Editorial & Table of Contents - Volume 5 (2011)

Editorial:

This volume consists of reports of four outstanding projects. Once again, thanks to the reviewers who have exerted utmost rigor on each of the papers. I also would like to acknowledge the technology systems staff of the College of The Arts, University of South Florida, where this journal resides. Appreciation is due to Hong Chen, as she assisted with the editing process and translated abstracts into Chinese, which has allowed the content of this publication to reach a wider audience. The Chinese abstract appears at the end of each paper.

The first paper in this volume is the award-winning paper for the 2011 Outstanding Emerging Researcher Award of the Center for Music Education Research. In this paper, Abramo used a multiple case study research design to reveal high school students’ gender differences when composing popular music in small groups. He included two audio excerpts to help us understand the compositions (be sure to use Adobe Reader 9 or higher to listen to the excerpts embedded in the texts on pages 3 and 6). In the second paper, Hebert posed provocative arguments to explore factors behind the resistance of popular music pedagogy in U.S. schools. The third paper authored by Isbell and Stanley uncovered important meanings of the college campus band experience and offered insights regarding lifelong music participation. Smith’s paper reflected upon issues music educators face as they assess their students with the use of rubrics. I am confident that each of these papers will make a mark in the field of music education in different ways. We are always open to receiving readers’ feedback. Please refer to the submission guidelines to contribute your work: http://cmer.arts.usf.edu/content/templates/?a=904&z=135 .

C. Victor Fung
Editor, Music Education Research International

Table of Contents:

Joseph M. Abramo
Gender Differences in the Popular Music Compositions of High School Students (pp. 1-11)

David G. Hebert
Originality and Institutionalization: Factors Engendering Resistance to Popular Music Pedagogy in the U.S.A. (pp. 12-21)

Dan Isbell & Ann Marie Stanley
Keeping Instruments Out of the Attic: The Concert Band Experiences of the Non-Music Major (pp. 22-33)

Gareth D. Smith
Freedom to versus Freedom from: Frameworks and Flexibility in Assessment on an Edexcel BTEC Level 3 Diploma Popular Music Performance Program (pp. 34-45)