Name
Ariana Grande, Possible Selves, and Music Teacher Identity: A Duoethnography
Date & Time
Wednesday, July 29, 2026, 4:35 PM - 5:05 PM
Description
The purpose of this study was to explore how celebrity Ariana Grande’s music shaped the professional identities of two choral music educators at different stages of their careers: one an in-service teacher and one a preservice teacher. As fans of Grande’s artistry, we reflected on the ways her music has accompanied, inspired, and informed our journeys in music education. Through this work, we sought to understand how popular music may serve as a resource for meaning-making, belonging, and identity formation within the teaching profession. We employed duoethnography (Norris & Sawyer, 2012) as our method to situate our dialogue, narratives, and experiences as the main sites of inquiry. Duoethnography allowed us to analyze how Grande’s music intersects with our lived experiences as teachers in formation and in practice. Data sources included conversational transcripts, reflective writings, and shared musical artifacts. This study is grounded in Possible Selves Theory (Markus & Nurius, 1986), which conceptualizes identity as a negotiation of past, present, and imagined future selves. In our experiences, Grande’s music provides a space where we construct possible selves as educators. Popular music scholarship (Frith, 1996) further situates Grande’s artistry as a context in which we negotiate identity formation. This study contributes to the intersections of popular culture and music education and how popular music may provide meaningful music education experiences that stem from informal learning (Green, 2008).
Location Name
510A
Full Address
Palais des Congres - Montréal Convention Centre
1001, Place Jean-Paul-Riopelle
Montreal QC H2Z 1H2
Canada
1001, Place Jean-Paul-Riopelle
Montreal QC H2Z 1H2
Canada
Session Type
Paper Presentation
Presenting Author(s)
Ramon Cardenas