An Exploration of How Working at Marching Band Camps Can Benefit Pre-Service Instrumental Music Educators

Equipping pre-service music education students for a teaching career requires practicum experience working with mentor teachers and students. It can be challenging to acquire enough practicum experience through typical undergraduate coursework to prepare future teachers for a classroom of their own entirely. Guided by the phenomenological research approach, this study will investigate pre-service teaching opportunities available to instrumental music education students who work at summer marching band camps to gain experience teaching in the classroom. Data will be gathered from pre-service teachers’ experiences as instructors or technicians at marching band camps through an online survey. This survey will examine the benefits of professional development opportunities based on music education trends learned from current and future educators who work summer marching band camps. Future research can be done in music education to encourage and equip pre-service teaching and marching band camps with instructional skills and other educational practices.