Experiencing inclusion and imagining futures in and through music education
Music can be a rich source of imagination, offering an endless playground for our minds, emotions and actions. Yet music is quite often approached with thoughts of highly skilled musicians, great compositions or life-changing performances. This is, however, only part of the potential and beauty of music. Not everyone can – or should – be a talented musician, yet we all have the right to have music as a companion in our lives.
If music is seen as something that everyone in the world could experience as an important asset – in their own ways and according to their preferences – we need to explore how to create pathways that enable such an experience. To understand the possibilities generated by musical activities, we need to turn our gaze to the very beginning of human life and the nature of bonding and communication in early interactions. The concept of communicative musicality, developed by Colwyn Trevarthen and Stephen Malloch, explains the needs and capacities we all possess to join in and invite others to playful, creative and musical interaction. This special, interactive way we express ourselves, connect, and communicate from the very beginning is a starting point for understanding the potential of music activities and their significance throughout our lives.
We are drawn to the musical features of the world: its inhabitants and environments. When we observe young children and how they make sense of the world before words take over, we encounter a very musically rich way of communication and exploration. Voice and body serve as our first instruments. Through them, we convey our emotions, communicate, connect with others and contribute. A young child also makes sense of the environment using these instruments: tapping different surfaces to hear the sounds they produce and creating playful, musical sounds with movements in new spaces to become acquainted with them.
When we observe young children and how they make sense of the world before words take over, we encounter a very musically rich way of communication and exploration.
This specific capacity stays with us, whether we are aware of it or not, throughout life. We use the music of speech and the rhythm of communication daily. If we have the opportunity, we do much more. We enjoy listening to music that somehow fits our mood, is familiar and comforting to us, reminds us of previous occasions it is related to, or provides a welcomed contrast to our present state. Alternatively, we may sing or play to feel more coherent or to navigate our feelings. Experiences related to music in listening, singing and playing may facilitate being in touch with our emotions. What we learn about ourselves when encountering music or where it takes us occurs in the safety of the imaginary dimension. Kari Kurkela calls this dimension “music reality,” which we can enter if we are open to it and accept its playful nature.
Opening possibilities
Finland prides itself on the quality and equity of education. This also applies to music education, especially early childhood music education, which is distinguished by its professional standards for early childhood music teachers and established country-wide provision. Teachers graduate from higher education music programs with a specific focus on early childhood music education. Family music activity known as “muskari” in Finnish is a very common hobby for families with young children, offering opportunities for the whole family to participate in group music activities facilitated in a highly professional musical-pedagogical manner. We have come a long way from the times when early childhood music education was seen merely as preparation for “proper” music learning, such as playing an instrument.
Even though learning to read musical notation, playing an instrument, or acquiring skills for professional music-making later on are important aspects of music education, there is something even more groundbreaking that perhaps only music-related activities and experiences can enable. By this, I am not referring to the suggested benefits of music education in other areas of life, such as learning to concentrate or acquiring linguistic skills. Instead, I argue that music-related activities contribute to the very essence of what it means to be human, utilising the entire creative capacity to connect and share – experiencing inclusion and being part of something meaningful and beyond the individual. Therefore, we should focus on developing ways to enable opportunities for music-related activities and experiences to have a broader significance in people’s lives. I propose that these actions would make a strong contribution to constructing futures of communities, societies, and even the entire planet.
Family music activity known as “muskari” in Finnish is a very common hobby for families with young children, offering opportunities for the whole family to participate in group music activities facilitated in a highly professional musical-pedagogical manner.
Creating compassion-infused cultures
Music activities can be viewed in the context of individual experiences. However, in our complex times characterised by polarisation of views and people, it is even more crucial to focus on the potential of music activities to connect and foster compassion. In doing so, interdisciplinary research and understanding broaden our perspectives.
Anna-Maria Isola’s research group at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare has provided valuable knowledge related to social inclusion, which helps us grasp the potential of music activities in various life and societal contexts. In the light of experienced inclusion, music education can be seen to serve a greater purpose than solely advancing an individual’s learning of music-related aspects. Creating a trusting, creative, and enabling interaction infused with acceptance and compassion through music activities requires reimagining the professional knowledge, approaches, and structures of cultural institutions and policies.
Approaching music activities with the idea of opening possibilities and enabling experienced inclusion leads us to the true opportunities of music education and its role in society. How can the potential of making music together be fully utilised to promote compassion in the world? Research provides us with numerous reasons why we should take this seriously. For example, Sebastian Kirschner and Michael Tomasello demonstrated that singing and playing together increase children’s empathic behaviour towards each other. It has been shown that shared, synchronised music activities benefit not only children but also adults. This is just one example of how making music together could contribute to making the world a better place to live.
Music activities and experiences can cultivate playful, creative environments, but this necessitates a safe, welcoming atmosphere, which does not arise solely from the walls or the air in the room, nor even from the beauty of music. Neither is it attributable to the wonderful personality of a teacher. The safe, enabling learning environment is co-constructed within a sensitive, delicate pedagogical process, where everyone is accepted as an artist, possessing equal agency regardless of their skill level or experience related to music.
Approaching music activities with the idea of opening possibilities and enabling experienced inclusion leads us to the true opportunities of music education and its role in society. How can the potential of making music together be fully utilised to promote compassion in the world?
I have proposed viewing pedagogy as opening possibilities for learning and experiencing instead of focusing solely on predetermined end results for learning. The future and potential of music in society and the lives of individuals rely on pedagogical gate-openers for musical learning and co-navigation in and through music. To be more precise, we need to prioritise providing safe, pedagogical environments with musical interaction, expression and creativity, especially for our children in all contexts where children and families engage with music.
In conclusion, music activities, if facilitated with pedagogical care, may open unique avenues to bring people together, share experiences, and foster feelings of inclusion, thereby enabling the development of a compassion-infused culture. Suffering expressed in an opera scene or in a pop song allows us – for a brief moment – to see life and the world through someone else’s eyes. This is something we are in dire need of in these times. My suggestion is that we should increase the use of the power of music activities to create shared experiences – musical encounters – and more importantly, create opportunities to sing, play, and move together in spaces and contexts that may lack these opportunities. By utilising our innate capacity for communicative musicality and creating spaces for shared music activities and experiences, we can have unimaginable impacts on advancing inclusion, meaningfulness, and fostering hope for the future.
Laura Huhtinen-Hildén (Ph.D. MMus) works as a principal lecturer, head of master’s degree programme and researcher at Metropolia University of Applied Sciences in the field of music education. She also leads the Cultural Wellbeing Research and Education Centre (CuWeRE) in Finland.
Featured picture: “Pre-morning night in the mountains” by Aleksandr Glukhov. Source: Wikimedia Commons
