Influence of gender, choral membership, and ethnicity on students' attitudes toward singing and choral participation in the urban, upper-elementary school chorus
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Abstract
Due to recent demographic changes to the student populations in the United
States, urban schools have experienced an increase in their proportion of culturally
diverse students (Emmanuel, 2006; Fisher, 2008; Robinson, 2006), prompting music
education researchers to address issues specific to urban schools. Yet, there still remains
a paucity of research on urban music education, particularly in the field of singing and
choral participation in the urban setting at the upper-elementary level. Responding to this
gap in the research, the purpose of this study was to examine the influence of gender,
choral membership, and ethnicity on students’ attitudes toward singing and choral
participation in urban upper-elementary schools in a school district in the state of Florida.
The following research questions guided the study: (a) How do gender, choral
membership, and ethnicity influence urban, upper-elementary school students’ attitudes
toward singing?; (b) How do gender, choral membership, and ethnicity influence urban,
upper-elementary school students’ attitudes toward choral participation?; (c) How do
gender, choral membership, and ethnicity influence urban, upper-elementary school
students’ attitudes toward future choral enrollment?; and (d) Is there a relationship
between urban, upper-elementary school students’ attitudes toward singing, choral
participation, and future choral enrollment?
I selected a convenience sample of four urban elementary schools and surveyed
fourth- and fifth-grade students, both chorus and non-chorus members, from these four
schools (N = 600). I utilized a researcher-modified version of Mizener’s (1990)
questionnaire on singing interest and choral participation to measure attitudes toward
singing, choral participation, and future choral enrollment.
Results indicated that girls had more favorable attitudes toward singing, choral
participation, and future choral enrollment than boys. Compared to non-chorus members,
students in chorus had more favorable attitudes toward singing, choral participation, and
future choral enrollment. Additionally, there was a significant positive correlation
between the three dependent variables among chorus members.
Ancillary analyses revealed tentative evidence that, among those enrolled in
chorus, African American students tended to have less favorable attitudes toward choral
participation than students of other ethnicities. However, the ethnic group with the lowest
choral participation rate among surveyed students was that of Hispanics