Musical flourishing as a music teacher educator
Author Identifier (ORCID)
Jason Goopy: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8766-1458
Abstract
Music-making lies at the heart of my career as a music teacher educator. Musicing, or the doing of music, pervades my work and allows me to lead a joyful, meaningful, and ethical life in, through, and with music for myself and my community. I constantly lean upon my personal musicianship to sustain my wellbeing as I navigate the academy. I refer to this way of living as musical flourishing, a eudaimonic view that positions music as a process and resource for wellbeing. In this chapter, I share three personal narratives that exemplify musical flourishing in my teaching, research, and community engagement as part of an academic career. The chapter synthesises five strategies for integrating musical flourishing into scholarly life as a teacher educator: embrace your musical identity, foreground musicing, maintain and develop your musical expertise, create connections by musicing, and be a music innovator. Through my story, I hope that other arts teacher educators find permission to embrace musicing as an act of self-care and flourish as making academics.
Document Type
Book Chapter
Date of Publication
10-17-2025
Publication Title
The Making Academic: Perspectives on Expressive Practice and Wellbeing in Higher Education
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
School
School of Education
RAS ID
82080
Copyright
subscription content
First Page
161
Last Page
168
Comments
Goopy, J. (2025). Musical flourishing as a music teacher educator. In The Making Academic: Perspectives on Expressive Practice and Wellbeing in Higher Education (pp. 161–168). Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003592556-25