Debra PenberthyUniversity of Southern California’s

Thornton School of Music

May 29, 2013

Presented at Annual Conference ofStudent Affairs Professionals at Performing Arts Schools

Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY

Fostering Self-authorship Among Music Performance Majors

Introduction

Role in working with music students

Observations about music performance majors

Realizations about a new way to see them

Note: focus is on undergraduate music performance majors who are of traditional college age, but much may apply to other majors, older students, and graduates

What is my role? Director of Student Affairs, advising office for

USC’s Thornton School of Music (TSOM) USC: large, private, doctoral institution TSOM: highly diverse school of music Advising at TSOM for 10 years and worked in

higher education since 1994

What have I observed about music performance majors?

Seen as different from the general college population, & undeclared students, in that they seem to have defined career goals by virtue of their major

Experience is different due to highly structured and demanding curriculum, with few electives

Often advised in a prescriptive manner, with advisors detailing what must be taken next to “stay on track”

Reality: some struggle with defining career vision and enacting that vision upon graduation

What have I realized about how to think about music performance majors?

May not have deep knowledge of what they want to do & how to do it

Have need for advising & support similar to what is provided for students without a declared major

Multiple sources of advising and support: faculty and staff in advising, residence life, student activities, counseling, etc.

Presentation Overview

Review of the relevant literature Existing applications of theory Discussion Adaptations of practice for music performance

majors to assist them in defining: who they are who they want to become how to enact their visions

Considerations for practice Group discussion

Literature Review:What Do We Already Know?

• Music performance majors and their paths• Features of emerging adulthood• Shortcomings of higher education• Self-authorship theory and research• Need for self-authorship among this group

Music performance majors and their paths

Very few studies focused exclusively on music performance majors, thus some studies are broader (musicians, all music majors, or music graduates)

Childhood and adolescence Beginning music as a child (Fishbein et. al., 1988/1998)

meaning less exploration (Nagel, ‘88) Choosing career as adolescent (Sandgren, 2009) High sense of “calling” at end of high school, and linked

not to ability but high involvement in and fit with music environment (Dobrow, 2012, p. 443)

Music performance majorsCollege experience Found no studies on reasons for choosing music

major Multiple influences on choice of music school:

teachers, college faculty, and financial issues (Locke, 1982; & Butke & Frego, 2009)

High demands on time--practicing (Kostka, 2002) Stress and burnout higher among music

performance majors than music education or non-music majors (Bernhard, 2010a & 2010b)

Music performance majorsCollege experience For all music majors: Multiple influences on occupational identity formation Most positive influences on continuing to pursue music

degree: private teacher, parents, taking lessons Besides teacher, multiple factors affected career

commitment, including other people and aspects of the college environment

Evidence of multiple identities (musician, entertainer/entrepreneur, teacher, conductor/composer)

(Austin, Isbell & Russell, 2012)

Music performance majorsCollege experience Reasons for choosing performance career (Parkes &

Jones, 2011) Enjoyment (common response) Perceived ability to succeed (common response) Usefulness (uncommon response) Musician identity (uncommon response)

Perceived “importance” predicts teaching career but perceived ability to succeed predicts choice of performance career (Parkes & Jones, 2012)

Music performance majors

College experience

“High calling” music students more likely to overestimate abilities (Dobrow & Heller, 2012); less likely to heed discouraging advice (Dobrow & Tosti-Kharas, 2012)

Decrease in “calling” to music from age 17 to post- college & link to greater exposure/fit with music (Dobrow, 2012)

Music performance majorsCollege experience

Evidence of need for more attention to development of occupational identity for music students (Nagel, 1987; Allen, 2003; Austin, et. al, 2012)

Using Marcia’s identity statuses (1966),U of Michigan study found about 1/3 of music majors had “achieved” occupational identity by their junior or senior year, but the rest had identity statuses of: Foreclosed: having commitment without evaluation Moratorium: actively in crisis about identity Diffused: uncommitted/not in turmoil (Nagel, ‘87)

Music performance majors Post-college life Arts graduates satisfied with their education but

dissatisfied with career advisement (SNAAP, 2012) Career outcomes: Evidence of high job satisfaction (SNAAP, 2012) but

varies by type of music position (Allmendinder, Hackman, and Lehman, 1996)

Among musicians evidence of high levels of underemployment and low pay, particularly in relation to education (NEA, 2008)

Differences between career aspirations (work as performer) and expectations ( performing and non-performing) among jazz majors (Devroop, 2011)

Features of emerging adulthood

Emerging adulthood: life stage of 18-25 year olds

Features of this age: Instability Self-focused Feeling in-between adolescence and adulthood Great sense of optimism, and Period of exploration (Arnett, 2001 & 2006)

Emerging adulthoodContrasting view:

concerning lack of purpose leading to detrimental effects

Elements of a sense of calling:“(1) a realistic awareness of one’s own abilities;

(2) an interest in how those abilities can servesome aspect of the world’s needs; and

(3) a feeling of enjoyment in using one’s abilitiesin this way.”

(Damon, 2008, p. 46, emphasis not in original)

Higher education outcomesHigher education not achieving some key goals: No gain in “critical thinking, complex reasoning,

and writing skills” for 45% of students from the freshman to sophomore years (Arum & Roska, 2011, p. 36)

Hiring managers dissatisfied with college education and virtually all types of skills of applicants, particularly complex skills such as “novel and adaptive thinking” (ACIS, 2011)

Self-authorship theory and research

Kegan (1994) posited that we are: “In over our heads” in trying to address the

“demands of modern life” Thought processes disallow many to think and

act independently and author their own lives “Self-authorship:” a necessary condition for

navigating the contemporary world

Self-authorship

Defined as:

“the internal capacity to define one’s beliefs, identity, and social relations.”

(Baxter Magolda, 2008a, p. 269)

Self-authorship 25-year longitudinal study with students who entered

Miami of Ohio in ’86 (Baxter Magolda, 2009) Most began as absolute knowers: external knowing Most graduated as transitional knowers: contested

knowledge but reliance on authorities Minority graduated as independent knowers: seeing

multiple viewpoints and thinking more independently Two graduated as contextual knowers: “viewing

knowledge as relative to context and knowledge claims better or worse based on evaluation of relevant experience.” (Baxter Magolda, 2004, xvii.)

Self-authorship

Developmental progression:

Externality Crossroads Self-authorship

(Baxter Magolda, 2004)

Self-authorship

External phase—college and early 20s:Reliance on external formulas for successUnsuccessful formulas generally replaced

with other formulas Internal voice ignored

(Baxter Magolda, 2004)

Self-authorshipQuote on this reliance upon external messages:

I went right to the law journal, that big prestige thing... I was thinking to myself “You’ve got to do this in order to get to being a law teacher. But on the way over to the law journal table, there was this street law, which is teaching in the high schools around here. I’m like, “Damn, that’s what I really want to do.” Real strong internal cues said, “Do this.” So I picked up the information and was just like, “Damn! I just can’t do it because it’s not going to get me there.” (Baxter Magolda, 2004, p. 41)

Equivalent situations in music world would be…?

Self-authorship

Period of external formulas was reactionary:

I’ve gone through most of my life being reactionary. Like those toy cars made in Taiwan in the ‘70s--battery powered, had a lever. You’d put it on a table, it would back up when it reached the edge of the table. Redirect yourself when you are going to go off a cliff. I was behaving like one of those cars. Somebody would put up a barrier and I would stop and back up; no progress.

(Baxter Magolda, 2004, p. 93)

Self-authorship

Crossroads period—sometime in 20s and into 30s Realizing that things had not turned out as

predicted Painful time of searching & questioning beliefs Understanding importance of “internal source of

belief and definition” (Baxter Magolda, 2004, p.93)

Self-authorship

Crossroads quote from same law student above:

I started reading the books and I was like, “Whoa, this is pretty boring stuff.” And it was painful, painful. I don’t know. And then I thought, “I don’t want to go through”--and this took a long time… I said, “Is this map of success given to me by the legal culture really a map at all to success?” And it depends on your definition of success. A great résumé or accolades, yeah, that’s the chart to a sign of prestige, that’s the way to go. But I realized that I couldn’t be a person who sacrificed happiness to that goal of prestige. (Baxter Magolda, 2004, p. 46)

Self-authorship

Self-authorship (30s and early 40s)

Three inter-related elements: Epistemological: “trusting the internal voice” Intrapersonal: “building an internal foundation” Interpersonal: “securing internal commitments,”

(Baxter Magolda, 2008a, p. 269)

Self-authorship could lead to original, modified or completely new goals: point is internality

Self-authorshipState of self-authorship illustrated by this quote:

Making yourself into something, not what other people say or not just kind of floating along in life, but you’re in some sense a piece of clay. You’ve been formed into different things, but that doesn’t mean you can’t go back on the potter’s wheel and instead of somebody else’s hands building and molding you, you use your own, and in a fundamental sense change your values and beliefs. (Baxter Magolda, 2004, p. 119)

Self-authorshipImplications for faculty and staff Mismatch between expectations and performance

given how uncommon self-authorship may be (Kegan, 1994 & Baxter Magolda 2004)

High challenge & support can yield self-authorship before or during college (Baxter Magolda, 2008a)

Higher education professionals must help students bridge this gap in order for students to more fully meet expectations and be prepared for the real world (Baxter Magolda, 2004)

Self-authorship

Learning Partnership Model fosters self-authorship by:

“validating learners’ capacity as knowledge constructors,situating learning in learners’ experience, and

defining learning as mutually constructing meaning.”

(Baxter Magolda, 2004, p. xix)

Need for self-authorship among music performance majors

What is known about degree of self-authorship among graduates of music performance degrees? No studies on this Based on research on others, can assume some are

self-authored before, during, and well after college Though some may appear to be self-authored, they

may be taking external models for success for career and relationships

Need for self-authorship among music performance majors

In situations that are highly complex and involve great uncertainty, self-authorship highly necessary (Baxter Magolda, 2004)

Most successful careers in music are multi-faceted and self-tailored (Ricker, 2011), indicating high complexity and uncertainty

Thus, high need for self-authorship among those who intend to have a music career

Need for self-authorship among music performance majors

Angela Myles Beeching has essentially called for self-authorship among this group, saying:

Musicians often attribute career success or failure to fate or destiny. They say it's a matter of being in the right place at the right time, getting “discovered,” or just being lucky. Unfortunately, this kind of thinking leads to a passive approach: to simply letting things happen as they will. My goal is to fundamentally change this thinking and promote the idea that you are the person in charge. You are the architect of the future.

(Beeching, 2010, pp. 1-2; emphasis in the original).

Need for self-authorship among music performance majors

In Beyond Talent, Beeching knowingly or unknowingly addresses all of the elements of self-authorship in the context of musicians: Epistemological: recognizing external (and

outdated) formulas for success and listening to self Intrapersonal: developing a personal philosophy Interpersonal: examining ways of relating to others

& enacting one’s commitments within music world Excellent set of visioning questions (2010, pp. 141-

149)

My question: would those lacking self-authorship answer them externally?

Existing Applications for Practice• Self-authorship conversation guide (Baxter Magolda

& King, 2008)• Using Learning Partnership Model to assist students

in evaluating career and personal options (Pizzolato, 2006)

Existing applicationsSelf-authorship conversation guide Designed to encourage thinking about

important experiences and mutual construction of meaning out of those reflections

Lasting 60-90 minutes and semi-regular Advisor follows the lead of the student and

gives minimal input/advice Issues of conflict/pain/anxiety fruitful areas for

followup: exploring competing ideas or needs

Baxter Magolda, M.B., & King, P.M. (2008).Toward reflective conversations:

An advising approach that promotes self-authorship. Peer Review, 10(1), 8-11.

Existing applicationsSample questions from conversation guide:1) Tell me about yourself… your background and what

brought you to [institution]?2) What did you expect college would be like for you this

year? How has your college experience gone for you so far? To what extent does it match your expectations?

3) Tell me about a significant learning experience…at college… Best experience…? Worst experience…?

4) Tell me about some of the challenges you’ve encountered. Follow-up: How did you approach them?

5) What kind of support systems do you have? What role have they played in your college experience thus far?

(Baxter Magolda & King, 2008b—questions quoted)

Existing applicationsUsing the LPM to assist students in career and personal decision-making, whereby advisor helps student to (Pizzolato, 2008): Pinpoint multiple options Delineate a range of goals—career, personal, and

education-related Lay out possible consequences of each choice Identify likely challenges & plan for contingencies Lengthy, semi-regular talks (45-60 minutes)

Discussion

How does what we know about music performance majors inform adaptations of practice?

Discussion Early start in music & less time for exploration Multiple influences on career choice High enjoyment of music but possible lack of

understanding of service element of music career Need for assistance with realistic assessment of abilities Hold multiple identities within the music world but may

have limited exposure to various roles and styles Awareness of financial and career challenges Greater need for career advising High time commitments through high school and college

Upshot: High need forguided reflection grounded in experience

Adaptations of Practice for Music Performance Majors• Self-authorship conversation guide tailored to music

performance majors• Incorporating LPM in advising sessions (no

adaptation)• Using Strengths Finder 2.0 (Rath, 2007)• Artist’s Way model for building internal voice

(Cameron, 1992)• Beyond Talent reflection guide (Beeching, 2010, pp.

140-149)

Adaptations of Practice

1. Conversation guide for performance majors: Grounding in student’s experience not visioning Reflecting on paths to music Identifying satisfying elements of experience in

music and more broadly Identifying areas of internal conflict or potential

“provocative moments” (Pizzolato, 2003)

Adaptations of PracticeNew questions added to original guide, including:

1) Tell me about the process of deciding to major in music performance. [Focus on experiences]

2) What has been one of your most satisfying learning experiences this year? What aspect of music or other subjects does that entail, and why was it satisfying?

3) If your interest is performance, in the past year, what has been one of your most satisfying performance experiences? What about in high school? What was satisfying about both?

4) Have you had the experience of being in a music role other than performer? If so, what was that like? What about performing other styles/different settings?

Use individual questions to encourage reflection

Adaptations of PracticeRecent use of methods: Used “satisfying learning experiences” and

“performances” questions in advising appointments, resulting in rich conversations

Conducted guided conversations with three students. My initial thoughts: Rich conversations utilizing very few questions Area of conflict over internal desire to do music but

feeling or being called “selfish”—points to service Challenge of assessing self-authorship

Adaptations of Practice2. Using the LPM to assist students in career and personal decision-making for music majors:

Use application as described above (no real adaptation) Focus on delineating range of goals—career, personal,

and education-related Explore potential areas of conflict between goals as

raised by student

(Pizzolato, 2008)

Adaptations of Practice3. Use of Strengths Finder 2.0 online assessment Identifies general strengths Exhorts people to focus on strengths not

weaknesses Adaptation: discuss and map strengths onto

various music roles to help explain varying levels of enjoyment Example: presenter has “ideation,” “learner,”

“strategy,” and “achiever.” Explains better fit with songwriting than other roles explored.

Use of USC Thornton Music Professions Index (in press) to see almost 400 professions and associated skills

(Rath, 2007)

Adaptations of Practice4. Use of Artist’s Way exercises as basis of reflective conversations with students (Cameron, 1992): Affirmations about musician self and negative

“blurts” that reveal negative beliefs (p. 34) “Detective work” exercise filling in statements:

Example--“My parents think artists are…” (p. 73) New statements for musicians: My teacher thinks musicians are…? I think musicians are…? My teacher thinks success as a musician is..? I think…? To fail as a musician looks like…?

Adaptations of Practice

5. Use of Angela Myles Beeching’s reflection guide as preparation for conversation (2010, pp. 141-149)

• Assign to student to prep for conversation• Discuss answers• Tie answers to experiences• Encourage sense-making prior to visioning• Follows leads about questioning, conflict, or

crossroads experiences

Considerations for practice• Time required

• Different practices/questions for various student groups?

• Caution in dealing with highly emotional issues—referring to counseling/occupational therapy/other resources when necessary

Group DiscussionAny questions?

What are some potential crossroads experiences for music performance majors prior to, during, or after college?

How might these applications fit your work context?

Are there ways that you are already fostering self-authorship through your practice?

Have questions later? My contact info is: dpenbert@thornton.usc.edu

323-823-8723