Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MM

College

College of Creative Arts

Department

School of Music

Committee Chair

Jason Gossett

Committee Co-Chair

Angela Munroe

Committee Member

Cody Norling

Abstract

The future of music education in schools is largely determined by educators' resilience in their positions. Resilience is the process of adapting to adversity by accessing and utilizing intrinsic and extrinsic resources available (Gu & Day, 2007; Squires et al., 2023). Resilience affects various aspects of an educator’s personal and professional life, including job satisfaction (Li, 2023). Job satisfaction can affect teacher health, teacher performance, and teacher retention, which in turn may affect student performance (Huysman, 2008; Lu et al., 2024; Robison & Russell, 2022). The circumstances and events that occur during a teacher’s first year in the profession can significantly affect their job satisfaction and, in turn, their dedication to the role (Renbarger & Davis, 2019). In the rural music classroom, students need dedicated educators who are committed to their craft and can actualize the creativity needed to address challenges often associated with rural contexts (Bates, 2011). Understanding the possible challenges and supports available to first-year rural music educators can improve understanding of a teacher’s resilience process, allowing them to adequately face challenges and reinforce commitment to the profession. To examine how challenges and supports are measured to determine a teacher’s job satisfaction, I used the Teacher Resilience Model (TRM) as the framework for this study (Squires et al., 2023). This framework was used to identify challenges and supports as described by a first-year rural music educator, analyze their self-reflection, and determine the influence of resilience on job satisfaction.

The purpose of this instrumental case study was to investigate the role of resilience in shaping a first-year rural music educator's job satisfaction and professional dedication. The study was guided by the following research questions: (1) How do rural-specific contexts influence a first-year rural music educator’s resilience, and in what ways does this resilience process shape their overall job satisfaction? (2) How does a first-year rural music educator describe what supports are most valuable to them? (3) What unique challenges are defined by a first-year rural music educator, and how do they address them? A first-year rural music educator in a middle/high school choir position served as the sole participant in this case study, and data collection included classroom observations, semi-structured interviews, artifacts, and access to online resources used in the participant’s classroom. I performed two cycles of data coding for analysis. For first-cycle coding, I used a priori coding by using the four factors of TRM as codes (Saldaña, 2013). For second-cycle coding, pattern coding and code mapping were employed to determine categories and identify overlapping themes across all data.

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