Abstract
In this case study, we explore one course in one Ontario initial teacher education program to examine the intersecting institutional documents and practices that regulate teaching in the arts (dance, drama, music, and visual arts). Using the feminist sociological research approach of institutional ethnography, we identify and trace institutional mechanisms that regulate teaching in the arts and how four women instructors activated or resisted those regulatory practices. Our analysis illuminated tensions between institutional policies and practices, and instructors’ efforts to maintain creativity, ambiguity, and discipline-specific experiential learning in the course. While instructors varied in their pedagogical approaches, over a seven-year period they increasingly adopted standardized templates and less risky pedagogy in their course design. This research provides insights into the social and institutional factors that influence teaching in the arts in initial teacher education and highlights how instructors teaching in the arts may simultaneously reinscribe and resist institutional norms.
Accessibility Requirements
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Recommended Citation
Sefton, Terry and Sirek, Danielle
(2026)
"Teacher education in the arts: A case study of constraint, standardization, and resistance,"
Visions of Research in Music Education: Vol. 49, Article 2.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/vrme/vol49/iss1/2