Smiling woman with arms crossed wearing a black blazer and floral blouse
Dr. Alison Reynolds, Chair of Music Education and Music Therapy; Professor and Director of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies, Music Education

Welcome from the Chair

Greetings and welcome to the Department of Music Education. I am honored to serve as Chair of the departments of Music Education and Music Therapy, and also oversee graduate and undergraduate studies in Music Education. The Music Education department at Temple recently celebrated its 125th anniversary, and  we now have 12 contemporary curricula across undergraduate, master’s and doctoral studies. I invite you to explore both the Music Education and the Music Therapy departments at the Boyer College and learn more about our programs and faculty accomplishments.

Our Music Education faculty focus on creative, interactive, and socially inclusive music making. We embrace music as personally enriching, and all musical activity as key to expressive identity and growth. Our work spans all forms of Music Education for all learners in all settings—early childhood, general music, choral, instrumental, and the wider community. Our expertise includes arts integration, audiation, general music methodologies, aural skills and music theory, composing and arranging, conducting, contemporary music ensembles, culturally responsive teaching, creativity and improvisation, inclusive teaching, and movement. We enjoy serving learners of any age, and we’re involved in many community-wide projects with members across the life span. Most of all, we enjoy engaging with Boyer students in the full suite of music teaching and learning experiences.

Each of our faculty brings a creative musican-teacher-scholar approach to mentoring our students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Collectively, we share research expertise in qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods, drawing on knowledge from other fields, such as general education, sociology, philosophy and psychology.  We’re energized and rejuvenated by all our collegiate activity, beginning with our own dynamic students in classrooms, rehearsal rooms, and independent study spaces within Boyer, extending to the whole Temple University campus, Philadelphia and its greater region, Pennsylvania, the nation and internationally.

Pre-certification Music Education students collaborate with peers to practice teaching in diverse settings, from early childhood to Pre-K through 12th-grade. At the undergraduate and graduate levels, they engage in independent studies in teaching, creative scholarship or research. Graduate Music Education students seek the next level of state licensure; some are pursuing doctoral studies for next steps in their careers, such as teaching in higher education. Our Music Education students commit themselves—as musicians, teachers and scholars—to learning and growing, strengthening and expanding and contributing to improving the world through music education.

We welcome your inquiries about Music Education at Temple. We want to learn about you—what are your goals as a music educator?  We’ll discuss how our programs and curricula can help you achieve those. Come visit! Experience first-hand the dynamism that pulses through Boyer, Temple University and Philadelphia. We look forward to meeting you!

Warm regards,
Alison Reynolds