Julia Cramer, Musical identities, relationships and role in the one to one music lesson (MA, Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, 2016)

Research regarding one to one music lessons remains limited, as many of these practices take place in relative privacy. In particular, research has paid little attention to how the relationships and roles that develop in one to one lessons form and inform students' musical identities. This study explores student-teacher relationships, roles and learning processes in one to one lessons in an effort gain insight into the successful development of positive musical identities. Utilizing a qualitative case study approach, data collected from observations, journal entries, and interviews were inductively coded for in-depth analysis. Key themes emerged from the data, revealing four main findings: (1) Asymmetrical Friendships between teachers and students can create comfortable and safe learning environments while still maintaining Bourdieu's theory of 'Pedagogic Authority' (Bourdieu and Passeron, 1977), which suggests that the authority between teachers and students should not be equal if effective learning is to occur, (2) Mentor, master-apprentice, and co-learner roles were the most prevalent roles in lessons, and students appreciated the dynamic variance of all three for developing personally, socially and musically, (3) Students appeared to build confidence and develop positive musical identities from a combination of formal and informal learning processes, especially if they were encouraged to set their own goals, (4) Although lacking in consistent definitions of the term 'musician', this study revealed that teachers' attempts to develop the confidence of students, as well as moments of both intentional and subliminal enculturation played a significant role in forming and informing individual musical identities. Implications for music educators are discussed and recommendations for further research are suggested for the development of successful one to one music lesson practices.