Abstract
Public-school music educators are generally unprepared to include students who are deaf or hearing impaired into inclusive instrumental ensembles. Professional resources on this topic are outdated, incomplete, or inaccessible. To examine this issue, I developed a survey to determine the following: instrumental music educators’ self-perceived level of preparedness to teach in inclusive classrooms, their knowledge about hearing impairment, and their attitudes towards inclusive instrumental music education for students who are deaf or hearing impaired. The survey was reviewed by twelve music education graduate students at the Frost School of Music and made available online using the Qualtrics tool. It was then sent to instrumental music educators across the United States via emails to representatives of state music education associations. Anonymous responses were collected and saved for data analysis. As a result of this study, I have created a current representation of the state of inclusive instrumental education for middle school music students who are deaf or hearing impaired in the United States. This data will be the foundation of a future music study in which I will design a training module to address the needs of instrumental music educators working in inclusive classrooms.