Historically, college teachers have received little to no training in teaching and course design (Weimer, 1990), as content mastery was, and still is, a primary credential for employment consideration. Moreover, traditional teacher training programs have been the focus of the K-12 domain, where pedagogy and content go hand in hand (National Association for Music Education, 2009). Yet, trends in higher education are promoting a sense of accountability and responsibility for quality teaching. (Angelo & Cross, 1993; Fink, 2003). Regardless of students' age and year in school, effective teaching results in effective learning, a marked shift in perspective illustrated by the learning centered paradigm of Barr and Tagg (1995). A thorough and important body of research in the scholarship of teaching and learning has emerged which has supported this shift. Music theory instruction and pedagogy is relatively under-researched in terms of method and accepted practices. Over the past decades, there has been an increased interest and scholarly output in the area of music theory pedagogy. But this output has come largely from within the field itself, not from academics in higher education at large. The most noted scholarly journal in the field, "The Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy," was founded in the 1987 in an effort to create a forum where music theorists and teachers could share their findings (Rogers, 1987). Apart from this journal and sporadic contributions from tangentially related fields, music theory pedagogy still remains a fairly insulated discipline. The purpose of this qualitative study was to learn how the stories of a small group of music theory teachers from a small liberal arts college who have received little to no teacher training produced insights into the scholarship of teaching and learning in music theory pedagogy and to higher education in general. Through the research method of portraiture, the stories of these professors yielded substantial and thoughtful emergent themes and issues. The research provided insights into the reflective practice of these music theorists as educators in higher education. In addition, the research investigated additional practice issues including: effectiveness, personal teaching strengths and weaknesses, hopes and fears. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]