Fostering musical cultures in schools : building the capacity of teaching staff to deliver classroom music : a collaborative framework for establishing a creative music program in a special school in Sydney, NSW

Abstract

Music therapy has been shown to be adaptable across diverse areas of health and education. Some research has shown how collaboration between music therapists and educators in special school settings can grow an engaging musical culture, however there is little research about collaboration with support staff. Feedback was gathered from the teaching staff of three classes at a School for Specific Purposes (SSP) in NSW. Within an Action Research framework, participants collaboratively designed a classroom music program. Data was collected via focus group discussions, weekly online surveys and triangulated with the researcher's reflexive field journal. Thematic Analysis was applied to the data generating four over-arching themes about: listening inside the musical culture of a school; building capacity by accessing the music child; musicking for brain care and removing barriers to success. The research framework developed may be a useful model scaled up across similar settings. A set of 'delivery skills' were identified to be crucial to developing the capacity of the teaching staff to deliver the music program. These skills can be targeted and rehearsed within the developed framework in order to develop a practice of 'delivery without fear' amongst participants. The study could prove useful for pre-service teacher training and in the field of professional development in schools.

Date of Award	2021
Original language	English