Rathgeber, J. (2019). Troubling disability: Experiences of disability in, through, and around music. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ. 

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to trouble existing conceptions of disability that ground music education literature and practice. I sought plausible insights into how disability is experienced in, through, and/or around music by participants who are disabled persons/persons with disabilities (DP/PwD). Insights gained might allow readers to complexify and trouble taken-for-granted assumptions about disability. Questions included: (a) How do participants experience disability in, through, and around music? (b) What plausible insights related to disability can be gained by attending to participants’ experiences of disability in, through, and around music? (c) What plausible insights related to inclusion can be gained by attending to participants’ experiences of disability in, through, and around music? The inquiry approach was grounded in Buberian relational ontology, phenomenollogy, interactional theories of disability, and narrative. Seven DP/PwD participated in this study: (a) Erica, a 14-year-old diagnosed with a developmental disability of unknown etiology; (b) Duke, a drummer diagnosed with Williams syndrome; (c) Birdie, an abstract visual artist with epilepsy who used music to inform her art; (d) Daren, a b-boy/breakdancer diagnosed with Tourette syndrome, (e) Sienna, a legally blind social work college student who played banjo in a music therapy-based bluegrass band and participated in musical theatre; (f) Ice Queen, an undergraduate flute player recently diagnosed with Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); and (g) Culann, an adult counselor and music listener with ADHD and mood disorders. Data generation included conversational interviews, observations, artmaking, and serendipitous data. Data co-generated with participants were crafted into narratives of their lIifeworlds, including description of their experiences with disability in, through, and around music and in other aspects of their lives. An envisioned conversation among all participants demonstrates the shifts and complexities in the meanings of disability and unpacks different ways participants describe and understand disability and the myriad roles that music plays in their lifeworlds. The final chapter of the study offers discussions and suggestions regarding thinking about and approaching disability (i.e., interactional theories, intersectionality, and identity), inclusion (i.e., belonging, suggestions by participants, and anti-ableist pedagogy), and research/writing. …View full abstract

Rathgeber, J., Hoye, J., McNure, C. J., & Stringham, D. A. (2019). Imagining possible futures/impacting professional visions: A reflective case study of a community-centric, ukulele-based participatory musicking project. Qualitative Research in Music Education, 1(1), 5-28. 

Abstract: ​The purpose of this reflective case study was to analyze preservice music educators' reflections on meanings of facilitating JMUke, a curricular, community-centric, participatory-based, community ukulele project, and interpret how these experiences may have impacted their professional visions. We-one undergraduate music education student, one graduate music education student, and two music teacher educators-analyzed data from 38 preservice music educators, including coursework and reflective dialogues among participants. Analysis revealed themes related to: (a) preparation and adaptation, (b) motivation and fun, and (c) expanding praxis. Drawing on Hammerness's (2003, 2006, 2015) conception of professional vision, we interpreted impacts of participation in JMUke on preservice music educators' professional visions and offer implications for music teacher educators.

Rathgeber, J., & Mantie, R. (2019). Markers of agency in preservice music teachers: A directed content analysis of written coursework. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, (219), 27-46.

Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine agentic thinking among preservice music teachers through a “directed content analysis” (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005) of the written coursework of 2 cohorts of preservice music teachers (N = 66) enrolled in an introduction to music education course in order to advance knowledge of agentic thinking in music teacher education research and practice. We used a theoretical framework informed by Emirbayer and Mische’s (1998) triadic conception of agency that positions human agency at the nexus of 3 temporally oriented elements: iteration (past), projectivity (future), and practical evaluation (present). We investigated the agentic temporalities of different assignment types and analyzed the agentic vocabulary usage in premidterm and postmidterm assignments by cohort, identified gender, year in school, residency status, major, and applied instrument. We found slight differences in overall agentic vocabulary and vocabulary by agentic element between cohorts. Unexpectedly, we noted a marked decline in overall agentic vocabulary usage in postmidterm written assignments compared to premidterm written assignments. Analysis of change over time by agentic element found decreases in iterative and practical evaluative vocabulary and an increase in projective vocabulary usage in postmidterm written assignments. Findings from key-word-in-context analysis, however, suggest that a decline in agentic vocabulary may be related to a refinement in agentic vocabulary usage and an increased openness to different perspectives and career options. Based on our results, we argue that Emirbayer and Mische’s framework may provide music teacher educators and researchers with a nuanced tool by which to investigate, understand, and foster music teacher agency.

Rathgeber, J. (2017). A place in the band: Negotiating barriers to inclusion in a rock band ​ setting. In G. D. Smith, M. Brennan, P. Kirkman, Z. Moir, & S. Sambarran (Eds.), Routledge Research Companion to Popular Music Education (pp. 369-381). London, UK: Routledge.

Introduction: In this chapter I discuss means of fostering inclusive music making experiences as demonstrated in the practices of a music therapy rock band, the Smooth Criminals. The band uses many adaptive strategies to mitigate physical barriers to participation that may be useful in other music learning spaces. The band’s practices provide means of identifying and negotiating social barriers deeply rooted within popular and informal learning practices. 

​​Abstract: This case study explores the means and meanings of participation in a music therapy rock band for young adult members. The band, the Smooth Criminals, was comprised of five young adult members diagnosed with developmental disabilities and four adult assistants, including three music therapists/interns and myself as a volunteer. Data collection included: video recordings of weekly rehearsals and three concert; field notes; interviews with young adult members, their family members, and the other adult assistants; and a researcher journal. Through data analysis using organizational and axial coding, three major themes emerged: (1) young adult members use the band as a space to play with and construct personal identity, (2) participation in the band afford the young adult members and their family members a space for community and mutual care, and (3) adult assistants as acting as embellishers and providing a safety net. Findings suggest the experiences hold mostly social and identity-based meanings for young adults and that actions of the young adults are facilitated by self-adaptations and help from adult assistants. The discussion explores possible implications of this study for music education and music education research practices.

​Keywords: Developmental disabilities, music therapy, popular music, adaptive practices, inclusion

Rathgeber, J. (Unpublished). Seeing disability: A content analysis of photographs of disability in the Music Educators Journal, 1932-2015. Unpublished manuscript, Music Education and Music Therapy Division, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ.

​Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the what, how, and extent to which disabled persons have been represented photographically in the popular music education publication known as the Music Educators Journal (MEJ). I used captions/text and visual means to identify photographs of disabled persons in 643 issues of the MEJ from 1914 until 2015. Data for this content analysis included every photograph of disabled persons (N = 186) located. Photographs were analyzed for disability labels, setting, integration, activities depicted, percieved race, location in the journal, and decade. The majority of photographs of disabled persons were found in the 1980s, possibly in response to the 1975 legislation PL 94-142 (now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). Mental impairment was the most frequently represented disability in the photographs (30.1%), followed by visual impairment (9.7%), hearing impairment (7.0%), with 30/1% of photographs depicting persons with unspecified disability labels. Additionally, I found an overabundance of general music classroom settings for photographs (37.1%) as compared to all other music education classroom settings (16.1%). Overall, the limited percentage of disabled persons in the MEJ suggests a marginal status and/or concern for disabled persons within the popular consciousness of music education of the United States.  

Peña, S., Rathgeber, J. (Unpublished). Creation/communication, music/movement: Creating with the Urban Arts Ensemble. Unpublished manuscript, Music Education and Music Therapy Division, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ.

​Introduction: How are the creative processes of musicians and dancers related? How can musicians and dancers reimagine their common roles? What would equality look like in a room of musicians and dancers? How would ideas be exchanged in such an environment? What would creative collaboration look like? In what ways can a collaborative group of musicians and dancers improve communication amongst one another?

​    In this essay, we explore how creative experiences in groups might impact communication among members through group creativity experiences for the Urban Art Ensemble at Arizona State University in the Spring of 2015. Preliminary research began on the UAE’s midterm day when members facilitated their own activities aimed at increasing communication through examining domain specific knowledge related to roles and structure/form. For half of the class, we observed the dancers lead activities that addressed roles and communication. For the second half of class we then saw musicians lead the group in activities focused on form and structure of a music genre. From this point, we developed a two- day project that we hoped would give members a chance to creatively engage in experiences with one another that might help them develop their abilities related to group creative communication. In this essay, we will discuss the impetus and structure of our project, examine what happened through the words of members, and articulate important take-aways that might empower our own work facilitating group creative work and which could be useful for others in similar settings. First, thought, we will set the stage by discussing the unique context of this study, the Urban Arts Ensemble. 

This is an interactive text that conveys summary ideas from socio-cultural readings from a graduate level course. This was created by Myself, Michael Gutierrez, Kangwon Kim, and Roger Wagner.

This manuscript is a final project paper from a graduate level course: Digital and Participatory Culture

The ability to interact meaningfully with tools and work collaboratively with others are two skills that are central to modern cultural engagement, according to Jenkins, Purushotma, Weigel, Clinton, and Robison (2009). These skills, distributed cognition and collective intelligence, are also central to modern musical engagements that students may encounter in their lives. Tobias’ (2013) “typical ways people engage with music in participatory culture” (p. 30) all include some element of these two skills as individuals and groups work together to make use of digital, analog, and acoustic instruments, tools, and applications in creating remixes, covers, tutorials, etc. The development of such skills not only opens up pathways to the types of musical interactions indicated above, but also can afford students ways to engage in forms of participatory culture--affiliations, expressions, collaborative problem solving, and circulations (Jenkins et al., 2009)--in a music classroom, thereby creating new ways to connect and participate in such a setting. It is on these two skills, distributed cognition and collective intelligence, as well as the notion of collaborative problem solving that this music curricular project seeks to help students foster while encouraging them to play with sound in new and interesting ways.

The project described below involves student groups creating an intermedia product (Tobias, In Press) that connects sounds, a motion controller, and movement sequences in a unique way in which all the individual parts fuse together to create a unified product. In the project, students will generate and record sounds to be triggered by a motion sound controller they construct using the web-based computer programing tool Scratch. Students will then test these controllers by composing movement-sequences as a way of assessing the product’s possible effectiveness as an interactive sound installation. This project makes use of the  instructional approach of design-based learner (Barron & Darling-Hammond, 2008) that operates on the understanding “that children learn deeply when they are asked to design and create an artifact that requires understanding and applications of knowledge” (p. 45). This approach encourages students to not only create a product that exemplifies their understanding and takeaways from certain experiences, but also to dialogue with the product and other members of their design team as they refine their work in a way that is dynamic and organic. In order to help with the refinement process, the project includes elements of pilot-testing and iterative design from the works of Birringer (2005) and Dena (2011).

​The overall intent of this project is to give students chances to foster skills needed so they can more fully participate in modern cultural activities, including musical activities. Music teachers must realize their role in helping students develop these cultural skills and see, as Jenkins et al. note, “[e]veryone involved in preparing young people to go out into the world has contributions to make in helping students acquire the skills they need to become full participants in society” (2009, pp. xiv-xv). In developing these skills in musical settings, student will also develop musical analytical and creative skills in their explorations of multiple musical dimensions as they generate sounds to be used in the project, during their development of a motion controller, and while they explore space and pilot-test their work through movement sequences. A secondary overarching goal of this project is to demonstrate other ways that students and community members can engage with musical sounds and products in more participatory ways that do not necessarily function within the tradition of common participatory performances (Turino, 2008). This is embedded within the culminating sharing event. Finally, I hope that this project can illustrate ways of opening up creative and collaborative spaces for more participatory interactions with music within music classroom settings. Such spaces would RATHGEBER SOUND + CODE + TEST 4 allow for lower-barriers to expression and engagement, a focus on creating and sharing musical works, higher-degrees of social collaboration, and greater student agency and ownership over their contributions (Jenkins et al., 2009) in the ways of musicking

Introduction: Professor Barbara Crowe of the Arizona State University Music Therapy Program is an influential thinker and practitioner in the field of music therapy. This school year, 2014-2015 marks a very important year for music therapy at Arizona State University in the field, in general, as it is Professor Crowe’s final year prior to her retirement. Crowe has not only helped to firmly establish the Music Therapy program at ASU, but also, through her scholarship and leadership, she has forever impacted the trajectory of music therapy as a profession and as an academic field. Her stories and recollections noted below can give us greater insight into not only her own thinking and development as a therapist, but also highlight her practical and philosophical contributions to the field, at large.
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The following three interviews occurred on separate afternoons in September and October and took place in Professor Crowe’s office, with its packed bookshelves, adaptive instruments, and wall full of awards and recognitions for her work. During these two interviews, we discussed her life, important professional relationships, her work, and her own reflections about her impressive legacy. The first interview focused mainly on her early life, schooling, and collegiate teaching experiences.