Professional development, typically initiated by administrators to improve student achievement outcomes, is often irrelevant to the needs of early career music teachers. As music teacher educators, we were concerned about issues of importance to early career music teachers as they entered the music teaching profession. We explored conversation as a conduit of reflection and professional learning by convening a conversation group of five early career music teachers who gathered over six, one-hour-long meetings. Guiding their discussions were topics they identified in questionnaires administered before and during the study. Data included audio-visual recordings of the meetings, questionnaires, and researcher memos. Four themes emerged from our analysis of their conversations: (a) educating administrators and mentors, (b) knowing their place, (c) overcoming a lack of resources, and (d) giving students lifelong musical skills. We interpreted these findings through the lens of Snow’s principles of symbolic interactionism. The conversation group facilitated the music teachers’ move from the initial shock of sedimented school culture to a position of agency. The freedom of conversation around chosen topics of professional and personal importance provided the early career music teachers with choice, self-direction, collective support, and agency—key components of professional learning.

中文翻译：

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打破沉默：早期职业音乐教师对话小组中的专业学习

专业发展通常由管理人员发起，旨在提高学生的成绩，但往往与早期职业音乐教师的需求无关。作为音乐教师教育工作者，我们关注对早期职业音乐教师进入音乐教学行业时重要的问题。我们召集了一个由五位早期职业音乐教师组成的对话小组，他们聚集了六次长达一小时的会议，探索了对话作为反思和专业学习的渠道。指导他们讨论的是他们在研究之前和研究期间进行的调查问卷中确定的主题。数据包括会议的视听记录、调查问卷和研究人员备忘录。我们对他们的对话进行分析，得出了四个主题：(a) 教育管理者和导师，(b) 了解自己的位置，(c) 克服资源缺乏，以及 (d) 赋予学生终生的音乐技能。我们通过斯诺的象征互动主义原则来解释这些发现。对话小组帮助音乐教师从最初对学校文化积淀的震惊转变为能动的立场。围绕专业和个人重要性的选定主题进行自由对话，为早期职业音乐教师提供了选择、自我指导、集体支持和代理权——专业学习的关键组成部分。