Rhoda Bernard of the The Boston Conservatory sees partnerships as “critical to successful music teacher preparation.”

After more than fifteen years in the field, Bernard enumerates some of the main types of music teacher education collaborations:

• Partnerships for student teaching practicum placements (partnerships between public school districts/music educators and colleges)
   
• Partnerships for prepracticum experiences (partnerships between public school districts/music educators and colleges)
   
• Partnerships for special projects (Many college music educators create partnerships with local schools and/or teachers for a curriculum unit or an outreach project.)
   
• Partnerships with funders (Some collegiate music educators collaborate with nonprofits or funders for special projects in music education--projects that may or may not be carried out in school settings.)
   
• Partnerships between colleges (In some cases, colleges create partnerships to share resources or to conduct research projects.)
   

In the coming weeks, we’ll look at some of these partnerships in greater depth.

MENC member Rhoda Bernard , Ed. D., chairs the Music Education Department at The Boston Conservatory, Boston, Massachusetts.

Do you partner with any individual, group, or organization for the good of your music students?  Share your ideas by writing Ella Wilcox at ellaw@menc.org.  To increase likelihood of publication, kindly limit your response to about 150 words.

--Ella Wilcox, January 21, 2009, © MENC: The National Association for Music Education (www.menc.org)