Update 2014, Vol. 33(1) 57–64 © 2014 National Association for Music Education Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/8755123314540666 update.sagepub.com Article Doctoral programs are designed to prepare students for careers in academia and beyond. What constitutes appro- priate course content at the doctoral level is dependent on the values of the university and its faculty members. Also, degree content can be influenced by the membership of those involved in the specific content area. As Gumport and Snydman (2002) stated, “Universities and colleges both reflect and reconstitute classifications of knowledge and in so doing establish categories of expertise and knowledge worth knowing. Second, organizational con- text plays a role in what comes to count as knowledge” (p. 376). Although teaching, research, and service are three common components of the professorial positions that doctoral students are preparing for, how much value is accorded to each component may vary greatly across institutions. Specifically, institutions may vary the great- est concerning how much weight is accorded to research productivity; whereas research institutions may have stricter demands, and teaching institutions may not require research productivity at all. For graduate pro- grams preparing students for successful careers in the professoriate, then, deciding on the amount of courses and content of the research curriculum for the PhD degree can be challenging. Faculty members themselves may disagree as to the importance of research in their career. Whereas Neumann (2006) documented faculty members’ passion for research, Thorsen (1996) found that faculty perceived research to be a greater stressor to their career than teaching. And though Halsey (1992) stated that academics believe that research productivity is linked to teaching success, Hattie and Marsh’s (1996) meta-analysis documented close to zero correlations between teaching and research variables. Zimpher (1974) added that if schools are to balance the preparation of their graduate students in terms of research and teaching skills, schools may need to consider reduced teaching loads for graduate students to accommodate their study and research time. Even with this research debate, it has been prevalent for large institutions to reward the research productivity of faculty over teaching and service in terms of university promotion and merit (Shen, 1997, 1998). For those grad- uate programs that are determining how best to prepare their graduate students for future tenure and merit expec- tations related to research, there are still further debates as to the extent of knowledge needed across qualitative and quantitative methodologies (Page, 2001). In addition, programs may need to consider how to integrate best 540666UPD XX X 10.1177/8755123314540666UpdateRohwer and Svec research-article 2014 1 University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA Corresponding Author: Debbie Rohwer, Professor and Chair, Division of Music Education, University of North Texas, 1155 Union Circle #311367, Denton, TX 76203-5017, USA. Email: debbie.rohwer@unt.edu Perceived Value of Research Preparation Opportunities for Future Music Education Professors Debbie Rohwer 1 and Christina Svec 1 Abstract The purpose of the study was to describe research leaders’ perceptions of the relative importance of various research preparation opportunities for future music education professors. The 122 questionnaire respondents answered 38 Likert-type and open-ended content questions that asked about research experiences, research skills, research resources, and research coursework. The highest rated research experience was having each doctoral student do an oral presentation of his or her research, the highest rated research skill was the ability to choose an important research question for a study, the highest rated research resource was SPSS, and the most common response for what coursework should be required for doctoral students was a basic course that introduced the students to research concepts. Conclusions address the possible programmatic applications of the results. Keywords coursework, doctoral, preparation, professor, research, resources by guest on July 18, 2016 upd.sagepub.com Downloaded from