Methods
Methods
A total of nine music teachers from Singapore collaborated on this study to answer the fundamental research questions “ What challenges do teachers face in providing MME ?” and “ What pedagogical approaches do they employ to overcome these challenges ?”. They took part in individual online interviews during the months of November and December in 2021 , with each interview lasting between one to two hours . The interviews were also semi-structured to accommodate each collaborator ’ s unique teaching experience , musical tradition and pedagogical approach or philosophy ( interview schedule attached as appendix ). However , several of the questions posed remained consistent between each collaborator , such as asking for a brief introduction to their musical backgrounds , education and teaching experiences . Interview questions were tailored to each participant in order to increase the likelihood of obtaining data that was most relevant to the research questions and aims .
Collaborators were also recruited in different ways . Out of the nine collaborators , one of them was part of my personal network , while the rest were approached using social media or through wordof-mouth , and therefore they were all known to me as the researcher . The collaborators represent traditional Chinese , Malay , Indian , Javanese and Filipino music , and these traditions were chosen as it was felt that they were reflective of the cultural heritages most represented in Singapore . Two of the collaborators were also classroom teachers who teach the GMP syllabus in local secondary schools and represent non-specialist educators reflected in existing research , who are expected to teach a range of musical traditions at elementary levels . The other seven collaborators teach privately in studios , at institutions of higher learning ( such as arts colleges and universities ) or have been engaged to teach co-curricular activities in various institutions . Specialist teachers of Western classical and traditional music were also excluded from the study to focus on musical traditions that are reflective of and native to both Singapore and the region .
Each interview was also transcribed in full to facilitate thematic analysis , using the main research aim to guide the interpretation of varied data . This process involved looking for similarities and differences between the experiences of the individual collaborators , enabling me to identify emerging themes around the challenges faced by MME teachers . Through this method of analysis , I observed a common theme despite asking tailored questions , which was that educators observe a general disinterest towards unfamiliar musical traditions from students , although the ways in which educators deal with this challenge are varied . While the sample size of nine interviews is not representative of all MME teachers , the fact that there was a common theme that arose in their responses to non-leading questions suggests that this is a common challenge that may be faced by more educators in the field . While it is beyond the scope of this study , future research could widen the sample to explore whether this challenge is more commonly experienced among more MME teachers .
In addition to the small sample size , the study remains limited as it was conducted entirely online . While the flexibility and accessibility offered by online interviews allowed me to access research participants despite being unable to conduct the study in person in Singapore , technological issues such as poor internet connection and indistinct audio may have resulted in opportunities for missed data ( Mirick and Wladkowski , 2019 ). Despite the pedagogical focus of the study , it was also neither possible to observe any lessons held by the teachers due to both distance and issues over child protection , or gain more access to teaching materials due to concerns relating to the safeguarding of intellectual property . A few of the collaborators were willing to share some teaching materials with me , but they made up a small minority of everyone who participated . Nevertheless , all the collaborators remained extremely generous with their time and explained their pedagogical philosophies , challenges and approaches to the best of their abilities .
Written permission to publish the findings was obtained from each of the participants , although some of them had requested that they were anonymised . Rather than anonymising all interview data , the names of participants who had given consent to be quoted were included in the reporting of the results . This is to acknowledge the value of their contribution to the study , as well as acknowledge novel pedagogical approaches where applicable .
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