Teaching ambition: A case study of high school music students

Music teacher socialisation (MTS) has received increased attention in music education research, but few researchers have explored MTS with students during their primary socialisation, or pre-college, years. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to examine the perspectives of high school music students who plan to pursue a music teaching career. Participants were a purposeful sample selected from an outreach honor choir at a large Southwestern university in the USA. Data included one formal interview with each participant, field notes from observations of the outreach honor choir and participants' visual representations of music teachers. Three themes resulted from data analysis: (1) MTS, (2) ideal music teacher and (3) expressed music teacher identity. Implications for practice in K-12 and university education are included, as well as suggestions for further research.