Music Therapy Educators’ Perspectives on Practica Community Partnerships

Music therapy educators are tasked by the American Music Therapy Association with creating practica placements for students. However, open-ended instructions result in many differing structures of placements and no formal guidelines or codifying supports for educators working with community partners. The purpose of this descriptive survey study was to provide an understanding of music therapy educators’ perspectives on successful and challenging elements of community partnerships and evaluative factors educators use when creating, monitoring, or discontinuing practica placements. Of the 139 participants, 100 currently teach or previously taught music therapy, and their quantitative and qualitative responses were included in data analysis. Educators perceived relational elements of partnerships as greater contributors to success than logistical elements. They identified pro-active and consistent communication (23.69%, n = 59), commitment to the partnership (18.07%, n = 45), and partners’ perception of students providing meaningful services (18.07%, n = 45) as necessary to successful partnerships. The most prominent challenging element was partners who did not value or understand music therapy. However, only 2.9% of educators (n = 2) indicated teaching partners about music therapy and its benefits as a part of their processes for establishing and monitoring community partnerships. The recognition that education and advocacy of music therapy play an underlying role in practica relationships can help guide educators toward more successful partnerships. Recommended future research should include perspectives of community partners and students on practica relationships.