The White Whale: A Case Study of Sight-Singing Philosophies and Practices of Two Secondary Choral Music Educators

Abstract

Within the American secondary choral classroom, sight-singing instruction is a common practice, with many teachers touting its connection to building music literacy for singers. Given the plethora of available sight-singing curricula, as well as the many possible musical and instructional systems that can be used in sight-singing instruction, choir teachers can approach this subject in a variety of ways. This thesis sought to delve deeper into the backgrounds, philosophies, and rationales of two Tucson, Arizona-area secondary choir teachers in regard to the instruction of sight-singing in their choir classes. The two teachers, Mrs. Julia Higgins of Esperero Canyon Middle School and Mrs. Sarah Ross of Marana High School, were first interviewed one-on-one to gain a foundational understanding of their personal musical backgrounds, teaching philosophies and instructional choices. They were then each observed teaching “standard sight-singing lessons” to three of their choir classes. After their observations, each participant made a self-reflection in the form of a vlog to discuss the rationales behind the lessons that they taught. After analyzing the data, several categories emerged: teacher identity (subcategories: personal musical experience, instrumental music connections, perception of self, and relationship to students), musical systems and curriculum (subcategories: solfege, establishing the key, tuning and intervals, beat and rhythm, and curriculum choices), pedagogical strategies (subcategories: structure and repetition, variety in approach, modeling, feedback and assessment), and philosophy (subcategories: efficiency and fluency, connecting the mind and the voice, artistic significance and application to repertoire, fun, and student independence and growth over time). This led to a discussion of each teacher’s music teaching philosophies as they relate to sight-singing, their pedagogical strategies used when teaching sight-singing, and how these two categories connect. This study provides only a snapshot of two teacher’s backgrounds and methods, and further, broader research can and should be done to comprehensively investigate how and why secondary choral educators teach sight-singing.