Sound Advice
Towards Inclusive Practices in Primary Music Education
- Try to ensure that the opportunity to participate in regular music lessons, musical events, and musical visits, is not impeded by factors such as disability, economic disadvantage or apparent lack of natural musical ability. Be aware of the temptation to withdraw some children from music to take part in extra literacy or numeracy coaching.
- Use such musical activities to help children identify and communicate their musical preferences. Try to find opportunities for children to grow together through making music. Seek to reverse preconceptions about individuals and their disabilities though their music making.
- Be aware of the gender issue that can develop in later years, where research suggests that children view music as a feminine subject. Try to ensure effective role models for both boys and girls. You might seek ways of making music have more masculine appeal in later years. Technology has been found to be particularly useful here. Consider opportunities for boys and girls to make music together and separately (boy bands and girl bands for example) and mimic music making as experienced in their own home culture. Try to ensure that musical activities don’t cause a conflict of interest with sporting opportunities, for example.
- Be aware that musical instruments carry implicit messages about gender, perceived intelligence and street credibility. Research suggests, for example, that instrument cases have a significant impact on continuation of instrumental studies. Furthermore, there is sometimes a temptation to make judgements about instrumental choices based on a child’s size or sibling’s choices. Ideally each child should be given the chance to try out a range of instruments and each should be guided about the instruments qualities and challenges.
- Decisions regarding children’s musical potential should not be based on their performance in other areas of the curriculum. Current research suggests that intelligence should not be seen as having one dimension. Howard Gardner recognises nine dimensions, of which musical intelligence is one. In this respect we should acknowledge that children’s performance in reading and writing, for example, need not be an indication of their potential for musical engagement. Furthermore some children who struggle with written work can shine when presenting work that isn’t dependent on words. In recognising that there are multiple forms of intelligence which we all hold, we also recognise that we each have the potential for growth in those areas, and that consequently the door to musical learning should not be closed on any child.
- Through the work of Youth Music, and through initiatives such as Wider Opportunities, Musical Futures, and Sing up, the opportunities for all children to be involved in music making have continued to develop. The extent to which teachers find meaningful opportunities for children to make music will have a significant impact on children’s learning behaviour. Mills makes the fitting comment ‘Schools that deserve to be called ‘musical’ do not judge their music teaching by whether the students are being well-behaved or not. They judge it by the opportunities that students – all students – receive to do music, and grow as musicians, during lessons. Such judgements are made irrespective of social or economic advantage.
Ian Shirley & Vanessa Young