Preservice Teachers as Policy Actors: Developing Policy Consciousness in a Student-Led Arts Partnership Program

The purpose of this study was to consider how the experiences of nine preservice music educators who participated in the development of Project B impacted their understandings of and participation in policy. Project B is an after-school program that seeks to provide music education classes for children at several metropolitan elementary schools as part of an arts partnership program. Drawing from the four dispositions of policy consciousness, I considered how preservice educators grappled with their complex roles as policy actors within this setting. In particular, I focused on the dispositions cultivated by these preservice teachers as they developed this program, as well as the ways in which participating in the creation of this program impacted how they engaged as policy actors and leaders as inservice music educators. Participants’ experiences offer implications related to the importance of participating in contextualized policy-oriented experiences for preservice music educators.