Two music education PhD candidates, Xiaoyuan Ma and Hamid Niknampour, have published articles in the most recent publication of Windsong magazine—the official state journal for WMEA (Wyoming Music Educators Association).
Xiaoyuan Ma wrote and article titled, “Teaching Music Beyond Language: Connecting with Every Child from Every Background,” in which she drew upon her own experience of working on a degree in a secondary language to inform how a music educator might better reach a young learner struggling to participate in a music classroom.
Hamid Niknampour wrote an article titled, “Engagement Before Perfection: Making Music Classrooms Safe for Musical Mistakes and Learning,” in which he employed his research into general anxiety disorders to help music educators find ways to focus on engaging students rather than working towards perfection as a means to encourage ongoing interaction with music.
Both of these articles demonstrate the type of scholarship that is based on personal experience and research that can lead to solutions for real world problems.