Effect of multicultural music experience on preservice elementary teachers' attitudes

The purpose of this exploratory study was to determine the effects of multicultural music lesson planning and implementation on preservice elementary teachers' attitudes toward teaching from a multicultural perspective. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design was developed to measure attitude changes of elementary education majors enrolled in music methods courses. The assumption was made that, through the process of developing multicultural music lessons plans and implementing them in their methods classes, preservice teachers would increase their familiarity with multicultural teaching, thereby positively affecting their attitudes toward future teaching. Results reveal that there was a significant difference between treatment conditions and attitudes of willingness to teach multicultural music, indicating that the experience of developing and implementing multicultural music lessons can positively affect preservice teachers' attitudes toward future multicultural music teaching. No difference was found with regard to attitudes of preparedness for multicultural music teaching, nor attitudes of willingness to teach in culturally diverse environments. © 1997 by Music Educators National Conference.