“Am I maybe doing the wrong thing here?” Practitioners’ views on providing musical experiences to children under the age of 5

Abstract

This practitioner enquiry explores practitioners’ views on providing musical experiences to children under the age of 5. The last twenty years have seen increasing interest in the effects music can have on the brain and its consequent benefits. These benefits start from a very young age. Research shows babies from one month old demonstrate a musicality used to communicate and build relationships with care-givers. As children grow, music has value in the experiences and learning it alone fosters and in the role it plays supporting other learning.

I have studied and worked as a musician and now own a children’s nursery. I want to see music’s potential to enrich lives and stimulate learning realised in that nursery. I am aware that in common with many teachers and early years practitioners, a number of my staff lack confidence in delivering musical experiences and music is not as embedded in the culture as I would like it to be.

This research is a first step in addressing this issue. An interpretative paradigm has been adopted to build understanding from practitioners’ views, interpreting them within the context of my own knowledge and values. Aligned with the concept of practitioner enquiry, this knowledge will ultimately be used to inform and improve practice. Eleven practitioners from my nursery have been involved in the research. They all completed a questionnaire with six of them participating in a later focus group. Data was analysed using thematic analysis supported by patterns of association identified from questionnaire responses.

Practitioner knowledge and confidence and its relationship with the range and frequency of musical experiences were key themes resulting from this process. Participants recognised building knowledge as key to increasing their confidence and suggested ways this could be done. Recommendations developed from these findings propose a range of changes to enhance musical confidence and support high quality provision. The recommendations also consider the role music plays in Scottish education and in practitioner qualifications and suggesting these require urgent review. Strengthening links between research and practice is also proposed.