. The importance of men teachers: And reasons why there are so few. 

A survey of members of NAEYC. ERIC Document: ED 472536. 

Newman, D.M. 2007. Identities and inequalities: Exploring the intersections of race, class, 

gender, and sexuality. New York: McGraw-Hill. 

O’Toole, P. 1994. I sing in a choir but I have ‘No voice!’. The Quarterly Journal of Music 

Teaching and Learning 4/5, no. 4/1: 65 77. 

O’Toole, P. 1997. Escaping tradition: Tensions between the production of values and pleasures 

in the choral setting. In On the sociology of music education, ed. R. Rideout, 130 7. 

Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma. 

O’Toole, P. 1998. A missing chapter from choral methods books: How choirs neglect girls. 

Choral Journal 39, no. 5: 9 32. 

Reimer, B. 1995. Gender, feminism, and aesthetic education: Discourses of inclusion and 

empowerment. Philosophy of Music Education Review 3, no. 2: 107 24. 

Roulston, K., and M. Mills. 2000. Male teachers in feminised teaching areas: Marching to the 

beat of the men’s movement drums? Oxford Review of Education 26, no. 2: 221 37. 

Ryan, G.W., and H.R. Bernard. 2000. Data management and analysis methods. In Handbook 

of qualitative research. 2nd ed, ed. N.K. Denzin and Y.S. Lincoln, 769 802. Thousand Oaks, 

CA: Sage. 

Schmidt, C.P. 1995. Attributions of success, grade level, and gender as factors in choral 

students’ perceptions of teacher feedback. Journal of Research in Music Education 43, no. 4: 

313 29.


Shen, J., G.L. Wegenke, and V.E. Cooley. 2003. Has the public teaching force become more 

diversified? National and longitudinal perspectives on gender, race, and ethnicity. 

Educational Horizons 81, no. 3: 112 8. 

Simpson, R. 2004. Masculinity at work: The experiences of men in female dominated 

occupations. Work, employment and society 18, no. 2: 349 68. 

Skelton, C. 2001. Schooling the boys: Masculinities and primary education. Buckingham, UK: 

Open University Press. 

Smedley, S. 2007. Learning to be a primary school teacher: Reading one man’s story. Gender 

and Education 19, no. 3: 369 85. 

Sumsion, J. 2000. Oppositional discourses: Deconstructing responses to investigations of male 

early childhood educators. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood 1, no. 3: 259 75. 

Weaver-Hightower, M. 2003. The ‘boy turn’ in research on gender and education. Review of 

Educational Research 73, no. 4: 471 98. 

Zervoudakes, J., and J.M. Tanur. 1994. Gender and musical instruments: Winds of change? 

Journal of Research in Music Education 42, no. 1: 58 67. 

Appendix 1. Semi-structured interview guide 

General background and perspectives of teacher’s role: 

1. Tell me how you came to be teaching elementary music. 

2. How did your peers, family, community members respond to your decision to enter this 

field? 

3. How do you want to be treated by others in your field? 

“ Administrators 

“ Other teachers 

“ Parents 

“ Children 

4. What do you believe you can contribute to the profession of music teaching? 

5. In your pre-service teacher preparation, did you ever feel that you were treated differently 

because of your gender? How? 

6. How do you view your future in elementary music education? 

Gender and the music programme: 

7. Tell me about your experiences in working with girls in the music programme. What stands 

out for you? 

8. Tell me about your experiences in working with boys in the music programme. What stands 

out for you? 

9. What do you envision as the role of fathers, grandfathers, other males in children’s musical 

lives? 

Probe: In what ways are men involved in your music programme? 

Could you describe a specific example of that? 

10. What do you envision as the role of mothers, grandmothers, other females in children’s 

musical lives? 

Probe: In what ways are women involved in your music programme? 

Could you describe a specific example of that? 

11. As a male/female music teacher working in an elementary school, what do you see that 

others outside the field might not? 

12. Is there anything that I haven’t asked that you would like to add? 

Note: Questions are adapted from Cooney and Bittner 2001. 

Music Education Research 23



Appendix 2. Participants and school settings 

Pseudonym Age 

Professional 

qualifications 

Amy 30s B. Mus. Ed. Studying 

towards Masters in 

Counselling 

Brian 30s B. Mus. Ed. 

M. Ed. Admin. 

Studying towards an 

Ed.D. in Ed. 

Leadership 

No. of years of teaching 

experience in music 

7 years 

Also had experience 

teaching K-12 

8 years 

6 years elementary 

school; 2 years middle 

school Involved in 

organisation of the 

state-wide honour 

chorus programme 

School setting and 

population 

Was teaching in a public 

elementary school (Years 

Pre-K-5) that had been 

open 7 years in growing 

suburb of state capital; 

approximately 1300 

students 

The school population 

was described as highly 

diverse socioeconomically, 

with 

children of ‘millionaire’ 

country club members, 

along with children from 

trailer parks 

School population: 24% 

Asian-Pacific, 24% 

Black, 1 10% Hispanic, 

38% White, 5% 

multiracial, 25% free and 

reduced lunch 

Was teaching in a public 

middle school (years 6 8) 

in a small town with a 

population of 6500 

residents in rural area; 


students 

Taught 106 students, 26 

boys as director of a 

choral programme 

At the end of the 

academic year, Brian was 

moving to a new school in 

another county to be the 

co-director of the choral 

programme at a middle 

school with a racially 

diverse population of 

2500 students. School 

population: 1% American 

Indian/Alaskan, 2% 

Black, 8% Hispanic, 84% 

White, 5% Asian, 38% 

free and reduced lunch


Appendix 2. (Continued ) 

Pseudonym Age 

Professional 

qualifications 

Carole 50s B. Mus. Ed. 

Ed. Spec. (Music 

Ed.) 

Denise 30s B. Mus. Ed. Masters 

Music Ed. 

Ellen 50s B. Music 

(Performance) 

Masters in Ed. 

Leadership 

Fiona 40s B. Mus. Ed. Studying 

towards a Master of 

Music (voice) 

No. of years of teaching 

experience in music 

13 years 

Experience as a high 

school band director 

and college level piano 

teacher 

School setting and 

population 

Was teaching 


children in a public 

elementary school (years 

Pre-K-5) in a small city of 

about 25,000 


Hispanic, 29% Black, 4% 

White, 1% Asians and 

others, 90% free and 

reduced lunch 

8 years Public elementary school 

in rural area; approximately 

500 students 


Hispanic, 93% White, 2% 

Black and others, 34% free 

and reduced lunch 

Denise characterised school 

population rural, White, 

and with a low- to middle- 

class socio-economic status 

26 years Public elementary school 

(Pre-K-5) in rapidly 

growing upper middleclass 

suburb of state 

capital; approximately 

860 students 


Hispanic, 54% White, 

21% Asian/Pacific 

Islander, 14% Black, 6% 


27 years 

Had also taught in 

high school settings 


reduced lunch 

Public elementary school 

(Pre-K-5) in suburb of 

state capital; 


students 


Hispanic, 35% White, 

25% Asian/Pacific 

Islander, 23% Black, 6% 


reduced lunch 

1 The category ‘Black’ is used in information available from school districts and national statistics; whereas 

participants used the term ‘African-American’ in their descriptions of school populations.



Appendix 3. Sample from codebook and definitions 1 

Code Definition Data samples 

Administrators Includes narratives and 

descriptions of the participant’s 

perspectives of administrators in 

school settings. 

Boys Descriptions of working with boys. 

May include comparisons between 

girls and boys, or accounts in which 

participants describe ‘no difference’ 

in boys and girls. Includes 

narratives describing specific 

recalled events working with boys. 

Children Includes narratives and 

descriptions of the participant’s 

perspectives of children in school 

settings. 

Administrators in my perspective at 

times, look at the music teacher and 

the purpose that they see is 

performance. Put the chorus on the 

stage and do public relations for the 

school. But they don’t ...the 

purpose that I see for music is to 

really educate the academics of 

music, and build a lifelong 

appreciation for music. It might 

lead to a performance but it doesn’t 

necessarily have to. And the way 

that we instruct students, really is 

not any different than the way you 

would instruct a reading course, or a 

maths course, or anything else. But 

often times, we’re just kind 

of ...what we know is ...‘Oh you 

just sing and dance’. 

Yeah. I still hear, you know, ‘Boys 

don’t do that’. ‘No, I’m not going to 

be in the chorus, I’m going to play 

football’. Occasionally, in a large 

Hispanic community, and a lot of 

the men are really macho, you 

know. While music is ...they’re 

generally supportive, but every now 

and then, one of them will say, ‘No, 

my dad doesn’t want me to do that’. 

But the kids, you know, kids love 

music and most of time they take it 

seriously and I don’t have them not 

doing what I say, or thinking, ‘Oh 

this is just fluff. I don’t havetodo 

it’.


Appendix 3. (Continued ) 

Code Definition Data samples 

Children’s 

listening 

practices 

Descriptions of the kinds of music 

children enjoy listening to, and or 

listen to in the home. 

1 Further examples from the codebook are available from the first author. 


And again, and this was striking to 

me when I was doing this music 

video project, the kind of music that 

I use in class, which I have to use 

because it’s how, I mean, there’s 

nothing wrong with the resources 

that I have to use, the books and all 

that sort of stuff, but it is a stark 

contrast to what these kids are 

listening to all at home. There is, I 

mean, there is no comparison to it. I 

let the fifth graders bring in their 

favourite CDs, and we listened to 

some of it. And the boys all brought 

in this just screaming rock-n-roll.



Appendix 4. Preliminary categories 

The professional self 

“ Professional background and teaching role 

“ Entry to profession 

“ Involvement in music in school and college 

“ Peer and family response to career choice 

“ Personal teaching philosophy 

“ Future in music education 

“ Pedagogical strategies 

“ Descriptions of work 

“ Professional activities 

“ Reflection 

Perspectives of ‘gender’ 

“ Self as gendered professional 

“ Music education as gendered profession 

“ Perspectives of gender 

“ Elementary teaching as gendered 

“ Fathers and men in children’s musical lives 

“ Mothers and women in children’s musical lives 

“ Classroom practice 

k Girls 

k Boys 

k Male voice 

k School chorus 

k Ethnic and cultural differences 

k Children’s listening practices 

Context of schooling 

“ School contexts 

“ Working with others 

k Administrators 

k Parents 

k Other teachers 

k Children 

“ Sports 

“ Employment conditions 

“ Specialist teachers 

Descriptive practices 

“ Narrative 

“ Comparisons

Music teachers' constructions of gender in elementary education

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?