Sean Robert Powell

Sean Robert Powell is Professor of Music Education and Chair of the Division of Music Education at the University of North Texas. He teaches graduate courses in philosophy, sociology, and qualitative research. 

Dr. Powell is Immediate Past Chair of the Society for Music Teacher Education and is a member of the Editorial Review Boards of the Journal of Research in Music Education and Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education. He previously served on the boards of the Journal of Music Teacher Education and Music Educators Journal. In 2025, he served as the Guest Editor of a special issue of ACT. 

An active scholar, Dr. Powell’s research interests and methods include competition, structure/agency, critique of neoliberal education policy, critical theory, psychoanalysis, continental philosophy, music teacher education, narrative and post-qualitative inquiries, and the sociology of music education. He is author of The Ideology of Competition in School Music and co-editor of Sociological Thinking in Music Education: International Intersections (both books published by Oxford University Press). His work has been published in the Journal of Research in Music Education; Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education; Research Studies in Music Education; Journal of Music Teacher Education; Arts Education Policy Review; Music Education Research; Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education; and the Journal of Band Research, and he has presented research, workshops, and guest lectures at national and international venues. Dr. Powell has contributed chapters to the Oxford Handbook of Music Teacher Education in the United States, Narratives and Reflections in Music Education: Listening to Voices Seldom Heard, Understanding Teacher Identity: The Complexities of Forming an Identity as a Professional Teacher, The Sage Handbook of School Music Education, and Methodological Musings: Thinking with Narrative in Music Education Research. Forthcoming publications include contributions to Caring for Gifted and Talented Music Learners: Perspectives and Future Possibilities; Why Music? International Perspectives on Justification of Music Education: Past, Present and Future; The Oxford Handbook of Music Education and Neoliberalism; The Oxford Handbook of Competition in Music; and The New Oxford Handbook of Music Education. 

Dr. Powell received the Doctor of Education in Music Education degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the former Coordinator of Music Education at the Schwob School of Music of Columbus State University. Prior to his career in higher education, Dr. Powell was a band director in the public schools of Tennessee.