| With a steady decline and elimination of music programs due to increased accountability and high stakes testing coupled with tighter budgets and less funding, music educators are searching for ways to show their relevancy within a high-stakes testing and accountability culture. One potential way for a music educator to contribute to student academic achievement is through participation in a professional learning community (PLC) with academic teachers to support their shared students' learning. The purpose of this study was to document the PLC collaborative experiences of a music educator and two core academic subject teachers who worked together to understand, develop, implement, and assess the ways in which the music teacher can support academic teachers in meeting the science and mathematics learning needs of female students.;To gain insight into the PLC as a structure for music and academic teacher collaboration, as a music educator I used practitioner research to examine my practice and reflect on my way of work as a musician, teacher, and colleague within a PLC formed with the biology and geometry teachers at my school. Data analyzed included verbatim transcripts from eight audiotaped PLC meetings, as well as student artifacts from the eight female students we shared, and teacher journal entries.;As I reviewed, analyzed, and reflected upon the collaborative PLC experience, four themes emerged across the data that provide insights into the ways music educators might use their knowledge of music and relationship with students to support their academic learning: long-term relationships and contextual knowledge, infusion of music into academic learning, the use of the multi-grade music classroom, and the illumination of our needs as teachers working in a high-stakes testing environment. These themes, reported in the final chapter of this document, reflect how collaborative work between a music teacher and academic teachers within a PLC can lead to changes in teacher practice to better support learning for all students. The findings of this study may initiate a reevaluation of the role of the music educator as an active participant in the academic lives of students. As a multi-year teacher, music educators provide knowledge and insight about students that could positively impact their academic success. |
