Susan O’Neill

Susan O'Neill

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Photo Credit: Ben Benedict, Benedict Creative Communications

Dr. Susan O’Neill has an international reputation as a music psychologist and educator. She has a unique background with a BMus (Hon) degree in music performance (University of Ottawa) and graduate degrees in three separate disciplines: MA in Music Performance Studies (City University and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama), MA in Education (Open University), PhD in Psychology (Keele University). She has taught in universities in England, Hong Kong, Portugal, United States and Canada. Her first faculty position was at Keele University (UK) with the internationally acclaimed Unit for the Study of Musical Skill and Development, where she later became Associate Director along with Professor John Sloboda. In 2000, she was promoted to the equivalent rank of Associate Professor and was co-founder and Director of a leading UK graduate program in Music Psychology, as well as Co-Director of the 6th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC).Before joining the Don Wright Faculty of Music in 2007, O’Neill was awarded a prestigious 2-year fellowship at the University of Michigan, followed by a faculty position at Simon Fraser University’s Faculty of Education where she spent four years developing and researching innovative undergraduate and graduate courses involving dialogical, inquiry-based and critical literacy learning approaches to curriculum theory, positive youth development, music education, identity and psychology in education, teacher education and research methods.

Dr. O’Neill has contributed to more than 100 publications, including seven chapters in edited books published by Oxford University Press: The Social Psychology of Music (1997), Music and Emotion: Theory and Research (2001), The Science and Psychology of Music Performance (2002), Musical Identities (2002), The Child as Musician (2006), A Cultural Psychology for Music Education (2009), Handbook of Research on Music Learning (forthcoming). She also contributed to the psychology of music entry in the The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2001, 2nd ed.).

Dr. O’Neill is currently Director of Research for Youth, Music and Education (RYME), funded by a three-year grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. She has received more than $600,000 (Cdn) in external grant funding from government programs, private foundations and industry. Her research extends across disciplinary boundaries in the Arts and Social Sciences. She has been part of several interdisciplinary and international research teams and has expertise in various research approaches involving both quantitative and qualitative methods, longitudinal studies, large-scale survey research, and in-depth qualitative interview studies.

As a consultant she has developed professional training programs for music practitioners and teachers, and contributed to the policy planning of youth music programs. For example, she was a member of the National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education and contributor to the publication All our futures: Creativity, Culture and Education (Department for Education and Employment, UK). O’Neill was design consultant for the Certificate in Teaching (CT ABRSM) for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, and assisted the implementation of the course through nation-wide mentor training workshops. She also contributed three modules to the Diploma in Music Teaching in Private Practice for the University of Reading.

As a flautist, O’Neill studied with Ervin Monroe (Detroit Symphony Orchestra), Robert Cram (National Arts Centre Orchestra), Timothy Hutchins (MontrealSymphony Orchestra), Paul Edmund-Davies (London Symphony Orchestra, UK), and Geoffrey Gilbert who taught many top players including James Galway. In 1986 she won the National Arts Centre Orchestra Bursary and the Ottawa University Concerto Competition. She has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in both England and Canada.

 

Research Interests
As Director of Research for Youth, Music and Education (RYME), O’Neill’s current research focuses on the way young people value music-making and the impact of youth music participation on well-being, cultural identiy, creativity and innovation. In partnership with the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa, the project is also developing web-based music education resources for encouraging critical cultural literacy among young people as they explore relationships between music, media, and cultural diversity among communities across Canada. Dr. O’Neill’s other research interests include: psychology of music and music education, musical and social development of children and adolescents (motivation, identity, gender issues); curriculum theory (critical literacy, critical pedagogy, media and cultural studies, dialogical and inquiry-based education); instrumental music teaching and learning (teacher education, anxiety and music performance skills).

 

Selected Publications
Chapters in Edited Books

  • O’Neill, S. A. (in preparation). A dialogical approach to cultural diversity, curriculum transformations and musical understandings. In L. Bartel (Series Ed.), E. Gould (Vol. Ed.), Envisioning and enacting social justice in music education: Vol. 4. CMEA Biennial Series: Research to Practice. University of Toronto Press.
  • O’Neill, S. A., & Senyshyn, Y. (submitted). Philosophical and psychological learning theories: How they shape our understanding of musical learning. In R. Colwell & P. Webster (Eds.), MENC Handbook of Research on Music Learning. Oxford University Press.
  • O’Neill, S. A. (in press). Learning in and through music performance: Understanding cultural diversity via inquiry and dialogue. In M. Barrett (Ed.), A Cultural Psychology for Music Education. Oxford University Press.
  • O’Neill, S. A. (2006). Positive youth musical engagement. In G. McPherson (Ed.), The child as musician: A handbook of musical development (pp. 461-474) Oxford University Press.
  • Eccels, J. S., O'Neill, S. A., Wigfield, A. (2005). Ability self-perceptions and subject task values in adolescents and children. In K. A. Moore & L. H. Lippman (Eds.) What do children need to flourish? Conceptualizing and measuring indicators of postitive development (pp 237-249). New York: Springer.
  • O’Neill, S. A. (2005). Youth music engagement in diverse contexts. In J. L. Mahoney, R. Larson & J. S. Eccles (Eds.), Organized activities as contexts of development: Extracurricular Activities, After School and Community Programs (pp. 255-273). Mahwah, New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  • O’Neill, S. A. (2002). The self-identity of young musicians. In R. A. R. MacDonald, D. J. Hargreaves & D. Miell (Eds.), Musical identities (pp. 79–96). Oxford University Press.
  • O’Neill, S. A., & McPherson, G. E. (2002). Motivation. In R. Parncutt & G. E. McPherson (Eds.). The science and psychology of music performance: Creative strategies for teaching and learning. (pp. 31-46). Oxford University Press.
    Sloboda, J. A., & O’Neill, S. A. (2001). Emotions in everyday listening to music. In P. Juslin & J. A. Sloboda (Eds.), Music and emotion: theory and research. (pp.413-429). Oxford University Press.
  • Deutsch, D., Gabrielsson, A., Sloboda, J. A., Cross, I., Drake, C., Parncutt, R., et al. (2001). Psychology of music. In S. Sadie (Ed.), The new Grove dictionary of music and musicians (2nd ed., Vol. 20, pp. 527–562). London: Macmillan.
    O’Neill, S. A. (1999). The role of motivation in the practice and achievement of young musicians. In S. W. Yi (Ed.), Music, mind and science (pp. 420–433). Seoul: Seoul National University Press.
  • O’Neill, S. A., North, A. C., & Hargreaves, D. J. (1999). Adolescents’ gender-stereotyped preferences for musical instruments. In Suk Won Yi (Ed.), Music Mind and Science (pp. 466-478). Seoul, Korea: Seoul National University Press.
  • O’Neill, S. A. (1997). Gender and music. In D. J. Hargreaves and A. C. North (Eds.), The social psychology of music (pp. 46–63). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • O’Neill, S. A. (1997). The role of practice in children’s early musical performance achievement. In H. Jørgensen & A. C. Lehmann (Eds.), Does practice make perfect? Current theory and research on instrumental music practice (pp. 53–70). Oslo: Norges musikkhøgskole.

Papers in Journals

  • Ivaldi, A., & O’Neill, S. A. (in press). Talking 'Privilege': Barriers to Musical Attainment in Adolescents' talk of Musical Role Models. British Journal of Music Education, 26 (1)
  • Ivaldi, A., & O’Neill, S. A. (2008). Adolescents’ musical role models: Whom do they admire and why? Psychology of Music. First published on April 1, 2008 as doi:10.1177/0305735607086045.
  • Seddon, F. A., & O’Neill, S. A. (2005). How does formal instrumental music tuition (FIMT) impact on self- and teacher-evaluations of adolescents’ computer-based compositions? Psychology of Music, 34 (1), 27-45.
  • O’Neill, S. A., & Green, L. (2004). Mapping music education: Social groups and research in music education. Psychology of Music, 32 (3), 252-258.
  • Harrison, A. C., & O’Neill, S. A. (2003). Preferences and children’s use of gender-stereotyped knowledge about musical instruments: Making judgments about other children’s preferences. Sex Roles, 49, 389–400.
  • Seddon, F. A., & O’Neill, S. A. (2003). Creative thinking processes in adolescent computer-based composition: An analysis of strategies adopted and the influence of instrumental music training. Music Education Research, 5, 125–137.
  • O’Neill, S. A. (2002). Crossing the divide: Feminist perspectives on gender and music. Feminism and Psychology, 12 (2), 133-136.
  • O’Neill, S. A., Ivaldi, A., & Fox, C. (2002). Gendered discourses in musically ‘talented’ adolescent females’ construction of self. Feminism and Psychology, 12 (2), 153-159.
  • Harrison, A., & O’Neill, S. A. (2002). The development of children’s gendered knowledge and preferences in music. Feminism and Psychology, 12 (2), 148-153.
  • Mills, J., & O’Neill, S. A. (2002). Children as inspectors? Evaluating school music provision for children aged 10–11 years. British Journal of Music Education, 19, 285–301.
  • O’Neill, S. A., & Green, L. (2001). Social groups and learning in music. British Education Research Association, 1, 26-32.
  • Senyshyn, Y., & O’Neill, S. A. (2001). Subjective experience of anxiety and musical performance: a relational perspective. Philosophy of Music Education Review. 9 (1), 42-53.
  • Seddon, F. A., & O’Neill, S. A. (2001). An evaluation study of computer-based compositions by children with and without prior experience of formal instrumental music tuition. Psychology of Music, 29 (1), 4–19.
  • Sloboda, J. A., O’Neill, S. A., & Ivaldi, A. (2001). Functions of music in everyday life: an exploratory study using he Experience Sampling Method. Musicae Scientiae, 5 (1), 9-32.
  • North, A. C., Hargreaves, D. J., & O’Neill, S. A. (2000). The importance of music to adolescents. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 70 (2), 255-272.
  • Harrison, A., & O’Neill, S. A. (2000). Children’s gender-typed preferences for musical instruments: an intervention study. Psychology of Music, 28 (1), 81-97.
  • O’Neill, S. A. (1999). Flow theory and the development of musical performance skills. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 141 (2),129-134.
  • O’Neill, S. A. (1999). Living with obsessive-compulsive disorder: a case study of a woman’s construction of self. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 12 (1), 65-78.
  • O’Neill, S. A. (1999). Quais os motivos do insucesso de algumas crianças na apredizagem musical? Motivação e flow theory (Why don’t all musicians succeed in learning to play a musical instrument? Motivation and Flow Theory) Música, Psicologia e Educação, 1, 35-43.
  • O’Neill, S. A., & Sloboda, J. A. (1997). The effects of failure on children’s ability to perform a musical test. Psychology of Music, 25 (1), 18–34.
  • O’Neill, S. A., & Boulton, M. J. (1996). Boys’ and girls’ preferences for musical instruments: A function of gender? Psychology of Music, 24 (2), 171-183.

 

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