Negotiating Professional Identities in Music Teacher Education: A Triadic Model of Educator, Musician, and Researcher Roles

This study examines how academics teaching instrumental and vocal courses in higher music education construct and negotiate their professional identities at the intersection of musician, educator, and researcher roles. While previous research has largely focused on dual-role identity configurations, this study presents a triadic conceptualization of professional identity. Adopting a phenomenological approach, the study is based on semi-structured interviews with 20 academics working in music education departments at universities in Turkey. Data were analyzed using an expanded Colaizzi phenomenological framework. During the interpretive synthesis of the findings, a/r/tography informed the conceptualization of professional identity as a relational process of becoming. The findings reveal that these three identity domains are both mutually reinforcing and in tension. While teaching practices stimulate research production and musical performance enhances pedagogical effectiveness, institutional pressures particularly publication demands, workload intensification, and administrative responsibilities create structural constraints that challenge the sustainability of all three roles simultaneously. The study contributes to the literature by offering a process-oriented and relational understanding of professional identity in performance-based academic fields. It also provides empirical insights into how academics navigate identity multiplicity under contemporary higher education conditions, highlighting the need for institutional policies that recognize and support the integration of artistic, pedagogical, and research practices. © The Author(s) 2026. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).