MA in Music Education

Classes consist of Specialized Theories and Specialized Training, which concern the area of each student's supervisor. They are either small seminars or one-to-one lessons using practical skills, considering each student's ability, treating his/her motivation as an essential element. The curriculum is organized in such a way as to allow students to both further their understanding of their specialized subjects and acquire a broad knowledge of music in general.

For their specialized area, they start their research under the supervisor from the beginning of the course. For their graduation theses, students are to participate in an orientation in November of the first year, followed by their Graduation Thesis Progress Report Presentation, for which supervision from all of our teaching staff is available.

Furthermore, as the most important event of the course, we have the Shuonkai Music Festival, which is organized and run in cooperation with the undergraduates, postgraduates, and alumni union. It has been held over thirty times and is a highly unique event even on a national scale. Every year, it is held in mid-February and early March. In February, a variety of presentations are delivered by the undergraduates, postgraduates, and alumni in the Music Building and Auditorium of MUE, concerning achievements of classes and individual research themes, while in the following month, presentations and musical performances on their graduation theses (both under/postgraduates) are delivered in an auditorium in Sendai.

The Shuonkai Music Festival is an enormously important event for the course, constituting the culmination of the years' work in the Department of Music Education.

Miyagi University of Education is a teachers’ college that has been educating teachers for more than 50 years. In addition to having excellent pedagogical skills in their chosen fields, it is essential for teachers to possess the qualities required to appropriately take into consideration the wide variety seen in students’ academic abilities, behavioral management, stances on various issues, and learning difficulties that appear in the classroom. For one to attain such traits, it is imperative to receive an education that develops one’s qualities as a human: an education our university has been providing for more than half a century. Professors at our university offer a warm, friendly atmosphere in their classes in which students feel comfortable to participate actively in discussions about topics in which they are interested. It is through the discussions held between teacher and student that real learning can occur? real learning that stays with students well after graduation. A large number of graduates mention these discussions as one of the primary reasons for their high-level skills when they are teachers in the classroom. Furthermore, many students are inspired in their studies through interactions among different majors and participating in overseas exchange programs and volunteer teaching experience abroad programs.