International Journal of Music Education 1–12 © The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0255761415581150 ijm.sagepub.com Connecting ideas to practice: The development of an undergraduate student’s philosophy of music education Ryan Salazar and Clint Randles University of South Florida, USA Abstract This article considers the personal reflections of an undergraduate music education major on both the significance of his experience as a participant in the Seventh International Symposium on the Sociology of Music Education, held at Michigan State University, in the United States, in June 2011, and on his place as a pre-service music teacher poised to enter the profession. The first author’s reflections regarding what the conference meant to him as a future music educator has implications for individuals who help prepare the next generation of music teachers, and scholars in all fields who desire for their work to reach a particular audience that could benefit from their work. The article takes the form of a personal narrative reflection, not generalizable to all populations of undergraduate music education majors, but certainly transferable to similar situations where undergraduates are considering waves of change in degree requirements and curricular expansion. Keywords change, formal, informal, philosophy, vernacular This article materialized from an experience that the first author, Ryan Salazar, had as a co- presenter at the Seventh International Symposium on the Sociology of Music Education, held at Michigan State University, in East Lansing, Michigan, United States, in June of 2011. At the time this article was written, Ryan was an undergraduate music education major at the University of South Florida, in Tampa, Florida, United States, where the second author is on the faculty of music education. Ryan was dually enrolled in the USF Honors College and the USF School of Music. Part of his undergraduate experience was doing a senior research Corresponding author: Clint Randles, University of South Florida, 4202 East Fowler Ave, Tampa, FL 33620, USA. Email: randlesc@usf.edu 581150IJM 0 0 10.1177/0255761415581150International Journal of Music EducationSalazar and Randles research-article 2015 Article at UNIV OF SOUTH FLORIDA on August 24, 2015 ijm.sagepub.com Downloaded from