Welcome to my web page! 

I also blog on education policy and politics at Eclectablog, a Michigan progressive news and commentary website.

You may also use the links above to find resources on graduate study and advising at Michigan State University as well as information on our current doctoral students and graduates in music education.

There is also a link to a page devoted to the distribution of clinic and workshop materials, handouts, research presentations, and other music education resources. All materials are offered free of charge and may be duplicated as needed, with proper citations and acknowledgements.

I'm very excited to have my first publication in the LA Progressive! I’ve admired this publication for a long time, and am thrilled to have one of my articles appear on their website.

Click here to listen to my radio interview with fellow education activist Denisha Jones on the Education Town Hall: BUS (Badass Teachers Association, United Opt Out, Save our Schools):

Death Knell for “Ed Reform”?

Mitchell Robinson, of Michigan State University, and Denisha Jones, of Howard University — both active in BadAss Teachers Association — discuss the disappointment of teachers and teacher educators, nationwide, as unions and others jump on the “teachers are the problem” bandwagon of #TeachStrong.

Jones explains how the new effort fails to include many experienced schools of education, possibly in recognition of the fact that previous attempts to privatize and control schools has been thwarted by teachers and teacher educators.

Robinson also argues, however, that recent changes of tack for ed reformers, including Gates Foundation teacher prep funding, suggest reformers’ frustration because “they have not done one thing” and consequent flailing. Signaling, perhaps, a death knell for combative and unsuccessful strategies. 

An article of mine on music teacher evaluation, Can it get more absurd? Now music teachers are being tested based on math and reading scores, was published on The Conversation—a new media platform designed to "Inform public debate with knowledge-based journalism that is responsible, ethical and supported by evidence.”

My goal with this effort is to share my scholarship with a wider audience, and try to influence the narrative around the issues that are important to the profession. This can be difficult with traditional academic venues, like research journals, that have a limited circulation, target only other music educators, and often require a paid subscription in order to access. I believe that we have an obligation as “public academics” to spread our scholarship in these ways.

The Conversation is an open access platform with online editions in the US, Australia, Africa, France and the UK, and has a monthly audience of 2.6 million users, and a reach of 23 million.

I'm happy to share that my chapter, “A Tale of Two Institutions or... Myths and Musings on Work/Life Balance,” appears in the new book, “On the High Wire: Education Professors Walk Between Work and Parenting” from Information Age Publishing.

The purpose of the work/life balance series is to highlight particular challenges that higher education faculty face as they participate in the demands of the academy and try to prevent those demands from invading their personal lives. On The High Wire looks at a specific subset of university faculty, education faculty with school-aged children, and the specific professional/personal balance these faculty need to find. The title On the High Wire suggests the precarious nature of the “walk” for education faculty who are parents of school-aged children. We know that our identities are central to how we experience the world and how the world reacts to us. This reality is clearly visible in this book. These multiple identities and roles come into conflict at multiple points and in different ways. This book explores these identities and roles through autoethnographic accounts written by varied education faculty in order to make these tensions visible for the field to address.

The following post appeared on the Badass Teachers Association blog (http://badassteachers.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2014-12-04T09:29:00-08:00&max-results=7) on December 4, 2014

When we want to improve something--a product, a process, a project--in the business world, we devote more time, money and resources into research and development; we recruit talented people and pay them a competitive wage; we make sure we surround those persons with excellent facilities, equipment, materials, working conditions, benefits, and retirement packages; we treat those employees with dignity, respect and compassion.

When we want to improve something--teacher quality, student learning--in public education, we establish invalid and unreliable accountability measures that have been proven not to work; we eliminate teacher tenure, teacher unions, and minimum salary requirements; we make it easier for unqualified people to enter the profession, taking away jobs from more experienced (read = more expensive) teachers; we deregulate charter schools as we impose unreasonable demands and expectations on our public schools, teachers and students.

And then we blame teachers and students for the problems created by this mismanagement, and label them as "whiners" and "complainers" when they have the nerve to voice their concerns about the damage being done to public education.
Why?

Qualitative research has become increasingly popular in music education over the last decade, yet there is no source that explains the terms, approaches and issues associated with this approach. In The Oxford Handbook of Qualitative Research in American Music Education, editor Colleen Conway and the contributing music educators provide that clarification, as well as models of qualitative studies within various music education disciplines. The handbook outlines the history of qualitative research in American music education and explores the contemporary use of qualitative approaches in examining issues related to music teaching and learning. It includes 32 chapters that address a range of topics, from ways of approaching qualitative research and ways of collecting and analyzing data, to the various music teaching and learning contexts that have been studied using qualitative approaches. 

My two chapters are: 

6 ‐ Changing the Conversation: Considering Quality in Music Education Qualitative Research.

31 ‐ The Politics of Publication: Voices, Venues and Ethics.

To browse an online version of the Handbook, please go to: http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199844272.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199844272

Music Education Advocacy

Experts at MSU take action and provide perspective

School districts across the nation are faced with challenging economic times. When tough decisions need to be made, arts funding is one of the first things some districts put under the microscope. Music Education at MSU looks at this through a different lens and plays a strong advocacy role for the arts in its community, across the state and nation.

In March of 2013, the Lansing School District announced it would cut more than 80 elementary art, music, and physical education teacher positions beginning in the fall of 2013. Faced with some tough budgetary issues and new State of Michigan Right-to-Work legislation, the school board and teachers union made the decision to eliminate teacher positions and supplement their programing by placing additional demands on existing teachers and seeking non-binding external subject matter resources and personnel.

Dr. Mitch Robinson, associate professor and chair of music education, and Rhonda Buckley, associate dean for outreach and engagement and executive director of the MSU Community Music School, took prompt action. They reached out to local and national arts organizations, teachers, parents, the MSU College of Education, and various associations to advocate for the centrality and importance of arts education in the general curriculum. New dialogues have evolved and relationships have developed as the College of Music continues to provide leadership on this issue.

Click here to read more on the College of Music’s perspective on this issue and listen to a radio interview with Mitch Robinson.

The 2013 Michigan Music Conference will feature an impressive roster of presenters with MSU affiliations--just click to see a full size version of the poster!

We should all be proud of our friends and colleagues who will be sharing their knowledge and expertise with their colleagues in our schools at this event. See below for a listing of these sessions. 

I'd also like to point out three events for your special attention:

• Dr. Cindy Taggart will be presenting an all day (8:00am-4:00pm) pre-conference workshop, titled "Illuminating the Mystery: Music Learning Theory in Action. Cindy will be joined by two Spartan alums, Jennifer Bailey and Heather Shouldice, who will be co-presenters. This promises to be a terrific workshop!

• Dr. Kevin Sedatole, MSU's Director of Bands, will be conducting the Michigan All-State High School Band on Saturday. It will be great to have Dr. Sedatole share his musicianship and artistry with our state's young musicians. Congratulations Kevin!

• Dr. John Kratus will be receiving the MMEA "Award of Merit" for his contributions to the state's music education community, especially for his founding of the annual MMEA Honors Composition Concert, which will be held on Saturday, January 19. Congratulations to John for this well deserved honor!

Also, if you are planning to attend the MMC, please remember to join us for the MSU Reception on Friday. The reception will be held from 5:00-6:30pm in the Governors Room, and is a great way to catch up with old friends and touch base with the faculty and current students. We hope to see you there!

Congratulations to all of our presenters and clinicians, and thank you for sharing your expertise and ideas with your colleagues!

Click on the picture to the left to go to the Teachers College Press web page on our new book, What Every Principal Needs to Know to Create Equitable and Excellent Schools, edited by George Theoharis (Syracuse University) and Jeff Brooks (Iowa State University). My chapter is titled, "Music Teaching and Learning in a Time of Reform."