ABSTRACT
Dorothy entered an unfamiliar music teacher preparation program, far from home, already with several strikes against her. Her aspiration upon leaving her family, friends, and everything she had known was to obtain a music education degree and then return home to create a better world for herself and others in her community. Dorothy’s primary instrument became one of her greatest sources of difficulty as she navigated the music education program. Dorothy strove to catch up with the rest of the class on secondary instruments in her methods classes, experiencing public embarrassment in front of her peers Dorothy’s love of music was never in question, nor was her general love of learning. She learned music by ear in her home community, similarly to how she learned to write essays by learning what prose should “sound like.”.
