The Art of Teaching Music

3. Disposition

three disposition People tend to act in particular ways almost habitually, unconsciously, or naturally. Thinking holistically about a teacher’s disposition is important, but it is also crucial to consider some of the specific dispositions that are needed for teaching. By the word disposition, I mean the tendency to act or be in a particular way. In this chapter, I reflect on those that I see as crucial to a teacher’s life and work: namely, tact, compassion, patience, enthusiasm , and integrity. We may show these dispositions in various ways and our differing personalities may predispose us to acquire or possess some of them more naturally than others. Still, irrespective of our natural proclivities and the particular ways in which we reveal them, it is important to cultivate and nurture these dispositions if we are to cope and thrive as teachers. Dispositions are located at the nexus of our ideas, beliefs, attitudes, commitments, and values and the phenomenal world in which we act.1 They are not only rooted in intellectual assent or intention but evidenced in practical ways. Their presence is demonstrated by what we do and the impact our actions have on others rather than by what we say or intend to do. This is so because of discontinuities between intentions and the realities of how our actions affect others. Since we work with others as music teachers, we need to be concerned primarily with how our actions affect these others in the phenomenal world. Although we may intuitively recognize dispositions when we see them enacted, it is also possible that we may be mistaken and misinterpret what we see and hear. Such ambiguities and possible 36 • The Art of Teaching Music misinterpretations arise out of the unexpected, unintended, and even undesirable results of our actions and misinterpretations of our best intentions by others in the face of our own and others’ imperfect and limited knowledge. We may also think of dispositions as habitual; that is, they are so ingrained and internalized that we may not give them a second thought when we act. Making something habitual is a long process that begins by becoming conscious of the ways in which we need to think and act. Practice is also involved, since particular actions gradually become easier to do when we repeat them. Our actions are also reinforced as they elicit various responses from others. Whereas we may begin by thinking consciously about what we do, over time, what was once focal awareness gradually melts into the periphery as we now focus on other things.2 And the possibility of cultivating various dispositions in these and other ways is comforting to those of us who are conscious of dispositions that we need to develop further. Still, dispositions are not purely unconscious actions. We may be disposed to act in particular ways but our decisions about which particular ways to act under certain circumstances are made thoughtfully. So while we may be habitually careful, the specific ways in which this carefulness is exhibited at a particular time depend on our decisions about how this carefulness needs to be demonstrated under these specific circumstances. In other words, dispositions do not constitute auto-pilot mechanisms whereby teachers act thoughtlessly. Rather, certain perspectives tend in particular directions and we decide what to do in the moment or midst of action. Max van Manen refers to these pedagogical “moments” as the crucial points at which teachers decide to act in particular ways.3 Our decisions may be immediate and even instinctive but they are decisions nonetheless. In acknowledging our fallibility, our incomplete knowledge of self, others, and the world around us, and the possibility of developing certain ways of being, thinking, and acting as music teachers, it is important to underscore the ways in which social contexts frame how our actions are read by others. Acknowledging the impact of these social and cultural contexts on these interpretations requires studying these contexts so that we can more closely tailor our actions to the expectations of those with whom we work. When I teach outside my native culture I may discover misattributions of my actions afterwards, and I must, in the midst of tension and difficulty, uncover sometimes takenfor -granted and unconsciously held beliefs and practices of which I was Disposition • 37 unaware. Since many of us are likely to work with people from cultural backgrounds different from our own, it is important...