Adolescent perceptions of singing: exploring gendered differences in musical confidence, identity and ambition

Previous research on adolescents and singing has focused on understanding the physiological changes in the voice during the age range 11–16 [Cooksey, J. M., and G. F. Welch. 2008. ‘Adolescence, singing development and national curricula design.’ British Journal of Music Education 15 (1): 99–119], and addressing the lack of male participation in singing [Ashley, M. R. 2013. ‘Broken voices or a broken curriculum? The impact of research on UK school choral practice with boys.’ British Journal of Music Education 30 (3): 311–327; Hall, C. 1999. ‘Gender and boys” singing in early childhood.’ British Journal of Music Education 22 (1): 5–20]. This study makes a new contribution by exploring adolescent girls’ perceptions of singing as compared with those of boys. Through an inductive, two-phase research design, the language of the students themselves is used to describe their perceptions of singing. The roles of motivation, confidence, self-efficacy and autonomy come through as strong influences on the students’ enjoyment of singing. Boys have a tendency to exhibit static ability evaluations in this age group, and demonstrate a lack of cognitive understanding of their changing voices. Girls, however, recognise that effort, ability and confidence interact in different ways depending on the social context for their singing. Recommendations for teachers are made, that could challenge boys’ fixed views of their vocal abilities, and strengthen the appeal of group singing for all adolescents.