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This article examines the relationship between the professional learning of music teachers and their capacity and opportunity to act and engage agentically with the structures and discourses of music education. The authors begin by drawing on a range of education and music education scholarship to examine the concepts of teacher autonomy, teacher agency and professional development. They propose a socio-cultural understanding of teacher agency which draws on Gidden's theory of structuration and Priestley, Biesta and Robinson's ecological approach. Here, the relationship between structure and agency is not determinant but dynamic, with teacher agency dependent on the extent to which music teachers are able to engage in the discourses of music education. They explore the way professional development structures and policy in England and China affect teacher agency and especially how policy developments, the changing structures of music education, and the fetishization of advocacy narratives have constrained and marginalized the voice of the classroom music teacher. The authors conclude with a call for music teacher professional development to support music teachers to act agentically through reengaging with the epistemological and ontological dimensions of music and the policy discourses of music education.

The article discusses the challenges and opportunities in music teacher education. The author highlights issues such as inconsistency and inequity in P-12 music education, a lack of diverse representation and role models, and a lack of funding and infrastructure for students. The author suggests that music teacher educators should collaborate with scholars in general education and other fields to strengthen their research and address profession-wide problems. They also encourage researchers to examine and collaborate on the implementation of recommendations for music teacher education. The article emphasizes the need for collaboration, innovation, and research-into-practice in order to elevate the field of music teacher education. [Extracted from the article]

The purpose of this article is to make policy recommendations based on the authors' experiences with, and research about, reflective, differentiated, and teacher-generated music teacher professional development (PD). By doing so, we argue for a bottom-up process that capitalizes on our music teacher and music teacher educator expertise along with the research literature in music teacher PD. We explore music teachers' PD needs considering four career stages to explain how knowledge generated at each level informs our understanding of differentiated PD. From preservice music teachers and music teacher candidates, to in-service and veteran teachers, our discussion explores meaningful and effective ways to engage in deep, reflective thinking about the music teaching and learning process. Accordingly, we provide specific policy recommendations for music teachers at each career stage so that they might take greater ownership of their own learning, growth, and development through local, reflective, self-initiated, and differentiated PD opportunities.