Developing children's self initiated music making through the creation of a shared ethos in an early years music project

• Published in: Australian journal of music education no. 1; pp. 23 - 33
• Main Authors: Christopher Naughton, David Lines
• Format: Journal Article
• Published: Parkville, Vic Australian Society for Music Education 01.01.2013
• Subjects: Cooperative learning; Early childhood education; Holistic education; Listening; Music; Music and children; Music education; Online discussion groups; Preschool children; Preschool teachers; Student teachers; Study and teaching; Study and teaching (Early childhood); Teaching process; University students; New Zealand
• ISSN: 0004-9484

The three-month Changing Places project involved early childhood student teachers working with music students in developing children's music in centres in Auckland, New Zealand. The project set out to challenge the calculative aspect in music learning (Heidegger, 1993). The term calculative in this instance describes learning seen as music as preordained tasks. The music students involved in the project understood music in the form of a predefined score to be perfectly realised, while the early childhood teachers were familiar with a repertoire of early childhood songs and music played on a CD with pre-ordained actions to be performed at mat times. Data for the study was obtained through video recordings of student pairs working with children in centres, audio recordings of shared dialogues between students and online moodle discussions. This paper describes the different ways in which the two sets of students through their dialogue developed a shared ethos that countered their previous approaches and understandings of music education. The suggestion is made that the task itself, of developing self initiated music making with children, facilitated this open exploration and change of musical education ideas.