PARENTAL AND EDUCATOR ROLES !

Helping Define Parental and Educator Roles in Music Education

Kai H. Smith

James Madison University


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Abstract

This paper explores 10 published articles that examines the roles of teachers and parents of

children enrolled in music programs. The aim of this paper is to offer a review of musical

parenting research on how parents can be involved in their child’s music experiences to optimize

the enjoyment of music and musical progress. By examining the parent’s musical involvement

characteristics, aspirations, and the students’ responses in the articles, this paper hopes to help

music educators understand what motivated parents to enroll in music classes and continue to

reduce barriers for students and parents to participate in musical activities. This paper also aims

to further study how teachers and parents can cooperate to accelerate teacher-effectiveness and

nourish the best environment for student learning.

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Helping Define Parental and Educator Roles in Music Education

There are numerous studies out regarding music and its benefits from participating in

music classes for children and adolescence. While teachers are constantly working with parents,

there is often a communication gap between the teachers and parents. According to Taylor

(2017), “some education students have expressed trepidation about working with parents

perceived to be difficult.” Establishing that positive relationship between the teacher and the

parents early then becomes necessary to nourish an environment that is conducive to student

learning.

While parental involvement is vital during a child’s early years through

“enculturation” (Gruhn, 2002), parents should seek to “strike a balance between autonomy and

assistance as their children develop and grow in culture” (Ilari, 2017).

Literature Review

In Gruhn’s (2002) article that sought to examine the stages in children’s early music

learning, it found that infants enrolled in an early music program developed a strong interaction

between motor control and voice production much faster than infants whom had little to no

music in their daycare. More interestingly, Gruhn (2002) was able to differentiate between five

different music learning stages in infants. The first being “Enculturation” where infants absorb

musical information by mere exposure without the intention of learning. Second, “Attention”,

where infants begin to understand that music can be explored and imitated. Then, in the

“Imitation” stage, infants start to imitate the movements and sounds around them but with a

significant lag. Fourth, Co-ordination, is when infants can recognizes movement and rhythmic

and tonal properties and will try to coordinate with what the teacher is doing. Lastly,
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“Elaboration” is where infants begin to expand on the musical knowledge that they have to be

able to improvise.

For any parent who wants to enroll their children in early music programs for their

infants, it can be important to understand the milestones in their child’s musical progress because

not every child reaches the milestones at the same time. While there might be clear cognitive

benefits of taking early music classes as described in Gruhn’s article, Savage (2015) went out to

ask why parents enlisted their children in such music programs and what they perceived to be the

long-term benefits of the musical experience. From this research article, Savage reported

“mothers primarily enrolled their children in early years music classes not only for education in

music but for the non-musical benefits that these classes provide both their child and themselves”

(p. 137). The parents hoped that the perceived non-musical benefits would help their children

develop this sense of cultural sophistication that would elevate them above their peers and help

cultivate advantages.

Research from Corrigall and Schellenberg (2015), aimed to find if there was correlation

between the parents’ personalities and the length of which their child stayed in a music program.

Because the decision to take music lessons or attend music classes is made initially by parents, at

younger ages, it can be important for music teachers to understand what stakeholders are at hand

how they can be the best teacher for the students. In this article, Corrigall and Schellenberg

(2015) examined the parents’ and children’s Big Five personality dimensions and found that

children who had parents who scored higher on the ‘openness-to-experience’ section predicted

their child’s duration of music training.

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Another research article that tried to examine parental characteristics was in Phillipson,

Phillipson, Tai (2017). In this article, Phillipson et al. (2017) used the Parental Involvement in

Music Training Questionnaire (PIMTQ) to analyze the characteristics of involvement in music

from parents in Hong Kong and China. The questions on the PIMTQ were then split up into 7

sections; family music background, family music interest, parental support toward music

training, parental expectations, home music environment, music program support, and attitude

towards music. This research found that they were unable to find any correlation between the

parental involvement and family music background and family music interest. On the other

hand, this article found a correlation between parental involvement and the other five factors.

This shows that the families musical environment at home could not be a reliable predictor in the

parents’ involvement in their child’s music training.

Another journal article that aimed to examine the different types of parental involvement

was in the article by Upitus, Abrami, Brook, and King (2016). In this article, Upitus et al.

(2016) aimed to “explore parent characteristics, parental goals, students’ musical progress, the

teacher–student relationship, the practice environment, and parent behaviors during practice

sessions” (p. 74). More specifically, this article hoped to help teachers explain to parents how

they can support their child’s musical endeavors so that the child can have the most meaningful

experience possible. Upitus et al. (2016) found the following:

Parental aspirations and values, parents’ musical background, the home practice

environment, supervision of practice, and family dynamics have been identified as

positively affecting students’ musical outcomes. However, in order for this involvement

to remain positive throughout the adolescent years, students need to experience their
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parents as being both caring and supportive of students’ growing autonomy or

independence. (p. 75)

The research article by Zdzinski (1992) can be seen support the claims from Upitus et al..

In this article, Zdzinski (2016) analyzed the relationship between parental involvement, music

aptitude, and musical achievement of middle school wind musicians. This article found that

parental involvement in their child’s music studies can be detrimental at the age of the students

Zdzinski was examining but Zdzinksi also agreed that while parental involvement was not

particularly helpful compared to parental involvement during the child’s infant years, parents

should be encouraged to stay involved throughout their musical training. “There are many ways

in which parents can be an important source of support for instrumental music

programs” (Zyzdinski, p. 123).

With the exponential growth of technology and the internet in the past couple decades,

parents can often feel left behind and unable to communicate with their children. In this research

article, Patrikakou (2016) discusses the social and academic impact technology has had and how

schools and parents can begin to use technology to lower the communication barriers between

teachers and parents and students. With the rising demand to integrate technology into the

schools, it becomes important that teachers and parents become well versed in the positives and

negatives of technology in order to maximize the benefits.

In Conkling’s (2017) article, the concept of Socialization is explored as a possible tool for

music educators to use to help close the gap between the cultural differences in music between

the school and the student’s houses. According to Conkling (2017), Socialization is the passing
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of norms and values from one generation on to the next. Conkling (2017) found that familial

Socialization continues into the second decade of a child’s life and “mismatches between home

and school environments can be detrimental to children’s overall participation in school and thus

to their lifelong learning” (p. 7).

In the next two articles, Taylor (2017) and Jindal-Snape, Levy, and Robb (2017), continue

expand the topic of parental involvement in their child’s music training by considering how

parents and teachers can cooperate to help students with disabilities. Jindal-Snape et al. (2017)

examined inclusive music classroom which used personalization. This article found that

Personalization was a great tool that helped build a sense of identity lead to many positive

outcomes from the students. Taylor’s (2017) article discusses the impact on preservice music

teachers after interacting with parents of children with disabilities. According to Taylor (2017),

“Initial impressions of parents as unknowledgeable and apathetic were replaced with perceptions

of parents as experts worthy of respect” (p. 65).

Discussion

This paper explores 10 published articles that examines the roles of teachers and parents

of children enrolled in music programs. The aim of this paper is to offer a review of musical

parenting research on how parents can continually be involved in their child’s music experiences

to optimize the enjoyment of music and musical progress. Through the review of these 10

articles, teachers and parents have a clearer idea of how they can work together to create an

environment that works the best for each of the uniques students and their unique needs and

aspirations. Through practices such as Personalization, Socialization, technology, and the

understanding the natural progression of musical achievement from infants through adolescence,
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music teachers can share these ideas and stories to the parents so that the parents can be as

supportive of their child’s musical growth as the develop and mature. “Continued

communication between primary stakeholders in the education of all children may accelerate

teacher effectiveness, student learning, and overall quality of life for all involved” (Taylor, 2017).

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References

Conkling, S. W. (2017). Socialization in the family: Implications for music education.

Applications of Research in Music Education, DOI: 10.1177/8755123317732969

Corrigall, K. A., & Schellenberg, E. G. (2015). Predicting who takes music lessons: Parent and

child characteristics. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 282.

Gruhn, W. (2002). Phases and stages in early music education: A longitudinal study on the

development of young children’s musical potential. Music Education Research, 4, 51-71.

Jindal-Snape, D., Levy, S., & Robb, A. J. (2017). Disability, personalisation and community

arts: Exploring the spatial dynamics of children with disabilities participating in inclusive

music classes. Disability and Society, 32, 254-268.

Patrikakou, E. N. (2016). Parent involvement, technology, and media: Now what? School

Community Journal, 26, 9-24.

Phillipson, S. N., Phillipson, S., & Tai, D. M. (2017). Hong Kong parents and their children’s

music training: Measurement properties of the parental involvement in music training

questionnaire. Educational Psychology, DOI: 10.1080/01443410.2017.1280129

Savage, S. (2015). Understanding mothers’ perspectives on early childhood music programs.

Australian Journal for Music Education, 2, 127-139.

Taylor, D. M. (2017). Learning from parents of children with disabilities. Journal of Music

Teacher Education, 26, 64-76.

Upitus, R., Abrami, P. C., Brook, J., & King, M. (2017). Parental involvement in children’s

independent music lessons. Music Education Research, 19, 74-98.

Zdzinski, S. F. (1992). Relationships among parental involvement, music aptitude, and musical
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achievement of instrumental music students. Journal of Research in Music Education,

40, 114-125.