Strong Roots, New Heights

Learn Character from Trees

Trees are characterized by their resilience, adaptability, interdependence, and memory. The character of trees models how educators and scholars can remain grounded and relational while growing and responding to change. Trees teach us that survival in turbulent times comes from having strong and deep roots within a community. We welcome empirical and practice-grounded work that clarifies what is happening now and what best supports our teaching and mentoring. This includes descriptive and explanatory studies of current practice, research on teacher learning and teacher education, supervision and mentoring, and investigations of curriculum, assessment, inclusivity, and community partnerships. We also invite practical sessions that reflect strategies and practices for current contexts. Proposals might help answer questions such as:

• In what ways have you cultivated the character of trees in your work?

• In what ways have you been inspired by those who exemplify these qualities to further the field?

• What practices are most effectively supporting teacher educators and preservice music teachers today?

• What tensions are shaping contemporary general music methods teaching (e.g., time, policy, resources, enrollment, identity, access)?

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Values from Roots

Roots represent the values, principles, beliefs, and traditions that anchor teachers of general music methods. It is about understanding and honoring where we come from (e.g., our cultural, and ethical foundations), so that every new branch or leaf (e.g., innovation, teaching practice, research, new ideas) is nourished by enduring principles rather than growing untethered. We welcome proposals that help the Colloquium community explore where our understandings, traditions, and purposes come from. We also encourage scholarship that examines how the field remembers and tells its stories. The roots can include historical research that traces the people, institutions, ideas, materials, and movements that have shaped general music methods.

• What are the roots of this profession and how did they take hold; what keeps you rooted, even as the world tries to move you?

• What gets preserved, repeated, and celebrated; what has been overlooked or marginalized?

• Which values have endured or shifted over time; whose labor, communities, and scholarship have shaped general music methods?

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Change from Leaves

Leaves are flexible, seasonal, and visible; they transform in response to the environment, showing responsiveness and the ability to adapt without losing the stability provided by roots and trunk. We welcome philosophical, empirical, and future facing proposals that push the field forward while remaining connected to our values and histories. These new heights could include conceptual and philosophical inquiry, innovative teaching designs and approaches, and boundary-crossing work that draws from technology, community musicking, interdisciplinary collaboration, and new forms of professional learning. Questions that might be answered include: 

• What new heights are we reaching toward? 

• What do we need to imagine differently about general music methods and the preparation of teachers? 

• How can innovations remain accountable to the values, communities, and histories that make growth meaningful?