Early childhood teachers' professional development in music : a cross-cultural study

This paper deals with professional teacher development. It specifically focuses on a research study of early childhood teachers' views and involvement in teaching music to young children. It presents findings from a comparative study of 38 teachers in three childcare centres in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and 24 teachers in four childcare centres in South Australia. Two research questions are discussed and answered: (1) What are early childhood teachers' levels of involvement in professional development in music? (2) Are there any significant relationships, that is differences and commonalities, in the findings between teachers' levels of involvement in these two cultural contexts? A unique research tool entitled Teachers' Music Development Scale was devised to collect data and measure teachers' involvement in music development. Specific findings and their implications are presented in the paper.

Sharing ownership in multicultural music : a hands-on approach in teacher education in South Africa

South Africa prides itself in a rich and colorful array of the Arts where music plays a significant role in social regeneration, unity and reconciliation. Little research has been undertaken in teacher education courses in South Africa regarding the inclusion of African music within multicultural music practice. Using the theoretical frameworks of understanding multiculturalism, I report on the teaching and learning of multicultural music at Pretoria University. My narrative highlights what I had learned and reports on the interview data with the tertiary music educator in October 2010. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, two themes are discussed: the need for multicultural music and the inclusion of students as indigenous culture bearers. Lessons learnt at Pretoria University can be replicated elsewhere in Australia where the sharing of ownership in multicultural music as a hands-on approach is viewed positively, promoting understanding and respect in a shared space and place.

Community music making in Australia : creating, improvising and performing at the 2012 Lake Bolac Eel Festival

Lake Bolac is a freshwater lake, resulting from one of the volcanic eruptions in the Western district of regional Victoria (Australia). There is an annual migration of eels to it and they have been a local indigenous food source for very many years. Since 2004 there has been a festival to celebrate this event culminating at the Lake Bolac Eel Festival (LBEF). Since 2012, the festival included creative art works and a music workshop by academics from Deakin University (Melbourne, Australia) as a regional partnership with Lake Bolac. The opportunity to exhibit, workshop and perform works as academics and practitioners brought the community together where both contemporary and traditional arts can be preserved, protected and promoted. My paper forms part of a larger creative research project called Flows and Catchments at Deakin University which started in 2011. My study situates itself in creative music making and soundscape within the larger project.

Spirit-music unbound: Romanticism and print politics in Australian women's poetry 1830-1905

This thesis presents a re-mapping of Australian poetic tradition to reflect the presence of colonial women poets. The research recovers a wide range of neglected poetry, offering a new way of reading these important poets as politic and transnational, particularly through the significance of newspaper authorship and international women’s poetry.

Opportunities and challenges : preparing generalist teacher education students in music education in Australia

The Australian Curriculum ‘the Arts’ will be implemented across Australia from 2014. This curriculum is expected to replace existing State and Territory curricula where educators are given the opportunity to review, renew, and refresh their practice. Music tertiary educators are faced with opportunities and challenges to effectively prepare and engage pre-service teachers (PSTs) as generalist classroom teachers. This paper focuses on PSTs within the Bachelor of Primary Education course at Deakin University (Melbourne, Australia). Within this course PSTs undertake two Arts units as generalist teachers, in Trimester one where they are introduced to music elements and creative music making. In Trimester two they focus on pedagogical issues and classroom implementation. In 2013, I gained ethical permission to undertake a research project titled “Pre-service teacher attitudes and understandings of Music Education”. This case study draws on semi-structured interview data with music lecturers who taught in Trimester two at Deakin University in 2013 (10 x 3 hour workshops). Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis I analyzed and codified the interview data and report on two themes: ways of teaching and creative music making. This paper also highlights the challenges and opportunities sessional staff face when preparing PSTs in music education as generalist teachers.

Spirituality, music, and wellbeing : sharing insights from an Australian setting

The relationship between spirituality, music, health, and wellbeing is gaining much theoretical and research attention globally. These related concepts are complex and involve many facets and challenges. This paper explores the relationship between music and spirituality as a way to communicate actively with God, which interconnects with wellbeing and quality of life. The focus of this paper discusses one case study from my wider research project “Spirituality and Wellbeing: Music in the Community” that started in 2013, in Melbourne (Australia). Having gained ethical clearance, case study methodology (interviews, documents, and observation) was employed. For this paper, I only offer a discussion of semi-structured interviews with volunteer participants from an Anglican Church in the southeastern suburbs of Melbourne (Australia). Using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), I analyzed and codified the interview data to explore the lived experience of the participant’s perception and how they make sense of it. As IPA is phenomenological, it takes into the account my own ideas through a process of interpretation when analyzing the phenomena under study. The interview data are reported under two overarching themes: music and spirituality and music and wellbeing. The data provides insights into the various ways music contributes to participants’ spiritual journey and growth. I argue that music is a powerful vehicle that connects people with God and others as it fosters an enhanced sense of spiritual growth and self-wellbeing.

Preservice music students explore African music in an Australian tertiary context

Turning Gigabytes into Gigs: “Songification” and Live Music Data

Complex data is challenging to understand when it is represented as written communication even when it is structured in a table. How- ever, choosing to represent data in creative ways can aid our under- standing of complex ideas and patterns. In this regard, the creative industries have a great deal to offer data-intensive scholarly disci- plines. Music, for example, is not often used to interpret data, yet the rhythmic nature of music lends itself to the representation and anal- ysis of temporal data.Taking the music industry as a case study, this paper explores how data about historical live music gigs can be analysed, extend- ed and re-presented to create new insights. Using a unique process called ‘songification’ we demonstrate how enhanced auditory data design can provide a medium for aural intuition. The case study also illustrates the benefits of an expanded and inclusive view of research; in which computation and communication, method and media, in combination enable us to explore the larger question of how we can employ technologies to produce, represent, analyse, deliver and exchange knowledge.

Community music-making in regional Australia: creating, improvising and performing at a festival

Community arts in Australia, as in many other countries, continue to permeate society, illuminating the past and shaping the future. This article situates itself as an aspect of community music through creative music-making within a larger research project that started at Deakin University (DU) (Melbourne, Australia) in 2011 called ‘Flows and Catchments’. Through the lens of creative arts and music-making, I argue that community partnerships between local communities and tertiary institutions are a fertile ground to celebrate arts practice where the cultural and artistic life of the community is promoted, fostering respect and understanding between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples. In 2012, I presented a music workshop at the 8th Annual Lake Bolac Eel Festival (LBEF) in Western Victoria. Using the African term Masakhane, which means ‘let us build together’, I provide a snapshot of my experience through journaling and anecdotal feedback as I reflect in and on the teaching and learning episode of the volcanic composition. The community partnership between DU (academics in an urban space) and the LBEF (local community in a regional place) provided an opportunity for people of all ages to engage, explore and experience music-making collectively in a social context. As a tertiary music educator, I propose more pathways being established with regional communities in order to deepen the knowledge and understanding of them; schools, communities, artists, academics and tertiary students can form cultural synergies in place-based settings like those of festivals.

The show must go on’ : older entertainers making music in the community in Melbourne, Australia

Globally countries are faced with an aging population and Australia is no different. This creates challenges for the maintenance of well-being which can be enhanced by active engagement in society. There is extensive research that confirms that engagement in music by older people is positively related to individual and community wellbeing. Music engagement encompasses a range of social participation and has the potential to recognise the contribution of older people to their local communities. Music participation can contribute to a better quality of life, particularly in relation to health and happiness. There are many possible forms of music engagement. This study is part of an on-going Deakin University and Monash University research project, Well-being and ageing: community, diversity and the arts in Victoria. This article focuses on three members of a mixed voluntary singing group formed by older residents of an outer suburban community in Melbourne, Australia. This group, The Skylarkers, were established in 1999 as a four-part choir. Over the years the nature of the choir has changed under subsequent music directors. Since 2009 the group has focused on music theatre repertoire and performance style. Membership of the group is fluid reflecting changing life circumstances of the members but the ensemble is resilient. This small amateur music theatre group is based in suburban Melbourne, rehearses weekly and performs regularly at retirement villages, nursing homes and facilities for senior citizens. This article presents a phenomenological qualitative single case study of members of the Skylarkers. In this study, interview data were gathered in 2011-2012 and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Two significant themes emerged that concern musical self-identity and gaining a sense of purpose and fulfilment. The Skylarkers are more than a choir; they are an amateur entertainment troupe that engages with each other and the wider community. This resilient group holds true to the motto ‘the show must go on’.

Dancing with inter-disciplinarity: strategies and practices in higher education dance drama and music

The rise of inter-disciplinarity has not occurred without debate and controversy. Often responding to government agendas, it is not uncommon for university research strategies to include inter-disciplinarity by default, by supporting multidisciplinary collaborations across the institution, nationally and internationally – industry and business being a particular focus. Beginning from the premise that Inter-disciplinary is where students/staff from more than one discipline learn with, from and about one another through a common activity, usually in the context of practice, this report documents the findings of a recent research project aimed to document ways in which inter-disciplinary approaches were active in universities, how they were resourced, what made them effective, and in what ways they are limited.

Can music therapy in medical contexts ever be evidence-based?

This essay seeks to consider some of the issues around evidencethat provide an ongoing challenge to the profession of music therapyto be vigilant and critical with regards the undertaking, butalso the appropriation or application, of research in our alliedhealth discipline. It is written in response to the statement that“medical music therapists need to continue to discuss and debateour views as to what constitutes knowledge, expertise and ‘evidence’in our profession.” (Edwards, 2002, p. 33). A critical perspectiveto current demands for evidence is provided, and the useof quantitative method as the basis for trustworthy research inmusic therapy is discussed. The paediatric medical context is themain site of professional research of the author, however, some ofthe points made will have relevance for other fields of clinicalservice.

Considering the ways in which anti-oppressive practice principles can inform health research

All research that investigates therapeutic practice should be conducted with the aim to develop and support good procedures of inquiry. An anti-oppressive practice approach within health research provides a way to systematically examine research procedures and motivations to increase the potential that the resultant research will yield ethical and just results. In this paper two music therapy researchers consider how anti-oppressive practices can address real life problems and be applicable to real life situations; from questions of participation, to developing the research question, recruitment, consent, and further steps of the research process. The goal of this paper is to examine issues arising when considering anti-oppressive practices and healthcare research practices from the perspective of the authors’ experience of music therapy research.

Music therapy and medical ethnomusicology: distinctive and connected

A music therapist and an ethnomusicologist who is also qualified as a music therapist explore some of the ways in which music therapy and medical ethnomusicology might engage a dialogue that is helpful to expanding thinking and practice in both fields. We begin by describing music therapy and outlining some core concepts of therapeutic work. We then discuss ethnomusicology and reflect on the ways in which music therapy and ethnomusicology may complement one another in the field of medical ethnomusicology. We consider how an exploration of concepts informing cultural safety might be enacted in healthcare through the use of music and whether this might serve as a useful joint future enterprise between music therapists and medical ethnomusicologists. Finally we explain why we encourage medical ethnomusicologists to cease attempts to become applied therapeutic practitioners without further therapy skills training.