Training young female teachers in choral leadership: Building a community of practice

This chapter presents a reflective discussion of the author's initial experiences of training young female trainee teachers to be choral educators, using a community children’s choir as the learning environment for them to take their first steps in choral education leadership. The chapter opens with a review of the kinds of leadership roles and activities that the trainee teachers undertake with the choir. There follows an appraisal of the wider context of choral leadership education for primary music teachers, noting the paucity of classroom focused training in choral education pedagogy in Initial Teacher Education, and for serving teachers. The significance of building a community of practice among choral educators is examined, with particular reference to Lave and Wenger’s (1991) theory of legitimate peripheral participation, and three hypotheses regarding the potential value of this model of work-based training in choral education are presented. The chapter concludes with a speculative discussion on the possible trajectories of professional knowledge that young female trainee teachers might follow as choral educators as they progress into professional appointments as qualified teachers.