In PK-12 schools, music educators work within a network of administrators and colleagues, each bringing unique perspectives, experiences, and ideological commitments to their work that manifest through educational policies, practices, and pedagogies (Spruce et al., 2021). Preservice music education programs often offer fieldwork and mentoring programs to help students build school literacy to navigate these complex environments (Albert, 2023). Scholars have argued, however, that these programs often fall short, leaving preservice teachers underprepared to negotiate the “difficult inter-spaces of ideological contradictions, of homespun or media-fuelled philosophy, of teacher accountability and its spawns, of deeply entrenched practices” (Ryan, 2011, p. 882)Learning to navigate these networks is a critical part of music teacher education and can be framed as cultivating one’s professional “stance” (Fried, 2015). A stance, in this case, is developed over time and reflects the core values that inform teachers’ educative decisions. Though stance is often framed in terms of teacher-student relationships related to theory and practice (Fried, 2015), we argue that stance must also include how educators interpret and respond to policy. This includes both hard policies (e.g., graduation requirements, state standards) and soft policies (e.g., curriculum and departmental decision making) that shape teaching and learning through music (Aguilar & Dye, 2020).To examine this issue, we take up Lefebrve’s (1991) framework of first, second, and thirdspace. In preservice music education, first space represents the perceived and real elements of preservice programs, including methods courses, assessments, field placements, and university pedagogies and practices such as ensembles and private lessons. Second space is the idealized vision of music education including core arts standards, course accreditation, teacher accreditation, and university structures that aim to produce “ideal” future music teachers. Thirdspace emerges when preservice teachers choose how to adopt, resist, or reframe elements of these first and second spaces in shaping their own professional practice.Using composite vignettes from six early career music educators (Leavy, 2020), we explore how stance development informs teachers’ navigation of thirdspace. Specifically, we investigate how stance shapes their responses to both hard and soft policies and how, through stance, they claim agency as policy actors in their classrooms, schools, and districts. In doing so, we align with the conference theme of building bridges by highlighting how stance serves as a tool for connecting personal values with institutional demands, enabling music educators to deliberately claim space as policy thinkers in their classroom, school, and district settings.