Who is placed, heard, and seen? Gendered opportunity pathways in Ghanaian senior high school choirs and marching bands.

Choirs and marching bands are important sites of musical learning, school representation, and youth leadership in Ghanaian senior high schools. Yet little is known about how gendered opportunity structures shape students' access to instruments and roles, rehearsal experiences, leadership opportunities, and psychosocial participation. This convergent mixed-methods study examined gendered opportunity pathways in seven senior high schools in the Central Region of Ghana. Data comprised a survey of 236 ensemble participants, seven director interviews, seven student focus groups with 42 students, structured observations of 14 choir and marching band rehearsals, and a document audit of one performance cycle per school. Survey measures assessed belonging, music self-efficacy, stereotype experiences, identity safety, and intention to continue. The psychosocial scales were developed specifically for this study, informed by prior literature, and supported by acceptable internal consistency and preliminary factor-analytic evidence. Overall, 61.9% of students obtained their first-choice instrument or role, while 38.1% did not. First-choice allocation varied descriptively by gender, but the full-category association was not statistically significant. Private lessons and years of music experience were associated with higher odds of receiving first-choice allocation, while home instrument access approached conventional significance. Leadership/visibility roles were significantly associated with gender, with boys more likely than girls to hold visible responsibilities during the audited performance cycle. Observations showed that marching band rehearsals involved more discipline correction and peer teasing than choir rehearsals, and that feedback in band was more often directed towards boys. Qualitative accounts indicated that resource scarcity, opaque selection criteria, gendered assumptions about physicality and authority, and peer teasing shaped students' belonging and identity safety. Findings are interpreted as exploratory and associative. The study suggests that gender equity in school music ensembles requires attention not only to access, but also to allocation procedures, visibility opportunities, feedback practices, and identity-safe rehearsal climates.