Teaching Children with Disabilities: Preparation through State Music Educators Association Conferences

Overview & Synopsis

The purpose of this study was to determine the types and frequency of music and special education workshops held at state music educators association (MEA) conferences. Specifically, the researchers sought to determine the following within the past 10 years: (a) states that offered music and special education workshops at their MEA conferences, (b) frequency of music and special education workshops at each MEA conference, (c) frequency of music and special education workshops by music classroom type or IDEA disability category, and (d) significant differences in frequency of music and special education workshops between state MEAs with and state MEAs without a Special Learners Chair. There were 226 conference programs obtained from 2004 to 2013, of which 33 states (73%) provided at least one conference program and 12 states (27%) provided all programs. Within the provided conference programs, there were 300 music and special education sessions listed. Furthermore, most sessions were those that gave special education information without being specific to an individual music area or disability (n = 149 or 50%). When the data were analyzed by music area or individual disability category, sessions pertaining to general music (n = 43.5 or 14.5%) or autism (n = 36.5 or 12%) were most frequent. Furthermore, results are discussed within the article.