Choosing Music: Investigating Elective Choices in a Single Sex School

Belinda Callaway

This research explores the influences on Year 8 girls’ choice of the Year 9 Classroom Music elective and reasons for their choices to continue with music education in a school setting. Situated within an independent, high fee-paying all-girls school in Perth, Western Australia, this research gathered qualitative data from Year 8 students who were enrolled in Classroom Music in 2022. This research contributes to understandings of student attrition from Classroom Music by answering the following questions: (i) “How do Year 8 girls perceive their experiences of school music, and (ii) In what ways might this shape their choice of the Classroom Music elective for the following year?” While student attrition from music has been researched extensively within Australia, and internationally, there is little research that specifically examines the experiences of girls and listens closely to student voices. Influenced by an interpretivist/constructivist paradigm and underpinned by the expectancy-value theory of motivation (Eccles & Wigfield, 2020), self-efficacy (Bandura, 2012), achievement-goal (Harackiewicz et al., 2002), and self-determination theories (Ryan & Deci, 2000), a questionnaire, together with semi-structured focus group interviews, were used to collect data from seven student participants. This process added richness and texture, both strengthening and contextualising teacher-researcher ethnographic data. The data were analysed thematically through the processes of axial and open coding (Saldaña, 2016). This research found that, for these specific girls, continuity with Classroom Music often occurred at the intersection of early music education experiences involving both instrumental music learning and the development of music literacy, self-perception of music ability, a sense of identity as a musician and belonging to the music ‘tribe’, enjoyment of music, and valuing of music and music education. These findings are important because they offer new understandings about the ways in which teachers might better support students’ music learning, adding pointers to further research.

Choosing Music: Investigating Elective Choices in a Single Sex School

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