Adults and Children at Play: A Second Year Coconstructing Music in a Preschool Setting

• In Event: Diverse Approaches to Music Education Research

Abstract

To understand what can happen when adults and young children co-construct music in a social, relationship-and-play-based environment, two early childhood music facilitators and two early childhood education facilitators are studying retrospectively musical moments captured between fall 2012 and summer 2013. Applying heuristic and narrative tenets to musical moments captured by adults and children via audio, video, photographs, drawings, notation, and narrative reflections, the four adults are organizing music making into macro and micro vignettes. Three research questions are guiding the analysis: “How does musical content emerge?”, “How is music play developed in unstructured settings?”, and “How do children and their teachers story their music experiences?” Implications may include insights into ways unstructured music play appropriately guides children’s preschool music experiences.

Authors

• Alison Mist Reynolds, Temple University

• Heather D. Waters, Temple University