ABSTRACT
This chapter invites the reader to “learn from others,” to become more familiar with both teaching as a lifelong career and the ideas that anchor a “life in music teaching.” It has several aims: first, to engage in the process of looking beyond the immediate goals of learning to teach music and to peek into the future; second, to expand the field of vision by considering influences, factors, knowledges, skills, competencies, and dispositions that can shape a life in teaching over time; and third, to share short narratives of practicing teachers at different places in their careers that show how music teachers think about their practice in ways that give generalized descriptions of career development a greater moral footing. A key concept in this chapter is coming to understand that the general progression of one’s career is shaped by the conditions and environments in which one finds oneself, one’s commitment and passion for teaching, one’s own sense of efficacy and agency, and one’s own moral purpose.
