Music Education and Postgraduate Study: The Case of Dokuz Eylül University

Abstract

The purposes of this study are to shed light on postgraduate education in Music Teaching and draw inferences about the future by evaluating the Music Teaching Postgraduate Program in Dokuz Eylul University Institute of Educational Sciences. The research is a qualitative study modelled with a single-case embedded study. In accordance with the interlocking single case pattern, the Music Education graduate program was examined by focusing on student, graduate, faculty member, theses. The opinions of 10 students, 23 graduates and 6 faculty members were taken to evaluate the program, and 57 master’s and 20 doctoral theses were examined. As a result of the content analysis,opinions were collected under four main categories. These categories are defined as “institutional goals”, “content”, “program outputs” and “updates”. In the category of program outcomes, the theses were evaluated according to various categories and the professional orientations of the graduates were statistically shared. According to the results of the research, the following conclusions were made: students should be informed at the beginning of the program in order to understand the vision and mission of the institution and to make the process they spent in the education process meaningful; A “scientific research in music education” course should be added to the program in order to conduct qualified research in the field of music education; subjects and research groups in theses should be diversified; faculty members should be role models in preparing thesis and academic studies for their advisors; graduate programs should be updated according to the needs of the time and society.