Adult Perspectives on Children and Music in Early Childhood

This book focuses on the importance and role of adults in promoting music in the early years. Designed to promote the idea of the value of music in the early childhood years, the research discussed in this book explores the experiences of a number of adults working with children from birth to age 8.

The initiatives discussed in this work all focus on adults who have encouraged the development of musical identities ranging from music in the home, to musical play in the preschool years, preparing a performance with children, and programs for disadvantaged groups that use music as a communicative tool. 

Each chapter will start with a description of the particular setting and the protagonists’ specific skills and interests and how they came to be working with young children. Themes for the chapters have emerged from the videos and interviews conducted and consist of both reflective and affective experience. The themes include musical background, the adults' own stories, theories of childhood, and pedagogy and philosophy. 

1. Introduction.- 2. Children’s music performance from Serbia, Snežana and Ivana’s story.- 3. Music as an expression of spirituality, Mira’s story.- 4. Music in the family - a two-year old’s musicking, Remi’s story.- 5. Chinese preservice teachers engaging with children through music, their story.- 6. The musician as teacher, Ben’s story.- 7. Academic, author, composer and activist, Amanda’s story.- 8. Aleksandra’s use of Learning Stories featuring music.- 9. Conclusion.

Aleksandra Acker is a musician, lecturer and researcher, with an expertise in early/primary education, early childhood music and traditional music of the Balkans. She has conducted and published a number of collaborative studies, such as book – Musical Childhoods: Explorations in the pre-school years. She is an advocate for music and is a Music Council Australia Councillor where she represents Early Childhood Music Education. Aleksandra wants to see music as an integral part of mainstream curriculum and treated as one of the languages of childhood. Aleksandra is the founder, artistic director and vocalist of musical ensemble Anja & Zlatna. She researchers, develops and performs traditional melodies from the Balkans and beyond, fused with the structural architecture of baroque. This accomplished ensemble has performed for ABC Sunday Live, Melbourne Recital Centre and Aleksandra introduced a community initiative series 'Music without borders' conducting humanitarian concerts. 

Berenice is an adjunct professor at RMIT in the School of Education. Berenice has been interested in music for most of her life and in working with children and music since commencing teaching many years ago. She has taught music to vocational education child study students and as a university academic became a researcher of young children and their music. She has published widely in the area of young children and music and in recent years has extended her interest to young children and the arts as a language. She has presently co-authored a book (in press) titled “A vocabulary of images”. This is an historical examination of Child Art in Australia.