The Frost School of Music’s Music Education program always has a robust presence at the Florida Music Educators Association’s (FMEA) annual conference in Tampa. This winter, it once again featured multiple Frost School faculty, alumni, and graduate students presenting on topics ranging from teaching students with disabilities to unconventional percussion.
But what had Carlos Abril, professor of music education, glowing with pride were the nine undergraduate students joining the formal presentations, speaking about important music education issues to audiences full of experienced teachers and leaders.
“I was as proud as can be,” says Abril. “The students arrived well prepared and a little anxious but presented themselves so well. You could see how they carried themselves a little differently after having accomplished that.”
Undergraduates rarely present at professional conferences such as the FMEA. The Frost School’s music education faculty and teaching assistants arranged for them to do so as part of a concerted effort to educate undergraduates not just in teaching, but in being leaders, advocates, innovators, and community builders.
“We have tried to open their eyes to being part of and leaders in a broader music education community,” Abril says. “They need to see themselves as more than teaching technicians in the classroom, but as future leaders in the field, professionals who should be at the table even in the earliest years of their career.”
At the FMEA conference, Professor Stephen Zdzinski led a panel on working with special needs students in the music classroom which included five Frost School undergraduate students. Abril headed a panel on “Cultivating Leadership in Preservice Music Educators,” with presentations from five undergraduates.
Junior Meli Aguila was one of them. “I was really excited,” Aguila says. “It’s not something other undergrads get to do.”
The Miami native spoke about the importance of being yourself in the classroom, a topic inspired by her experiences teaching through the Frost School. “It was exciting to see how engaging and authentic you have to be,” she says. “You need to know who you are and how to express that. If you’re not authentic, the kids won’t respect you.”
In recent years, the music education department has become more systematic about expanding undergraduate students’ concept of what it means to be a music educator. Abril brought in leaders to speak to students, including the incoming FMEA board president and the president of the National Association of Music Educators, to speak about leadership and advocacy. Abril has spoken to undergraduates about joining his colleagues nationwide to advocate for music education on Capitol Hill. He requires students in his methods course, in which they learn teaching basics, to develop and present an idea to their peers and teachers at the program’s weekly Friday forums. Those forums are a place to discuss subjects like leadership and networking.
Aguila says she has been deeply affected by what she’s learned from these efforts. “These topics are so important,” she says. “Talking about advocacy, how to stand up for yourself, stick up for your music program, connect with other teachers, look for grants, and get materials donated to your school. How creative you can be with the materials provided for you. Knowing how to talk to your principal and connect to people in the community.”
Abril also hired three undergraduates for a research project working with children in Little Havana last fall, a role usually reserved for graduate students. “It was a very deliberate decision to get them to see themselves as being a leader in creating new knowledge through research,” he says.
Senior Chris Enriques, one of the undergraduates who worked on the project, said his first research experience was fascinating and boosted his confidence. So did his world music pedagogy presentation on teaching bachata, the Dominican dance music, at the Friday forum, where he had attendees exchange roles as bands and dancers as if they were his students. “It was the first time I thought I could be a leader,” he says. Enriques spoke about the subject at the FMEA panel. “I talked about how being confident and trying new things have gone hand in hand,” he says.
The music education department believes that empowering undergraduate students will help them build long-lasting and fulfilling careers. “We have so much research on teacher retention and burnout, and what we find is teachers who feel isolated and don’t engage are often the ones who burn out,” Abril says.
He also aims to inculcate the confidence and creativity the next generation of music educators will need. “They don’t have years of experience, but they have a different generational perspective,” he says. “The models that served us very well in the 20th century aren’t going to be the way music ed is practiced in the 21st century. I believe this generation has to become leaders. They have to step up to the plate with their new ideas.”
These efforts are working for the students. “This program prepares you from the first moment you take a music ed class and learn how to apply it,” says Aguila. “I’ve taken in so much in just three years; I feel ready to start. I’m just really excited all the time.”
Enriques says his attitude about teaching music education has evolved enormously since he started. “I thought being a music teacher was appealing because of job security,” he says. “I’ve realized how much more it is. You can impact these kids in so many ways. I can make their lives better while also teaching them music.”
