Identity, motivation and goals of Mexican students of classical piano

Identity, motivation and
goals of Mexican
students of classical
piano: a preliminary
analysis
Alejandro Cremaschi
U of Colorado Boulder
[email protected]
  Initial project: interviews with teachers, parents and
students of piano in different cities in Mexico:
Mexico City, Guadalajara, Xalapa, Zacatecas
  January-May 2011
  Overarching goals:
  Who is learning/teaching? What is she learning/
teaching? Why? What for?
  Influence of cultural, institutional and social context
on the goals, attitudes, motivations in learning to play
the piano
Preliminary report: students
  In this report:
  Semi-structured interviews, 25 minute long
  13 students of classical piano
  Mexico City, Zacatecas, Xalapa, Jan-May 2011
Guiding questions
  Areas:
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Personal and family history
Models
Attitude and motivation
Goals
Materials and procedures
Musical taste and preference
View of piano study of peers, family and society
  Qualitative study
  Describe reality through the eyes of the
interviewees
  Not generalizable
Method
  Students contacted through teachers
  Limitation: teachers tend to choose their “better”
or more serious students
  Interviews done in private, in or near schools of
music
  Informed consent was obtained from all
participantes
Preuniversitario/precollege
Básico o Juvenil
4 o 5 años
Medio superior o propedeutico
2 o 3 años
Universitario/College
Superior
4 o 5 años
Código
Fecha entrevista
Edad
Sexo
Ciudad
Nivel
1
18-Feb
16
M
DF
Medio superior
Edad en que
comenzó
9
2
18-Feb
16
M
DF
Medio superior
7
3
9-Apr
19
M
Xalapa
Medio superior
15
4
22-Mar
15
F
Zacatecas
Juvenil
7
5
22-Mar
25
M
Zacatecas
Medio superior
16
6
8-Apr
14
M
Xalapa
Medio superior
8
7
19-Feb
16
M
DF
Clases privadas
9
8
18-Feb
26
F
DF
Medio superior
8
9
22-Mar
19
F
Zacatecas
Superior
11
10
23-Mar
17
M
Zacatecas
Juvenil
14
11
8-Apr
17
M
Xalapa
Medio superior
4
12
23-Mar
23
F
Zacatecas
Juvenil
12
13
8-Apr
19
M
Xalapa
Medio superior
7
History
  Approach to the piano
  Attendance at concert, listening to recording, hearing
a relative play
  In most cases: relatives made music
  In some: relatives played by “ear”
  Evidence that formal learning in official institutions and
learning to read music holds higher value than playing
“by ear”?
History
  Two of the 13 participants did not have music in
family
  #8 got in contact with music through a kindergarten
teacher
  #5 had musician friends in his school, and
participated in music activities with them (band)
Family support
  In general, precollege students: strong family
support
  Some evidence that support diminishes at the time
to choose piano as a college major
  Participants: ‘society views music as a career without
a profitable future’
  College students
  Lack of support (3 of 6)
  Some started as a double-majors (3 of 6)
Models
  Models
  Current or former piano teachers
  Some: composers such as Beethoven (symbol of
effort, triumph over adversity)
  Lack of current international pianists as models
  Possible explanations:
  Preference for models with “human” qualities (teachers,
Beethoven)
  Preference for models “nearby” (teachers)
  Lack of knowledge about piano field? (e.g. most did not
know who Horowitz was)
Motivation
  Expectancy-value theory (Wigfield & Eccles, 2000)
  Goal orientation theory (Dweck, 1991)
  Flow theory (Csikszentmihalyi, 1991)
  Many positive aspects:
  Intrinsic motivation
  Mastery goal orientation
  Capacity to enjoy learning process
Identity, music and society
  Close-knit relationship with classical music
  Classical music: high social and aesthetic value
  “Society needs more contact with classical music”
  Produces a more cultured society
  Produces a more intelligent, sensitive and civic
society
  They regret that classical music is not well-known
in Mexico
  Why?
  People think it is difficult, boring, elitist
  Lack of education
  Music industry overshadows good music with simple
and inauthentic products
  They feel the necessity of “educating” society
In-group/Out-group
  IG and EG: a mechanism to affirm identity (Tajfel)
  External group: peers that reject their choice to
study classical music
  Some participants feel rejected, viewed with
“astonishment”, or discriminated because of their
choice
In-group/Out-group
  Taste as a means to establish contrast with out-
group. In-group viewed positively, out-group viewed
negatively
  Not “popular music” viewed negatively by
participants
  Classical m. embodies positive qualities
  Commercial music: negative qualitites
  Greatest rejection toward reggaeton, commercial pop
  Open and at times emotional expression of rejection
of these genres
Música clásica Música "comercial" No se toca para hacer dinero, sino por amor/Played not to make money, but because of love Profunda/Deep Se hace para hacer dinero/Created just to make money Transmite sentimientos/Transmits feelings Es agresiva, obscena (reggaeton)/Aggressive , obscene Dramática/Dramatic Loca (rock metal)/Crazy Maravillosa/Wonderful Baja/Low Necesitas ponerle atención/You need to pay attention to it Importante [trascendente]/Important [transcendent] Se escucha "en la calle" o "en el camión"/ You listen to it in the streets, on the bus No requiere mucha técnica/It does not require much technical knowledge Se puede aprender solo, o con "métodos de los puestos de revista"/You can learn it through methods from the magazine posts Se basa en la letra/Based on the lyrics Tiene trayectoria histórica/It has a historical trajectory Producto de la moda/Product of fashion Desarrolla la inteligencia/Develops intelligence "Te hace más tonto"/It makes you more stupid Más elaborada/Ellaborate Repetida/Repetitious Componerla requiere inspiración, personalidad y conocimientos/To compose it you need inspiration, personality and knowledge Hecha mecánicamente, en una consola/Made mechanically, on a machine Compleja/Complex Necesita una preparación intensa/You need an intensive preparation Simple, repetida, igual/Simple, repetitive, always the same Goals
  Conflict between project and available training
opportunities
  Curriculum perception:
  Aimed at preparing soloist following the “old”
European model
  Precollege participants:
  No decision yet to do piano as a career
  Some: idealized view of the soloist career
Goals
  College students (6)
  Committed to music career
  Some: want to become soloists (#3 and 5)
  They understand the amount of work required
  But worried about making an income later in life
  Others: alternative careers in music
  #8: direct choir projects
  #12: produce cultural show
  #9: play chamber music and teach
  #13: play jazz (double major) and teach
Critique to institutions
  Some students critique the curricular profile of
their institutions:
  #10: improvisation and other genres are not taught
  #8: limit profile of conservatory, contradicts the goal
of the university of producing “researchers, teachers
and disseminators”
  #12: school does not provide tools for project
  #13: piano teaching in Mexico too focused on
traditional canon. Students finish studies without
relevant professional experiences
Conclusions
  Evidence that personal history, family support and
motivation follows patterns uncovered by previous
studies of young music students
  Early contact with music
  Family and important-others support (especially at
precollege level)
  High intrinsic motivation to learn and improve
  Some evidence that family support diminishes at
the time of choosing music as a college major
Conclusions
  Participants build their music identity through a close-knit
relationship with classical music
  They view this music as important and necessary for Mexican
society
  They opposed this music to “commercial music,” which
embodies negative characteristics
  Some participants feel misunderstood and rejected by their
peers because of their choice
  The goals of the precollege-age students are vague. Soloist
career idealized
  College-age students have a more realistic view of the music
career
Conclusions
  More than half of the college-age students
embrace career projects different from piano
soloist
  Among these students there is a perception that
their music schools are overly fashioned upon the
European canonic tradition of producing soloists
  They feel their schools do not offer enough options
for alternative careers
Limitations
  Non-generalizable due to its qualitative status
  Interviewed students is not a representative sample
of the whole population – chosen by teachers
Recommendations
  More diverse profile of participants
  Combine student data with data obtained from
interviews with parents to obtain a more complete
picture of motivation, personal history, goals and
identity
  Look at “macrosystem” (state, institutions, society)
to obtain a more complete social picture of what it
means to play and study classical piano in Mexico
  Some of this was done during this study, but not
included in this report
  [email protected]