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The Teacher-Student Relationship in One-to-One Singing Lessons: An Investigation of Personality and Adult Attachment

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Book cover Teaching Singing in the 21st Century

Part of the book series: Landscapes: the Arts, Aesthetics, and Education ((LAAE,volume 14))

Abstract

The characteristic isolation of one-to-one singing lessons based on two elements confined to work together over time implies strong adaptation in order for the ultimate goal of teaching artistic individuality, maturity and independence to be achieved. In a functional relationship there is space for all attributes to be developed whereas in relationships without solid compatibility, the student’s development might be compromised.

This chapter presents the singing setting in a multidirectional perspective giving voice to both teachers and students. The teacher-student dyads were video recorded in their lessons during one academic year. The behaviours were analysed and complemented with the psychological questionnaires NEO PI-R (Costa and McCrae1992) and Adult Attachment Scale (Collins and Read 1990) to evaluate personality and attachment respectively. This approach was developed in order to: contextualize the singing teacher-student relationship; profile personality and adult attachment characteristics in singing teachers and students; report stable characteristics of the relationships; distinguish functional from dysfunctional singing teacher-student relationships; indicate the usefulness of using personality and adult attachment instruments for understanding the singing relationships.

This study contributes to the clarification of teacher-students’ relationship. The combination of observational studies with the data from psychological instruments provided a more accurate indication that singing teachers and students tend to behave according to their personal and psychological characterisation, which takes the understanding of singing lessons into a more objective setting. These findings are of relevance for heads of vocal departments, singing teachers and students by providing means of predicting, interpreting and supporting relational quality.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Escola das Artes, Research Center for Science and Technology in Art, Portuguese Catholic University, Porto, Portugal

    Sofia Serra-Dawa

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  1. Sofia Serra-Dawa
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Correspondence to Sofia Serra-Dawa .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University, South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Scott D. Harrison

  2. Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University, South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Jessica O'Bryan

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Serra-Dawa, S. (2014). The Teacher-Student Relationship in One-to-One Singing Lessons: An Investigation of Personality and Adult Attachment. In: Harrison, S., O'Bryan, J. (eds) Teaching Singing in the 21st Century. Landscapes: the Arts, Aesthetics, and Education, vol 14. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8851-9_13

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