Amanda Niland

The Power of musical play : the value of play-based, child-centered curriculum in early childhood music education

Young children learn through play.This has long been acknowledged in the writings of educational theorists dating back as far as Rousseau, Pestalozzi, and Froebel and is strongly supported by current early childhood research. Play is at the heart of contemporary early childhood pedagogy, and this has led to a strong belief in the importance of an emergent, child-centered approach to curriculum. Although music educators commonly recognize the importance of making music enjoyable, music education pedagogy for young children is often teacher led and structured toward specific behavioral outcomes. Research has shown, however, that child-centered musical play can be a powerful medium for young children’s exploration of many musical elements and concepts.

Special issue on early childhood music education

This special issue celebrates the musical lives of young children and the rich and diverse research occurring in early childhood music education. The special issue arose from the meeting of the Early Childhood Music Education (ECME) Commission of the International Society of Music Education (ISME) in Brasilia in July, 2014. The ECME seminar is one of seven that run in the week prior to ISME’s biennial World Conference. The ECME Commission, founded in 1982, aims to bring together early childhood music education practitioners and researchers from around the world, to share and extend knowledge of music education in the early years. Recognising the centrality of music to human life and culture, ECME’s vision is to work towards a world in which every child has the opportunity to be an active music maker, and to have access to music education that supports each child’s identity.1 Each ECME seminar has a central theme, and in 2014 this was “Listening to diverse musical beginnings”. Sub-themes within the broad theme of diversity included a focus on musical beginnings in homes, schools and communities, the role of technology and media, pedagogies across the world, international collaborations and creative and critical thinking. Presenters were from Brazil, Europe, USA, Kenya, Israel, Korea, China and Australia. A historical comparison of the 2014 seminar with earlier seminars reveals a gradual but significant broadening of understanding of the musical lives of young children. This is evident through a shift away from focusing on children’s musical development as primarily the responsibility of trained music educators, towards a more holistic, socially and culturally situated conceptualisation of young children’s musicality and musical learning. This

Row, Row, Row Your Boat: Singing, Identity and Belonging in a Nursery.

The concept of belonging is widely recognised as a fundamental part of human development and a key element of early childhood curricula. The research presented here explores the role of singing in the development of childrens sense of belonging in a day nursery for children aged from six months to two years. The research design incorporated ethnography and portraiture, an approach to narrative inquiry. Data were collected over seven months, with the researcher adopting a participant observer role during regular visits to the nursery. Observation and interpretation of singing focused on relationships between children and adults and between peers. Themes of identity, togetherness, intersubjectivity and communicative musicality were identified in the analysis of data. The portrait shows the intrinsically interactive nature of singing, providing rich evidence of ways in which singing both supports and reflects the childrens relationships and hence their sense of identity and belonging. This research contributes to literature on the musical lives of infants and toddlers that supports the value of music, especially singing, in early childhood.