Written teaching philosophies are a common part of
applications for music teaching positions and a pivotal exercise
for pre-service teacher development. However, their contents are
not often addressed in the music education research literature.
Using a case study of last-year pre-service music teachers at a
Swedish university, I explore these statements to uncover their
beliefs about practicing the music teaching profession. The results
revealed four different areas of concern for the participants related
to methodology, self, curriculum and students. Furthermore,
the participants differ slightly from their counterparts in other
subjects by highlighting aspects such as professional development
or the teacher-parents/guardians relationship. In addition, they
often express their alignment with humanistic or constructivist
pedagogical approaches while simultaneously intending to work
with extrinsic motivation. I argue the impossibility of classifying
their underlying music teaching philosophies within the traditional
ones in the field as such proposed by Keith Swanwick, Bennett
Reimer and Christopher Small. Finally, I discuss the limitations and
the implications of the results for the professional world.
