This book focuses on the importance and role of adults in promoting music in the early years. Designed to promote the idea of the value of music in the early childhood years, the research discussed in this book explores the experiences of a number of adults working with children from birth to age 8.
The initiatives discussed in this work all focus on adults who have encouraged the development of musical identities ranging from music in the home, to musical play in the preschool years, preparing a performance with children, and programs for disadvantaged groups that use music as a communicative tool.
Each chapter will start with a description of the particular setting and the protagonists’ specific skills and interests and how they came to be working with young children. Themes for the chapters have emerged from the videos and interviews conducted and consist of both reflective and affective experience. The themes include musical background, the adults' own stories, theories of childhood, and pedagogy and philosophy.
Author(s): Aleksandra Acker, Berenice Nyland
Series: International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 163
City: Cham
Ethics Statement
Acknowledgements
Contents
About the Authors
List of Figures
List of Tables
Introduction
1 Introduction
2 The Music and the Children
2.1 Aleksandra’s Story – My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes
2.2 Berenice’s Story – Waltzing Matilda
2.3 Interpretative Comment on the Stories About My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes and Waltzing Matilda
2.4 Vygotskian Concepts Used in This Book
2.5 Activity Theory
2.6 Affordances
2.7 Artefact
2.8 Co-construction
2.9 Communicative Act
2.10 Contextual/Political/Social/Cultural/Historical Line of Development (Dialectical Historical Materialism)
2.11 Creativity
2.12 Developmental Niche
2.13 Dialogical Discourse
2.14 Documentation
2.15 Guided Participation
2.16 Flow – From Mihaly Csiksentmihaly (1990) – Also See Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
2.17 Joint Attention Sequence (JAS)
2.18 Learning Stories – See Documentation
2.19 Make Believe Play – See ‘Playworlds’
2.20 Mediation – See Guided Participation
2.21 Perezhivanie
2.22 ‘Playworlds’
2.23 Scaffolding
2.24 Zone of Free Movement (ZFM) – See Developmental Niche
2.25 Zone of Promoted Action (ZPA) – See Developmental Niche
2.26 Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
3 Conclusion
References
Children’s Music Performance from Serbia, Snežana and Ivana’s Story
1 Introduction
2 EC Curriculum in Serbia
3 Setting the Scene: The Research Context and Participants
4 Conceptualising the Performance: “I See You, to Better Look at and Understand Myself”
5 The Performance
6 Performance Script (Translated)
7 Observations of Performance
7.1 Observation 1: Kasija in the Openning Scene
7.2 Observation 2: Kasija, the Playfull Act
7.3 Observation 3: Kasija, the Prompter
8 Discussion and Conclusion
References
Music as an Expression of Spirituality, Mira’s Story
1 Introduction
2 Background and Context
3 Repertoire
4 Vignettes from the Specialised Primary School
4.1 The Bus-Trip
4.2 Dragan (Fig. 1)
5 Vignettes from the Mainstream Primary School
5.1 Jukebox
5.2 Looking at the Clouds
6 Discussion and Conclusion
References
Music in the Family – A Two-Year Old’s Musicking, Remi’s Story
1 Introduction
1.1 Parent Interview
1.2 The Context
1.3 The Physical Setting and Play Session Format for the Video Recordings
1.4 The Physical Setting and Play Session Format for the Anecdotes
1.5 Methodology and Method
1.5.1 Observations
1.5.2 Interpretation
1.5.3 Revisiting
1.5.4 Observation 1: Child Initiated Pop-up Puppet
1.5.5 Observation 2: Adult Initiated Piano and Guitar with Song Book
1.5.6 Observation 3: Child Initiated Movement with Cultural Artefact of Known Nursery Rhyme Ring-a-Ring-a-Rosy
1.5.7 Observation 4: Spontaneous and Adult Initiated Rhyme and Action ‘Two Little Apples’
1.5.8 Observation 5: Going to the op Shop
1.5.9 Observation 6: The Tapping Foot
2 Discussion and Conclusion – Adults, Music and the Family Environment
References
Chinese Preservice Teachers Engaging with Children Through Music, Their Story
1 Introduction
2 The study
2.1 The Students (Preservice Teachers)
2.2 Childhood Music Experiences
2.3 Music Education at the Chinese University
2.4 Early Childhood Placement in China
2.5 Music Education at the Australian University
2.6 Early Childhood Placement in Australia
3 Discussion and Conclusion
References
The Musician as Teacher, Ben’s Story
1 Introduction
2 Background
3 Example Music Session and Observation
3.1 Written Plan and Observation (for 4-Year Olds)
3.2 Discussion of Content and Approach
4 Discussion and Conclusion
References
Academic, Author, Composer and Activist, Amanda’s Story
1 Introduction
2 Background
2.1 Amanda’s Methodology – Portraiture
2.2 Music and Young Children
2.3 Children’s Author
2.4 Working with Adults
3 Discussion and Conclusion
References
Aleksandra’s Use of Learning Stories Featuring Music
1 Introduction
2 Learning Stories as a Methodology and Method for Promoting Musical Relationships
2.1 Epistemology
2.2 Methodology
2.3 Method
2.4 Role of Adults
2.5 Role of Children
3 Description of the Two Research Projects and Examples of Learning Stories
3.1 Project 1 – Young Children, Music and Diversity
3.2 The Music Sessions
3.3 A Learning Story: “A Double Piano Stretcher”
3.4 The Music Play Centre
3.5 Learning Story: Laura in the Music Play Centre
3.6 Project 2 – Observing and Recording Musical Events in the Everyday Program
3.7 Learning Story – Bob’s Guitar (Table 3)
4 Discussion and Conclusion
References
Musical Adults in the Lives of Young Children
1 Introduction
2 Forms of Music
3 Observing the Children
4 Role of Adults – A Socio/Cultural Approach
5 Music in the Lives of Children
6 Conclusion
References
Index
