Case Studies in Music Education

Abstract

Jagow reviews Case Studies in Music Education, 2nd ed by Frank Abrahams and Paul D. Head.

* Case Studies in Music Education. 2nd ed. By Frank Abrahams and Paul D. Head. GIA Publications, 7404 South Mason Ave., Chicago, IL 60638; 800-442-1358; fax, 708-496-3828; www.giamusic.com. 2005. 166 pp. Tables and bibliography. Hardcover, $22.95.

Frank Abrahams and Paul D. Head have coauthored a second edition of their 1998 book, Case Studies in Music Education. As the title suggests, the book offers a selection of case studies in the field of teaching music.

Each scenario presents both a pedagogical and ethical dilemma that requires a solution (or solutions). The readers must identify the key players involved and those who are directly and indirectly affected by the circumstances. The first edition (1998) provided fourteen case studies of situations that can occur during the career of any music educator. The second edition includes fifteen, with twelve cases repeated in both editions. The second edition is more organized than the first, which makes reading and following the steps of the case studies less complicated than before.

The republished case studies will encourage music education students and working music teachers to question many of their own pedagogical theories and moral decisions. For example, the teacher may ask, How will I justify giving a grade of A in band? What do I do when an angry parent confronts me? Can I resolve tension among my teaching colleagues caused by a decision I made? Did I just commit copyright infringement?

The three new case studies in the second edition are timely additions now that our educational culture is noticeably affected by federal legislation and school assessments that often influence educators to teach to the test instead of toward higher orders of cognitive and affective function. Examination of the three case studies will involve teachers in dialogue on current events, politics, legislation, and the National Standards. Scenarios involve diversity in the classroom, multicultural music curriculums, the writing and assessment of lesson plans for the performing arts, and explorations of curricular freedom.

This book could be especially useful as a supplementary text in a graduate or undergraduate music education curriculum. Teachers using it in a methods course could ask students to present the facts of each case and describe the dilemma. In a group discussion or brainstorming session, students could pose possible solutions to the problems presented in the study.

Although the authors do not provide potential solutions to each problem, they do provide talking points that assist in generating group discussion. Although I hoped that the second edition would include such solutions, it does not. But the absence of solutions does provide a healthy springboard for lively discussion and debate. case Studies in Music Education provides the preservice and the current music teacher with a valuable set of circumstances that will initiate group discussion of quandaries teachers face every day.