Music Education Commons^™

An Autoethnography Of A Punk Rocker Turned Music Teacher, Jonathan Kladder

Research & Issues in Music Education

The criteria used to admit prospective music teachers in colleges and universities across the United States has remained relatively unchanged since their inception. These criteria disenfranchise a population of potential music teachers who hold musical backgrounds outside the Western European art tradition. This autoethnography illuminates the challenges and barriers experienced by a self-taught musician who attended two traditional music programs in a midwestern region of the United States. Using Berry’s (1980) six dimensions of acculturation as the theoretical framework to interpret these data, the author exposes challenges associated with his journey in achieving music teacher certification. As a qualitative investigation, …