Suzanne L. Burton

Biography

Suzanne L. Burton is associate dean for the arts and professor of music education in the College of Arts and Sciences. Since joining the University of Delaware faculty in 2002, Burton has been involved as an assessment faculty fellow, College of Arts and Sciences senator and member of its strategic planning committee, and director of music education.

She is currently a member of the University Council for Teacher Education, is on the Partnership for Arts and Culture steering committee, and chairs the Visual and Performing Arts subcommittee of the UD Antiracism Initiative.

Burton has authored or co-authored numerous scholarly articles and book chapters on topics related to her research in early childhood music and music teacher education. Areas of inquiry are the spontaneous singing and chanting of young children in natural contexts, preschool children’s use of technology and their music app preferences, and the development of music literacy using a language acquisition framework.  

She also engages in research on teacher education through music teacher conversation groups, school-university and intercultural partnerships, and service-learning. Her interests in music creativity and improvisation have led to a co-authored book, Ready, Set, Improvise! A Nuts and Bolts Approach to Improvisation. Burton is also a frequent presenter at conferences and seminars on these topics.

Well-respected for her editorial work, Burton created and contributes to the series Engaging Musical Practices, practical sourcebooks for pre- and inservice music teachers. She is also co-editor of Learning from Young Children: Research in Early Childhood Music. Her most recent co-edited and authored book is Creative Music Making at Your Fingertips: A Mobile Technology Guide for Music Educators. Currently, Burton serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Music in Early Childhood. In addition to her editorial work, Burton chairs the International Society for Music Education Early Childhood Music Education commission.

Burton has earned such awards as the College Music Society’s Robby Gunstream Education in Music Award and the Delaware Symphony Orchestra’s Jessie Ball duPont Educator award and is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies. She holds degrees in piano pedagogy and music education from Spring Arbor University and master’s and doctorate degrees in music education from Michigan State University.