Using Life Course Analysis to investigate the absence of popular musicians from the field of classroom music teaching

This paper uses theoretical concepts associated with Life Course Analysis to explore factors which may influence a professional musician's decision to gain – or elect not to gain – formal music teaching qualifications in Australia. Such an exploration is prompted by calls from Green (2008), Wright (2017), and Powell et al. (2017) to redress the historical absence of popular musicians from the field of music education, and to curate teacher cohorts with an understanding of skills and knowledges associated with popular musicianship. In this paper COVID-19 is positioned as a ‘period effect’ which may prompt popular musicians to consider gaining teaching qualifications and enter the field of qualified music teaching. In doing so, the potential short and long-term impacts of the pandemic on the vocational trajectory of popular musicians is of focus.