A phenomenological study of music education majors’ vocational identity development during the COVID-19 pandemic

In this phenomenological study, we explored seven undergraduate music education majors’ vocational identity development within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Symbolic interactionism was used as a framework for investigating the impact of COVID-19 on the secondary socialization of our participants. Social distancing, online and hybrid learning, and other COVID-19 preventative measures impacted the interactions of undergraduate music education majors that contributed to their identity development. Considering the unique experience of navigating the music education degree during the COVID-19 pandemic, we aimed to provide a profile of these incoming music teachers, including their strengths, difficulties, preparedness, and outlooks on their upcoming careers. The research questions were: (1) What are the lived experiences of undergraduate music education majors pursuing their degree program in the COVID-19 pandemic years? (2) How did undergraduate music education majors develop teacher and musician identities during the COVID-19 pandemic? Participants were seven American undergraduate music education majors who were students during the fall 2020 academic semester and had not yet enrolled in student teaching at the time of the study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, participant written reflections, researcher memos, and researcher observational notes. We identified the essence of the phenomena as motivated by empathy and organized our findings into four emergent themes: (a) navigating interactions, (b) influences on teacher identities, (c) (re)developing personal teaching philosophies, and (d) entering the teaching profession.