Preservice music teachers` perception of their music teachers

This research examines preservice music teachers` perception of their music teachers during their schooling. The data for the research were obtained by asking 135 preservice music teachers to fill in the blanks in the sentence ‘my music teacher was like a…, because...’ A content analysis of the data resulted in 80 different metaphors. These metaphors were grouped into eight different categories. The participants` perceptions were mainly focused on four roles and characteristics of their music teachers namely, ‘guiding/supportive,’ ‘expert/authority,’ ‘kind/supportive,’ and ‘inefficacious/with communication problems’. The results showed that, participants’ music teachers had an important role in terms of providing them guidance, and being kind and supportive. However, participants were taught in more traditional way of teaching where teachers are seen as transmitter of knowledge and authoritarian. Some negative comments about their music teachers were given which needs further research.   Key words: Music teacher, preservice music teachers, perceptions, metaphor.