Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Title
Research Studies in Music Education
Publisher
SAGE
School
School of Education
RAS ID
45205
Abstract
Music can be a powerful activity and resource in a child’s ongoing identity construction. Rather than something that people have, musical identities are understood to be something people enact and continually work on. The correlation between musical identities and developing music skills raises serious questions regarding the possibilities and responsibilities for school music education and music teachers to positively contribute to children’s emerging identities. This study investigates how daily singing-based music classes at an Australian boys’ school shape and support children’s identity work. Research was conducted using one-on-one semistructured interviews incorporating a “draw and tell” artifact elicitation technique with seven students in Year 3. All students were engaged in their fourth year of Kodály-inspired music education as part of the school curriculum. Findings indicate that singing, singing games, playing the recorder, writing activities, musician models, and thinking musically positively contributed to boys’ identity work. These daily school music practices provided a resource for their identity work; fostered a high value for learning in, about, and through music; developed musical proficiency; ignited interest in learning musical instruments; and facilitated the entanglement of children’s musical worlds. Boys’ future identity work was supported by assisting the construction of musical possible selves and encouraging the continuation of music learning. This case study exemplifies music as a process and resource for children’s ongoing identity construction, the contributions of school music education to identity development, and the potential of singing-based music education to positively shape and support children’s musical identity work.
DOI
10.1177/1321103X221109482
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Comments
This is an Authors Accepted Manuscript version of an article published on 06/07/2022 by SAGE in Research Studies in Music Education. The Version of Record can be found at https://doi.org/10.1177/1321103X221109482
Goopy, J. (2022). Children’s identity work in daily singing-based music classes: A case study of an Australian boys’ school. Research Studies in Music Education, 44(3), 570-588.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1321103X221109482