Abstract:

When I began teaching piano in the U.S., I was surprised by the challenges that I encountered when working with American students. I noticed this was particularly evident during my efforts with pre-college students. I have additionally faced some unexpected reactions and misunderstandings involving parents with whom I have worked. In all these contexts, my sense was that challenges were somewhat unique to the cultural dimensions of our teaching and learning relationships. This recognition both surprised and concerned me as I came to believe that few, if any, people I worked with seem to be aware of these issues.
In reflecting upon such matters further, I began to realize that I had never been explicitly introduced and thoroughly exposed to aspects of cross-cultural teaching in my piano pedagogy coursework. I started to wonder whether more extensive discussions and in-depth study about cross-cultural teaching would have helped prepare me for more successful communication with students and parents during my initial teaching in the U.S. As a result, I decided to begin looking into these aspects in more detail.
From the literature review, there appears to be some educational and sociological literature that specifically concerns cross-cultural issues involving interactions between parents, teachers, and/or students. However, less research has been conducted within music education that addresses cross-cultural communication among parents, teachers, and/or students. Furthermore, it is especially noteworthy to recognize the lack of studies that combine cross-cultural pedagogic interferences and teaching involving all three groups of parents, teachers, and students in piano studios.

Therefore, my paper will fill an important gap by investigating how the aforementioned problems and misunderstandings involving the triangular relationships of parents, students, and teachers might be more successfully navigated within the realm of cross-cultural piano pedagogy. With an intent to integrate my personal cultural experiences and interests with the aforementioned research questions, my research uses a conceptual paradigm primarily stemming from a Korean cultural perspective; primarily utilizing a Korean-Western milieu as an entry point to explore future possibilities for improved cross-cultural piano pedagogy

This research is a designed survey for both native-speaking Korean graduate student-teachers who have teaching experiences with Western pre-college students, and for native speaking Western graduate student-teachers who have teaching experiences with Korean pre-college students. A primary goal is to tease out information on the process of how Korean, and Western graduate student teachers deal with students and parents in cross-cultural piano pedagogy environments in hope discovering possible types of communication and instructional approaches that lead to success, and to illuminate relationships between parent, student and teacher within the realm of cross-cultural piano pedagogy.

I hope my study may potentially be beneficial for broader applications in other cross-cultural piano pedagogy environments. In this way, I want other teachers to also recognize the necessity of sensitively communicating with parents and students in cross-cultural environments. Lastly, I hope that my investigation will not only add value to the field of music education, but may even call others to further explore cross-cultural teaching and learning for piano.

Keywords:

Cross-cultural piano pedagogy, Korean Vs. Western, pre-college students, cross-cultural communication among parents, teachers, and/or students.