What accounts for the success or failure of music education doctoral students regarding the completion of their degrees? Though students continue to enter doctoral programs, high attrition rates indicate many are not completing their degrees, including PhD students in music education. Perhaps those who complete this high level of academic achievement are more highly motivated than those who do not. An investigation of the differences between genders regarding motivation and length of time for degree completion is the focus of this study and seeks to answer the following: What effect does motivation have on music education doctoral students in the completion of their degrees? Are there motivational differences between male and female music education doctoral students concerning the completion of their degrees? Is there a difference in the amount of time it takes for female music education doctoral students to complete their degrees as compared to male students? Relating factors of motivation to achievement, the Expectancy-Value Theory of Achievement Motivation is the framework used in this study. A questionnaire was used in this quantitative pilot study of former music education doctoral students (n=12) at universities in Ohio who obtained their PhDs within the last 15 years. Results indicate no significant difference between genders regarding the length of time for degree completion, though differences were found in motivational factors for starting and continuing in music education doctoral programs until completion. Limitations, implications, and recommendations for future research are suggested.
{"title":"Motivational Factors and Gender Differences in the Successful Completion of Music Education Doctoral Programs: A Pilot Study","authors":"Sarah L. Deskins","doi":"10.21038/epar.2020.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21038/epar.2020.0004","url":null,"abstract":"What accounts for the success or failure of music education doctoral students regarding the completion of their degrees? Though students continue to enter doctoral programs, high attrition rates indicate many are not completing their degrees, including PhD students in music education. Perhaps those who complete this high level of academic achievement are more highly motivated than those who do not. An investigation of the differences between genders regarding motivation and length of time for degree completion is the focus of this study and seeks to answer the following: What effect does motivation have on music education doctoral students in the completion of their degrees? Are there motivational differences between male and female music education doctoral students concerning the completion of their degrees? Is there a difference in the amount of time it takes for female music education doctoral students to complete their degrees as compared to male students? Relating factors of motivation to achievement, the Expectancy-Value Theory of Achievement Motivation is the framework used in this study. A questionnaire was used in this quantitative pilot study of former music education doctoral students (n=12) at universities in Ohio who obtained their PhDs within the last 15 years. Results indicate no significant difference between genders regarding the length of time for degree completion, though differences were found in motivational factors for starting and continuing in music education doctoral programs until completion. Limitations, implications, and recommendations for future research are suggested.","PeriodicalId":345996,"journal":{"name":"Excellence in Performing Arts Research","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130830875","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the knowledge of bisexual relationships that occurred in the early 1900s regardless of the sexual and racial oppression of the time period. Though this paper is based off a novel/musical, it is considered historical fiction and much of the writing within the piece is truthful. I believe that through art and literature we are able to experience and view the human experience through a greater lens. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker and adapted for stage by Marsha Norman, walks us through the relationships our main character, Celie, is involved in and evolves through. During the story we see some women completely dismiss gender norms and shape their village as they see it fit. The audience sees many facets of her trauma and how her life events affected her attraction and affection towards certain relationships, but most importantly, the relationship she has with herself.
{"title":"Addressing Bisexuality, Gender Non Conformance and Performativity through The Color Purple by Alice Walker","authors":"Chantrell M Lewis","doi":"10.21038/epar.2020.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21038/epar.2020.0001","url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the knowledge of bisexual relationships that occurred in the early 1900s regardless of the sexual and racial oppression of the time period. Though this paper is based off a novel/musical, it is considered historical fiction and much of the writing within the piece is truthful. I believe that through art and literature we are able to experience and view the human experience through a greater lens. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker and adapted for stage by Marsha Norman, walks us through the relationships our main character, Celie, is involved in and evolves through. During the story we see some women completely dismiss gender norms and shape their village as they see it fit. The audience sees many facets of her trauma and how her life events affected her attraction and affection towards certain relationships, but most importantly, the relationship she has with herself.","PeriodicalId":345996,"journal":{"name":"Excellence in Performing Arts Research","volume":"54 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129018317","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In 1996, the first collegiate South Asian a cappella group, Penn Masala, was founded at the University of Pennsylvania. Over the last twenty-two years, nearly fifty such groups have been established at colleges and universities across the United States. These ensembles blend Western popular music with South Asian music, namely Bollywood film songs. Membership in these groups typically involves participants with South Asian ethnic backgrounds as well as participants from various other ethnic groups. Through a case study with the ensemble Dhamakapella, this paper explores the ramifications and outcomes between the multifaceted essence of South Asian a cappella and the multifaceted ethnicities of its members, using the concept of sign vehicles to show how identities are blended, reinvented, and performed in both musical and social settings. Introduction and Background In 1996, the first collegiate South Asian a cappella choir, Penn Masala, was founded at the University of Pennsylvania. Over the last twenty-two years, nearly fifty such groups have been founded at colleges and universities across the United States. These ensembles blend Western popular music with South Asian music, namely Bollywood film songs. Membership in these groups typically involves participants with South Asian ethnic backgrounds as well as participants from various other ethnic backgrounds. This paper discusses the way in which signvehicles of South Asian a cappella performance aid in the construction of the ethnicities of its performers, showing how identities are blended, reinvented, and performed in both musical and social settings. Specifically, I will analyze the way that Dhamakapella, a South Asian a cappella choir at Case Western Reserve University, behaves in a fashion that conveys a fusion of South Asian and Western identities. In order to make the theoretical concept of identity more tangible, I will rely on the work of Erving Goffman, Judith Butler, and Thomas Turino. The former two scholars view identity as performative, and the latter scholar uses Peircean semiotics to understand how music can be interpreted as a sign and an identity marker. The theoretical perspective of Erving Goffman maintains that individuals monitor their actions to perform their identities. In his 1959 text, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Goffman introduces his dramaturgical theory, which asserts that individuals are constantly acting roles, utilizing props and nonverbal behaviors as “sign-vehicles” so that other people they interact with, such as the audience, view them in the best and most desired manner befitting their role. He maintains that we are all constantly acting, and that this perspective offers researchers a valuable starting point for understanding group function: The perspective employed in this report is that of the theatrical performance; the principles derived are dramaturgical ones. I shall consider the way in which the individual in ordinary work situations pr
{"title":"Fusion Sign-Vehicles: A Semiotics Analysis of Social and Musical Behavior in South Asian Fusion A Cappella","authors":"N. C. Muffitt","doi":"10.21038/epar.2020.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21038/epar.2020.0003","url":null,"abstract":"In 1996, the first collegiate South Asian a cappella group, Penn Masala, was founded at the University of Pennsylvania. Over the last twenty-two years, nearly fifty such groups have been established at colleges and universities across the United States. These ensembles blend Western popular music with South Asian music, namely Bollywood film songs. Membership in these groups typically involves participants with South Asian ethnic backgrounds as well as participants from various other ethnic groups. Through a case study with the ensemble Dhamakapella, this paper explores the ramifications and outcomes between the multifaceted essence of South Asian a cappella and the multifaceted ethnicities of its members, using the concept of sign vehicles to show how identities are blended, reinvented, and performed in both musical and social settings. Introduction and Background In 1996, the first collegiate South Asian a cappella choir, Penn Masala, was founded at the University of Pennsylvania. Over the last twenty-two years, nearly fifty such groups have been founded at colleges and universities across the United States. These ensembles blend Western popular music with South Asian music, namely Bollywood film songs. Membership in these groups typically involves participants with South Asian ethnic backgrounds as well as participants from various other ethnic backgrounds. This paper discusses the way in which signvehicles of South Asian a cappella performance aid in the construction of the ethnicities of its performers, showing how identities are blended, reinvented, and performed in both musical and social settings. Specifically, I will analyze the way that Dhamakapella, a South Asian a cappella choir at Case Western Reserve University, behaves in a fashion that conveys a fusion of South Asian and Western identities. In order to make the theoretical concept of identity more tangible, I will rely on the work of Erving Goffman, Judith Butler, and Thomas Turino. The former two scholars view identity as performative, and the latter scholar uses Peircean semiotics to understand how music can be interpreted as a sign and an identity marker. The theoretical perspective of Erving Goffman maintains that individuals monitor their actions to perform their identities. In his 1959 text, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Goffman introduces his dramaturgical theory, which asserts that individuals are constantly acting roles, utilizing props and nonverbal behaviors as “sign-vehicles” so that other people they interact with, such as the audience, view them in the best and most desired manner befitting their role. He maintains that we are all constantly acting, and that this perspective offers researchers a valuable starting point for understanding group function: The perspective employed in this report is that of the theatrical performance; the principles derived are dramaturgical ones. I shall consider the way in which the individual in ordinary work situations pr","PeriodicalId":345996,"journal":{"name":"Excellence in Performing Arts Research","volume":"72 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114738073","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}