Twists, turns and thrills during COVID-19: music teaching and practice in Australia

ABSTRACT

The global pandemic crisis has significantly affected music educators around the world. In Australia, higher education institutes and schools had to swiftly move from face-to-face teaching to online classes. The authors draw on narrative reflection to show key challenges and opportunities that have affected their teaching in Melbourne. Author one (Dawn) works in initial teacher education programmes as a tertiary music educator, and Author two (Lucy) works as a music specialist at a primary school. In this paper, we highlight some twists, turns, and thrills of teaching during COVID-19, focusing on two themes: changing our practice and making connections. We argue that the digital turn has opened opportunities to refresh, reset, and renew our ways of practice which may resonate with other educators across educational settings.

KEYWORDS:

• Music education
• narrative inquiry
• online learning
• primary school
• teacher education
• wellbeing

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dawn Joseph

Dawn Joseph is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Education at Deakin University (Melbourne, Australia). She teaches in undergraduate and post graduate programs in the School of Education. She serves on international and national editorial boards of refereed journals. Her national and international program of research and scholarship includes teacher education, music education, community music, African music, cultural diversity, and ageing and well-being in the Arts. Dawn has been twice Chair of the Australian Society for Music Education (Victorian Chapter) and has served on the National Committee of this peak association. She currently serves as a committee member on the Australian and New Zealand Association for Research in Music Education.

Lucy Lennox

Lucy Lennox studied classical guitar in Inverloch and Melbourne (Australia). She accomplished her Bachelor of Music at Monash University in 2013. Between 2015 and 2016 she completed the Master of Teaching program at Deakin University specialising in Double Music Methods (Primary and Secondary school teaching). Lucy is music specialist at Milgate Primary School in Melbourne. She is responsible for all class music, and ensemble work. Since 2017, Lucy served as a committee member of the Australian Society for Music Education (Victorian Chapter). She is currently Deputy Chair of this organisation.