Papers by William J . Coppola
Jazz Education in Research and Practice, 2021
As a jazz educator and musician, I have often experienced an incongruency between the formalized ... more As a jazz educator and musician, I have often experienced an incongruency between the formalized customs found in many educational jazz performances and the more informal conventions emblematic to the art form. As jazz music has historically migrated from clubs to concert halls, a renegotiation of musicians' and audiences' social behaviors has followed suit. Framed partially through Christopher Small's critique of the symphony hall's implicit power over participants' behaviors, I utilized the theory of collective identity to explore the influence of the performance venue on musician-audience dynamics during a formal jazz performance. Through this case study, I explored how meanings are generated when audiences and musicians interact within a musical tradition that may, at first glance, appear incongruent with the implicit customs of the venue (i.e., jazz music within a traditional concert hall). I concluded that characteristics of the performance venue could potentially impose some influences on musician-audience relationships, but the development of a welcoming and intimate climate is ultimately of greater salience when establishing a sense of interconnectedness between musicians and audiences. Framed through these findings, I offer implications for jazz educators seeking to uphold the participatory ethos central to the jazz idiom by prioritizing a genuine and intimate connection with their audiences.
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Arts Education Policy Review, 2022
Although virtues and vices are typically thought of as individual qualities, a growing body of ph... more Although virtues and vices are typically thought of as individual qualities, a growing body of philosophical inquiry suggests that they can comprise collective qualities as well. In this paper, I expand upon the work of philosopher Miranda Fricker to question whether arts organizations can be considered institutionally virtuous and/or vicious. I begin with a discussion of collective epistemology, as offered by Margaret Gilbert, which lays the foundation for how collectives can function as "plural subjects" in pursuit of a common belief or goal. From here, I offer a brief overview of virtue/vice epistemology, which I then connect to Fricker's model of collective, and by extension, institutional virtue. Throughout, I provide illustrations of arts organizations who might themselves be said to possess institutional virtue and/or vice. I conclude by elaborating on the accountability of individuals working on behalf of, and sometimes in opposition to, the inner ethos of arts organizationsparticularly when those organizations might fall into the harmful realm of institutional vice.
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Research Studies in Music Education, 2022
The purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate how egotism was experienced in the ... more The purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate how egotism was experienced in the lives of 15 musicians and music professionals. Participants representing a broad range of musical backgrounds shared accounts spanning teacher-student, conductor-performer, peer-peer, colleague-colleague, and internalized relations with arrogance. Data collection included one-on-one interviews, collaborative phenomenological texts, and hermeneutic reflections. Through the process of epoché, phenomenological reduction, and imaginative variation, four themes materialized: (a) self-preservation, (b) other-relegation, (c) elitism, and (d) interpersonal harms. The essence of the phenomenon surfaced as the social negotiation of power. Participants identified egotism as stemming from one's efforts to (re)gain or preserve power as they worked to strip power away from others. Given pervasive feelings of powerlessness, worthlessness, and trauma among participants, I argue that a sense of urgency in addressing egotism within music scholarship is necessary-particularly in the interest of supporting humane and ethical musical relationships.
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Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, 2022
Cultural humility has gained traction as a potentially transformative construct in social justice... more Cultural humility has gained traction as a potentially transformative construct in social justice work, compelling practitioners to engage in a lifelong process of self-reflection and self-critique to recognize the limitations of their knowledge, practice openness toward others, and actively work to mitigate systemic inequities. In this paper, we draw theoretical interpretations from an empirical study of cultural humility as negotiated and developed through dialogues within a preservice music education course. By considering cultural humility through an iterative analysis of both empirical findings and theoretical perspectives, we propose that cultural humility comprises a fluid interrelation of intrapersonal, interpersonal, and transformative dimensions. We further articulate the significant internal struggles and challenges that emerged from this work as students navigated the various complications and contradictions that materialized through the process.
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Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, 2022
Humility is an important social virtue for musicians as they expose their own egos in the pursuit... more Humility is an important social virtue for musicians as they expose their own egos in the pursuit of artistic self- expression. Research findings have confirmed that humility is an important virtue of strength that lends itself meaningfully to prosocial and ethical interactions among musicians and music educators. In this article, I synthesize research on various forms of humility that emerge from unique social situations in which musicians and music educators might find themselves. In actively seeking to develop their own humility, musicians may relinquish their egotistic self-interest in favor of more meaningful and productive music experiences to be shared by all.
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Journal of Research in Music Education, 2021
In this study, I build on growing research examining humility in musical contexts by investigatin... more In this study, I build on growing research examining humility in musical contexts by investigating whether band students perceive humility to be a positive and desirable social quality or a social weakness among band directors. Middle school, high school, and undergraduate band students (N = 117) evaluated the likability, knowledgeability, and preference for humble and arrogant band director targets by assessing recorded interviews with each director following a fictitious performance. The humble target demonstrated nonsuperiority and other-orientedness and acknowledged his room for growth in his interview, while the arrogant target spoke with a degree of self-importance, an inflated self-view, and a desire for credit and prestige in his interview. Results indicated that overall, participants expressed greater likability toward the humble director and overwhelmingly preferred him to the arrogant director (82.76%) but did not ascribe greater knowledgeability to either target. These differences were contingent on school level and whether participants were presented with the humble or arrogant target first. Findings support the pertinence of modeling humility in music teaching and refute the implicit premise that teachers who behave in an arrogant manner might appear more competent or capable among students.
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Jazz Education in Research and Practice, 2021
As a jazz educator and musician, I have often experienced an incongruency between the formalized ... more As a jazz educator and musician, I have often experienced an incongruency between the formalized customs found in many educational jazz performances and the more informal conventions emblematic to the art form. As jazz music has historically migrated from clubs to concert halls, a renegotiation of musicians' and audiences' social behaviors has followed suit. Framed partially through Christopher Small's critique of the symphony hall's implicit power over participants' behaviors, I utilized the theory of collective identity to explore the influence of the performance venue on musician-audience dynamics during a formal jazz performance. Through this case study, I explored how meanings are generated when audiences and musicians interact within a musical tradition that may, at first glance, appear incongruent with the implicit customs of the venue (i.e., jazz music within a traditional concert hall). I concluded that characteristics of the performance venue could potentially impose some influences on musician-audience relationships, but the development of a welcoming and intimate climate is ultimately of greater salience when establishing a sense of interconnectedness between musicians and audiences. Framed through these findings, I offer implications for jazz educators seeking to uphold the participatory ethos central to the jazz idiom by prioritizing a genuine and intimate connection with their audiences.
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Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, 2021
In this paper, I critique the ways in which music education professionals-especially the dominant... more In this paper, I critique the ways in which music education professionals-especially the dominant voices within our field-engage in dialogue through social media outlets such as Facebook. While social media has become a valuable and ubiquitous discursive tool within our field, especially in that it theoretically removes the "ivory tower" of dialogue in academia, here I critique its darker side. Were he alive today, I question how philosopher Paulo Freire would respond to the dialogical opportunities afforded by social media and the emergence of "woke culture." Particularly when engaging in the work of anti-racism, I highlight how privileged music educators can silence any dialogue through their hostility or fragility alike through various forms of call-out culture, cancel culture, virtue signaling, and tone policing. I draw upon the full corpus of Freire's works to examine the overall veracity of these approaches to antiracist efforts and offer that Freire's pedagogy was interminably rooted in humility, love, and the pursuit of shared humanity .
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Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, 2020
Humility is considered to be an important social virtue, particularly in interpersonal contexts. ... more Humility is considered to be an important social virtue, particularly in interpersonal contexts. Given the highly social nature of music participation, researchers have begun exploring the potential role that humility might play in music education. The purpose of this study was to examine how middle school, high school, and undergraduate band students (N = 116) perceived the virtue of humility, including whether they viewed it to be a social strength among various types of musicians. Results indicated that students viewed humility to be a positive quality and a social strength for different types of musicians (i.e., band directors, section leaders, famous musicians). However, middle schoolers struggled to articulate a meaning of humility consistent with accepted definitions put forth by social scientists. Based on these findings, I offer recommendations for music educators to model and promote humility as a positive and necessary virtue in their ensembles and classrooms.
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Music Education Research , 2020
In this study I conduct a dramaturgical analysis to examine the performance of social identity a... more In this study I conduct a dramaturgical analysis to examine the performance of social identity among the members a competitive high school jazz band located in the western United States. Using dramaturgical theory (Goffman, E. 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Anchor Books.), which uses a metaphor with the theatre to interpret human interactions as manufactured social performances, I seek to dissect the underlying motivations concerning the band’s practice of musical humility (Coppola, W. J. 2019. “Musical Humility: An Ethnographic Case Study of A Competitive High School Jazz Band.” Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education 222: 7–26. doi:10.5406/bulcouresmusedu.222.0007). Specifically, I seek to understand the seemingly paradoxical presence of humility during performances and rehearsals alongside transient acts of arrogance as shared during interviews and observed behind-the-scenes. I present my findings through an arts-based storytelling approach divided into three parts: Act I, which explores the onstage symbiosis of the Grant Jazz Band; Act II, which focuses on backstage behaviours occurring during rehearsals and sectionals; and Act III, which examines offstage communications resulting from one-on-one interviews and other interactions occurring off the bandstand.
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General Music Today, 2021
Christopher Small (1998) famously explored the role of the performance venue in framing the music... more Christopher Small (1998) famously explored the role of the performance venue in framing the music experiences of audience members. While Small observed how audiences consume music in the classical symphony hall, we might also consider how performance venues frame global music experiences as well. In this article, I suggest that considering the space where music takes place can offer insights into the deeper social and cultural contexts of any given music practice. Specifically, music teachers can foster meaningful world music experiences by embracing the participatory or presentational nature of the music and seeking to reproduce these performance contexts as closely as possible. I explore ways that these ideas might play out among teachers who wish to maximize both the authenticity and integrity of their music performances, and I discuss strategies for music teachers to incorporate these suggestions into their own teaching.
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Psychology of Music, 2020
The purpose of this study was to construct and validate a psychometric measure of humility in mus... more The purpose of this study was to construct and validate a psychometric measure of humility in musical contexts. Using confirmatory factor analysis (N = 423), we demonstrated initial evidence for the validity of a theoretical model of musical humility. We used CFA to test an a priori model building from prior research, which confirmed five factors: purposeful musical engagement and collaboration, lack of superiority, acknowledgement of shortcomings and learnability, other-orientedness, and healthy pride. The resulting Musical Humility Scale (MHS) is comprised of 30 items that may be further tested alongside other psychometric batteries for investigating predictors and correlates of humility in musical participation. We offer limitations and directions for future research, including strategies for refining the testing criteria and suggestions for establishing convergent and discriminant validity.
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Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 2019
For this research, I utilized an ethnographic case study to examine the role of humility within a... more For this research, I utilized an ethnographic case study to examine the role of humility within a competitive high school jazz band in the western United States. The current study draws from recent humility research stemming from the field of positive psychology and offers an initial understanding of these perspectives in music education. From this research, a 5-component defi- nition of humility particular to musical participation was established, resulting in an emergent construct presently referred to as musical humility: (a) purposeful musical engagement and col- laboration, (b) lack of superiority, (c) acknowledgement of shortcomings and learnability, (d) other-orientedness, and (e) healthy pride. This initial step in musical humility research contributes to the growing ontology of “humilities” currently identified within social psychology, including general humility, intellectual humility, cultural humility, and others. Through this study, I posit that musical experiences rooted in humility enable the enhancement of both musical and social relationships, which serve to cultivate other-oriented and prosocial ways of being both within music participation and society more broadly.
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Journal of Popular Music Education, 2019
This article chronicles a four-month facilitative teaching collaboration between a music educatio... more This article chronicles a four-month facilitative teaching collaboration between a music education team from the University of Washington and youth enrolled in a Native American tribal school in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The collaboration embraced a creative process honouring student voices, community values, principles of indigenous pedagogy, and an earnest effort to support student expressive impulses that blend their Native American heritage with a pervasive interest in popular music. A collective songwriting process with roots in indigenous practices from Chiapas, Mexico was employed as the framework through which students confronted social and cultural matters. The school is located in a community where language and ways of living are threatened-a concern upon which students reflected in writing a song partly in their endangered Native language of Sahaptin. The process is described as a pathway to the use of creative avenues that address social issues among marginalized youth towards artistic and sociomusical ends.
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Dissertation by William J . Coppola
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Papers by William J . Coppola
Dissertation by William J . Coppola