1. Debra Penberthy
University of Southern California’s
Thornton School of Music
May 29, 2013
Presented at Annual Conference of
Student Affairs Professionals at Performing Arts Schools
Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY
Fostering Self-authorship Among
Music Performance Majors

2. Introduction
Role in working with music students
Observations about music performance majors
Realizations about a new way to see them
Note: focus is on undergraduate music performance
majors who are of traditional college age, but much may
apply to other majors, older students, and graduates

3. What is my role?
 Director of Student Affairs, advising office for
USC’s Thornton School of Music (TSOM)
 USC: large, private, doctoral institution
 TSOM: highly diverse school of music
 Advising at TSOM for 10 years and worked in
higher education since 1994

4. What have I observed about music
performance majors?
 Seen as different from the general college population,
& undeclared students, in that they seem to have
defined career goals by virtue of their major
 Experience is different due to highly structured and
demanding curriculum, with few electives
 Often advised in a prescriptive manner, with advisors
detailing what must be taken next to “stay on track”
 Reality: some struggle with defining career vision and
enacting that vision upon graduation

5. What have I realized about how to think
about music performance majors?
 May not have deep knowledge of what they
want to do & how to do it
 Have need for advising & support similar to
what is provided for students without a
declared major
 Multiple sources of advising and support:
faculty and staff in advising, residence life,
student activities, counseling, etc.

6. Presentation Overview
 Review of the relevant literature
 Existing applications of theory
 Discussion
 Adaptations of practice for music performance
majors to assist them in defining:
 who they are
 who they want to become
 how to enact their visions
 Considerations for practice
 Group discussion

7. Literature Review:
What Do We Already Know?
• Music performance majors and their paths
• Features of emerging adulthood
• Shortcomings of higher education
• Self-authorship theory and research
• Need for self-authorship among this group

8. Music performance majors
and their paths
Very few studies focused exclusively on music
performance majors, thus some studies are broader
(musicians, all music majors, or music graduates)
Childhood and adolescence
 Beginning music as a child (Fishbein et. al., 1988/1998)
meaning less exploration (Nagel, ‘88)
 Choosing career as adolescent (Sandgren, 2009)
 High sense of “calling” at end of high school, and linked
not to ability but high involvement in and fit with music
environment (Dobrow, 2012, p. 443)

9. Music performance majors
College experience
 Found no studies on reasons for choosing music
major
 Multiple influences on choice of music school:
teachers, college faculty, and financial issues
(Locke, 1982; & Butke & Frego, 2009)
 High demands on time--practicing (Kostka, 2002)
 Stress and burnout higher among music
performance majors than music education or non-
music majors (Bernhard, 2010a & 2010b)

10. Music performance majors
College experience
 For all music majors:
 Multiple influences on occupational identity formation
 Most positive influences on continuing to pursue music
degree: private teacher, parents, taking lessons
 Besides teacher, multiple factors affected career
commitment, including other people and aspects of the
college environment
 Evidence of multiple identities (musician,
entertainer/entrepreneur, teacher, conductor/composer)
(Austin, Isbell & Russell, 2012)

11. Music performance majors
College experience
 Reasons for choosing performance career (Parkes &
Jones, 2011)
 Enjoyment (common response)
 Perceived ability to succeed (common response)
 Usefulness (uncommon response)
 Musician identity (uncommon response)
 Perceived “importance” predicts teaching career
but perceived ability to succeed predicts choice of
performance career (Parkes & Jones, 2012)

12. Music performance majors
College experience
 “High calling” music students more likely to overestimate
abilities (Dobrow & Heller, 2012); less likely to heed
discouraging advice (Dobrow & Tosti-Kharas, 2012)
 Decrease in “calling” to music from age 17 to post- college
& link to greater exposure/fit with music (Dobrow, 2012)

13. Music performance majors
College experience
 Evidence of need for more attention to development
of occupational identity for music students
(Nagel, 1987; Allen, 2003; Austin, et. al, 2012)
 Using Marcia’s identity statuses (1966),
U of Michigan study found about 1/3 of music majors had
“achieved” occupational identity by their junior or senior
year, but the rest had identity statuses of:
 Foreclosed: having commitment without evaluation
 Moratorium: actively in crisis about identity
 Diffused: uncommitted/not in turmoil (Nagel, ‘87)

14. Music performance majors
Post-college life
 Arts graduates satisfied with their education but
dissatisfied with career advisement (SNAAP, 2012)
 Career outcomes:
 Evidence of high job satisfaction (SNAAP, 2012) but
varies by type of music position (Allmendinder,
Hackman, and Lehman, 1996)
 Among musicians evidence of high levels of
underemployment and low pay, particularly in relation
to education (NEA, 2008)
 Differences between career aspirations (work as
performer) and expectations ( performing and non-
performing) among jazz majors (Devroop, 2011)

15. Features of emerging adulthood
Emerging adulthood: life stage of 18-25 year olds
Features of this age:
 Instability
 Self-focused
 Feeling in-between adolescence and adulthood
 Great sense of optimism, and
 Period of exploration (Arnett, 2001 & 2006)

16. Emerging adulthood
Contrasting view:
concerning lack of purpose leading to detrimental effects
Elements of a sense of calling:
“(1) a realistic awareness of one’s own abilities;
(2) an interest in how those abilities can serve
some aspect of the world’s needs; and
(3) a feeling of enjoyment in using one’s abilities
in this way.”
(Damon, 2008, p. 46, emphasis not in original)

17. Higher education outcomes
Higher education not achieving some key goals:
 No gain in “critical thinking, complex reasoning,
and writing skills” for 45% of students from the
freshman to sophomore years (Arum & Roska,
2011, p. 36)
 Hiring managers dissatisfied with college education
and virtually all types of skills of applicants,
particularly complex skills such as “novel and
adaptive thinking” (ACIS, 2011)

18. Self-authorship theory and research
Kegan (1994) posited that we are:
 “In over our heads” in trying to address the
“demands of modern life”
 Thought processes disallow many to think and
act independently and author their own lives
 “Self-authorship:” a necessary condition for
navigating the contemporary world

19. Self-authorship
Defined as:
“the internal capacity to define one’s
beliefs, identity, and social relations.”
(Baxter Magolda, 2008a, p. 269)

20. Self-authorship
 25-year longitudinal study with students who entered
Miami of Ohio in ’86 (Baxter Magolda, 2009)
 Most began as absolute knowers: external knowing
 Most graduated as transitional knowers: contested
knowledge but reliance on authorities
 Minority graduated as independent knowers: seeing
multiple viewpoints and thinking more independently
 Two graduated as contextual knowers: “viewing
knowledge as relative to context and knowledge claims
better or worse based on evaluation of relevant
experience.” (Baxter Magolda, 2004, xvii.)

21. Self-authorship
Developmental progression:
Externality Crossroads Self-authorship
(Baxter Magolda, 2004)

22. Self-authorship
External phase—college and early 20s:
 Reliance on external formulas for success
 Unsuccessful formulas generally replaced
with other formulas
 Internal voice ignored
(Baxter Magolda, 2004)

23. Self-authorship
Quote on this reliance upon external messages:
I went right to the law journal, that big prestige
thing... I was thinking to myself “You’ve got to do
this in order to get to being a law teacher. But on the
way over to the law journal table, there was this street
law, which is teaching in the high schools around
here. I’m like, “Damn, that’s what I really want to
do.” Real strong internal cues said, “Do this.” So I
picked up the information and was just like, “Damn! I
just can’t do it because it’s not going to get me there.”
(Baxter Magolda, 2004, p. 41)
Equivalent situations in music world would be…?

24. Self-authorship
Period of external formulas was reactionary:
I’ve gone through most of my life being
reactionary. Like those toy cars made in Taiwan in
the ‘70s--battery powered, had a lever. You’d put it
on a table, it would back up when it reached the edge
of the table. Redirect yourself when you are going to
go off a cliff. I was behaving like one of those
cars. Somebody would put up a barrier and I would
stop and back up; no progress.
(Baxter Magolda, 2004, p. 93)

25. Self-authorship
Crossroads period—sometime in 20s and into 30s
 Realizing that things had not turned out as
predicted
 Painful time of searching & questioning beliefs
 Understanding importance of “internal source of
belief and definition”
(Baxter Magolda, 2004, p.93)

26. Self-authorship
Crossroads quote from same law student above:
I started reading the books and I was like, “Whoa, this
is pretty boring stuff.” And it was painful, painful. I
don’t know. And then I thought, “I don’t want to go
through”--and this took a long time… I said, “Is this
map of success given to me by the legal culture really
a map at all to success?” And it depends on your
definition of success. A great résumé or accolades,
yeah, that’s the chart to a sign of prestige, that’s the
way to go. But I realized that I couldn’t be a person
who sacrificed happiness to that goal of
prestige. (Baxter Magolda, 2004, p. 46)

27. Self-authorship
Self-authorship (30s and early 40s)
Three inter-related elements:
 Epistemological: “trusting the internal voice”
 Intrapersonal: “building an internal foundation”
 Interpersonal: “securing internal commitments,”
(Baxter Magolda, 2008a, p. 269)
Self-authorship could lead to original, modified or
completely new goals: point is internality

28. Self-authorship
State of self-authorship illustrated by this quote:
Making yourself into something, not what other
people say or not just kind of floating along in life,
but you’re in some sense a piece of clay. You’ve
been formed into different things, but that doesn’t
mean you can’t go back on the potter’s wheel and
instead of somebody else’s hands building and
molding you, you use your own, and in a
fundamental sense change your values and beliefs.
(Baxter Magolda, 2004, p. 119)

29. Self-authorship
Implications for faculty and staff
 Mismatch between expectations and performance
given how uncommon self-authorship may be
(Kegan, 1994 & Baxter Magolda 2004)
 High challenge & support can yield self-authorship
before or during college (Baxter Magolda, 2008a)
 Higher education professionals must help students
bridge this gap in order for students to more fully
meet expectations and be prepared for the real
world (Baxter Magolda, 2004)

30. Self-authorship
Learning Partnership Model fosters self-authorship by:
“validating learners’ capacity as knowledge constructors,
situating learning in learners’ experience, and
defining learning as mutually constructing meaning.”
(Baxter Magolda, 2004, p. xix)

31. Need for self-authorship among
music performance majors
What is known about degree of self-authorship
among graduates of music performance degrees?
 No studies on this
 Based on research on others, can assume some are
self-authored before, during, and well after college
 Though some may appear to be self-authored, they
may be taking external models for success for career
and relationships

32. Need for self-authorship among
music performance majors
 In situations that are highly complex and involve
great uncertainty, self-authorship highly
necessary (Baxter Magolda, 2004)
 Most successful careers in music are multi-faceted
and self-tailored (Ricker, 2011), indicating high
complexity and uncertainty
 Thus, high need for self-authorship among those
who intend to have a music career

33. Need for self-authorship among
music performance majors
Angela Myles Beeching has essentially called for self-
authorship among this group, saying:
Musicians often attribute career success or failure to fate
or destiny. They say it's a matter of being in the right
place at the right time, getting “discovered,” or just
being lucky. Unfortunately, this kind of thinking leads
to a passive approach: to simply letting things happen
as they will. My goal is to fundamentally change this
thinking and promote the idea that you are the person
in charge. You are the architect of the future.
(Beeching, 2010, pp. 1-2; emphasis in the original).

34. Need for self-authorship among
music performance majors
In Beyond Talent, Beeching knowingly or unknowingly
addresses all of the elements of self-authorship in the
context of musicians:
 Epistemological: recognizing external (and
outdated) formulas for success and listening to self
 Intrapersonal: developing a personal philosophy
 Interpersonal: examining ways of relating to others
& enacting one’s commitments within music world
 Excellent set of visioning questions (2010, pp. 141-
149)
My question: would those lacking self-
authorship answer them externally?

35. Existing Applications for Practice
• Self-authorship conversation guide (Baxter Magolda
& King, 2008)
• Using Learning Partnership Model to assist students
in evaluating career and personal options (Pizzolato,
2006)

36. Existing applications
Self-authorship conversation guide
 Designed to encourage thinking about
important experiences and mutual construction
of meaning out of those reflections
 Lasting 60-90 minutes and semi-regular
 Advisor follows the lead of the student and
gives minimal input/advice
 Issues of conflict/pain/anxiety fruitful areas for
followup: exploring competing ideas or needs
Baxter Magolda, M.B., & King, P.M. (2008).
Toward reflective conversations:
An advising approach that promotes self-authorship. Peer Review, 10(1), 8-11.

37. Existing applications
Sample questions from conversation guide:
1) Tell me about yourself… your background and what
brought you to [institution]?
2) What did you expect college would be like for you this
year? How has your college experience gone for you so
far? To what extent does it match your expectations?
3) Tell me about a significant learning experience…at
college… Best experience…? Worst experience…?
4) Tell me about some of the challenges you’ve
encountered. Follow-up: How did you approach them?
5) What kind of support systems do you have? What role
have they played in your college experience thus far?
(Baxter Magolda & King, 2008b—questions quoted)

38. Existing applications
Using the LPM to assist students in career and
personal decision-making, whereby advisor helps
student to (Pizzolato, 2008):
 Pinpoint multiple options
 Delineate a range of goals—career, personal, and
education-related
 Lay out possible consequences of each choice
 Identify likely challenges & plan for contingencies
 Lengthy, semi-regular talks (45-60 minutes)

39. Discussion
How does what we know about music
performance majors inform adaptations of
practice?

40. Discussion
 Early start in music & less time for exploration
 Multiple influences on career choice
 High enjoyment of music but possible lack of
understanding of service element of music career
 Need for assistance with realistic assessment of abilities
 Hold multiple identities within the music world but may
have limited exposure to various roles and styles
 Awareness of financial and career challenges
 Greater need for career advising
 High time commitments through high school and college
Upshot: High need for
guided reflection grounded in experience

41. Adaptations of Practice for Music
Performance Majors
• Self-authorship conversation guide tailored to music
performance majors
• Incorporating LPM in advising sessions (no
adaptation)
• Using Strengths Finder 2.0 (Rath, 2007)
• Artist’s Way model for building internal voice
(Cameron, 1992)
• Beyond Talent reflection guide (Beeching, 2010, pp.
140-149)

42. Adaptations of Practice
1. Conversation guide for performance majors:
 Grounding in student’s experience not visioning
 Reflecting on paths to music
 Identifying satisfying elements of experience in
music and more broadly
 Identifying areas of internal conflict or potential
“provocative moments” (Pizzolato, 2003)

43. Adaptations of Practice
New questions added to original guide, including:
1) Tell me about the process of deciding to major in
music performance. [Focus on experiences]
2) What has been one of your most satisfying learning
experiences this year? What aspect of music or other
subjects does that entail, and why was it satisfying?
3) If your interest is performance, in the past year, what
has been one of your most satisfying performance
experiences? What about in high school? What was
satisfying about both?
4) Have you had the experience of being in a music role
other than performer? If so, what was that like? What
about performing other styles/different settings?
Use individual questions to encourage reflection

44. Adaptations of Practice
Recent use of methods:
 Used “satisfying learning experiences” and
“performances” questions in advising
appointments, resulting in rich conversations
 Conducted guided conversations with three
students. My initial thoughts:
 Rich conversations utilizing very few questions
 Area of conflict over internal desire to do music but
feeling or being called “selfish”—points to service
 Challenge of assessing self-authorship

45. Adaptations of Practice
2. Using the LPM to assist students in career and
personal decision-making for music majors:
 Use application as described above (no real adaptation)
 Focus on delineating range of goals—career, personal,
and education-related
 Explore potential areas of conflict between goals as
raised by student
(Pizzolato, 2008)

46. Adaptations of Practice
3. Use of Strengths Finder 2.0 online assessment
 Identifies general strengths
 Exhorts people to focus on strengths not
weaknesses
 Adaptation: discuss and map strengths onto
various music roles to help explain varying levels
of enjoyment
 Example: presenter has “ideation,” “learner,”
“strategy,” and “achiever.” Explains better fit
with songwriting than other roles explored.
 Use of USC Thornton Music Professions Index
(in press) to see almost 400 professions and
associated skills
(Rath, 2007)

47. Adaptations of Practice
4. Use of Artist’s Way exercises as basis of reflective
conversations with students (Cameron, 1992):
 Affirmations about musician self and negative
“blurts” that reveal negative beliefs (p. 34)
 “Detective work” exercise filling in statements:
Example--“My parents think artists are…” (p. 73)
 New statements for musicians:
 My teacher thinks musicians are…?
 I think musicians are…?
 My teacher thinks success as a musician is..? I think…?
 To fail as a musician looks like…?

48. Adaptations of Practice
5. Use of Angela Myles Beeching’s reflection guide
as preparation for conversation (2010, pp. 141-149)
• Assign to student to prep for conversation
• Discuss answers
• Tie answers to experiences
• Encourage sense-making prior to visioning
• Follows leads about questioning, conflict, or
crossroads experiences

49. Considerations for practice
• Time required
• Different practices/questions for various student
groups?
• Caution in dealing with highly emotional issues—
referring to counseling/occupational therapy/other
resources when necessary

50. Group Discussion
Any questions?
What are some potential crossroads experiences for music
performance majors prior to, during, or after college?
How might these applications fit your work context?
Are there ways that you are already fostering self-authorship
through your practice?
Have questions later? My contact info is:
dpenbert@thornton.usc.edu
323-823-8723