Preservice Music Teachers’ Soundscape Memories as Indicators of Musical Eco-Literacy

Abstract

<p>This study investigates preservice music teachers’ meaningful soundscape memories and how these<br>memories reflect students’ general musical eco-literacy. We ask: Do sound memories reflect the factors<br>in the Paananen model of eco-literacy? A theory-driven content analysis was performed based on the<br>Paananen model’s competency categories. The data entries were analyzed using repeated measures<br>analysis of variance. Fleiss’ kappa was used to check for inter-rater agreement. The competency areas<br>of the Paananen model of eco-literacy in music were present in the university students’ narratives of<br>meaningful soundscape memories. Recognition of eco-literacy from the soundscape narratives was<br>statistically significantly different between the different competency factors, <i>F</i>(3.37, 236.00) = 71.79,<br><i>p</i> < .001, partial η2 = .51. Meaningful soundscape memories as written assignments emphasize the<br>cognitive and emotional competency factors in the eco-literate musical thinking of preservice music<br>teachers. A large proportion of the sound memories reflected a strong sense of connection to the<br>natural environment, was positively connected to nature, and depicted a concrete, specific location.<br>Therefore, soundscape memories could be a pedagogical tool for promoting place-specific ecoliteracy<br>in the musical sense and in the sense of living an eco-literate life.<br></p>