To Örebro University

The knowledge base for teaching comprises the types of knowledge needed to teach. Shulman (1986, 1987) describes three types of professional knowledge: content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and curriculum knowledge. Of these, Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) distinguishes the teaching profession from other professions and for this reason PCK is an important topic in educational research. Music education research has investigated conceptions and applications of the professional knowledge of music teachers in primary and secondary classrooms and in teacher education programs (Russell 2000; Ballantyne & Packer 2004; Ballantyne 2006; Jorquera Jaramillo 2008; Campbell & Burdell 1996; Mateiro 2009). The present study explored the perceptions of student music teachers from three countries with regard to the applied PCK of a specialist music teacher. The overarching objective was to (a) discover and interpret which components of PCK student music teachers recognize and identify; and (b) discover whether there is a general understanding of PCK regardless of  linguistic, cultural and educational contexts. 82 Brazilian, Canadian and Swedish students took part in the study. All were registered in programs leading to a music education degree in their respective countries. The students watched an uninterrupted 30-minute video of a complete music lesson in a Canadian grade one class and wrote their observations freely during the viewing. They were asked to do this in a descriptive and reflective way and were advised that the purpose of the exercise was not to evaluate the teacher’s work, but rather to provide an opportunity to observe a professional teacher giving a lesson in an authentic classroom. The same procedures were applied in all three teaching contexts. Participants' written observations were interpreted in terms of the components of PCK: teaching approach, students' participation and the assessment of students' musical abilities. The findings revealed commonalities in the responses of the pre-service student music teachers’ perceptions about PCK in terms of their ability to identify and interpret aspects of PCK in a music classroom regardless of country of origin. It led us to conceptualize PCK as a general understanding in educational systems influenced by western ideas. An unanticipated finding was that the participants explained the teacher’s professional competence solely by her teaching experience and not, for instance, by her own music education background. The findings leads us to pursue a line of research that would explore student teachers' understanding of the relevance of their music teacher education content to teaching as professional practice.