Inquiry Project

For the inquiry project I will be working with Pat Sutor. We have decided on an overall focus for the project. Pat and I are both in the MAT program for music education. Our inquiry project will focus on music education. We are specifically interested in the impact that a greater emphasis on popular music can have on student interest in school music programs. There has been much research done regarding the importance of arts education for students. We are not interested in contributing to this research but exploring how to better increase student interest in arts education. Our hope is to conduct a small case study at East Side High School in Newark. East Side High offers us an interesting example because of two factors. One, the school system does not offer instrumental music until students reach the high school level. And two, the music teacher Aril Ocasio, regularly uses popular music as an educational tool. The fact that instrumental music is not offered prior to students reaching the high school is significant because it creates great pressure for Mr. Ocasio to recruit students and to maintain student interest in the various ensembles within the music program. It seems that part of his success may be attributed to his introducing popular music into the performance repertoire of the ensembles.
We are planning on interviewing Mr. Ocasio as well as a sample of students from his classes. Although Pat and I have settled on a general topic we have yet to decide on specific things such as the interview questions. We will most likely have different ideas about the questions in this blog. I feel that this is a good opportunity to see where each of us is headed with the topic and gives us the opportunity to use any discrepancies that might arise to further focus our topic. Some possible questions I am considering asking Mr. Ocasio are:

What are some of the challenges you face as a music educator in an urban school?

Why do you regularly arrange popular music songs for your ensembles? / What is your motivation for doing this?

In your opinion does the knowledge that a student will get to perform music that they listen to regularly have an impact on their desire to be part of an ensemble?

In your opinion was popular music a genre, or style of music that was emphasized in your training as a music educator? If yes, why do you think it was? If no, why do you think that it wasn’t?

Are you a fan of popular music? What do you listen to?

Some potential questions for the students include:

What is you favorite type of music?

What is your favorite artist/band?


How often do you listen to music? When is your favorite time to listen to music?


What is your favorite piece of music that you have performed in school? Why do you think you liked it so much?

Why did you decide to join the school music program?

Did you know that you would get to play songs such as _________ (popular music piece performed in the past, or maybe the piece the student cited as their favorite if they stated a popular piece) when you joined? If you did know, did that influence your decision to join?

This is clearly far from a finished project, but it offers a jumping off point from which the investigation can be focused. I am examining this through the lens that arts education in very important in the lives of students and that it is our job as educators to find a way to motivate students to participate in the arts. The example of East Side High School can offer some good insights into the usefulness of studying popular music to increase interest as well as a means to exploring the importance of popular music in the lives of the students.